“in”, “on”, and “under” revisited

The present study presents evidence that young children's comprehension of the locatives ‘in’, ‘on’, and ‘under’ is, at least in part, contextually determined. Children aged 1;6–3;0 were given tasks with verbal instructions which were either contextually congruent or incongruent. The results were interpreted in terms of the non-linguistic as well as linguistic strategies apparently used to interpret speech. The results and interpretation are in contrast to those of earlier research.     

“Girl,” “woman,” “guy,” “man”: The effects of sexist labeling

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of sexist labeling. Sixty males and 60 females were asked to evaluate an artist and a series of paintings on a variety of cognitive and affective measures. For half the subjects, the artist was identified as a male with either a high status label (man), a low status label (guy), or a neutral label (person); for the other half of the subjects, the artist was identified as a female with either a high status label (woman), a low status label (girl), or a neutral label (person). The findings indicated that for the female artist, the low and high status labels had an equally negative effect on subjects' judgments; for the male artist, the low and high status labels had an equally positive effect on subjects' judgments. There were no significant differences between male and female subjects. The social and psychological implications of the findings are discussed.The present study is based in part on a paper presented at the meetings of the Western Psychological Association held in San Diego, California, April 1979, in collaboration with Ms. Julie Horowitz.     

Relevance differently affects the truth,acceptability, and probability evaluations of “and”, “but”, “therefore”, and “if–then”

In this study, we investigate the influence of reason-relation readings of indicative conditionals and “and”/“but”/“therefore” sentences on various cognitive assessments. According to the Frege–Grice tradition, a dissociation is expected. Specifically, differences in the reason-relation reading of these sentences should affect participants’ evaluations of their acceptability but not of their truth value. In two experiments we tested this assumption by introducing a relevance manipulation into the truth-table task as well as in other tasks assessing the participants’ acceptability and probability evaluations. Across the two experiments, a strong dissociation was found. The reason-relation reading of all four sentences strongly affected their probability and acceptability evaluations, but hardly affected their respective truth evaluations. Implications of this result for recent work on indicative conditionals are discussed.     

“Masculinity,” “femininity,” and adjustment in college men

The regression of adjustment—indexed by measures of anxiety and depression— on “masculinity” (instrumentality) and “femininity” (expressiveness)—as assessed by the BSRI, PRF ANDRO, and the Short BSRI—was studied in 122 college men. The findings revealed that: (a) anxiety and depression marked a single adjustment factor; (b) self-esteem mediated the relationships between instrumentality, expressiveness, and adjustment, such that when the variance due to it was removed, neither instrumentality nor expressiveness accounted for significant variance in Anxiety-Depression; (c) the Short BSRI index of expressiveness behaved differently from the other indices and more like that of the PAQ; (d) instrumentality and expressiveness interacted significantly, such that instrumentality was positively associated with adjustment for those with low or average expressiveness and expressiveness was positively associated with adjustment only for those with low or average instrumentality; and (e) men high in instrumentality and low in expressiveness reported slightly higher adjustment than “androgynous” men.     

“皮之不存,毛将焉附”

“皮之不存,毛将焉附”这句语重心长的话,使我终生难忘。这是在1956年夏天,周恩来总理在北京紫光阁接见我们中国天主教友爱国会发起人时教导我们的。我为何对这句话终生难忘呢?主要的原因是,当时的理解同现在的理解有天壤之别,我当时的体会是,觉得这句话对我们天主教人士来说“太不易”了,因为我想天主教是不能离开教宗的,我们依赖他,我们的信仰就完整,我们进教救灵的目的就达到,可就是不考虑我们教会必须和国家民族息息相关的问题。回忆三十年前的1957年6月,在北京新侨饭店开会研究讨论这个问题时,真是千难万难,绞尽脑汁,     

只有“人物”,没有“小人物”

正十六岁那年,娇小可爱、模样俏皮的她被《武林外史》的导演选中,出演剧中的丫鬟"小泥巴"。这是她接的第一场戏,除了惊喜之外,还有忐忑不安,毕竟,对于刚刚踏入演艺界的她来说,一切都还是陌生的。剧本拿到手中,她仔细地看,台词和戏份都不多。她捧着剧本向前辈们请教有关演技方面的问题,有人说:"小丫头挺认真的!"她抬头,一脸天真地笑。最终,在前辈的指点下,再加上自己的所悟所得,将一个古灵精怪的丫头形象,入木三分地呈现出来,给导演和观众留     

The order of visual processing: “Top-down,” “bottom-up,” or “middle-out”

This paper deals with the order in which different levels of form are recognized in a visual image. An experiment is reported in which the size of a tachistoscopically viewed image was varied. The results suggest neither an invariant “top-down” (gross shapes first followed by lower-order details) or “bottom-up” (the opposite) sequence. Rather, they seem to suggest a sort of “middle-out” sequence: forms at some intermediate level of structure having an optimal size or spatial-frequency spectrum are processed first, with subsequent processing of both higher and lower levels of form.     

Blake's Development of the Number Words “One,” “Two,” and “Three”

A mother tracked her preschooler's number word development daily from 18 to 49 months of age. Naturalistic observations were supplemented with observations during structured (Kumon) training and microgenetic testing. The boy's everyday use of “two” did not become highly reliable and selective for 10 months (at 28 months), emerged later than that of words representing less abstract concepts, and was used in a relatively abstract manner to describe various visible pairs of items. He quickly generalized “two” to partially visible collections and then those that were not visible. Highly reliable use of “one” and “two” appeared to develop simultaneously, before he started using a plural rule, and before he could put out two items upon request. Reliable and accurate use of number words in everyday situations, particularly child-initiated efforts, preceded such use in the contexts of the Kumon training and microgenetic testing, both of which involved adult-initiated tasks. Educational implications include underscoring differences among the first number words by contrasting, for instance, one with two, and pointing out non-examples of a number (“not two”) as well as a wide variety of examples, such as “two blocks, two hands, two socks, two airplanes.”     

“Masculinity,” “femininity,” and the complex construct of adjustment

Bem has hypothesized that masculinity (instrumentality) and femininity (expressiveness) contribute interactively to adjustment, whereas others have argued that they contribute additively or that only instrumentality is important. To investigate the issue, 92 male and 92 female undergraduates were given the Short Bem Sex-Role Inventory, the Personal Attributes Questionnaire, and a broad range of self-report adjustment measures. Correlational analyses demonstrated that both instrumentality and expressiveness had important correlates with the adjustment indices, and hierarchical multiple regression revealed that they sometimes combined additively, but never interactively. Expressiveness correlated weakly with traditional adjustment indices (global and social self-esteem, and lack of anxiety), but also weakly to moderately with more socially oriented aspects of adjustment, including lower loneliness, lower social distrust, and lower aggression. Instrumentality correlated moderately to highly with self-esteem, lower anxiety, and lower loneliness (although self-esteem mediated the relationships); it also correlated with lack of adjustment in terms of higher Type A behavior and aggression.     

“Ought Implies Can,” Framing Effects,and “Empirical Refutations”

This paper aims to contribute to the current debate about the status of the “Ought Implies Can” (OIC) principle and the growing body of empirical evidence that undermines it. We report the results of an experimental study which show that people judge that agents ought to perform an action even when they also judge that those agents cannot do it and that such “ought” judgments exhibit an actor-observer effect. Because of this actor-observer effect on “ought” judgments and the Duhem-Quine thesis, talk of an “empirical refutation” of OIC is empirically and methodologically unwarranted. What the empirical fact that people attribute moral obligations to unable agents shows is that OIC is not intuitive, not that OIC has been refuted.     

职场“求人”,“麻烦”打破距离感

正一天,同事从她老家带来些特产分给大家,还叮嘱要怎样吃才更美味。可唯独分到我的时候,她没有过来,而是托另一个同事小苗将特产转交给我。我忍不住嘀咕:"为什么她不自己送给我呢,难道我是洪水猛兽不成?"小苗笑笑:"她大概觉得你太能干,平日里又独来独往,心理上跟你有些距离吧。"我一愣:"难道我很能干吗?"小苗肯定地说:"你当然能干呀!大家同事这么多年,你什么时候求过别人?"我突然意识到,自己     

注重“信”,更强调“爱”

微仆在《天风》2004年第1期撰文,认为在不同的时代、不同的社会环境,对神学理论应该有不同的思考和诠释。如何调整与社会主义社会相适应的神学理论,对如何办好教会,传好福音,使教会与社会更有对话性和适应性非常重要。因为宗教可以被看作是感情的工具,基督徒常受信仰感情的影响,容易把信与不信的人分离,造成许多信徒与不信的人产生隔阂,甚至矛盾。这其实是违背神的旨意的,因为上帝是爱,十字架是上帝爱的语言。基督教最动人的地方,首先不在于它的教义,而在于它显示了爱,高举了爱,散播了爱。使它吸引无数男女为推广爱的事业而献上了一切。圣经…     

是“无奈”,还是“礼物”?

<正>平衡劳碌与安息,享受与神同工的喜乐一、从圣经看工作:与神"合作创造"基督徒作为社会中的一个群体,其"工作神学"是否健康,既影响到教会的社会形象,又影响到信徒的个人生活。工作神学涉及诸多方面,笔者在这里讨论工薪阶层的个体基督徒,从信仰上应当如何看待和选择工作?     

世界是“多”,不是“一”

以“客观性=在我们之外”为标志的古典物理学实在论,日益受到相对论和量子力学的冲击,而为现代物理学实在观所取代。后者的认识论模式是:“客体——认识条件——主体”,这一模式表明,物理实在必然与认识条件相联系,构成一个统一的整体。现代物理学启示我们,真正的客观性在于保     

“如果,则”与“只要,就”不能表达充分必要条件

有的逻辑书认为在文章和著作中有时用表达充分条件的联结词“如果,则”表达充分必要条件假言命题,例如: 如果某一理论是真正科学的理论.那么它就一定是在实践中得到了证明的。并认为由于充要条件假言命题可能省略联结词.因之看一个假言命题是不是充要条件假言命题,主要     

点子,不是“点”

一个“点子”，可以救活一个企业，一个“创意”，可以开辟一块市场。一时间里，大家都这么说，也都这么想。 举“牛仔裤”的走红和“可口可乐”的旺销，似乎是最好的佐证。特别是中国市场经济的初始时期，“点石成金”──令多少人心驰神往！使许多人跃跃欲试！更有几多人望眼欲穿！ 但是，去掉浮躁，挤出泡沫，只需稍作思考就会发现，点子，不是“点”。 “火烧赤壁”，是个绝好的“点子”。但是，那不是孔明与周瑜“拍脑壳”拍出来的。没有过人的才智，没有深厚的功底，没有艰苦的调研，哪有料事如神和决胜千里的本事？“宝剑锋自磨砺出…     

“不以规矩,不能成方圆”

正"离娄之明、公输子之巧,不以规矩,不能成方圆;师旷之聪,不以六律,不能正五音;尧舜之道,不以仁政,不能平治天下。"——《孟子·离娄上》离娄,相传为黄帝时人,目力极强,能在百步之外望见秋毫之末。公输子,即鲁班,鲁国巧匠。师旷,晋国乐官之长,著名音乐家。规,圆规;矩,曲尺。六律,古代音乐分声音清浊高下,阴阳各六,阳为律,阴为吕,合称十二律。五音,古代音乐的五个音阶。如果不用曲尺和圆规,即