The Chimenti controversy

Jacopo Chimenti (c 1551-1640), an artist from Empoli, made two sketches of a young man holding a compass and a plumb line. When these were seen, mounted next to one another, by Alexander Crum Brown in 1859, he combined them by overconvergence and described the stereoscopic depth he saw. Brown's informal observation was conveyed to David Brewster, who suggested that the drawings were produced for a stereoscope, possibly made by Giovanni Battista della Porta. There followed a bitter debate about the supposed stereoscopic effects that could be seen when the pictures combined. Brewster's claims were finally dispelled when precise measurements were made of the drawings: some parts were stereoscopic and others were pseudoscopic. Brewster's attempts to wrest the invention of the stereoscope from Wheatstone were unsuccessful.     

庸言

[说明] <易>之<文言传>引孔子语,阐述<乾>卦九二之德时,曾以"庸言之信"称之."庸言"者,平凡之言也.先师遗稿<庸言>的命名之义,盖出乎此矣.     

The significance test controversy

Summary The pre-designationist, anti-inductivist and operationalist tenor of Neyman-Pearson theory give that theory an obvious affinity to several currently influential philosophies of science, most particularly, the Popperian. In fact, one might fairly regard Neyman-Pearson theory as the statistical embodiment of Popperian methodology. The difficulties raised in this paper have, then, wider purport, and should serve as something of a touchstone for those who would construct a theory of evidence adequate to statistics without recourse to the notion of inductive probability.     

The nature of behavioral assessment: A commentary

This special issue of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis provides the reader with a sample of current work in behavioral assessment. The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of behavioral assessment and to place the other articles in context of this developing area.     

A medieval controversy about odor

Medieval scholars debated whether odor was transmitted through a medium as suggested by Aristotle or by fumes or vapors from the odoriferous object as suggested by Plato. Key evidence believed to support Aristotle's theory was the behavior of birds in detecting carrion from far away. The medieval approach to this essentially secular controversy was, nevertheless, similar to that used in issues thinkers of that time regarded as of more importance.     

依从行为研究述评

依从是社会心理学研究的重要内容,是个体接受社会影响的重要方式之一。个体应对社会影响的内在机制和外在方式主要由人类行为的三个基本目标所决定,即对环境做出准确的认知并指导自己的行为,发展和形成有意义的社会关系,保持自我概念的一致性。文章重点论述了依从获得情境中的个体在此三个基本目标的支配下所发生的细微的、间接的和无意识的心理过程。     

The controversy over retrospective moral judgment

The mandate of the U.S. Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments required that the Committee take a position on the validity of retrospective moral judgments. However, throughout its period of operation, the Committee remained divided on the question of whether sound judgments of individual culpability and wrongdoing should be included in its Final Report. This essay examines the arguments that various committee members marshalled to support their opposing views on retrospective moral judgment and explains the significance of the controversy.     

A fresh look at the retention-promotion controversy

This article provides an overview of several issues relative to retention of school children. Included is a historical perspective on the present retention-promotion controversy, information on retention policies and retention prevalence rates, a review of research on the effectiveness of retention, and a discussion of several factors that should be considered by psychologists faced with the problem of making retention and promotion recommendations.