Answering Existence Questions in the Best Language for Inquiry

Philosophia - Folk ontology seems baroque, compared to the austere ontology of many philosophers. Plausibly, the issue comes down to a choice between existence concepts: the folk and the austere...     

Answering Questions and Explaining Answers: A Study of Finnish-Speaking Children

This research explores, within the framework of Relevance Theory, how children’s ability to answer questions and explain their answers develops between the ages of 3 and 9 years. Two hundred and ten normally developing Finnish-speaking children participated in this study. The children were asked questions requiring processing of inferential meanings and routines, and were asked to explain their correct answers to elicit understanding about their awareness of how they had derived the answers from the context. The results indicated that the number of correct answers increased rapidly between the ages of 3 years and 4–5 years. Familiarity of context had a significant effect on young children’s ability to answer questions. Becoming aware of the information used in inferencing developed gradually over time between the ages of 3 and 9. Analysis of the children’s incorrect answers and explanations showed that, as children develop, their unsophisticated answer strategies diminish and they increasingly utilize context even in incorrect answers and explanations.     

Identity,Knowledge, and Toni Morrison's Beloved: Questions about Understanding Racism

In discussing Drucilla Cornell's remarks about Toni Morrison's Beloved, I consider epistemological questions raised by the acquiring of understanding of racism, particularly the deep-rooted racism embodied in social norms and values. 1 suggest that questions about understanding racism are, in part, questions about personal and political identities and that questions about personal and political identities are often, importantly, epistemological questions.     

Myth,Memory, and Meaning: Understanding and Treating Adolescents Experiencing Forced Migration

ABSTRACT

Refugee adolescents present a unique challenge to treatment. In their desire to be part of their new country, they often split off the formative years of their development. This includes both the person that they were in the past, their relations with peers and what made them “cool,” along with the officially documented political story that brought them asylum. This can lead them to feel disconnected and disoriented, but also as though their world is in fact built on lies.

They often come to treatment following enactments that make them appear tough, hardened and hard to reach, and which continue in the consulting room. When they are met with an official “trauma” narrative that explains their experience in political and psycho-educational terms they often find the experience alienating. They need to connect the world that they left, the world that live in now, and their own private experiences of love and hate in order to form an integrated identity.

This discussion explores aspects of the refugee narrative of psychoanalysis to help to illuminate the tasks necessary to co-create a meaningful narrative with refugee adolescent patients. It suggests ways to connect to the refugee experience and hear the young patients as they move between the political and the personal, the official and the familial, to understand themselves and return to the developmental task of creating an adult identity.     

工作记忆与情景记忆的相互作用

虽然Baddeley的工作记忆模型得到大量实验研究的支持,但是有关工作记忆和长时记忆之间的关系未能得到详细阐述。来自神经心理学的证据表明,工作记忆与情景长时记忆任务均诱发了前额区的激活,但同时发现前额区存在不同的功能分区,可能在工作记忆与情景记忆过程中具有独立的执行功能。工作记忆与情景记忆的相互作用是当前记忆研究关注的问题。已有研究发现,在情景记忆对工作记忆的作用过程中,时间进程与头皮分布均显示了年龄效应与材料加工特点。而工作记忆对情景记忆的作用中,则发现工作记忆早期加工可能对情景记忆的成功形成有更大促进作用。今后的研究应在理论模型支持下,利用多种技术手段探讨两种记忆相互作用的神经加工机制     

情绪和记忆的相互作用

情绪与记忆的关系一直是社会认知神经科学研究的重要课题。该文简要介绍了近年来国内外有关情绪和记忆的研究,着重讨论了情绪在记忆中的作用、情绪影响记忆的途径以及参与情绪和记忆交互作用的脑区;特别强调了情绪唤醒对杏仁核的影响,以及杏仁核与其它内侧颞叶结构和前额叶的相互作用     

Memory for movement: Interaction of location and distance cues and imagery ability

The present experiments examined the role of imagery ability in recall of either the terminal location or the distance of a preselected horizontal linear movement following changes in the recall starting position. Subjects were selected on the basis of their scores on a shortened version of the Betts Questionnaire upon Mental Imagery (Betts Q.M.I., Sheehan 1967). Both high and low imagers were assigned to one of four groups, HIL, LIL, HID, LID, the last letter indicating the movement cue (terminal location or distance moved) to be recalled. Recall of the appropriate movement cue from one of four new recall starting positions occurred after either a 5-sec or 30-sec unfilled retention interval. Analysis of constant error indicated all groups were unable to recall the specified movement cue independent of the other source of information, even when subjects were given explicit instructions to utilise an imagery strategy. The data corroborate our earlier findings that memory for self paced movements is based on an interaction of location and distance cues derived from the criterion movement.     

Number Created by the Interaction Between Consciousness and Memory: A Mathematical Basis for Preafference

I would like to deal with a process that numbers are generated by the interaction between consciousness and memory, associated with time with a finite width. It is pointed out that this process can be related with the emergence of preafference. It is concluded that only humans can create numbers, whereas animals simply produce ‘random’ sequences of symbols because they lack intentionality to search for an appropriate internal observation window that makes intention and memory compatible.

Expertise,Working Memory and Articulatory Suppression Effect: Their Relation with Simultaneous Interpreting Performance

Simultaneous interpreting is a complex bilingual verbal activity that involves the auditory perception of an oral communication and the production of a coherent discourse. One of the cognitive functions underlying simultaneous interpreting is working memory. The aim of this work was to study the relationship between expertise, working memory capacity and articulatory suppression effect, and the ability to perform simultaneous interpreting. For this purpose, four working memory tasks and one simultaneous interpreting task were administered to thirty Spanish-speaking professional English interpreters. Results showed that simultaneous interpreting ability might be supported by the working memory´s capacity to store or process information, but also by the ability of the interpreter to cope with the articulatory suppression effect. We conclude that interpreters may have or develop resources to support the effect caused by articulatory suppression.     

同声传译过程中的工作记忆与双语控制研究

同声传译是一项受时间限制的高度复杂的双语活动,译员在接收原语输入的同时要进行译入语输出。同传中译员要经过原语接收、理解、转换、译入语表达等一系列过程。近年来有研究者开始尝试同声传译过程中的工作记忆研究,认为工作记忆是同传作业的关键因素,并提出工作记忆在同传中的扩展模型。本文主要就同声传译的关键特征与多任务处理模型、工作记忆在同传中的作用机制和译入语提取时的双语控制机制等问题进行简要介绍,并提出了进一步的研究思路。     

Constructive Interaction and the Iterative Process of Understanding

When people try to understand complex physical devices (e.g., a sewing machine), they proceed in an iterative fashion. They seem to reach several points at which they claim to “understand” the device. Each point of understanding is incomplete and requires a new level of understanding. As a result, they cycle between understanding and non-understanding as they traverse different levels. The present study provides a framework to capture the iterative nature of understanding. These points are discussed and illustrated through observations of three pairs of people constructively interacting to understand how a sewing machine works. In addition to the iterative search for understanding, the conceptual point in space from which the speaker appeared to be viewing the machine was important. This conceptual point of view (C-POV) was reflected in their use of language. The C-POV appeared to be stable during points of understanding and to shift frequently at points of non-understanding.     

意外地点任务中不同测试问题及意图理解与执行功能的关系

旨在讨论意外地点任务中“知否问题”与“预测问题”可能存在的差异及两者与执行功能任务的关系,并初步探讨意图理解与执行功能间的关系。用意外地点任务、膝跳反射任务和两个执行功能的任务（DCCS和手部游戏）对59名3~5岁的儿童施测。结果显示：（1）儿童在意外地点任务的“知否问题”上的表现显著好于“预测问题”,儿童对“知否问题”和“预测问题”的回答可能反映了心理理论发展的不同阶段。（2）膝跳反射任务,DCCS任务与“知否问题”三者间有显著的相关,且其高相关在排除年龄及语言能力的影响后仍保持显著。“双表征区分结构”可能是三者间具有共同的成分。     

Stereotypes as Source-Monitoring Cues: On the Interaction Between Episodic and Semantic Memory

This research examined the use of stereotypic expectancies as source cues for biographical memories. Participants were more likely to misattribute stereotypical than counterstereotypical behaviors to a target person. However, this was true only when the original source of the behaviors was difficult to assess (there was source confusion) and recollective processes were impaired. Thus, when recollection of episodic details is disrupted, perceivers may still rely on semantic knowledge to interpret memories. These results demonstrate that stereotype use is efficient not only during the encoding of social information, but also during its retrieval. However, there are also significant costs associated with using stereotypes as source cues. Implications of these findings for social perception and eyewitness testimony are discussed.     

Collaborative Group Memory: Processes,Performance, and Techniques for Improvement

Groups are often asked to perform important tasks that require them to remember and report accurate information. A review of research on memory processes in groups suggests that collaboration enhances select performance outcomes. Collaboration allows group members to pool their memories and correct one another’s memory errors. Nonetheless, there are opportunities for improvement in the memory performance of collaborative groups. Collaborative groups typically do not recall as much information as the same number of individuals working alone and sometimes fail to correct the memory errors of their members. In this article, we integrate research findings to present an account of collaborative group memory processes and performance. We present a cognitive-social-motivational framework for viewing collaborative group memory processes, emphasize the value of collaboration on memory tasks, and suggest ways in which collaborative group memory performance may be improved.