CULTURE AND COGNITIVE GROWTH1

Culture et progrès cognitif. — L'article est consacré à la relation entre différences culturelles et progrés cognitif. Aprés avoir passé en revue et critiqué les tentatives antérieures d'approche anthropologique et psychologique du problème, les AA. étudient deux foyers de variations culturelles, à savoir L'orientation des valeurs et le langage, dans leur rapport avec le développement. Une grande partie des faits sur lesquels ils s'appuient provient de recherches expérimentales sur la conservation de la quantité et la formation des concepts chez les Wolofs du Sénégal. Ils discutent, en terminant, de L'interaction des contraintes culturelles qui sont variables et de la maturation biologique qui est universelle.     

COGNITIVE DISABILITY AND COGNITIVE ENHANCEMENT

Abstract: This essay explores problems of consistency among commonsense beliefs about the comparative moral status of animals, fetuses, and human beings congenitally endowed with cognitive capacities and potential no higher than those of higher animals. The possibility of genetic cognitive enhancement exacerbates some of these problems, but also offers new resources for understanding the basis of our moral status as inviolable.     

专家和新手问题解决认知活动特征的研究

采用口语报告技术对专家和新手解决同类问题的认知活动差异进行分析和评价。结果表明,专家和新手在解决问题时具有不同的编码程序．专家贮存信息以组块化（chunking）方式进行,并能熟练地运用手段─目的分析策略,利用课题中的信息向前解,能正确表征产生式,最大特点是具有概括性和抽象性。新手贮存信息的形式和数量与专家存在着差异,在解决问题时较多进行盲目搜索,一般根据课题中的问题往回解,其内部表征较零乱,具体细节多,解题速度较慢。     

COGNITIVE SCIENCE AND HATHAYOGA

Abstract. Cognitive science and hathayoga both make emphatic claims about the relationship between the body and the mind. To examine this complementary relationship I draw upon the five main approaches currently being used by cognitive science and then consider their implications within the context of three specific points of contact with hathayoga theory: the rejection of dualism, the nature of consciousness, and the role of the nervous and circulatory systems in religious experience. This type of comparative analysis can provide additional information about the nature of consciousness and the potential practices that heighten our awareness or knowledge of it. Consequently, cognitive science offers a new and provocative way to dialogue with Indian yoga traditions in terms of the methods and theories of modernity.     

COGNITIVE COMPLEXITY MEASURES AND THE RELATIONSHIP OF COGNITIVE COMPLEXITY TO COMMUNICATION

This review assesses the adequacy of several commonly employed cognitive complexity measures on the basis of five criteria: high test-retest reliability with adults, association with chronological age across childhood and adolescence, independence from intelligence and verbal abilities, association with other indices of developed social cognition, and association with measures of developed communicative functioning. Extant research indicates that only one complexity measure—Crockett's Role Category Questionnaire—is satisfactory on all these criteria, whereas Bieri's widely used measure is deficient on most. However, research to date concerning the relationship of cognitive complexity (as assessed by Crockett's measure) to communication has failed to illuminate the specific role played by complexity as opposed to other social-cognitive factors with which it is associated.     

PROJECTED AFTERIMAGES AND COGNITIVE MATURITY

R uuth , E. & S mith , G. J. W. Projected afterimages and cognitive maturity. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1969, 10, 20 9–214—The hypothesis that projected afterimages will remain size-constant if they are not isolated by the observer as subjective phenomena is tested in a group of 20 children classified with respect to cognitive maturity. The less mature children, still mainly in the preoperational stage, are more resistant to size-increase with increasing projection distance and also report more positive hues. Tney apparently confuse their afterimages with real objects and thus fail to objectivize.     

模拟互变问题解决认知策略的实验研究

本实验通过对模拟互变问题解决认知策略的定性和定量分析,研究认知策略的类型及其信息加工程序。结果表明,存在尝试性策略、分析性策略和直觉性策略三类策略。最佳策略属于分析性策略。     

TEMNE-ARUNTA HAND-EYE DOMINANCE AND COGNITIVE STYLE

L'A. approche le phénomène de la latéralisation à travers un modèle théorique combinant dominance cérébrale et conformité culturelle. Le taux d'incidence de gaucherie dans une société particulière résulterait de l'interaction du potentiel génétique de latéralisation (dominance hémisphérique) et des pressions culturelles vers la conformité. Une étude interculturelle de ces variables, effectuée sur des sujets Temne (Sierra Leone) et Arunta (Australie), confirme le modèle proposé: on observe, en effet, 3.4 % de gauchers chez les Temne, agriculteurs et conformistes, tandis qu'apparaît un pourcentage significativement supérieur (10.5) chez les chasseurs Arunta dont la socialisation est plus permissive. En outre, sur 247 femmes appartenant à trois sociétés rurales, on n'a relevé aucun cas de gaucherie, ce qui confirme la thèse de Barry et al. (1957) concernant les pressions conformistes plus fortes envers les femmes au sein des communautés rurales. Les résultats des comparaisons interculturelles de la dominance manuelle et oculaire vont dans le sens des découvertes antérieures. Ainsi, le pourcentage de sujets à dominance croisée (main droite-?il gauche) atteint chez les Temne le chiffre attendu de 25 à 33%. Enfin, l'A. montre que, comme prévu, les sujets Temne à dominance croisée sont, du point de vue du style cognitif, significativement plus dépendants du champ que les sujets à latéralisation parallèle (main droite-?il droit).     

COGNITIVE CLOSURE AND THE LIMITS OF UNDERSTANDING

The paper begins by distinguishing between two ways of effecting the dissolution of a philosophical problem: reductive and philosophical. Of these, the former holds out deflationary prospects greater than those of the latter. Attention focuses specifically on McGinn's proposed dissolution of the mind-body problem. Examination of his argument reveals that his naturalist dissolution involves traditional non-naturalist constraints, in a way that counts against his deflationary conclusions. At best his treatment constitutes a philosophical, rather than a reductive dissolution. But there is reason to think that it might in fact constitute a mere relocation of what is, essentially, the same problem that it set out to dissolve.     

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HOLLAND'S TYPOLOGY AND COGNITIVE STYLES

This paper combines the results of two studies across different cultures which included an investigation into the relationship between field-dependence-independence and vocational orientations within the framework of Holland's theory of career choice and Witkin's theory of psychological differentiation. The samples included 179 Canadian senior high school students and 376 Pakistani college and university students. Both samples were administered Self-Directed Search and Group Embedded Figures Test. The results indicated a significant relationship between cognitive styles and vocational orientations. It was evident from the findings of these two studies that the theories of Holland and Witkin dove-tail nicely with each other.     

与年龄相关的认知速度减慢及学习改善过程

该工作应用人机对话方式完成心算、符号数字、数字鉴别和计数四项作业认知速度年老减慢及学习改善过程的研究,被试３５０人,４６—７５岁。研究结果表明：四项认知作业速度随年老进行性减慢;然而,老年人经学习训练认知作业速度可明显改善。上述变化程度与作业所需时间有密切关系,提示年老过程中枢信息加工过程速度的减慢快于外周感觉─运动过程速度的减慢,学习改善作用也可能主要是中枢过程速度的提高。     

分心抑制的年龄差异

通过对负启动范式的说明,从年龄发展的角度对分心抑制作了理论上的探讨,介绍了几个有代表性的理论与假说,包括抑制衰退理论、多样化抑制系统模型和最佳测试时间假说;并从工作记忆能量与分心抑制的关系上探讨了基于年龄发展的资源依赖抑制模型和抑制控制假说。     

与年龄相关的认知速度减慢及学习改善过程

该工作应用人机对话方式完成心算、符号数字、数字鉴别和计数四项作业认知速度年老减慢及学习改善过程的研究,被试３５０人,４６—７５岁。研究结果表明：四项认知作业速度随年老进行性减慢;然而,老年人经学习训练认知作业速度可明显改善。上述变化程度与作业所需时间有密切关系,提示年老过程中枢信息加工过程速度的减慢快于外周感觉─运动过程速度的减慢,学习改善作用也可能主要是中枢过程速度的提高。