Continuous Dynamics in Real-Time Cognition

ABSTRACT— Real-time cognition is best described not as a sequence of logical operations performed on discrete symbols but as a continuously changing pattern of neuronal activity. The continuity in these dynamics indicates that, in between describable states of mind, mental activity does not lend itself to the linguistic labels relied on by much of psychology. We discuss eye-tracking and mouse-tracking evidence for this temporal continuity and provide geometric visualizations of mental activity, depicting it as a continuous trajectory through a state space (a multidimensional space in which locations correspond to mental states). When the state of the system travels toward a frequently visited region of that space, the destination may constitute recognition of a particular word or a particular object; but on the way there, the majority of the mental trajectory is in intermediate regions of that space, revealing graded mixtures of mental states.     

Development of Spatial Language and Cognition in Hindi- and Sanskrit-Medium Schools

This paper describes a study carried out at Varanasi on the development of geocentric spatial cognition with 4–14 year old children of Hindi and Sanskrit medium schools. A number of tasks and procedures were used to assess the spatial frames of reference children used in describing and interpreting spatial displays. Analysis revealed that Sanskrit medium school children used more geocentric language and encoding than Hindi medium school children. The effect of age was significant only for encoding, not for language. Geocentric spatial cognition was significantly linked to fundamental spatial cognitive ability, as measured by Story-Pictorial Embedded Figures Test and Block Designs Test. The stronger expression of geocentric language and geocentric encoding in Sanskrit than Hindi medium school children suggests that the use of the ability can be sharpened by its practice and actualization in day-to-day life. The relationship between language and encoding was found to be of a moderate level suggesting that geocentric cognition is not determined by language alone, but also by other factors present in children’s eco-cultural contexts.     

语言理解中的动作知觉：基于具身认知的视角

具身认知理论是目前认知科学领域中最新的研究范式和取向, 它认为人的认知过程依赖于感知和动作系统, 强调身体在认知中发挥重要作用。具身语言理解则认为, 身体、动作和知觉系统在语言认知中也起着不可或缺的作用。文章在简要回顾具身语言理解的相关理论如索引假设、浸入式经历者框架、语言神经理论的基础上, 重点从语言理解的四个层面的实证研究, 即音位、单词、句子、语篇, 证实具身语言理解的观点。未来的研究应该着眼于用具身认知观点来解释更高级的抽象语言表征, 具身单词、句子、语篇的具体表征形式, 并利用具身语言认知的观点进行认知的本土化研究。     

语言与数量认知关系的新认识

数量认知研究近年有长足发展。文章从新近提出的独立于语言的两个数量表征核心系统,语言与精确数量运算,语言与算术事实的储存,语言对儿童早期数概念发展的影响,语言与数量认知关系的最新脑科学证据,以及语言在数量认知模型中的角色等方面,介绍和评述了人类存在依赖和不依赖语言的两级数量能力的新认识。对于是否还存在其它不依赖语言的理解数量的系统,以及这些非语言数量表征系统的认知机制,文章认为有待进一步研究     

Age-Related Changes in Grip Force and Dynamics of Hand Movement

The authors investigated whether older adults (n = 16; mean age = 65 years) increased grip force to compensate for load force fluctuations during up and down movements more than young adults did (n = 16; mean age = 24 years) and whether older and young adults exhibited similar adaptation of grip force to alterations in friction associated with changes in object surface texture. As previously reported, older adults used a higher level of grip force than young adults during static holding. Increased grip force was observed in the older group during movement. The increase was appropriate to the lower coefficient of friction estimated for the older group. In both groups, grip force was greater with a smooth than with a rough surface (the latter having the higher coefficient of friction) during static holding and during movement. Moreover, grip force modulation was equally well synchronized with load force fluctuation during movement in the two groups. The authors concluded that changes in organization of grip force with age are well adapted to change in hand-object interface properties. Elevated grip force in older adults does not necessarily signify a fundamental change in synchronizing grip force modulation with load force fluctuation.     

语言对认知的影响—— 基于双语认知“优势效应”的分析

双语认知优势效应不仅在言语领域有所表现, 更主要的体现在以认知控制、注意选择、心理抑制能力为基础的非言语认知领域。影响该效应出现的因素是多方面的, 第二语言获得年龄和双语熟练程度是其中两个最为重要的因素。研究发现, 双语表征和产生机制是导致双语认知优势效应的语言学机制, 而以Broca语言区为核心的大脑前额叶则是其主要的神经基础。未来该领域的研究不仅要进一步关注双语认知优势效应产生的内在言语机制和神经基础, 还应当积极关注双语认知和个体情绪、人格发展的关系。     

生成与动力:具身认知研究中的互动观

从方法论上讲,认知研究中的个体主义把研究的焦点放在个体身上,倾向于从个体内部寻求对社会行为的解释。与个体主义取向不同的是,具身认知中的互动观更注重人际和社会互动对于理解他人的重要作用。心理学中的生态学方法最早关注了环境与有机体之间的互动对知觉产生的影响。生成认知在此基础上更进一步,认为互动不仅发生在有机体与环境之间,而且表现为主体与主体的交互影响,两个主体间的交互不是两个笛卡尔式心灵的对话,交互的主体是身体,是一种"肉身间性"的过程。具身认知研究中的互动观强调身心一体论,反对身心二元论,在方法论上表现出反还原论的特色。     

Communication and Cognition: The Social Beyond Language,Interaction and Culture

Cognition theories describe the social with terms like language, interaction or culture, whose theoretical status has also been discussed in modern sociology. These concepts are not well-positioned to understand the emergence and autonomy of social orders. Sociological theory of self-referential systems can be useful to reconstruct the bottom-up process which contributes to the emergence of the social as communication as well as to describe the way in which society exerts downward causation upon cognitive phenomena. The core of this theory is the systemic category of meaning as a shared horizon for psychic and social systems.     

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Considering the Relationship Between Language,Culture and Cognition to Scrutinize the Lexical Influences on Cognition

In this paper, we examine the interrelationships among language, culture, and cognition. The central notion that individuals with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds think differently is not far from our everyday experience. If you have had the opportunity to engage in a conversation with a person whose native language is not English, you may have found that communication breaks down at times and that some concepts are not easily translated into another language. Or if you happen to be a fluent bilingual or multilingual, you may agree with those bilinguals or multilinguals who mention that they think differently in each of their language. A number of intriguing questions arise here. Is there a particular style of thinking that is natural for speakers of each language? If so, is it possible for a person to think in a different way, one that is not natural for that individual? Is this style of thinking imparted by the language, the culture, or both? These and lots of other questions have engaged the attention of anthropologists, linguists and psychologists, but the point that we are going to explore is the lexical influences on cognition considering the relationship between language, culture and cognition.     

东巴文认知研究对心理语言学的贡献及展望

本文介绍了东巴文的构字特点及其性质的争论, 综述了对东巴文认知的研究, 评述了东巴文认知研究对于心理语言学的贡献, 指出了东巴文认知研究的未来发展方向, 包括继续利用东巴文解决语言认知的一些重大理论问题, 为文字进化规律提供证据, 使少数民族语言认知研究在心理语言学研究中发挥不可替代的作用。     

语言系统对不同数量系统的影响机制

已有研究较一致地发现语言加工系统对不同的数量加工系统起到不同作用, 表现为语言不影响概略数量和小数加工系统, 主要影响大数的精确加工系统。然而, 其影响机制并不明确。新近几年采用跟踪测验、语言转换、同语言内语音长度操控、双任务等范式来探索数量加工对语言依赖性的行为和脑机制研究。但结论不完全一致。通过记忆中介的视角可以为这些不一致提供新的解释。未来相关研究的思路应包括跟踪语言关键期幼儿的数量系统发展轨迹, 注意区分在记忆不同层面(长时/短时)中介下语言系统对数量系统的影响, 关注语义句法等对数量系统的作用, 以及深入了解基础四则运算的认知神经机制。     

习惯的空间术语对空间认知的影响

采用Levinson开创的旋转观察者的实验范式，考察了习惯的空间术语对非语言空间认知的影响。被试是南方和北方的大学生。结果表明，南方大学生和北方大学生在非语言的空间操作任务上所使用的参考框架存在显著差异，南方大学生更多地使用以观察者为中心的相对参考框架（前、后、左、右），北方大学生更多地使用以太阳升落和地球磁场为参照的绝对参考框架（东、西、南、北）。这种参考框架使用上的差异与他们习惯的空间术语一致。上述结果表明习惯的空间术语对非语言空间认知有重要影响。     

面向汉语认知与功能特征的语法逻辑

本文研究范畴语法的两种扩充,一是从认知特征角度的扩充,将范畴语法扩充为认知特征范畴语法,通过具有完全性的逻辑证明解决了一些不合语言事实的句子判别问题;二是从功能特征角度的扩充,提出逻辑推理的形式和进一步将二者统一的可能性问题。     

The Role of Language in Temporal Cognition in 6- to 10-Year-Old Children

The ability to recognize temporal patterns and position events in time emerges during the preschool years and is refined in middle childhood. This study explored individual differences in temporal cognition in relation to verbal and nonverbal abilities. Children (30 boys, 32 girls; M_age = 8;2, age range = 6;0?10;8) completed 3 temporal-cognition tasks measuring estimation of temporal distance (how far events are from the present), knowledge of conventional times of events (specific days or months of events), and flexibility in using the calendar system (arranging nonconsecutive months in order), along with assessments of nonverbal intelligence, verbal short-term memory, visual-spatial working memory, receptive vocabulary, receptive grammar, and reading mastery. Controlling for age, performance across temporal-cognition tasks correlated with language abilities; nonverbal abilities accounted for little to no additional variance. The findings link language skills with the acquisition of conventional time patterns; such patterns developed alongside the ability to gauge distances of events in the past or future and form an organized timeline.     

Social Cognition and Externalizing Psychopathology: An Investigation of the Mediating Role of Language

The present study integrates findings from three lines of research on the association of social cognition and externalizing psychopathology, language and externalizing psychopathology, and social cognition and language functioning using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). To date these associations have been examined in pairs. A sample of 354 clinic-referred children (aged 7 to14 years) recruited from a children’s mental health centre were tested on measures of language, social cognition, working memory, and child psychopathology. We compared a hypothesized model presenting language functioning as a mediator of the association between social cognition and externalizing psychopathology to a model presenting the independent contribution of language and social cognition to externalizing psychopathology. As hypothesized, we found that the mediation model fits the data better than the alternative model. Our findings have implications for developing and modifying intervention techniques for children with dual language and externalizing psychopathology. This research was supported by a grant from Health Canada (NHRDP, 6606-4835) to the third author.     

Things Are What They Do: Katherine Nelson's Functional Approach to Language and Cognition

This article attempts to summarize Katherine Nelson's theoretical and empirical contributions to the ontogenetic study of language and cognition. Nelson's approach has consistently emphasized the function of language and linguistic concepts in children's larger conceptual and social lives and, conversely, how children's emerging understanding of the function of linguistic symbols in larger conceptual and social structures makes language acquisition possible in the first place. This approach has led to an especially fruitful body of theoretical and empirical work.     

语言认知中眼动和ERP结合的理论、技术路径及其应用

自然语言的产生和理解具有高度的实时性。眼动和ERP技术具有很高的时间分辨率, 可以在线测查语言认知加工过程。然而, 两种技术手段都各有利弊, 可以在一定程度上进行互补, 从而为揭示语言加工的特点和机制提供行为和电生理证据。在文献梳理的基础上, 详细分析了语言认知中眼动和ERP技术结合的必要性, 即注视和加工的耦合程度以及眼睛和大脑的加工速度; 准确阐述了眼动和ERP结合的技术路径, 即眼动和ERP单独记录、ERP结合眼电分析、眼动和ERP同步记录, 比较了不同方法的优缺点; 具体介绍了眼动和ERP结合在语言认知研究中的应用。最后, 对眼动和ERP结合在未来研究中需解决的问题进行了展望。