PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS TO THE SURPRISE-EXAMINATION PARADOX*

In this paper I consider the surprise examination paradox from a practical perspective, paying special attention to the communicative role of the teacher's promise to the students. This perspective, which places the promise within a practice, rather than viewing it in the abstract, imposes constraints on adequate solutions to the paradox. In the light of these constraints. I examine various solutions which have been offered, and suggest two of my own.     

CONSEQUENTIALISM AND RATIONAL CHOICE: LESSONS FROM THE ALLAIS PARADOX

Abstract: This paper investigates the relation between consequentialism, as conceived of in moral theory, and standard expected utility theory. I argue that there is a close connection between the two. I show furthermore that consequentialism is not neutral with regard to the values of the agent. Consequentialism, as well as standard expected utility theory, is incompatible with the recognition of considerations that depend on what could have been the case, such as regret and disappointment. I conclude that consequentialism should be rejected as a principle of rational choice and that there are reasons to doubt its plausibility in the realm of moral theory. Moreover, this is a reason to doubt whether standard expected utility theory is a plausible theory of rational choice.     

FEELING WITHOUT THINKING: LESSONS FROM THE ANCIENTS ON EMOTION AND VIRTUE-ACQUISITION

Abstract: By briefly sketching some important ancient accounts of the connections between psychology and moral education, I hope to illuminate the significance of the contemporary debate on the nature of emotion and to reveal its stakes. I begin the essay with a brief discussion of intellectualism in Socrates and the Stoics, and Plato's and Posidonius's respective attacks against it. Next, I examine the two current leading philosophical accounts of emotion: the cognitive theory and the noncognitive theory. I maintain that the noncognitive theory better explains human behavior and experience and has more empirical support than the cognitive theory. In the third section of the essay I argue that recent empirical research on emotional contagion and mirroring processes provides important new evidence for the noncognitive theory. In the final section, I draw some preliminary conclusions about moral education and the acquisition of virtue.     

POLITICAL ESCAPISM IN CONTEMPORARY ISRAEL: LESSONS FROM DAVID GROSSMAN'S TO THE END OF THE LAND

This article discusses escapist tendencies identified in contemporary Israel and, based on David Grossman's 2010 Grossman, David. 2010. To the End of the Land. Translated by Jessica Cohen. Toronto: McClelland &; Stewart. [Google Scholar] novel To the End of the Land (published in Hebrew in 2008), raises the question of whether these tendencies may be associated with the construction of a new narrative for Israeli society.     

CONSTRAINTS ON THE ADOPTION OF PSYCHOLOGY-BASED PERSONNEL PRACTICES: LESSONS FROM ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATION

Surveys of organizational personnel practices often indicate that techniques advocated by industrial and organizational (I/O) psychologists are used with less frequency than might be expected given their technical merit. This article attempts to explain this phenomenon by viewing the adoption of I/O-type personnel practices as organizational innovations that are subject to the mechanisms and processes described in the innovation-diffusion literature. It is argued that the adoption of I/O-type personnel practices constitutes administrative innovation and that such innovation is not strongly influenced by technical merit. Rather, imitation processes, environmental threat, government regulation, and political influence often dominate highly uncertain adoption processes. Recommendations are made for enhancing the adoption rate for psychology-based personnel innovations.     

基于计算机的插图工具对科学说明文的意义建构的影响

通过48名13岁被试之间的对比实验,考察插图类型是否影响能力高低两种被试建构有关食物链知识的意义。结果表明,（1）基于计算机的插图工具下的测验得分显著高于预置插图;（2）学习能力高者的测验得分显著高于学习能力低者;（3）插图类型与学习能力之间不存在显著交互作用。     

A BIOSEMIOTIC APPROACH TO THE QUESTION OF MEANING

A sign is something that refers to something else. Signs, whether of natural or cultural origin, act by provoking a receptive system, human or nonhuman, to form an interpretant (a movement or a brain activity) that somehow relates the system to this “something else.” Semiotics sees meaning as connected to the formation of interpretants. In a biosemiotic understanding living systems are basically engaged in semiotic interactions, that is, interpretative processes, and organic evolution exhibits an inherent tendency toward an increase in semiotic freedom. Mammals generally are equipped with more semiotic freedom than are their reptilian ancestor species, and fishes are more semiotically sophisticated than are invertebrates. The evolutionary trend toward the production of life forms with an increasing interpretative capacity or semiotic freedom implies that the production of meaning has become an essential survival parameter in later stages of evolution.     

元认知研究的理论意义

简要介绍了弗劳威尔、布朗等人的元认知理论和斯登伯格的元成份理论。这些理论的基本思想是一致的──重视认知主体对自身认知活动的计划、监控、评价和调节。元认知思想与皮亚杰的形式运算、自我调节以及平衡化思想有着深刻的内在一致性。而且,无认知的本质可以用控制论思想加以说明。     

ON THE MEANING AND VALIDITY OF TELEVISION VIEWING

The construct validity of “television viewing” is developed and explicated. It is suggested that while this concept is usually used as a strict behavioral variable, many different constructs are implied by it. The construct validity of television viewing can be derived from a conceptualization of what it is in television which, when viewed, or exposed to, interacts with human behavior and attributes. Four such conceptualizations are illustrated, each leading to a different construct of “viewing”: (1) television as a social-situational factor involving choice behavior between activities; (2) television as a transmission of a content repertoire, implying decision-making regarding messages; (3) television as a source of content-messages dealing with recall, comprehension, and attitude change; and (4) television as a “language” pertaining to the processes of encoding messages in the service of extracting knowledge.