Teaching and telling

Recent work on testimony has raised questions about the extent to which testimony is a distinctively second-personal phenomenon and the possible epistemic significance of its second-personal aspects. However, testimony, in the sense primarily investigated in recent epistemology, is far from the only way in which we acquire knowledge from others. My goal is to distinguish knowledge acquired from testimony – learning from being told – from knowledge acquired from teaching – learning from being taught, and to investigate the similarities and differences between the two with respect to the interpersonal dimensions of their structures.     

Access to semantic and episodic information from faces and voices: Does distinctiveness matter?

This study was aimed at investigating the role of stimulus distinctiveness on the retrieval of semantic and episodic information from familiar faces and voices. Distinctiveness of famous faces and voices was manipulated in order to assess its role as a potential underlying factor of face superiority. In line with previous findings, more semantic and episodic information was retrieved from faces than from voices. Semantic information was better retrieved from distinctive than from typical stimuli. Nevertheless, distinctiveness seemed to impact less than stimulus domain on the recall of semantic details. Indeed, more semantic information was retrieved from typical faces than from distinctive voices. The consistency of these results with current models of person recognition is discussed.     

Failure to find evidence of stimulus generalization within pictorial categories in pigeons

Pigeons' key pecks were reinforced in the presence of pictures from one of two categories, cats or cars. A single picture associated with reinforcement was used in Experiment 1, and 20 pictures from the same category were associated with reinforcement in Experiment 2. Pigeons then were presented with novel test pictures from the training category and from the other, previously unseen, category. During Session 1 of testing, pigeons pecked no more often at pictures from the reinforced category than at pictures from the previously unseen category. When pigeons were trained with pictures associated with reinforcement or its absence from different categories in Experiment 3, differential responding to novel pictures from different categories appeared during Session 1. These findings argue against a process of automatic stimulus generalization within natural categories and in favor of the position that category distinctions are not made until members of at least two categories are compared with one another.     

A China–New Zealand comparison of forgiveness

The present study examined the practice of forgiveness among participants from China (N = 172) and New Zealand (N = 91). We tested a theoretical model describing the relationships between collectivism, individualism, and forgiveness. Participants from China were more collectivistic and less individualistic than were participants from New Zealand. Overall, participants from New Zealand were more forgiving than were participants from China. Collectivism was positively related to decisional forgiveness in Chinese participants. Decisional forgiveness independently predicted conciliatory behaviour among participants from China, but this was not the case for participants from New Zealand. Thus, the hypothesized model received qualified support.     

Integration of spatial information across vision and language

Three experiments investigated whether spatial information acquired from vision and language is maintained in distinct spatial representations on the basis of the input modality. Participants studied a visual and a verbal layout of objects at different times from either the same (Experiments 1 and 2) or different learning perspectives (Experiment 3) and then carried out a series of pointing judgments involving objects from the same or different layouts. Results from Experiments 1 and 2 indicated that participants pointed equally fast on within- and between-layout trials; coupled with verbal reports from participants, this result suggests that they integrated all locations in a single spatial representation during encoding. However, when learning took place from different perspectives in Experiment 3, participants were faster to respond to within- than between-layout trials and indicated that they kept separate representations during learning. Results are compared to those from similar studies that involved layouts learned from perception only.     

Metaphor and Thinking in Science and Religion

Excerpts from Chapters 1 and 3 of New Maps for Old: Explorations in Science and Religion (Gerhart and Russell 2001) explore the ramifications of metaphoric process for changes in thinking, especially those changes that lead to a new understanding of our world. Examples are provided from science, from religion, and from science and religion together. In excerpts from Chapter 8, a double analogy—theology is to science as science is to mathematics—is proposed for better understanding the contemporary relationship between science and religion. A conservation of epistemological sufficiency is disclosed as one moves from mathematics to empirical science to theology—a move from one discipline to another that involves a sacrifice of one aspect of thought to gain another.     

Is Optimism Always Best?: Future Outlooks and Preparedness

ABSTRACT— Although people generally appear optimistic about the future, they shift from optimism under certain circumstances. Drawing from a recent review of the literature, we describe how both optimism and shifts from optimism serve the common goal of preparedness, which includes a readiness to deal with setbacks and a readiness to take advantage of opportunities. Shifts from optimism occur in response to available information and to the possibility that things may not turn out as hoped. People tend to shift from optimism when feedback is anticipated in the near future, when the outcome is important, when negative outcomes are easily imagined, and when the outcomes are uncontrollable. In addition, people with low self-esteem shift from optimism more readily than do people with high self-esteem. Finally, both optimism and shifts from optimism have unique benefits in terms of preparedness.     

Beliefs do not come in degrees

Philosophers commonly say that beliefs come in degrees (or that beliefs are graded or that there are partial beliefs). Drawing from the literature, I make precise three arguments for this claim: an argument from degrees of confidence, an argument from degrees of firmness, and an argument from natural language. I show that they all fail. I also advance three arguments that beliefs do not come in degrees: an argument from natural language, an argument from intuition, and an argument from the metaphysics of degrees. On the basis of these arguments, I conclude that beliefs do not come in degrees.     

从传统性到现代性的转变上看京港大学生的人格差异

本研究通过对京港两地大学生的传统人格特征和现代人格特征所进行的调查和研究发现 ,当代大学生的人格特征正在由传统性向现代性转变。北京大学生 ,尤其是女生的现代人格表现更为突出 ,她们更乐于接受新观念 ;而香港大学生在转变中则相对表现得较为保守 ,尤其是香港的女生 ,仍然较为传统。     

Object manipulation facilitates kind-based object individuation of shape-similar objects

Five experiments investigated the importance of shape and object manipulation when 12-month-olds were given the task of individuating objects representing exemplars of kinds in an event-mapping design. In Experiments 1 and 2, results of the study from Xu, Carey, and Quint (2004, Experiment 4) were partially replicated, showing that infants were able to individuate two natural-looking exemplars from different categories, but not two exemplars from the same category. In Experiment 3, infants failed to individuate two shape-similar exemplars (from Pauen, 2002a) from different categories. However, Experiment 4 revealed that allowing infants to manipulate objects shortly before the individuation task enabled them to individuate shape-similar objects from different categories. In Experiment 5, allowing object manipulation did not induce infants to individuate natural-looking objects from the same category. These findings suggest that object manipulation facilitates kind-based individuation of shape-similar objects by 12-month-olds.     

"慎独"论之诗学渊源

“慎独”论来源于孔子及其儒门对《诗》之解读与阐发,然后由诗学话语转化为整个儒学的重要理论之一,即“慎独”儒学理论的形成经历了一个从无到有、从简单到复杂、从感性到理性、从诗学到哲学的渐次发展的过程,在这个“层累”递进的过程中,“慎独”被赋予了许多新的不同层次的内涵。     

文化心理学方法论的扩展性探索

方法论对于一个学科的发展至关重要。从根本上说,方法论的基本内涵是关于研究对象与研究方法及二者关系的理论预设,而其核心目标是实现研究对象与研究方法的匹配。从文化心理学的研究现状看,现有的方法论尚未实现研究对象与研究方法之间的协调,从而构成文化心理学发展的潜在困境。基于对文化心理学的理论诉求和研究现状的把握,本文提出了文化心理学方法论的六个扩展方向:研究对象上从外显到内隐、从元素到整体、从抽象到具体; 研究方法上从现象到机制、从单向到双向、从静态到动态。     

城乡空巢老人的亲子支持及其与抑郁的关系

采用老年人亲子支持问卷和流调中心用抑郁自评量表(CES-D),对196名老人进行问卷调查,考察城乡空巢老人亲子支持的特点及其与抑郁的关系.结果表明:(1)总体上,老人接受子女的社会支持与给予子女的社会支持差异不显著.(2)在接受子女支持上,服务支持最多,其次是情感和物质支持,非空巢与空巢老人,城市与农村老人均无差异.(3)而在给予子女支持上,情感和服务支持高于物质支持,非空巢与空巢老人无显著差异,而城市老人在各维度上均高于农村老人.(4)影响老人抑郁的亲子支持维度不同:对城市非空巢老人,给予子女的情感支持越多,抑郁水平越低;对城市空巢老人,给予子女的情感支持越多,物质支持越少,抑郁水平越低.农村非空巢老人接受子女的服务支持越多,抑郁水平越低;而对农村空巢老人,亲子支持可能不影响其抑郁.因此,为了提高老年人的心理健康水平,对待不同处境的老年人应采取不同的干预措施.     

青少年反思自我评价的记忆效应

采用R/K判断任务,探讨来自母亲、好朋友、不熟悉同学反思自我评价的记忆效应.结果发现:33名12～14岁青少年在总再认率和"记得"指标上,母亲加工条件和好朋友加工条件差异不显著,两者显著高于不熟悉同学加工条件(实验一);32名15～17岁青少年,在总再认率上,母亲加工条件和好朋友加工条件差异不显著,两者显著高于不熟悉同学加工条件,但在"记得"指标上,好朋友、母亲、不熟悉同学加工条件呈显著递减趋势(实验二).两项实验表明来自亲疏关系不同他人反思自我评价存在记忆优势效应;青少年处于不同发展阶段,不同他人反思自我评价的记忆优势效应也存在差异.     

The dynamics of Orthodox and Muslim religiosity in Russia, 1989–2012

In this article I focus on the changing religious consciousness and behaviour of Orthodox Christians in Russia over the period from 1989 to 2012, comparing these where appropriate with the situation among Muslims. In the first part of the article I identify three periods in the development of attitudes to religion between 1989 and 2011: from 1989 to the mid-1990s; from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s; and from the mid-2000s to 2011. In the second part I survey attitudes to religion among the Russian population from 2011 from a range of perspectives. In the third part I look in more detail at the religious practice of Russians from 2011, using the concept of votserkovlennost’ (‘enchurchedness’) as developed by the sociologist Valentina Chesnokova. My data are derived from public opinion surveys, particularly surveys conducted in 2006, 2011 and 2012.     

The virtue of cold-heartedness

I defend a strong version of the Kantian claim that actions done solely from duty have moral worth by (1) considering pure cases of acting from duty, (2) showing that love and sympathy, unlike a sense of duty, can often lead us to do the wrong thing, (3) carefully distinguishing moral from non-moral virtues, and (4) by distinguishing pathological sympathy from practical sympathy. Not only is acting purely from a sense of duty superior to acting from love and sympathetic feelings, but the cold-heartedness found in Kant’s examples should be thought of as a virtue rather than a vice.     

歧视知觉与农村留守青少年的孤独感:亲子分离年龄和分离时长的作用

以1177名农村留守青少年为被试（包括394名双亲外出青少年和783名父亲外出青少年）,考察其歧视知觉和孤独感之间的关系,并检验亲子分离年龄和分离时长在其中的调节作用。结果发现：（1）双亲外出青少年的歧视知觉水平显著高于父亲外出青少年,留守男生的孤独感显著高于女生;（2）歧视知觉能够显著正向预测留守青少年的孤独感,且对双亲外出青少年孤独感的预测作用强于父亲外出青少年;（3）与亲子分离年龄较大相比,在亲子分离年龄较小的情况下,歧视知觉对双亲外出青少年孤独感的预测作用更强;与亲子分离时间较长的青少年相比,在亲子分离时间较短的情况下,歧视知觉对两类留守青少年孤独感的预测作用更高;（4）亲子分离时长对歧视知觉与父亲外出青少年孤独感之间关系的调节作用因亲子分离年龄不同而有所差异。     

Control across the life span: A model for understanding self-direction

A comprehensive four-factor interactive model on physical, psychological, and environmental processes related to the sense of control is presented for adult development with an emphasis on later life. The four experienced components are (1) control from within oneself, (2) control over oneself, (3) control over the environment, and (4) control from the environment. Control over oneself and over the environment measure self-directed control, while control from within oneself and from the environment measure nonself-directed control. Coping (a bidimensional control scale) measures control from powerlessness and suicide to overcontrolling. Findings confirm a significant loss of coping in an older cohort group from a white, rural sample composed primarily of single subjects with low coping representing a significant drop in self-directed behavior. A discussion of the relationship between self-direction and health in the older cohort group follows.