Diurnal pattern of luminance discrimination in humans

The visual discrimination threshold can be considered as an image of the resolution power of the visual system. Measured with a psychophysical method, it shows a diurnal pattern with a low threshold in the morning, i.e., high sensitivity and an increase in the afternoon that persists until the early evening.     

儿童的模仿和语言发展

某些关于儿童语言获得研究者认为,模仿与言语获得没有关系(Slobin,1967).早在六十年代,不少人研究了儿童直接模仿成人句子的效果(Brown,Bellugi,1964;Cazden1965).他们认为,尽管模仿在儿童语音、新词语的获得和习惯语表达方面起着重要作用,但是,并不能说明模仿在儿童句法获得中起作用.Slobin(1967)指出,在某种情况下,儿童能对成人的句子正确地模仿,只是能模仿的这些句子比儿童自发的句子(Spontaneous sentences)稍长或稍复杂些.我们认为,这种模仿能加强儿童的句法能力,因此有利于儿童下一阶段句法能力的发展.近些年来,Bloom,Hood和Lightbown(1974)提供了儿童早期言语发展的证据,表明有模仿倾向的儿童似乎是通过模仿来掌握新的语义句法关系以及新的词汇、习语.有模仿倾向的儿童在语气材料和上下文知识的处理中是积极的.这些研究涉及到句法,也涉及到发展方面的作用.     

关于弗雷格"Bedeutung"一词的翻译

作者详细考察了“Bedeutung”一词在德语中的标准意义,以及弗雷格在其著述中使用它的各种情况,并仔细回顾了在英语哲学界对这个词的翻译和理解所发生的争论及其理由。他不太赞成把“Bedeutung”译为“meaning”（意义）和“significance”（意谓）一类的词,他还反驳了支持这类译法的三个论证。“公正地讲,‘reference’（所指）和‘refer to’（指称）是得到最广泛认可的翻译。”他区分了“Bedeutung”的水平意义和垂直意义,前者是指语言表达式相互之间的关系,后者是指语言表达式与语言之外的对象之间的关系,并认为弗雷格更多地从“对象”的意义上使用“Bedeutung”一词。鉴于弗雷格使用“Bedeutung”的模糊性和怪异性,作者建议用“reference”及其近似词来翻译“Bedeutung”及其近似词,它兼有“指称”（作为关系）和“所指”（作为对象）的模糊性;并把该德语原词置于相应译文之后的括号内。     

善良的权力意志(答 H.-G.伽达默尔)

在昨晚的会议和讨论中,我寻思:这里除了,我用我们刚才听到的某些话来说,未必会有的辩论、反问和无法找到的对象之外,还会有些什么?我一直在这样寻思着。我们以伽达默尔教授为中心,相聚一堂。因此,我希望我这些话首先是向他说的,我还想向他请教几个问题。第一个问题是关于他昨晚对我们所说的善良意志,和对善良意志及协调愿望的绝对确信的号     

“科学在历史中”

贝尔纳运用了既有条理而又通俗的写法,在对人类知识整体的回顾方面完成了异乎寻常的业绩。这是像普罗米修把火种从天上带到地下那样的事业,也是表明马克思主义和社会主义的科学怎样把科学带到地上来,使它成为全人类底公共遗产和财富的一个范例。人们不要被这本书底令人生是的外貌吓退,以为它对于一个普通读者是太难懂了。它是用一种简单而明朗的风格写出的,尽可能少用术语——就是出现了一些,大都也就其意义替外行的读者作了清楚的解释。贝尔纳在回顾人类知识时,记述了它怎样产生和怎样发展。但他所特别注意的还在它过去怎样曾经为人类服务,以及它将来怎样能够和将要做到更好地     

Liberal bias mediates emotion recognition deficits in frontal traumatic brain injury

It is well-known that patients having sustained frontal-lobe traumatic brain injury (TBI) are severely impaired on tests of emotion recognition. Indeed, these patients have significant difficulty recognizing facial expressions of emotion, and such deficits are often associated with decreased social functioning and poor quality of life. As of yet, no studies have examined the response patterns which underlie facial emotion recognition impairment in TBI and which may lend clarity to the interpretation of deficits. Therefore, the present study aimed to characterize response patterns in facial emotion recognition in 14 patients with frontal TBI compared to 22 matched control subjects, using a task which required participants to rate the intensity of each emotion (happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, surprise and fear) of a series of photographs of emotional and neutral faces. Results first confirmed the presence of facial emotion recognition impairment in TBI, and further revealed that patients displayed a liberal bias when rating facial expressions, leading them to associate intense ratings of incorrect emotional labels to sad, disgusted, surprised and fearful facial expressions. These findings are generally in line with prior studies which also report important facial affect recognition deficits in TBI patients, particularly for negative emotions.     

Effects of interactive physical-activity video-game training on physical and cognitive function in older adults

The purpose of the present study was to assess the potential of exergame training based on physically simulated sport play as a mode of physical activity that could have cognitive benefits for older adults. If exergame play has the cognitive benefits of conventional physical activity and also has the intrinsic attractiveness of video games, then it might be a very effective way to induce desirable lifestyle changes in older adults. To examine this issue, the authors developed an active video game training program using a pretest-training-posttest design comparing an experimental group (24 × 1 hr of training) with a control group without treatment. Participants completed a battery of neuropsychological tests, assessing executive control, visuospatial functions, and processing speed, to measure the cognitive impact of the program. They were also given a battery of functional fitness tests to measure the physical impact of the program. The trainees improved significantly in measures of game performance. They also improved significantly more than the control participants in measures of physical function and cognitive measures of executive control and processing speed, but not on visuospatial measures. It was encouraging to observe that, engagement in physically simulated sport games yielded benefits to cognitive and physical skills that are directly involved in functional abilities older adults need in everyday living (e.g., Hultsch, Hertzog, Small, & Dixon, 1999).     

评《W.詹姆斯的生平和思想》一书

G.E.迈尔斯的关于W.詹姆斯的生平和思想一书是一部杰作(William James:His Life andThought,by G.E.Myers.628页,纽黑文,耶鲁大学印刷厂,1986年)。几乎令人难以置信,它胜过R.B.佩里(Perry)的里程碑之作——《W.詹姆斯的思想与性格》,而成为对詹姆斯的哲学和心理学之最渊博说明与评论。     

社会主义制度下有无对抗?

《和平与社会主义问题》杂志近来开展的关于社会主义制度下矛盾问题的辩论仍在继续。我仅就我认为是核心性的一个问题谈点看法。对于现实地看待这些矛盾的人来说,首要的问题是弄清它们的性质。的确——社会主义制度下能否产生对抗,或者说,它是否仅有非对抗性矛盾?回答这个问题不仅具有理论意义,而且具有重要的实践意义。回避这个问题就不能正确理解社会主义建设的历史,不能确定社会的革命性改革的任务及其发展前景。