罗素与实用主义者

罗素与他曾遇见过的,并就哲学问题进行过交流的好几位实用主义哲学家相互影响。这些相互影响同罗素与他的朋友和合作者如摩尔、怀特海、维特根斯坦等之间的相互影响性质不同。这是一种敌对的性质。事实上罗素与唯心主义者的相互影响也是如此。不同的地方只在于罗素本人曾经历新黑格尔主义这一阶段。至于就实用主义来说,罗素自始至终把它作为对手,实用主义者的主张对他来说是不相容的。尽管罗素自己思想发展过程中在这一点上没有改变过,但是,正如我们将看到的,他思想上的变化使他比他自己承认的更接近这些实用主义的观点。1896年,罗素在他第一次访问美国时结识了詹姆斯和皮尔斯。后来罗素又从W.维尔比(Welb     

创造性思维与创造力培养的概念

创造性思维是适应性思维或称重新概念化。其绝大部分不是外显行为,而是内隐的认知。我们日常大部分认知和行为是自动化的。它们满足着我们的日常需要。而满足我们需要的方式有一定导向,甚至变得刻板严格。在我们日常生活的所有方面,象饮食社交、宗教艺术、学术训练等等,我们都发展了动作的、自动化的认知和行为来满足基本的需要。我们去餐馆吃饭来满足饥饿的需要,与亲属的社会交往在家庭团聚中已经仪式化,我们的医生每月     

系统属性的产生问题

《哲学问题》1992年第2期上刊登了C.и.雅科夫连柯一篇内容丰富的文章《论自然界中的组织作用和破坏(随机的)作用,该期还登载了B.и.阿尔申诺夫和я.и.斯维尔斯基的文章《从涵义的读出到涵义的产生》。按照编辑部的意图,后一篇文章大概是前一篇文章的评论。但我以为,这篇文章并没有起到多大的评论作用,因为这篇论涵义的有趣     

人对动物有道德义务吗?

自从10年以前彼得·辛格的《动物解放》一书出版以来,在英国人的书籍中便对动物的道德处境的问题展开了激烈的讨论,在这期间,这个问题也在我们国家引起了较大的重视。从历史上看,这种关心无疑是对于自然的新意识的结果,而这种对于自然的新意识又是由于那些不能再忽视的生态问题产生的。可是按照事情的性质,我们这里所谈的与两个不同的问题有关。适当同自然环境打交道的问题是个我们共同的切身利益的问题,不是一种“生态     

Language-specific listening

Languages differ in their phonological structure and physcholinguists have begun to explore the conseqence, of this fact for speech perception. We review research documenting that listeners attune their perceptual processes finaly to exploit the phonological regularities of their nativ language. As a consequence, these perceptual process are fill-adapted to listening to languages that do not display such, regularities. Thus, not only do late language-learners have trouble speaking a second language, also they do not hear it as native speakers do; worse, they apply their native language listening prosedures which may actually interfere with successful processing of the non-native input. We also present data from studies on infants showing that the initial attuning occurs early in life; very yong infants are sensitive to the relevant phonological regularities which distinguish different languages, and quickly distinguish the native language of their environment from languages with different regularities.     

Cortical maps for hearing and egocentric selection for self-organization

The auditory cortex of the mustached bat shows complex multiple frequency maps, because cortical neurons in several areas are tuned to particular combinations of signal elements. Different types of combination-sensitive neurons form computational maps in which information-bearing parameters for echolocation (biosonar) are represented systematically. Neuronal response properties and multiple-frequency and computational maps were considered to be created solely by divergent-convergent interactions of neurons in the 'ascending' system. However, we have found that the 'corticofugal' system also plays an important role. Neurons in an iso-best frequency (or echo delay) 'minicolumn' of the auditory cortex augment the auditory responses of subcortical neurons tuned to that frequency (or echo delay) and sharpen their tuning. At the same time, they reduce the response and shift the tuning of subcortical neurons tuned to other frequencies (or echo delays) away from the best frequency (or delay) of the cortical neurons. Cortical neurons mediate a highly focused positive feedback, incorporated with widespread lateral inhibition, via corticofugal projections. This 'egocentric selection' is expected to play an important role in self-organizing the central auditory system.     

Children's Memory for Locations Visited: Importance of Movement and Choice

In 2 experiments, the effect of active or passive mobility and active or passive choice experiences on children's memory for locations visited while retrieving puzzle pieces hidden in a large room were examined. In the first experiment, fifty-two 6- and 7-year-old children were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 training conditions: active choice-active movement, active choice-passive movement, passive choice-active movement, and passive choice-passive movement. After 3 training trials, all children were tested in the active choice-active movement condition. A 2 (movement) x 2 (choice) factorial multivariate analysis of variance revealed a significant main effect for movement. Children who had moved actively to find the puzzle pieces in the training trials had (a) a greater percentage correct, (b) more correct visits between errors, and (c) a later visit of first error than children who had been passively pushed in a wheelchair. Making active choices in training did not significantly affect performance. A second experiment used identical procedures but tested 32 children with mobility dif-difficulties who regularly used a wheelchair because of either cerebral palsy or spina bifida. Children from this group who moved actively during training to retrieve the puzzle pieces also performed better on testing. Implications of the results for children with disabilities and for developmental theory are discussed.     

Age Changes in Interlimb Coupling and the Development of Bimanual Coordination

Changes in interlimb coupling, and their role in the development of bimanual coordination, were studied longitudinally in 6- to 12-month-old infants (N = 6). Infants were observed while they were reaching for simple objects of 2 different sizes. Their use of a uni-versus bimanual strategy for reaching as well as the coupling of their bimanual movements were compared; progress in bimanual coordination of complementary movements was evaluated on 8 different bimanual tasks. The bimanual tasks involved an asymmetrical cooperation between the 2 hands. Although spatiotemporal coupling of bimanual reaching movements did not decrease during the age period studied, infants around 7 months of age used their 2 hands infrequently for reaching. Occurrences of bimanual reaching were particularly low at the session preceding the first bimanual success at a bimanual task. This suggests that the temporal coincidence between greater independence of the 2 hands and progress in bimanual coordination of complementary movements acts in 2 directions: Infants may be more at ease when using their 2 hands in differentiated patterns as the hands move less in synchrony, but, in turn, they may be less likely to move their hands in synchrony as the anticipate mirror manipulations of the object less. The frequency of bimanual reaches increased toward the end of the 1st year. This might have been caused by an increase in the repertoire of bimanual asymmetrical object manipulations and by the fact that the development of bimanual coordination allows infants to manipulate objects with complementary movements even after a bimanual approach toward the object.     

Schedule interactions involving punishment with pigeons and humans

The principal aim of the present experiments was to assess whether punishment increased or decreased the rate of unpunished behavior (contrast and induction, respectively) for which reinforcement rate was held constant, with physical and nonphysical punishers (electric shock and response cost), pigeon and human subjects, signaled and unsignaled components (multiple and mixed schedules), and the presence or absence of a blackout period between components. Across the three experiments there were 20 punishment conditions. Induction was found in nine of those, less consistent response-rate reduction was found in three, contrast was found in four, and in four there was no change in responding from conditions without punishment. Contrast occurred consistently only with multiple schedules during the first exposure to electric-shock punishment. Induction and no change, however, were found with every combination of the independent variables studied. Four conclusions regarding the interactions between punished and unpunished responding emerged from the present results: (a) Both contrast and induction occurred with the reinforcement rate held constant and a blackout between components, (b) induction was more common than contrast, (c) contrast occurred only in the presence of a stimulus different from that correlated with the punisher, and (d) contrast diminished with prolonged exposure to punishment. None of the current theoretical accounts of punishment contrast can explain the present results.