The Wrong Stuff: Chinese Rooms and the Nature of Understanding

Searle's Chinese Room argument is a general argument that proves that machines do not have mental states in virtue of their programming. I claim that the argument expresses powerful but mistaken intuitions about understanding and the first person point of view. A distinction is drawn between a competence sense and a performance sense of 'understanding texts'. It is argued that the Chinese Room intuition looks for a special experience (performance) of comprehension, whereas artificial intelligence is attempting to explain the knowledge (competence) required to understand texts. Moreover, a dilemma is sketched for the argument: either Searle hasn't identified the appropriate subject of understanding or he may understand after all. Finally, I question the underlying assumption that the general definition of mental states requires a projectable-by-us first person point of view.     

Accommodation and apparent distance

The ability to judge egocentric distance was assessed in sixteen normal observers under conditions where monocular blur-driven accommodation provided the only source of information regarding changes in target dioptric distance. Accommodation and apparent distance were measured over an optical range of 2 to 6 D for each of three targets which differed in their effectiveness as accommodative stimuli (excellent, moderate, and poor). For the excellent and moderate accommodative targets, apparent distance decreased as accommodation increased, with both targets sharing a common linear function. Apparent distance, however, tended to exceed accommodative distance and was relatively compressed in scale. As expected, accommodative response and apparent distance diminished in range as target effectiveness was reduced. The poor accommodative target represented the limiting case wherein accommodation failed to deviate from the tonic level, and apparent distance remained constant. There were considerable intersubject differences in the ability to judge distances on the basis of accommodation. The results indicate that accommodation can indeed serve as a source of distance information, particularly for some individuals.     

Menstrual symptoms and up-down vectors

Multiple studies considered the somatic symptom correlates of up-down asymmetries in women. In four samples, involving a total of 81 women, menstrual symptoms were significantly linked with the up-down distortion of the space surrounding self. In addition, there were borderline relationships between menstrual symptoms and other indices of up-down asymmetry. The findings suggested a possible link between menstrual symptoms and concerns about possessing versus not possessing power. Over-all, the results support previous studies indicating that spatial sets reflect important attitudes or conflicts that seem to play a role in somatic symptomatology. However, they point up the importance of considering sex differences.     

Reading and visual search

Four experiments were conducted comparing the ways in which reading and search are affected by manipulations of word shape and word boundary. Word shape was manipulated by variations in type (normal, capitals, and alternating upper- and lowercase), while word boundary was manipulated by variations in spacing (normal, filled, and absent). The variations were combined factorially for nine space-type combinations. Experiments I and II were basic studies examining the effects of the manipulations on reading and on search, respectively. Search was found to be 2 to 2.5 times faster than reading. Reading and search both slowed to one-third of the normal speeds when spaces were removed and type altered. A significant interaction of Type by Space was found for reading but not for search. Experiments III and IV examined contextual and typographical effects on high-speed visual search through paragraphs. Form-class expectancy and target word predictability, respectively, were manipulated. In both experiments, subjects found the expected predictable words faster than the unexpected unpredictable words. The data were interpreted as providing support for the peripheral and cognitive search guidance processes hypothesized to be active in reading.     

Theory and data on developmental changes in novelty preference

The present study was designed to investigate the predictive value of an informational analysis of vicarious consequences. Two levels of amount of vicarious consequences (complete, partial) were varied with three types of vicarious consequences (reward, punishment, reward-punishment). Each of six groups of preschool age boys and girls observed an adult male model receive one of the combinations of amount and type of vicarious consequences for his choices from a commodity preference series. A seventh group of boys and girls observed the model receive no consequences for his choices. After observing the model, each subject was asked to make his own choices from the commodity preference series and to recall the choices which the model made. In contradiction to the predictions of an informational analysis of vicarious consequences, the amount of vicarious consequences did not differentially affect the recall of modeled behavior while the type of vicarious consequences did have a differential effect.     

Competitiveness in males and in females

Male and female undergraduates performed a task at which they either succeeded or failed in competition with either a male or female partner who subsequently either accepted or rejected them. Subjects who were rejected by a male partner following success or accepted following failure performed less well on a subsequent anagram task than did those who were accepted following success or rejected following failure. These results suggest the importance of situational factors as determinants of fear of success behavior.