萨特尔和他的《辩证理性批判》

萨特尔写的《辩证理性批判》(1960)实际上是他历史论的第一卷。这是一本令人兴奋而又晦涩难懂的著作,它那令人眼花缭乱的分析连接着离题万里的议论,天才的见解埋没在曲折的思路和叙述的沙漠中,人们总是无法弄清楚他是朝着哪条道路行进。在进行综合的崇高意愿背后,该书还显示了它的抱负:“对历史的认识在什么条件下才是可能的?在怎样的范围内,那些被揭示的联系是必要的?什么是辩证的理性?”(第135页,以下未注书名的均指《辩证理性批判》)这种计划表面看来是康德主义的,但它的新颖性又说明它是来自我们时代不可超越的理论——马克思主义。这本著作注意的就是这两方面要求的结合。这位战士和介     

The reliability of the Thematic Apperception Test

Controversy over the TAT's reliability may stem largely from the mis-application of traditional psychometric measures, which are inappropriate to this test. The TAT is implicitly based on a multiple regression model, for which coefficient alpha is not appropriate. Also, test-retest correlations may be adversely affected by the standard instructions to write a "creative" story. In a test-retest study, 47 high school students retook the TAT after a year with instructions designed to break the implicit set to produce a new and different story from that previously written. The test-retest correlations were r = .48 (need for affiliation) and .56 (need for intimacy), or approximately the same as those for, e.g., the MMPI, 16PF, and CPI, It was demonstrated that this high stability over time was not due to subjects' recalling and repeating previous responses. Finally, it was shown that alpha considerably underestimated the test-retest reliability, contrary to assumptions of classical psychometrics.     

The growth of stability: postural control from a development perspective

This study compared central nervous system organizational processes underlying balance in children of three age groups: 15-31 months, 4-6 years, and 7-10 years, using a movable platform capable of antero-posterior (A-P) displacements or dorsi-plantar flexing rotations of the ankle joint. A servo system capable of linking platform rotations to A-P sway angle allowed disruption of ankle joint inputs, to test the effects of incongruent sensory inputs on response patterns. Surface electromyography was used to quantify latency and response patterns. Surface electromyography was used to quantify latency and amplitude of the gastrocnemius, hamstrings, tibialis anterior, and quadriceps muscle responses. Cinematography provided biomechanical analysis of the sway motion. Results demonstrated that while directionally specific response synergies are present in children under the age of six, structured organization of the synergies is not yet fully developed since variability in timing and amplitude relationships between proximal and distal muscles is high. Transition from immature to mature response patterns was not linear but stage-like with greatest variability in the 4- to 6- year-old children. Results from balance tests under altered sensory conditions (eyes closed and/or ankle joint inputs altered) suggested that: (a) with development a shift in controlling inputs to posture from visual dependence to more adult-like dependence on a combination of ankle joint and visual inputs occurred in the 4- to 6-year-old, and reached adult form in the 7- to 10-year-old age group. It is proposed that the age 4-6 is a transition period in the development of posture control. At this time the nervous system (a) uses visual-vestibular inputs to fine tune ankle-joint proprioception in preparation for its increased importance in posture control and (b) fine tunes the structural organization of the postural synergies themselves.     

Reflex responses of human lip muscles to mechanical stimulation during speech

The role played by reflex pathways in the production of movement has been a significant issue for motor control theorists interested in a wide variety of motor behaviors. From studies of locomotion and chewing, it appears that gains in reflex pathways can be altered so that activity in these pathways does not produce destabilizing responses during movement. In speech production, recent experimental evidence has been interpreted to suggest that autogenetic lip reflexes (perioral reflexes) are suppressed during sustained phonation or speech production. The present study was conducted to assess the effects of phonation, direction of movement, and ongoing speech production on reflex responses of lip muscles. The present results suggest, in contrast to earlier work, that this reflex pathway is not suppressed or absent because the amplitude of the observed response depends upon the activation levels of the various muscles of the lower lip and, therefore, indirectly on the nature of the gesture the subject is instructed to produce.     

Symmetry and transitivity of conditional relations in monkeys (Cebus apella) and pigeons (Columba livia)

In Experiment 1 six monkeys were tested with discriminative relations that were backward relative to their training in a 0-second conditional (“symbolic”) matching procedure. Although there was some indication of backward associations, the evidence was generally weak, and statistical evaluations did not reach conventional significance levels. Unlike children, who show backward associations to the point of symmetry, monkeys and pigeons display at best only weak and transient backward associations. In Experiment 2 associative transitivity was assessed across two sets of conditional matching tasks. All four monkeys tested demonstrated strong transitivity. In contrast, in Experiment 3 there was no evidence of transitivity in three pigeons tested under conditions closely comparable to those of Experiment 2. These results may identify some key features of interspecies differences and contribute to analyses of serial learning in animals.     

A behavior-analytic critique of Bandura's self-efficacy theory

A behavior-analytic critique of self-efficacy theory is presented. Self-efficacy theory asserts that efficacy expectations determine approach behavior and physiological arousal of phobics as well as numerous other clinically important behaviors. Evidence which is purported to support this assertion is reviewed. The evidence consists of correlations between self-efficacy ratings and other behaviors. Such response-response relationships do not unequivocally establish that one response causes another. A behavior-analytic alternative to self-efficacy theory explains these relationships in terms of environmental events. Correlations between self-efficacy rating behavior and other behavior may be due to the contingencies of reinforcement that establish a correspondence between such verbal predictions and the behavior to which they refer. Such a behavior-analytic account does not deny any of the empirical relationships presented in support of self-efficacy theory, but it points to environmental variables that could account for those relationships and that could be manipulated in the interest of developing more effective treatment procedures.     

Function-altering effects of contingency-specifying stimuli

Contingengy-specifying stimuli (CSSs) can function differently than discriminative stimuli. Rather than evoking behavior due to a history of discrimination training, they alter the function of other stimuli and, therefore, the behavioral relations involving those stimuli. CSSs can alter the evocative function of discriminative stimuli, establishing operations, and conditional stimuli, as well as the efficacy of reinforcing and punishing stimuli and of stimuli that can function in second-order respondent conditioning. The concept of function-altering CSSs has implications for such areas of interest as stimulus equivalence, the terminology involving "rules" and "rule-governed behavior," and the way in which behavior analysts view the effects of such basic processes as reinforcement and punishment.     

A scale for measuring persistence in children

Persistence and its assessment have been studied since the 1920s. One common approach in measuring persistence has been through testing the subject's ability to solve difficult or monotonous problems. Another approach has been through questionnaires. Although persistence is very important in academic achievement and in the general development of personality, no questionnaires have been developed for measuring persistence in children. The present research concerns the development of such a scale. It includes 40 items and was tested on 322 Israeli children aged 7-13. The internal reliability of the scale (Cronbach alpha) was .66, and the test-retest reliability after 6 months was .77. The scale differentiated active gymnasts from non-gymnasts as well as persistent gymnasts from dropout gymnasts. In addition, significant correlations were found between the scale and the need-persistence measure of the Rosenzweig Picture Frustration Study, Locus of Control, and other measures. We discuss these findings along with the significance of persistence in everyday life.     

Control of responding during stimuli that precede transitions in reinforcement frequency

Pigeons' responses were reinforced on a variant of a mixed variable-interval extinction schedule of reinforcement in which the transition to the higher reinforcement rate was signaled by a trace stimulus projected on the response key prior to the onset of the component correlated with food delivery. In the first of two experiments, the duration of the trace stimulus preceding the component correlated with food delivery was varied from 1.5 to 50.0 s and in the second experiment, the reinforcement frequency in the same component was varied from 10 to 60 reinforcers per hour. Pigeons pecked at the trace stimulus preceding the onset of the component correlated with food delivery even though responding was not reinforced in its presence and only one of the changes in reinforcement rate (i.e., from extinction to reinforcement) was signaled. The rate of pecking during the trace stimulus was a function of its duration but not of the reinforcement frequency in the following component. Higher rates generally occurred at the shorter trace-stimulus durations. Component responding following the offset of the trace stimulus was under discriminative control of the trace stimulus whether or not responding occurred in the presence of the trace stimulus.     

运动心理学的历史和当前的研究课题

一、历史运动心理学的基础在于运动学习和动作操作。1920年之前,就有少数人单独地进行一些零星分散的调查。这些调查推动了各种心理变量影响动作操作的研究。首先在美国发表的是观众对自行车比赛的影响。在1918年,伊利诺斯大学的心理学家C·R·格里菲斯对足球运动员和篮球运动员的反应时进行了比较,这仅仅为以后的研究播下了一些种子。在此期间,其它国家(苏联、德国和日本)也有类似的研究。 1920—1940年间,有些人对运动心理学的研究发生了特殊的兴趣。美国的运动心理学之父 C·R·