Attentional resolution

Attention can enhance selectively the visual information processing of particular locations or objects. Recent studies have shown that this enhancement has limited spatial resolution, the smallest regions that can be isolated by attention are much coarser than the smallest details that can be resolved by vision. Multiple similar objects spaced more finely than the limit of attentional resolution cannot be individuated for further processing and can only be perceived as a grouped texture. As a result, at any given time, only part of the spatial and temporal information registered by the early sensory systems is available to conscious perception. It is likely that attentional resolution is limited at a stage beyond V1 and that it has a finer grain in the lower visual field than in the upper field. The spatial aperture of attention is elongated along the radial axis relative to fixation. The briefest temporal window of attention is also much broader than visual temporal resolution. Many perceptual phenomena related to rapid serial visual presentation may reflect the limited temporal resolution of attention.     

儿童在数及数学上对部分与整体关系认识的发展

本文概括了九个有关数和数概念的实验研究结果。作者在最早的四个实验的基础上,提出了儿童对部分与整体关系认识的十二项指标,再以之通过正整数,几何图形和分数三个方面进行探讨,探讨结果由两个数学试验验证应用。根据研究总结果,作者讨论了揭示认识对象的内在规律对于主体认识活动的作用,部分与整体关系认识的年龄特点,阶段性及激进时期以及认识这个关系的心理过程。也对数的部分与整体关系的掌握对小学数学教学的应用提出了意见。     

本底抉择:翟振明对哈贝马斯超越的关键——兼评翟振明教授英文专著《本底抉择与道德理论》

<本底抉择与道德理论>是翟振明教授在美国出版的一本伦理学专著.在这部著作中,翟振明以哈贝马斯的交互理性及对话伦理为理论出发点,提出了本底抉择的概念,从而形成了对哈贝马斯理论的某种超越.在交互共同体中,翟振明赋予交互共同体中每个成员的选择以最本底的意义,哈姆雷特式的经典问题"To-Be-Or-Not-To-Be"成为每个成员进行本底抉择时必须直面的问题.更为重要的是,翟振明将本底抉择建基于真正的人(具有人的度规的人)之上,并对人的生命给予一种现象学意义的审视.     

分布式群体在动态系统控制决策中的内隐学习

采用计算机网络模拟技术,考察分布式群体在动态系统控制决策过程中对系统规则的内隐学习效应及其迁移。结果表明,在决策者的显性规则知识量极少且没有增加的情况下,决策绩效随决策进程适应性提高。决策者所能报告的规则知识量与决策绩效的相关也不显著。同时,当决策任务目标转换时,决策的高绩效得以维持。这表明群体决策者能对动态系统规则进行内隐学习,且能正迁移到类似的决策情景中。研究进一步指出,群体决策行为的动态适应与内隐过程有关。     

Semantic and subword priming during binocular suppression

In general, stimuli that are familiar and recognizable have an advantage of predominance during binocular rivalry. Recent research has demonstrated that familiar and recognizable stimuli such as upright faces and words in a native language could break interocular suppression faster than their matched controls. In this study, a visible word prime was presented binocularly then replaced by a high-contrast dynamic noise pattern presented to one eye and either a semantically related or unrelated word was introduced to the other eye. We measured how long it took for target words to break from suppression. To investigate word-parts priming, a second experiment also included word pairs that had overlapping subword fragments. Results from both experiments consistently show that semantically related words and words that shared subword fragments were faster to gain dominance compared to unrelated words, suggesting that words, even when interocularly suppressed and invisible, can benefit from semantic and subword priming.     

A relational recasting of the principles of emotional competence

ABSTRACT

Carolyn Saarni’s theory of emotional competence has made a central contribution by directing attention to some important functions of emotion in social interaction. Her work is permeated with examples of how emotions function within both successful and unsuccessful social interactions and relationships. An examination of her stated principles of emotional competence suggest in places a perspective that is primarily intrapsychic in nature, harking back to the early roots of emotion theory and research. In this piece, we note where Saarni has advanced implications of a relational theory of emotion for understanding emotional competence. In addition, we reframe some of Saarni’s principles to make them more consistent with current relational approaches to emotion. Finally, we offer additions and extensions that we believe are compatible with the general direction of her thinking before her untimely death.     

Creating Play Atmosphere and Time for Children in Chinese Kindergarten: Difficulties and Reflection

Schools’ busy situation is far away from its Greek root “Scholé” that means leisure time compared with political duty and war at that era which is also similar in ancient China. From the leisure point of view, school should be relax and free for young children in kindergarten. This means that play should take the most time on the schedule. Unfortunately, Political class skillfully disseminating serious competition among nations to deliver anxiety on young generations’ education to the public,which makes parents and school system highly valued formal learning much more than play. Chinese kindergarten may be have the longest formal learning time due to its history emphasis on learning from the model. Endure hardship as the basic habit from the younger children for the nature of life is full of hardship in Chinese philosophy. These underpinned ideas encounter great challenges from the Western early childhood education which puts more emphasis on play. Play is conceived as children’s life itself, in which integrated learning can happen and is much more suitable and abundant for young children than formal learning. Although Chinese Educational Ministry promulgated kindergarten work regulation and educational guideline to make play as the basic activity in 1996 and 2001,there are still lots of factors that impede kindergartens implement play in practice. Lack of free time in kindergarten both on schedule and in fact is the obvious sign. This paper wants to reflect those factors in cultural perspective and try to use variety meanings of time especially subjective time to analysis the practice on reconstructing kindergartens’ play atmosphere and time, and the findings on creating different inter-subjective time for young children.     

上清派炼养术的藏象学说内涵探讨

上清派是道教的一个重要流派,形成于魏晋时期,创始人相传为西晋女道士魏华存。该派以《上清经》、《黄庭经》、《真诰》等道书为主要经典,以存思、守神、行气、服食为主要修炼手段,对道学及中医学都有着深远的影响。魏晋时     

Deficits in early-stage face perception in excessive internet users

Excessive Internet use is associated with a limited ability to communicate effectively socially, which depends largely on the capacity for perception of the human face. We used a passive visual detection paradigm to compare the early stages of the processing of face-related information in young excessive Internet users (EIUs) and healthy normal subjects by analyzing event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by faces and by nonface stimuli (tables), each presented in the upright and inverted position. The P1 and N170 components of the spectrum of ERPs elicited at occipital-temporal sites by the viewing of faces were larger and peaked sooner than the same ERP components elicited by tables, and inverted faces significantly enhanced and delayed the N170 component. EIUs had a generally smaller P1 component than did normal subjects, whether elicited by faces or by tables, and the N170 effect, or difference in amplitude of the N170 component for faces versus tables, was significantly smaller in the EIUs than in normal subjects. However, the N170 inversion effect, or difference in amplitude of the N170 component elicited by upright versus inverted faces, was similar in the EIUs and normal subjects. These data indicate that EIUs have deficits in the early stage of face-perception processing but may have intact holistic/configural processing of faces. Whether some deeper processes of face perception, such as face memory and face identification, are affected in EIUs needs to be investigated further with more specific procedures.     

Perceiving binocular depth with reference to a common surface

A common surface is a spatial regularity of our terrestrial environment. For instance, we walk on the common ground surface, lay a variety of objects on the table top, and display our favorite paintings on the wall. It has been proposed that the visual system utilizes this regularity as a reference frame for coding objects' distances. Presumably, by treating the common surface as such--i.e. an anticipated constant--the visual system can reduce its coding redundancy, and divert its resources to representing other information. For intermediate-distance space perception, it has been found that absolute distance judgment is most accurate when a common ground surface is available. Here we explored if the common surface also serves as the reference frame for the processing of binocular-disparity information, which is a predominant cue for near-distance space perception. We capitalized on an established observation where the perceived slant of a surface with linear binocular-disparity gradient is underestimated. Clearly, if the visual system utilizes this incorrectly represented slant surface as a reference frame for coding the objects' locations, the perceived depth separation between the objects will be adversely affected. Our results confirm this, by showing that the depth judgment of objects (two laterally separated vertical lines) on, or in the vicinity of, the surface is underestimated. Furthermore, we show that the impact of the common surface on perceived depth separation most likely occurs at the surface-representation level where the visual surface has been explicitly delineated, rather than at the earlier disparity-processing level.