认知逻辑与认识论之研究现状

在某种程度上说,认知逻辑似乎有些脱离一般的认识论研究。本文旨在说明介于这两个领域之间的“桥梁”依然存在。而且,事实上它们之间的联系十分紧密。文章通过分析下面的一些实例对此加以论证,即,知识和证据演算的关系,怀疑主义,信息的动态性,学习和证实,多主体或群体问题等等。作者试图通过以上分析来表明下面的观点:知识不应被定义成命题的某种本质特征,我们应当根据知识在认知活动中所起的作用来对它加以理解。     

The Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire in the Norwegian Context: Relations to Mental Health,Quality of Life,and Self-Efficacy

The Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire (SoMe) offers dimensional measures of meaningfulness, crisis of meaning, and 26 sources of meaning. It allows for a clearer understanding of the variety of existential orientations, which are known to be linked to both mental and physical health. The Norwegian version of the SoMe was validated by testing 925 randomly selected individuals who were representative for the Norwegian population. Reliability scores were satisfactory; factor analyses suggested a 6-factor structure of the sources of meaning scales. Expected patterns of associations with mental health and quality-of-life factors attested the instrument’s construct validity: Meaningfulness showed positive relationships to all quality-of-life factors. There was no relationship with anxiety but negative relationships with depression and distress. Crisis of meaning established a strong positive relationship with anxiety, depression, and distress and a negative relationship with quality-of-life factors. Criterion validity was documented by expected differences in meaningfulness and crisis of meaning between groups with and without presence of depression disorder. Self-efficacy correlated strongly with sources of meaning from the dimension “accomplishment” and moderately negatively with sources of meaning from the dimension “vertical selftranscendence.”     

Predictors of improvement in an open-trial multisite evaluation of emotion regulation group therapy

Emotion regulation group therapy (ERGT) is a novel treatment specifically targeting deliberate non-suicidal self-harm (DSH) in individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Identifying robust predictors of positive response to ERGT could aid clinicians in treatment selection; however, to date, only one such study has been conducted. Thus, we aimed to replicate previously identified predictors of treatment response to ERGT by investigating demographic, clinical, and diagnostic predictors in 95 women with BPD or subclinical BPD who had participated in an open-trial evaluation of ERGT. Outcomes evaluated were frequency of DSH and emotion dysregulation. Assessments were conducted at pretreatment, post-treatment, and 6-month follow-up. Multilevel mixed linear models and multilevel negative binomial generalized estimated equations were used to identify significant interactions between the predictors and outcomes.

We found that greater pretreatment DSH frequency was associated with greater improvements in DSH during treatment (b = 0.998, SE = 0.00, p = 0.03) and follow-up (b = 0.997, SE = 0.00, p < 0.01) and that greater BPD severity was associated with greater improvements in DSH during treatment (b = 0.84, SE = 0.06, p = 0.02) and in emotion dysregulation at follow-up (b = ?3.05, SE = 1.47, p = 0.04). Co-occurring disorders were associated with poorer treatment response during follow-up. Results were generally consistent with a previous study of the predictors of response to ERGT. The findings provide further support for the utility of this treatment across a range of BPD patients, including patients with severe DSH and BPD.     

A New Game Equivalence,its Logic and Algebra

We present a new notion of game equivalence that captures basic powers of interacting players. We provide a representation theorem, a complete logic, and a new game algebra for basic powers. In doing so, we establish connections with imperfect information games and epistemic logic. We also identify some new open problems concerning logic and games.

     

Differences between general computer attitudes and perceived computer attributes: development and validation of a scale

The aim of this study was to develop a tool for measuring individuals' dispositions toward the use of computers in their work environment. The study reports the construction and validation of a general computer attitude and perceived computer attribute scale. Exploratory factor analytical evidence with a sample of 381 employees indicated a structure underpinned by two constructs, an attitudinal factor and a perceived computer attribute factor. The internal consistency estimates of reliability of scores were .81 for the attitudinal factor and .89 for the perceived computer attribute factor. Compared to the computer attitude subscale, scores on the perceived computer attribute subscale correlated higher with computer experience and professional computer use within the sample.     

Perception-action coupling during bimanual coordination: the role of visual perception in the coalition of constraints that govern bimanual action

Constraints pertaining to interlimb coordination have been studied extensively in the past decades. In this debate, F. Mechsner (2004) has taken a provocative position by putting primary emphasis on perceptual principles that mediate coordinative stability. Whereas the present authors agree that the role of perceptual principles is of critical importance during coordination, they take issue with Mechsner's extreme position and with the evidence forwarded to support a purely perceptual-cognitive approach to bimanual coordination. More specifically, the authors emphasize that current knowledge about brain function argues against a dualism between perception and action, criticize the presented evidence that posture manipulations during coordination provide decisive evidence against motoric and muscular constraints, and report on potential pitfalls associated with the use of visual transformation procedures to support complex coordination patterns.     

Triadic coordination: an observational method for examining whether children are "caught in the middle" of interparental discord.

Triadic coordination refers to how a parent coordinates his or her contributions with the spouse's bids toward their child. This construct provides a basis for studying specifically triadic family interaction processes. In particular, it offers a new approach for examining whether children are "caught in the middle" of marital discord. We conducted an initial, small-scale study of mother-father-child interactions in a structured task in order to pursue the methodological goal of developing an observational procedure for measuring triadic coordination processes. The results suggest that the approach has considerable promise for making a contribution to future research on marital discord and child functioning. We found that processes of triadic coordination can be assessed reliably. Other findings included an interesting pattern of results, which merits further investigation in future studies, concerning relations between whether and how a parent disagreed with or opposed the spouse's bids toward their child, on the one hand, and other measures of family functioning and measures of child functioning, on the other hand.