Real rules

Wright is correct in surmising that Wittgenstein’s refusal to be drawn into the metaphysical and epistemological questions that his own discussion of rules allegedly raises results from his rejection of the assumptions that pit the Platonist against the communitarian. This paper shows why the entire idea (which continues to dazzle philosophers)—that in speaking a language or in engaging in other normative practices we are operating a calculus according to strict rules—has to be rejected. It results, in part, from the conflation of different understandings of ‘knowing the rules’: one in which rules can be ‘read off’ from the practice by a theorist and those in which expressions of rules are consulted within the course of the practice.     

On the language specificity of basic number processing: transcoding in a language with inversion and its relation to working memory capacity

Transcoding Arabic numbers from and into verbal number words is one of the most basic number processing tasks commonly used to index the verbal representation of numbers. The inversion property, which is an important feature of some number word systems (e.g., German einundzwanzig [one and twenty]), might represent a major difficulty in transcoding and a challenge to current transcoding models. The mastery of inversion, and of transcoding in general, might be related to nonnumerical factors such as working memory resources given that different elements and their sequence need to be memorized and manipulated. In this study, transcoding skills and different working memory components in Austrian (German-speaking) 7-year-olds were assessed. We observed that inversion poses a major problem in transcoding for German-speaking children. In addition, different components of working memory skills were differentially correlated with particular transcoding error types. We discuss how current transcoding models could account for these results and how they might need to be adapted to accommodate inversion properties and their relation to different working memory components.     

Cognitive conflict and inhibition in primed dichotic listening

In previous behavioral studies, a prime syllable was presented just prior to a dichotic syllable pair, with instructions to ignore the prime and report one syllable from the dichotic pair. When the prime matched one of the syllables in the dichotic pair, response selection was biased towards selecting the unprimed target. The suggested mechanism was that the prime was inhibited to reduce conflict between task-irrelevant prime processing and task-relevant dichotic target processing, and a residual effect of the prime inhibition biased the resolution of the conflict between the two targets. The current experiment repeated the primed dichotic listening task in an event-related fMRI setting. The fMRI data showed that when the task-irrelevant prime matched the task-relevant targets, activations in posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) and in right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) increased, which was considered to represent conflict and inhibition, respectively. Further, matching trials where the unprimed target was selected showed activation in right IFG, while matching trials where the primed target was selected showed activations in pMFC and left IFG, indicating the difference between inhibition-biased selection and unbiased selection.     

Cognitive style and learning: performance of adaptors and innovators in a novel dynamic task

The influence of cognitive style on performance in a novel dynamic task modelled on the task of controlling air traffic was investigated. It was hypothesized that participants who preferred a more adaptive cognitive style would maintain better rule adherence and safe distances between aircraft in a low‐fidelity air traffic control task than those who preferred a more innovative style. Problems were presented to participants using computer‐based scenarios in screening, practice, and experimental trials. Performance was measured by the number of times the participant violated two types of scenario rules. Screening, practice, and experimental performance were analysed separately. Cognitive style had a significant effect on performance only during experimental trials. Performance of individuals who preferred a more adaptive style improved across experimental trials while those preferring a more innovative style did not. Results suggest that the more innovative participants, although perhaps having some initial advantage, may not be able to sustain performance in this type of task. Published in 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

保留的跨通道启动与老化：对于近期观点的总结

通道内重复启动的研究提示老年人内隐记忆未受损, 这不只体现在视觉通道上还包括其他感觉通道(例如触觉、听觉和嗅觉)。然而很少有研究考察启动任务是否具有通道特异性。在以年轻人为被试的研究中发现跨通道迁移(视觉到触觉和触觉到视觉)和通道内迁移(视觉到视觉, 触觉到触觉)具有相似性。一项最近的研究进一步探索老年人在跨通道启动任务上是否受损。结果显示视觉和触觉间的跨通道启动在年轻被试和老年被试上都是保留的且具有对称性。并且, 对于自然声响、图片的通道内和跨通道启动任务随着年老化发展仍旧保留。这些行为结果和其它最近神经科学结果显示跨通道启动发生于枕叶后纹状皮层区, 而这一区域在老年人中未损坏。这一领域未来的研究方向包括利用不同知觉通道间、利用熟悉的和新异的刺激并结合行为的和脑成像的方法, 通过设计完善的跨通道启动来研究正常老人与阿尔兹海默病人, 还包括将设计得完善的启动任务包括在用于改善老年人记忆功能的项目中。     

Fit of Political Skill to the Work Context: A Two‐Study Investigation

A two‐study investigation was designed to examine the role of job type (i.e. fit of political skill to work context) as a contextual moderator of the political skill–job performance relationship. Specifically, it was hypothesised that political skill operates most effectively in enterprising job contexts, and thus is most predictive of job performance in such contexts, but political skill would demonstrate no relationship with job performance in job contexts that did not emphasise interpersonal interaction and effectiveness. In Study 1, enterprising job demands interacted with political skill to affect job performance. That is, political skill positively and significantly predicted job performance in enterprising job contexts, as hypothesised. Study 2 selected one specific job context (i.e. insurance sales) high in enterprising job demands, and hypothesised that political skill would significantly predict objective measures of insurance sales (i.e. sales volume, performance‐based income, performance‐based commission rate, and performance‐based status). The results demonstrated significant predictive effects of political skill (i.e. beyond age, sex, education level, tenure on the job, and experience in sales) on all four measures of sales performance. Contributions and implications of this research, strengths and limitations, and directions for future study are discussed.     

Weather as Ecological Events

Gibson’s (1979 Gibson, J. J. (1979/1986). The ecological approach to visual perception. New York: Psychology Press. (Original work published 1979) [Google Scholar]/1986) definition of ecological events suggests that they are different types of change. Weather events exemplify all three varieties that Gibson outlined and can: (1) change the layout of surfaces, (2) change the color or texture of surfaces, and (3) change surface existence. Wind can bring temporary and enduring changes at the ground surface. Clouds can affect visual experiences on the ground through the amount and type of sunlight that is available. Precipitation in the form of rain, ice, and snow can create, disrupt, deform, or destroy surfaces at or on the ground. In this way, weather can change both the optical characteristics of surfaces (e. g., texture, reflectivity, transparency) as well as the affordances of the surfaces (e.g., wetting of surfaces reduces contact friction; high winds change the ease of passing through the medium of air, etc.). We present a taxonomy of weather events based on Gibson’s (1979 Gibson, J. J. (1979/1986). The ecological approach to visual perception. New York: Psychology Press. (Original work published 1979) [Google Scholar]/1986 Gibson, J. J. (1979/1986). The ecological approach to visual perception. New York: Psychology Press. (Original work published 1979) [Google Scholar]) classification of terrestrial events and provide some suggestions for future research.