Book reviews

Confucianism and the Family. Walter H. Slote & George A. Devos, 1998, Albany, State University of New York Press, xiv + 390 pp.

Media and the Transformation of Religion in South Asia. Lawrence A. Babb & Susan S. Wadley (Eds), 1997, (1st edn, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995), Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, viii + 298 pp., hb Rs 295, ISBN 81 208 1448 7; pb Rs 195, ISBN 81 208 1453 3

Yoga. Discipline of freedom. The Yoga Sutra attributed to Patañjali (A translation of the text, with commentary, introduction and glossary of key words), Barbara Stoler Miller (Trans. & Ed.), 1996, Berkeley, University of California Press, xiv + 114 pp., ISBN 0 520 20190 6     

Visual-spatial working memory, attention, and scene representation: A neuro-cognitive theory

This paper addresses the issue of how visual-spatial working memory, attention, and scene representation are related. The first section introduces a modified two-stage conception of visual-spatial processing. “Stage one” refers to low-level visual-spatial processing and computes in parallel for the currently available retinal information “object candidates,” here called “visual-spatial units.” An attentional process called “unit selection” allows access to stage two for one of these units at a time. Stage two contains high-level visual-spatial information that can be used for goal-directions (e.g., verbal report, grasping). It consists of three parallel processing streams. First, the currently selected unit is recognized; second, a spatial-motor program for the selected unit is computed; and third, an “object file” is set up for the selected unit. An object file contains temporary episodic representations of detailed high-level visual-spatial attributes of an “object” plus an “index.” An index acts as a pointer and is bound via temporary connections to the attributes of the file. Section two of this paper specifies one part of stage two in more detail, namely visual-spatial working memory (VSWM). It can contain up to four object files. A first central claim is that during sensory-based processing for working memory (“access”), one object file is always “on-line,” and up to three other object files are “off-line”. A second central claim is that the process of setting up an object file depends on the number and the activation level of already stored files. Based on the concept of activation-based competition between object files, it is postulated that the more files that are stored and the higher their activation is, the longer it takes for a newly set up object file to reach a sufficient level of activation. Activation-based competition is also used to explain “short-term forgetting” by “interference.” A third central claim about VSWM is that a “refreshment' process exists that increases the activation level of an index of an object file in order to prevent forgetting or in order to bring the file back to the state of controlling the current action. Finally, section three gives a selective look at a number of experimental data such as the attentional blink, backward masking, dwell time effects, transsaccadic memory, and change blindness. New explanations are offered and new predictions made. Received: 16 January 1998 / Accepted: 25 July 1998     

Attention demands during reading and the occurrence of brief (express) fixations

Eye movements were recorded while subjects read passages of text repeatedly (Experiment 1) and while normal text and strings ofhomogeneous letters were fixated (Experiment 2). Text repetition decreased fixation durations and increased saccade size, presumably because it decreased attention demands. Irrespective ofrepetition, however, no distinct distribution of brief (express) fixations emerged. In Experiment 2, fixation durations were shorter and saccades were larger when strings of homogeneous letters were “read,” indicating that this condition decreased attention demands. Again, however, no distinct distribution of express fixations emerged. These findings pose problems for the view that attentional processes determine the occurrence of brief (express) fixation durations in reading. Supplementary analyses of Experiments 1 and 2 suggested that visuospatial processing affected fixation durations, irrespective of linguistic processing demands.     

Complexity discrimination as a determinant of children's preferences in collative motivation

Collative motivational preferences for increasing complexity in kindergarten and fourth-grade children were studied by varying the types of elements that constituted complexity gradation conditions along a similarity-distinctiveness continuum. A paired-comparisons procedure was used to assess children's relative preference for one to five levels of complexity within each condition. The highest gradation condition yielded a clear positive function between preference and number of elements, as well as the most reliable performance by children, but the two lower conditions yielded both positive and negative functions when subsamples were analyzed in homogeneous groupings. Obtained negative functions were interpreted as aesthetic or affective dimensions conflicting with the collative exploratory dimension. Differences between gradation conditions were consonant with a proposed arbitrary definition of variety as a distinctive condition of complexity.     

The direct product model for the mtmm matrix parameterized as a second order factor analysis model

The composite direct product model for the multitrait-multimethod matrix is reparameterized as a second-order factor analysis model. This facilitates the use of widely available computer programs such as LISREL and LISCOMP for fitting the model.Bruce Bloxom. Paul Horst and Karl Jöreskog contributed helpful comments to an earlier version of this paper. Their suggestions are gratefully acknowledged.     

The collateral decrease of self-injurious behavior with teaching communicative gestures to individuals who are mentally retarded

The present study assessed the effect of teaching communicative gestures on the occurrence of self-injurious behavior and other behavior disorders with 14 individuals who are severely/ profoundly mentally retarded. Results show a statistically significant decrease of about 40% in self-injurious behavior as a collateral effect of an increased use of communicative gestures. Apart from a decrease in the occurrence of destructive behaviors, no other effects on other behavior disorders were found. Results are discussed in terms of the possible use of communicative gestures as a therapeutic supplement to standard procedures for decreasing self-injurious behavior with individuals who are nonverbal and mentally retarded.     

技术的文化塑造与技术多样性的政治学

技术的文化塑造是技术的社会形成理论的具体化."文化塑造"一词具有多种意义,在技术的社会形成过程中,文化扮演着重要的角色和作用.具体而言,技术的文化塑造涉及到技术发展中的文化意义和技术政策的意义,它反对长期流行的技术决定论的观点,即技术统治论式的技术政策.本文最引人注目之处在于提出了"技术的不确定性循环"这一概念,即认为新技术从一开始就具有明显的不确定性特征,并构成了以后的系列问题.技术的这一循环特征包括了以多种方式相互交织的不确定性.而技术的不确定性循环,则必然要涉及到技术的多样性,以及技术创新体制和互动创新网络的构建,并最终关联到技术多样性的政治学的构建.     

Vibration-Induced Kinesthetic Illusions and Corticospinal Excitability Changes

The authors' aim was to investigate the changes of corticospinal excitability during kinesthetic illusions induced by tendon vibration. Motor-evoked potentials in response to transcranial magnetic stimulation were recorded from the vibrated flexor carpi radialis and its antagonist, extensor carpi radialis. The illusions were evoked under vision conditions without feedback for the position of the wrist (open or closed eyes). In these two conditions motor-evoked potential changes during vibration in the antagonist were not identical. This discrepancy may be a result of 2 simultaneously acting, different and opposite influences and the balance between them depends on visual conditions. Thus, the illusion was accompanied by the facilitation of corticospinal excitability in both vibrated muscle and its antagonist.     

A Posteriori Ethical Intuitionism and the Problem of Cognitive Penetrability

According to a posteriori ethical intuitionism (AEI), perceptual experiences can provide non‐inferential justification for at least some moral beliefs. Moral epistemology, for the defender of AEI, is less like the epistemology of math and more like the epistemology of tables and chairs. One serious threat to AEI comes from the phenomenon of cognitive penetration. The worry is that even if evaluative properties could figure in the contents of experience, they would only be able to do so if prior cognitive states influence perceptual experience. Such influences would undermine the non‐inferential, foundationalist credentials of AEI. In this paper, I defend AEI against this objection. Rather than deny that cognitive penetration exists, I argue that some types of cognitive penetrability are actually compatible with AEI's foundationalist structure. This involves teasing apart the question of whether some particular perceptual process has justification‐conferring features from the question of how it came to have those features in the first place. Once this distinction is made, it becomes clear that some kinds of cognitive penetration are compatible with the non‐inferential status of moral perceptual experiences as the proponent of AEI claims.