现实主义与乌托邦

不可知的现实 现实问题在于我们认为对它非常了解,而事实上对它完全没有很好地理解.[1]过去,我们的过去,对我们来说似乎绝对清晰,但事实并非如此.如果我们反思通盘考虑起来是我们的过去的20世纪,我们逐渐认识到,作为20世纪主要标志性现象的共产主义和纳粹主义几乎未被给予系统化的思考.     

冯友兰中国哲学“三史”中佛教研究的方法论转向

如何在中国哲学史的框架内理解和诠释中国佛教,胡适与冯友兰用现代学术的方法分别作了佛教“化中国”和佛教“中国化”两种解读。冯友兰历经一生写成的中国哲学“三史”中,对佛教研究在叙事方式上经历了由史论结合、以史为主到史论结合、以论为先而明其学脉,在理论分析上经历了从新实在论等西方哲学到运用马克思主义观点分析中国佛教哲学而得其宗旨。其一以贯之的主线是从揭示中国佛教的本位性到用马克思主义哲学考察中国佛教哲学,这不仅反映了冯先生学术研究的方法论转换,也深刻体现了他的世界观转向。     

UFO和声称的绑架事件调查(二)——真相与误导

上世纪50年代,UFO目击者和加入这个事件的渲染者使事件急剧升温。1950年,弗朗克·斯库利(Frank Scully)发表了一本引起轰动的书,叫《追踪飞碟》。书中声称,一个飞碟坠毁在新墨西哥的阿兹特克东部的偏僻的高原沙漠上,飞碟的直径为99英尺,里面有16个外星人的尸体。斯库利自己并没有看见这个场景,仅仅是听别人说的。2年以后,发现这个故事是个骗局。关于飞碟坠毁的另一个故事也是发生在新墨西哥,地点是位于罗斯威尔西北部的75英里一处空军基地。据猜测,这次坠毁发生在1947年的7月,由此引发了一系列的事件和争论,并延续至今。坠毁是不容争论的,…     

The perception of closed flat knots and completion by folding

The aim of the present research was to study a well-defined set of line drawings that have never been analyzed before, and that are perceived as closed flat knots (CFKs). These knots are obtained by folding two-dimensional laminae. From this study it emerged that the perception of CFKs is always accompanied by a type of amodal completion, which had not previously been studied, and which we have called "completion by folding". It occurs when three quadrilaterals are so arranged that they look like a sheet of paper folded around one of them, partly occluded and partly occluding. Two experiments were carried out on this phenomenon revealing that a three-level stratification is produced in the completion by folding that facilitates unification between occluded figures, even when current models do not foresee such a perceptual solution, either because the distance between the two figures that become a unit is too big (experiment ) or because the slope between the two figures is not favorable (experiment 2). A third experiment, which took up the problem of the perception of CFKs, revealed the following: (1) Besides the prototype CFK, obtained by the interlacing of a rectangular lamina, there is a theoretically infinite class of CFKs. (2) The drawing of all the possible closed flat knots involves geometrically precise rules. (3) Not all feasible knots with these rules are seen as such. (4) Only the knots with characteristics of alignment and regularity are recognized as knots. (5) The closed flat knots are seen as the result of a transformation which the figure undergoes. This evidence constitutes a remarkable perceptual problem, discussed with reference to the recent theories of amodal completion.     

Mathematics of forgiveness

This study was aimed at determining the integration rule--summation or averaging--underlying the forgiveness schema. The main reason for distinguishing between these structures is that they have very different practical implications regarding the influence of various factors specific to each case on the propensity to forgive. In a summative model, the impact of the different factors and the direction of the effects are constant. For example, the presence of apologies always is a positive element even when these apologies assume a very weak form. By contrast, in an averaging model, the apologies can be a positive or a negative element depending on the current level of propensity to forgive and the form of the apologies. Two experiments were conducted using the functional theory of cognition framework. Experiment 1 applied the missing information test. Experiment 2 applied the credibility of information test. In both experiments, clear evidence favored a summative rule for judging willingness to forgive from circumstantial information such as presence or absence of intent, presence of absence of apologies, and degree of cancellation of consequences.     

Individual differences in working memory during reading with and without parafoveal information: a moving-window study

We examined individual differences in working memory appearing in the effective visual field size while reading Japanese text. Working memory capacity was measured by a Japanese reading span test, and the subjects were divided into high- and low-score groups. Reading performance was measured by reading time, comprehension, and eye movements using a variable moving window through which the subject could read areas of the Japanese text. As the window size decreased, the reading time increased significantly. High-span subjects showed better performance in reading time, comprehension, and fixation duration than low-span subjects even in small visual fields. Interestingly, high-span subjects appear to show better information integration during reading, whereas low-span subjects showed less integration without parafoveal vision. These findings suggest that reading performance was better for subjects with larger working memory resources in a parafoveal restriction condition.     

Disambiguating conscious and unconscious influences: do exclusion paradigms demonstrate unconscious perception?

Does exclusion failure--responding with previously presented words despite instructions to avoid doing so--demonstrate unconscious influences? This article examines exclusion-based evidence for unconscious perception. I propose an alternative signal detection theory (SDT) framework that can account for exclusion failure and ostensibly convergent qualitative differences without positing additional unconscious perceptual mechanisms. In the proposed SDT model, exclusion failure is a criterion artifact, similar to classic SDT-based critiques of subjective threshold approaches. However, it is suggested that exclusion approaches do demonstrate that response strategies are applied only to above-criterion stimuli and thereby illustrate important qualitative differences between two conscious processes: phenomenal awareness itself and higher-order (i.e., metacognitive) decision processes.     

The classical/relational schism and psychic conflict

The mind's ingrained need to reduce and resolve conflicting perspectives, it is argued, is at the root of struggles among "schools" of analytic thought. Focusing attention on the conflictual process in analytic work can help both patients and analysts appreciate the fundamentally complementary nature of mind and the value of embracing distinctive points of view.     

Psychoanalytic patients in the U.S., CANADA,and Australia: I. DSM-III-R disorders,indications, previous treatment,medications, and length of treatment

To determine the demographics, DSM-III-R disorders diagnosed, indications used in recommending psychoanalysis, previous treatment histories, use of medication, and length of treatment in patients in psychoanalysis in the U.S., Canada, and Australia, a mail survey of practice was sent to every other active member of the American Psychoanalytic Association and every member of the Australian Psychoanalytical Society. This supplemented an earlier survey sent to all Ontario psychoanalysts. The response rates were 40.1 % (n = 342) for the U.S., 67.2% (n = 117) for Canada, and 73.9% (n = 51) for Australia. Respondents supplied data on 1,718 patients. The employment rate for patients increases as analysis progresses (p < .0001). The mean number of concurrent categories of disorders (Axis I, Axis II, and Disorders First Evident in Childhood) per patient at the start of treatment is 5.01 (SD = 3.66; median = 4; mode = 3). There are no statistically significant differences across countries. Mood, anxiety, sexual dysfunction, and personality disorders are most common. American Psychiatric Association / American Psychoanalytic Association peer review criteria for indicating psychoanalysis are followed for 86.5% of patients. Over 80% of patients in all three countries had undergone previous treatments prior to analysis. In the U.S., 18.2% of analysands are on concurrent psychoactive medication; in Australia, 9.6%. The mean length of analyses conducted in the U.S. is 5.7 years, in Australia 6.6, and in Canada 4.8. Psychoanalytic patients in all three countries have similar rates of DSM-III-R psychopathology, and many indications of chronicity.     

Relationship between poverty and health among adolescents

Although the effect of low socioeconomic status on the health of adolescents has been documented, the mechanism by which this occurs is not well understood. Furthermore, improving adolescent health through public health policy typically requires the presence of one or more modifiable risk factors which can be targeted for intervention. In spite of the well-documented negative associations between poverty and health, few modifiable risk factors have been identified. This study used the Evans-Stoddart Model of Health and Well-Being as a framework to examine data on 1,759 adolescents, aged 12 to 19, collected as part of the 1994 National Population Health Survey. Results not only confirm the relationship between income and health, but suggest how the pathway operates through the social environment, lifestyle differences, access to health care, and a reduced sense of self-esteem and self-mastery. Bivariate and multivariate analyses found positive associations between physical activity levels and self-esteem and mastery. We interpret these findings as preliminary evidence that it might be possible to buffer the impact of poverty on health through policies which increase physical activity levels among those living in poverty. Such policies could also include a secondary goal of increasing the activity levels among inactive adolescents who are not living in poverty, as they will derive benefits from this increase, both psychologically and physiologically.