生态哲学

生态学是一门研究生物体和它们的环境之间的相互关系的科学。它基本上属于生物科学。众所周知,科学哲学是哲学研究项目中最重要的门类之一,例如,我们现在有数学哲学、物理学哲学和其他自然科学的哲学,以及各门社会科学的哲学。有许多根本的问题处于科学和哲学二者的边缘交接点,如时空、能量、物质、生命、心理、演化等等的性质既是科学家考虑的问题又是哲学家考虑的问题。宇宙起源和宇宙论的问题更是科学和哲学的一     

市区活动中心理科班学生的行为和相互作用

我们认为以活动为中心的初中理科班是对两个种族组行为进行比较、对照的理想研究。理由是这些班的学生可以相对自由地选择自己的座位,可以选择伙伴做实验项目,还可以自由支配使用自己的时间。从这些行为中,我们能够对取消了种族隔离的学校中种族间关系的性质,以及对每个五文化组学习科学动机的程度作出推论。此外,也可能确定课堂行为与教师评分之间的关系。在此类班级中成绩的评定,依据的是作业或学习项目的进步,项目结束后的测验、平时测验、最后测验以及教师对学生努力程度的估计。因此,本研究意在回答下列问题: 1.在种族平等以活动为中心的初中理科班中,黑人和自人男生是怎样上课的?行为上     

Determination of a behavioral transfer function: White-noise analysis of session-to-session response-ratio dynamics on concurrent VI VI schedules

Six pigeons were exposed to concurrent variable-interval schedules in which the programmed reinforcer ratios changed from session to session according to a pseudorandom binary sequence. This procedure corresponded to the stochastic identification paradigm (“white-noise experiment”) of systems theory and enabled the relation between log response ratios in the current session and log reinforcer ratios in all previous sessions to be determined. Such dynamic relations are called linear transfer functions. Both nonparametric and parametric representations of these, in the form of “impulse-response functions,” were determined for each bird. The session-to-session response ratios resulting from the session-to-session pseudorandom binary variations in reinforcer ratios were well predicted by the impulse-response functions identified for each pigeon. The impulse-response functions were well fitted by a second-order dynamic model involving only two parameters: a time constant and a gain. The mean time constant was 0.67 sessions, implying that the effects of abrupt changes in log reinforcer ratios should be 96% complete within about five sessions. The mean gain was 0.53, which was surprisingly low inasmuch as it should equal the sensitivity to reinforcement ratio observed under steady-state conditions. The same six pigeons were subjected to a similar experiment 10 months following the first. Despite individual differences in impulse-response functions between birds within each experiment, the impulse-response functions determined from the two experiments were essentially the same.     

Molecular maximizing characterizes choice on Vaughan's (1981) procedure

Pigeons keypecked on a two-key procedure in which their choice ratios during one time period determined the reinforcement rates assigned to each key during the next period (Vaughan, 1981). During each of four phases, which differed in the reinforcement rates they provided for different choice ratios, the duration of these periods was four minutes, duplicating one condition from Vaughan's study. During the other four phases, these periods lasted six seconds. When these periods were long, the results were similar to Vaughan's and appeared compatible with melioration theory. But when these periods were short, the data were consistent with molecular maximizing (see Silberberg & Ziriax, 1982) and were incompatible with melioration, molar maximizing, and matching. In a simulation, stat birds following a molecular-maximizing algorithm responded on the short- and long-period conditions of this experiment. When the time periods lasted four minutes, the results were similar to Vaughan's and to the results of the four-minute conditions of this study; when the time periods lasted six seconds, the choice data were similar to the data from real subjects for the six-second conditions. Thus, a molecular-maximizing response rule generated choice data comparable to those from the short- and long-period conditions of this experiment. These data show that, among extant accounts, choice on the Vaughan procedure is most compatible with molecular maximizing.     

Intelligence and fertility in the United States: 1912-1982

Results are presented for the 1st analysis of the relationship between IQ and completed fertility using a large, representative sample of the US population. Correlations are predominantly negative for cohorts born between 1894 and 1964 but are significantly more positive for cohorts whose fertility was concentrated in the baby boom years. Previous studies reporting slightly positive correlations appear to have been biased in their restriction of samples to atypical cohorts. The National Opinion Research Center (NORC), a nonprofit research organization affiliated with the University of Chicago, conducted the General Social Survey (GSS) in the US each year from 1972 to 1982, except for 1979. A combination of block quota and full probability sampling was employed. Hour-long interviews were completed with 12,120 respondents who were English-speaking, noninstitutionalized adults (18 years or older) living within the continental US. Such questions as age, place of birth, income and occupation, were asked in each interview. Other questions about attitudes on various social, political, and moral issues were rotated in different years. The unique opportunity this data set affords is an overview of the relationship between intelligence and fertility for a nationally representative sample of Americans whose major reproductive years fell between 1912 and 1982. Data were consolidated from the 4 surveys in which the vocabulary test was given (1974, 1976, 1978, and 1982). Respondents were divided into 15 birth cohorts of 5-year intervals ranging from before 1894 to 1964. Correlations between vocabulary scores and number of siblings are markedly negative across all 15 cohorts. Vocabulary sibling correlations are more negative in every cohort than vocabulary offspring correlations. Previous reports of a neutral or slightly eugenic relationship appear to be due to the nature of the samples used, in part because the cohorts chosen were atypical, and in part because they did not include nonwhites. Childless respondents averaged slightly higher scores than did those with 1 or more children, indicating that the automatic exclusion of the childless from sibling-IQ studies has not spuriously inflated negative correlations.     

On the impact of human operant research: Asymmetrical patterns of cross-citation between human and nonhuman research

Reactions to published accounts of research with human subjects, as well as research with nonhuman subjects, were assessed by examining citations in several samples of empirical articles in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. A stable, asymmetrical pattern emerged: Nonhuman research was cited in both human and nonhuman articles, but human research was cited primarily in human articles. Thus, human operant research appears to have had little influence on the nonhuman research which constitutes the bulk of the experimental analysis of behavior. Interpretation of this lack of impact depends on the functions one envisions for human research, several of which are discussed.     

计算机和社会控制

我要谈的内容是社会控制活动中计算机的作用问题。控制的概念很复杂、很微妙,但我们可以从不多的例子中理解其含义。很早以前,农夫控制一些牛来耕地,他的妻子控制手工织机把布织成自己所需的图案。现在,人们控制着复杂的机器和发动机驱动的车辆,恒温调节装置控制着房间的温度。现代化的炼油厂几乎全都是由计算机控制的。旧金山有一种快速运营系统,这个系统完全用计算机控制客运汽车,当然有时也会出问题。在过去的两个世纪里,特别是我们生活的时代,机器越来越多地参与了控制的活动。我谈论这些活动的方法一方面是历史性的:回顾一下这种控     

咖啡因与心理紧张对血压的影响:交叉文化的比较研究

引言饮用含有咖啡因的饮料已遍及全球。大多数西方国家如美、英、法,习惯饮用咖啡;大多数东方国家如中、印、日,习惯用茶。还有一些国家喜欢饮含少量咖啡因的可可,“瓜拉那”等。据估计每年世界咖啡消费量已超过400万吨(Rokeitson,1978)。茶在中国的消费,也从1965年的43000吨,上升至1976年的139000吨(“中国经济年鉴”,1981)。为什么全世界范围内这样普遍地饮用咖啡和茶呢?原因是这些饮料中的咖啡因能提神解劳,提高感觉敏锐度和反应速度,使思路畅通,延长智力劳动的时间。如Nash(1962)的研究表明,咖啡因有助于成对联想学习,听觉材料的及时回忆,以及完成不完整的句子。但是近年来人们发现,咖啡因对人体有有害的作用。摄入咖啡因后,其中的甲基黄嘌呤     

阿尔都塞的多元决定与结构因果观

在阿尔都塞的马克思著作研究中,多元决定和结构因果性这两个概念是十分重要的。本文将通过考察阿尔都塞对这两个概念在理解马克思的“方法论”上的价值和应用的论述,来解释这两个概念。但这种研究方法并不认为在《资本论》或其他著作中,马克思实际上有一种具体的或明确的方法论。对我们来说,马克思主义中是否有方法论仍然是一个未解决的问题。对于任何的马克思方法论的探讨,这些概念都是重要的。本文的任务之一就是表明,马克思在政治经济学中的贡献和“理论革命”不能简单地用方法论来描绘。马克思对黑格尔的辩证法思