Higher‐Order Thought and the Problem of Radical Confabulation

Currently, one of the most influential theories of consciousness is Rosenthal's version of higher‐order‐thought (HOT). We argue that the HOT theory allows for two distinct interpretations: a one‐component and a two‐component view. We further argue that the two‐component view is more consistent with his effort to promote HOT as an explanatory theory suitable for application to the empirical sciences. Unfortunately, the two‐component view seems incapable of handling a group of counterexamples that we refer to as cases of radical confabulation. We begin by introducing the HOT theory and by indicating why we believe it is open to distinct interpretations. We then proceed to show that it is incapable of handling cases of radical confabulation. Finally, in the course of considering various possible responses to our position, we show that adoption of a disjunctive strategy, one that would countenance both one‐component and two‐component versions, would fail to provide any empirical or explanatory advantage.     

Zero Anaphora: Transfer of Reference Tracking Strategies from Chinese to English

English contains many nominals that would be absent in Chinese because Chinese makes greater use of zero anaphora, which is an empty grammatical slot in a sentence standing for a previously mentioned referent. Native Chinese and native English speakers were compared in comprehending modified English passages from a standardized reading test with nominals deleted that would be absent in Chinese. In three experiments, Chinese speakers showed superior comprehension as measured by objective multiple-choice questions in this case, but not when no words were deleted or when nominals were deleted that would not be absent in Chinese. These results imply that native Chinese speakers develop reference tracking strategies that they transfer to comprehending English.This research was supported in part by United States Army Research Institute Contracts MDA903-93-K-0010, DASW01-96-K-0010, DASW01-99-K-0002, and DASW01-03-K-0002 to the University of Colorado (Alice Healy, Principal Investigator).We thank Lyle Bourne and Barbara Fox for stimulating discussions about this research. We are also grateful to the Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Colorado for their support of this research.Experiments 1 and 2 were reported at the International Conference on Functional Approaches to Grammar, Albuquerque, NM, July 25, 1995, and at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Chicago, IL, November 3, 1996, and all three experiments were reported at the 2001 American Association for Applied Linguistics conference, St. Louis, MO, February 24, 2001.     

Nicotinic cholinergic synaptic mechanisms in the ventral tegmental area contribute to nicotine addiction

Tobacco use is a major health problem that is estimated to cause 4 million deaths a year worldwide. Nicotine is the main addictive component of tobacco. It acts as an agonist to activate and desensitize nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). A component of nicotine's addictive power is attributable to actions on the mesolimbic dopaminergic system, which serves a fundamental role in the acquisition of behaviors that are inappropriately reinforced by addictive drugs. Here we show that nicotine, in the same concentration and time ranges as obtained from tobacco, has three main actions that regulate the activity of midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons. Nicotine first activates and then desensitizes nAChRs on the DA neurons. This process directly excites the DA neurons for a short period of time before the nAChRs desensitize. Nicotine also enhances glutamatergic excitation and decreases GABAergic inhibition onto DA neurons. These events increase the probability for synaptic plasticity, such as long-term potentiation. The short-lived direct excitation of the DA neurons coupled with the enhanced glutamatergic afferent activity provides the presynaptic and postsynaptic coincidence necessary to initiate synaptic potentiation. In total, these synaptic events lead to a relatively long-lasting heightened activity of midbrain DA neurons. Consistent with other summarized studies, this work indicates that the synaptic changes normally associated with learning and memory can be influenced and commandeered during the nicotine addiction process.     

小学生阅读迁移机制的进一步研究--字词表征还是内容表征

探讨阅读文章难易程度与文章字词和内容在小学生篇章阅读迁移中的作用。被试分为阅读水平高、低两组。采用个别方式施测,以阅读时间和阅读准确性为阅读迁移的指标。结果表明,低水平组被试的篇章阅读迁移主要依赖词汇表征;高水平组被试的篇章阅读迁移主要依赖内容表征,换言之,容易文章主要以内容表征进行迁移;困难文章主要以词汇表征进行迁移。     

On local influence analysis of full information item factor models

The full information item factor (FIIF) model is very useful for analyzing relations of dichotomous variables. In this article, we present a feasible procedure to assess local influence of minor perturbations for identifying influence aspects of the FIIF model. The development is based on a Q-displacement function which is closely related with the Monte Carlo EM algorithm in the ML estimation. In the E-step of this algorithm, the conditional expectations are approximated by sample means of observations simulated by the Gibbs sampler from the appropriate conditional distributions. It turns out that these observations can be utilized for computing the building blocks of the proposed diagnostic measures. The diagnoses are based on the conformal normal curvature that can be computed easily. A number of interesting perturbation schemes are considered. The methodology is illustrated with two real examples.The research is fully supported by a grant (CUHK 4356/00H) from the Research Grant Council of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region. The authors are thankful to the Editor, Associate Editor, anonymous reviewers, and W.Y. Poon for valuable comments for improving the paper, and to ICPSR and the relevant founding agency for allowing us to use of their data. The assistance of Michael Leung and Esther Tam is gratefully acknowledged.     

几种时间表征的研究概况

概述时间表征外显与内隐的分类,对动力心理表征及表征动量的研究进行了讨论     

发音人和语境变异与声调知觉

本文用Garner快速分类法研究了发音人规范化和语境补偿过程与声调知觉的关系。得到的主要结果是:(1)发音人变化对声调识别产生了显著的Gar-ner干扰;声调变化对男女声判别产生了同样的十扰。(2)语境变化对声调识别也产生了显著的Garner干扰。按照Garner方法的假设,这说明发音人规范化和语境变异补偿与声调识别之问是相互联系和相互影响的。(3)虽然发音人和语境同时变化引起的声调识别反应时延长约等于它们单独变化时反应时延长量之和,但正确率下降远大于单独变化时下降量之和。说明发音人和语境变异对声调识别的干扰不是独立的,它们之间存在相互作用。这种作用增加了声调识别的难度。     

情绪调节灵活性对负性情绪的影响：来自经验取样的证据

情绪调节灵活性是指个体根据不断变化的情境需求灵活部署情绪调节策略的能力。本研究采用经验取样方法,通过拟合个体在日常生活事件(如,未通过考试)和突发公共卫生事件(COVID-19)中的策略使用剖面结构和情境负性程度与策略使用程度的共变关系测量个体的情绪调节灵活性水平,并探讨其对个体后续负性情绪(抑郁和焦虑)的影响。两个独立样本结果表明：单一策略使用偏好(如沉浸偏好和表达抑制偏好)的个体在负性生活事件中和疫情期间经历了更高水平的抑郁和焦虑情绪。此外,当个体随情境负性程度提高使用更多分心策略,而随情境负性程度降低使用更多认知重评策略(意味较高的情绪调节灵活性),其抑郁和焦虑情绪水平更低。以上结果共同证实了情绪调节灵活性有利于减少个体的负性情绪体验。