主动控制感的测量及认知神经机制

主动控制感指预计动作和实际感觉反馈匹配会产生一种控制自己动作、作用于环境的主观体验, 是人类心理活动的基本特征之一。本文系统介绍主动控制感的测量方式, 尤其是主动动作的时间压缩效应这一内隐手段; 并从主观意识、动作的发生方式和动作结果特征三个方面探讨主动控制感的影响因素。基于动作的比较器模型, 解释主动控制感的产生原因; 并提供了主动控制感的认知神经脑机制的证据, 强调额叶和顶叶在主动控制感中的作用。未来研究应该更加注重外显与内隐测量的一致性, 特殊群体以及主动控制感的脑网络研究。     

Forcing in Łukasiewicz Predicate Logic

In this paper we study the notion of forcing for Łukasiewicz predicate logic (Ł∀, for short), along the lines of Robinson’s forcing in classical model theory. We deal with both finite and infinite forcing. As regard to the former we prove a Generic Model Theorem for Ł∀, while for the latter, we study the generic and existentially complete standard models of Ł∀. Presented by Jacek Malinowski     

Repeated Behavior and Environmental Psychology: The Role of Personal Involvement and Habit Formation in Explaining Water Consumption1

Extending existing theory in social and environmental psychology, we develop a model to study important predictors of water consumption behavior. Overall results provide support for the predictive ability of stimuli (e.g., environmental awareness), reasoned processes (e.g., personal involvement), unreasoned processes (e.g., habits), and situational factors (e.g., income) on water consumption behavior. Findings indicate that households with lower water usage display greater awareness of water conservation issues, are more highly involved in the decision to use water, and tend to form habits associated with lower usage levels. Furthermore, the results are consistent with past research that attitudes toward water usage appear to be poor predictors of water consumption behavior. After controlling for situational factors (e.g., household size), the findings substantiate the role of personal involvement and habit formation in explaining water consumption, lending further support to the adaptation and development of repeated behavior models in environmental psychology.     

我国器官移植中供体不足的原因分析及对策

器官移植对于挽救晚期脏器功能衰竭病人的生命具有极其重要的意义,我国器官移植起步较晚,多种因素限制器官移植的发展,其中供体不足是关键因素之一.分析器官移植中供体不足的原因,认为冲破传统观念的束缚,加大宣传力度,加快立法步伐是我国器官移植中供体不足亟待解决的问题.     

Temporal information coding properties of a network of inhibitory interneurons

Inhibitory interneurons are coupled by electrical and inhibitory synapses and exert a powerful control of the discharges of principal cells. In this paper, the transmission properties of excitatory synaptic inputs by a network of interneurons, are studied by using a computational approach. It is shown that both the rise and decay time constants, describing the time course of the excitatory synaptic inputs, have a strong effect on the output jitter of the fired spikes. Similar results were found by changing the values of the other parameters describing the network. Lastly, it is shown that the presence of the electrical coupling between interneurons confers to the network the capability of transmitting, with less temporal spread, the timing information contained in its inputs.     

An fMRI investigation on image generation in different sensory modalities: The influence of vividness

In the present fMRI study the issue of the specific cortices activation during imagery generation in different sensory modalities is addressed. In particular, we tested whether the vividness variability of imagery was reflected in the BOLD signal within specific sensory cortices. Subjects were asked to generate a mental image for each auditory presented sentence. Each imagery modality was contrasted with an abstract sentence condition. In addition, subjects were asked to fill the Italian version of the Questionnaire Upon Mental Imagery (QMI) prior to each neuroimaging session. In general, greater involvement of sensory specific cortices in high-vivid versus low-vivid subjects was found for visual (occipital), gustatory (anterior insula), kinaesthetic (pre-motor), and tactile and for somatic (post-central parietal) imagery modalities. These results support the hypothesis that vividness is related to image format: high-vivid subjects would create more analogical representations relying on the same specific neural substrates active during perception with respect to low-vivid subjects. Results are also discussed according to the simulation perspective.     

Extended Life

This paper reformulates some of the questions raised by extended mind theorists from an enactive, life/mind continuity perspective. Because of its reliance on concepts such as autopoiesis, the enactive approach has been deemed internalist and thus incompatible with the extended mind hypothesis. This paper answers this criticism by showing (1) that the relation between organism and cogniser is not one of co-extension, (2) that cognition is a relational phenomenon and thereby has no location, and (3) that the individuality of a cogniser is inevitably linked with the question of its autonomy, a question ignored by the extended mind hypothesis but for which the enactive approach proposes a precise, operational, albeit non-functionalist answer. The paper raises a pespective of embedded and intersecting forms of autonomous identity generation, some of which correspond to the canonical cases discussed in the extended mind literature, but on the whole of wider generality. In addressing these issues, this paper proposes unbiased, non-species specific definitions of cognition, agency and mediation, thus filling in gaps in the extended mind debates that have led to paradoxical situations and a problematic over-reliance on intutions about what counts as cognitive.

Variables and Quantity: What Else?

The article aims to comment Toomela’s (Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science 42(3):245–265, 2008) paper on variables and quantitative psychology. Topics as the choice of variables, their measurement and statistical analysis, the deductions based on data, are briefly reviewed. All variables can be misleading if used in a misleading way, but the Author contends that the psychology based on the variables has not the possibility to represent selected samples of inner processes and contents. Quantitative analyses based on linear causality and probabilistic inference pose many problems, but some alternative approaches devised to cope with these problems are indicated. An hermeneutic approach aware of the constructivist ground of the scientific knowledge is proposed.