Language in action

A number of general points behind the story of this paper may be worth setting out separately, now that we have come to the end.There is perhaps one obvious omission to be addressed right away. Although the word information has occurred throughout this paper, it must have struck the reader that we have had nothing to say on what information is. In this respect, our theories may be like those in physics: which do not explain what energy is (a notion which seems quite similar to information in several ways), but only give some basic laws about its behaviour and transmission.     

Responses to novelty in phobic and non-phobic cynomolgus monkeys: The role of subject characteristics and object features

In two previous studies it has been shown that most surrogate-reared cynomolgus monkeys became phobic of a harmless object (a big paper bag) while most mother-reared monkeys approached that object. Results of the first study seemed to indicate that the phobic reaction was restricted to the bag. Barnett and Cowan (Interdisciplinary Science Review, 1, 43–62, 1976) and Suomi (Anxiety disorder in childhood, pp. 1–23, 1986), however, reported that subjects (respectively rats and monkeys) that avoided a first novel object also avoided subsequent novel objects. In the present study we exposed phobic (bag-avoiding) and non-phobic (bag-approaching) monkeys from the study by Röder, Timmermans and Vossen (Behaviour Research and Therapy, 27, 221–231, 1989) to several big and small novel objects. Our results show that, irrespective of their rearing conditions, subjects that were phobic also avoided big novel objects while subjects that were non-phobic approached big novel objects. The reaction to small novel objects was independent of the previous reaction to the bag.     

Does Age Make a Difference? Age as Moderator in the Association Between Time Perspective and Happiness

A balanced time perspective can help retaining or improving happiness. Research shows shifts in time perspective while ageing. In order to reach a better understanding of the value of time perspective in different age groups, results are reported of a survey (n = 525), which examines the moderating role of age in the association between time perspective and happiness. Time perspective was measured by the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) (Zimbardo and Boyd in J Personal Soc Psychol 77:1271–1288, 1999) and to measure happiness, the Subjective Happiness Scale of Lyubomirsky and Lepper (Soc Indic Res 46:137–155, 1999) was used. Regression analysis shows that time perspective is indeed associated with happiness and that, although the assumed shifts in time perspective over time were not found, age does act as a moderator of this association. With ageing, the negative association between a past-negative time perspective and happiness weakens. These results add to our understanding of the theoretical concept of time perspective and shed new light on the value of a balanced time perspective for someone’s wellbeing. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

On Following Commands: A Philosophical Inquiry Into the Governing Values of Swedish Early Childhood Education

In this article I will investigate a perceived tension in Swedish early childhood education (ECE) policy between reevaluating certain foundational claims on the one hand and following universal moral commands on the other. I ask the question; how is it that certain commonly held assumptions are being debunked and others left undisturbed in this particular context? To this end, I look at some of the preconditions of framing the educational practice by universal moral commands so as to make visible some of its underlying ontological assumptions. Correspondingly, I look at some necessary epistemological and ontological prerequisites for understanding knowledge formation as essentially relational, such as it is construed in the policy documents concerned. I connect this with a broader trend in educational philosophy and theory, one where the destabilizing of a Cartesian notion of subjectivity has opened up for more relational conceptions of subjectivity. Next, I will take a closer look at some key passages from the policy documents where the appeal to moral universalism runs parallel with an appeal to a relational ontology. Having done so, I point to some epistemological problems with combining these two conflicting approaches on a policy level. To conclude, I formulate some final thoughts regarding how one might begin to resolve this tension within the discourse of Swedish ECE by coming to terms with what kind of ontological and epistemological foundation to rely upon. I do this by trying out the notion of a pedagogy of dosage.     

Rapid Integration of Contour Fragments: From Simple Filling-in to Parts-based Shape Description

Line drawings are easy to recognize, although the only information to the visual system is the contour itself. Starting from information theory and a theory of decomposition in parts, we investigated whether certain regions of such a contour are perceptually more relevant than others, using a deletion detection paradigm. In this paradigm, high detectability means poor contour integration, and vice versa. Regions of interest were curvature singularities, namely positive maxima (M+), negative minima (m?) and inflection points (I), of smooth, closed contours. In Experiment 1, we performed a first exploration of the detectability of deletions around these three types of curvature singularities. M+ deletions were easier to detect than the deletions around the other two singularities, a result that is explained using a post hoc combination of both mentioned theoretical frameworks. In Experiment 2, we replicated these findings using figure-background reversal, so thatthe same physical deletions could either be M+ or m?. Again, the M+ deletions were easier to detect than m? deletions. Although both types of singularities involve regions of high curvature changes, they differ in that mdeletions create gaps that concur with spontaneous segmentation.     

A reaction-time paradigm to measure reward-oriented bias in rats

The authors devised a nose-poke task with asymmetric position-reward mapping to distinguish between effects of bias and sensitivity in reaction times of rats. In all trials, the rats had to poke their noses into the hole to the left or to the right of center, corresponding to the side at which 4 lights were illuminated, while ignoring distracters on the other side. Reaction times were faster for large-reward trials than for small-reward trials. In large-reward trials, there was no influence of the number of distracters, whereas in small-reward trials, distracters produced an increase in reaction time. Analysis of reaction-time distributions according to a linear model of decision making suggests that most of the systematic variability was due to a reward-oriented bias.     

Segmentation of object outlines into parts: a large-scale integrative study

In this study, a large number of observers (N=201) were asked to segment a collection of outlines derived from line drawings of everyday objects (N=88). This data set was then used as a benchmark to evaluate current models of object segmentation. All of the previously proposed rules of segmentation were found supported in our results. For example, minima of curvature (i.e. locations along the contour where negative curvature takes an extreme value) were often used as segmentation points. The second point of a pair connected by a segmentation line often depended on more global shape characteristics such as proximity, collinearity, symmetry, and elongation. Based on these results, a framework is presented in which all of the previously proposed (and now empirically validated) segmentation rules or rules for part formation are integrated.     

The time course of figure-ground reversal

We report the results from five experiments employing a modified version of the short-term visual matching (STVM) method introduced by Driver and Baylis (1996). In STVM, participants see a study display with ambiguous figure-ground relations. After the study display, participants have to decide which of two shapes in a match display was seen before in the study display. STVM has been used by Vecera, Vogel, and Woodman (2002) to demonstrate that the lower region is a figure-ground cue. In our modified version of STVM, the study stimulus was preceded by a brief prime. This caused a biasing of the figural interpretation of the ambiguous figure-ground displays that contained the lower region cue. We show that 100-msec priming with an unambiguous display is enough to affect the subsequent interpretation of the ambiguous figure-ground display. It takes maximally 350 msec to complete a transition from the nondominant interpretation to the dominant interpretation of an ambiguous figure-ground display that contains the lower region cue.