国外关于幼儿道德判断的近期研究

简要介绍国外近年来从信息加工和情绪归因的角度对幼儿道德判断进行的研究。这些研究揭示：幼儿道德判断受记忆、理解因素的影响;其发展表现为整合信息能力和根据不同情境分化地使用不同判断标准的能力不断提高;幼儿道德认知与情绪反应有不一致的现象。     

Effects of Gender and Profession Type on Definitions of Violence Against Women in Hong Kong

This study investigated the criteria chosen by male and female Chinese public servants (clinical psychologists, social workers, police officers, physicians, nurses, teachers, and lawyers) in Hong Kong to classify and define violence against women. Data were gathered via questionnaires completed by 2589 (686 male) public servants from 10,476 polled (response rate 24.7%). The questionnaires included a 14-item check-list of various behaviors constituting violence against women and a 10-item check-list of criteria that could be used to categorize behavior as violence against women. It was found that for this population, use of physical force and lack of consent were the main determinants of violence against women. Only half of respondents considered murder a form of violence against women, the rest categorized it as a crime that was "not merely violence." Most respondents defined sexual harassment, rape, and unwanted physical contact as forms of violence against women. The female public servants were more likely to define behaviors as violence against women and to use more criteria to define violence against women. Public servants who worked with the law enforcement and legal system were more likely than others to choose narrow definitions and rigid criteria.     

Mastery pleasure versus mere ownership: A quasi-experimental cross-cultural and cross-alphabetical test of the name letter effect

Four studies test both the alternative explanation advanced by Hoorens and Todorova (1988) for Nuttin's (1984, 1985, 1987) name letter effect (NLE), and two interpretations for an unexplained finding of the former authors. Flemish, Hungarian and Thai children show an increasing rather than a decreasing NLE over primary school grades (studies 1, 2 and 4). Thai university students and school children prefer own name letters in their ‘mother’ alphabet (Thai) but also in their second (Roman) alphabet (studies 3 and 4). All these results contradict the primacy of own name writing or mastery pleasure hypothesis. Independently of the time interval between the acquisition of both alphabets, a stronger NLE is found in the subjects ‘mother’ alphabet than in their second alphabet, contradicting a mitigated mastery pleasure explanation for the stronger NLE in one's ‘mother’ alphabet (Hoorens and Todorova, 1988). All the data are consistent with Nuttin's interpretation of the NLE in terms of the affective consequences of ‘mere ownership’. Finally, the striking generality of the NLE over languages, alphabets, and cultures is again demonstrated.     

隔离动物学习能力的研究

有关人和动物的学习能力与早期环境之间的关系的研究已有了很长的历史。一般认为早期受限制的环境损害了智力,而早期丰富的环境提高了智力。在这个领域里大部分的研究集中在比较丰富环境的动物和隔离动物的学习能力的差异,然而许多工作在近年来受到了质疑。丰富环境中情景复杂,活动场所大,有隧道、平台、游泳门,活动轮等。丰富环境经验的迁移以及丰富生活环境与学习迷津测试场景的类似性可能在动物完成学习课题时起了重要作用。     

儿童对汉语主动名、被动句转换理解的比较研究

本研究的目的是探讨正常、低常、耳聋儿童对汉语主动句、被动句转换理解的能力问题。实验材料是十组主动句、被动句转换类型,呈现了汉语主动句、被动句转换的全部形式,字词水平控制在聋哑小学二年级程度。要求被试正确进行思惟。被试是9至13岁的正常、低常、耳聋小学生,每个年龄组的被试在30人以上,14、18岁的21名耳聋学生也参加了实验,共计被试为208人。 实验结果表明:总体上看,三类被试对于汉语主动句、被动句的转换理解,正常儿童高于耳聋儿童,耳聋儿童高于低常儿童,差异是显著的。从各年龄阶段看,耳聋儿童转换能力低于正常儿童并不是绝对的。从转换能力发展的转折期看,正常儿童的明显转折期出现在10至11岁,低常儿童出现在12至13岁,耳聋儿童在12至13岁的发展接近转折期。从转换理解与语文、数学教育的相关关系来看,没有发现语文和数学教育对转换理解的有规律的必然影响。从理解的特点上看,三类被试在理解上呈现出一致的倾向。     

Comprehension and production of body part labels in 2‐ to 3‐year‐old children

This study examined which body part labels children could (i) produce when the experimenter touched different locations on her own body, asking each time ‘What's this?’ and (ii) comprehend by touching the correct locations on their own bodies in response to the experimenter asking ‘Where's the [body‐part label]?’. Seventeen children aged between 26 and 41 months, tested in a repeated measures procedure, were presented with 50 different body part stimuli in 200 test trials per child. Overall, the children produced fewer body part labels than they could comprehend. The accuracy of children's responses depended on (i) the location or extent of each body part (facial and broad body features were better known; joints and features in or attached to broad body parts the least well known); (ii) the amount of sensory (but not motor) representation each body part has in the human cortex; and (iii) whether a body part was commonly named by caregivers. These results present a precise mapping of the body parts that young children are able to name and locate on their own bodies in response to body part names; they suggest several possible determinants of lexical‐semantic body knowledge and add to the understanding of how it develops in childhood.     

In defence of single-premise closure

It’s often thought that the phenomenon of risk aggregation poses a problem for multi-premise closure but not for single-premise closure (either with respect to knowledge or with respect to justified belief). But recently, Lasonen-Aarnio and Schechter have challenged this thought. Lasonen-Aarnio argues that, insofar as risk aggregation poses a problem for multi-premise closure, it poses a similar problem for single-premise closure. For she thinks that, there being such a thing as deductive risk, risk may aggregate over a single premise and the deduction itself. Schechter argues that single-premise closure succumbs to risk aggregation outright. For he thinks that there could be a long sequence of competent single-premise deductions such that, even though we are justified in believing the initial premise of the sequence, intutively, we are not justified in believing the final conclusion. This intuition, Schechter thinks, vitiates single-premise closure. In this paper, I defend single-premise closure against the arguments offered by Lasonen-Aarnio and Schechter.