The Diagonal and the Demon

Reliabilism about epistemic justification – thethesis that what makes a belief epistemicallyjustified is that it was produced by a reliableprocess of belief-formation – must face twoproblems. First, what has been called ``the newevil demon problem', which arises from the ideathat the beliefs of victims of an evil demonare as justified as our own beliefs, althoughthey are not – the objector claims – reliablyproduced. And second, the problem of diagnosingwhy skepticism is so appealing despite beingfalse. I present a special version ofreliabilism, ``indexical reliabilism', based ontwo-dimensional semantics, and show how it cansolve both problems.     

Toward a More Comprehensive Understanding of Peer Maltreatment: Studies of Relational Victimization

Although many past studies of peer maltreatment have focused on physical victimization, the importance of an empirical focus on relational victimization has only recently been recognized. In relational victimization, the perpetrator attempts to harm the target through the manipulation of relationships, threat of damage to them, or both. We review what is currently known about relational victimization with three issues in mind: (a) developmental changes in the manifestation of relational victimization, (b) gender differences in the likelihood of being victimized, and (c) evidence that relational victimization is harmful.     

一个新的测量过程框架——对引入认知加工模型的再思考

从认知任务分析出发的测验设计,核心在于从认知加工的角度对项目底层作答机制作出解释。其中,能够刻画任务难度的模型最有可能与心理计量模型相结合。因而,具备成熟难度法则的各种小型理论或通用理论可以进入测量过程,实现从纯粹误差结构控制的测量到内容导引的测量的转变。在这样一个框架之下,理论对任务上作答过程的理解是否恰当,刺激特性变量与任务难度关系的揭示(即难度法则)是否准确,可以在测量的过程中进行证伪。项目反应理论还未及很好回答的效度问题,可望在这一拓展的框架中获得圆满解决。本文为新的测量过程框架提供了一个示意图。     

不同飞机座舱噪声水平条件下双重听觉信号强度增量的研究

本研究用绝对辨认法与信号清晰度和响度适宜性主观评价测试了60、70和 80dB(A)三种噪声水平下与言语通讯同时呈现的高优先权音调信号的最小强度增量要求。研究结果表明 :在本实验设置的强度范围内 ,音调信号的辨认正确性主要取决于信号的相对强度 ;而音调信号的清晰度和响度适宜性与信号的绝对强度和相对强度都有关。对于采用信号强度自动增益控制的告警系统 ,这是一个值得注意的问题。     

Training method dramatically affects the acquisition of a place response in rats with neurotoxic lesions of the hippocampus.

A considerable number of studies have demonstrated that hippocampal damage impairs the acquisition of a place response in rats. In Experiment 1, using a four-arm plus-shaped maze, we replicated this finding. Experiment 2 showed, however, that hippocampally damaged rats can learn a place response just as well as control rats when, during the training, a salient intramaze landmark indicates the position of the goal (the west arm). After reaching criterion, the hippocampal and control groups performed the task with the same degree of mastery during a transfer test in which the intramaze signal used during the acquisition was removed. In Experiment 3, the intramaze cue was substituted by an egocentric cue. The results revealed that both control and lesioned subjects learned the spatial problem well. However, a transfer test showed that control rats learned the task using a place response strategy but hippocampally lesioned animals used a rigid, hyperspecific strategy. Taken together, these results suggest that special training procedures which encourage variability in response versus perseveration make it possible to overcome the acquisition deficit normally observed in hippocampal rats.     

Priming in deduction: a spatial arrangement task

The mental model theory assumes that people reason by manipulating mental representations of states of the word, called "mental models." In the present study we used a new deduction task based on diagrammatic premises. We show that a premise can prime other premises that induce similar mental models in a way analogous to the case of words with related meanings, which prime one another. We present three experiments. In Experiment 1 we used an evaluation task. In Experiment 2, a construction task was used. The priming effect was obtained in both cases. In a third experiment we show that the priming effect was still present when partcipants were instructed to ignore a prime displayed before the premises. In all three experiments we compared determinate and indeterminate problems and found faster responses in the former.     

Transfer of control between causal predictive judgments and instrumental responding

Four experiments were conducted to explore outcome-specific transfer from causal predictive judgments to instrumental responding. A video game was designed in which participants had to defend Andalusia from navy and air force attacks. First, they learned the relationship between two instrumental responses (two key on a standard keyboard) and two different outcomes (destruction of the ships or destruction of the planes). Then they learned to predict which of two different stimuli predicted which outcome. Finally, they had the opportunity of making either of the two instrumental responses in the presence of either stimulus. Transfer was shown as a preference for the response that shared an outcome with the current stimulus. The presentation of the stimulus during the test produced a decrease in the overall rate of response. Responding to a neutral stimulus in Experiments 2 and 3 suggested that this overall decrease in responding was due to a combination of the time needed to process the meaning of the stimulus and the activation of the representation of the outcome in the presence of the stimulus during the test. Transfer between predictive judgments and instrumental responding mirrors the outcome-specific Pavlovian instrumental transfer observed in conditioning studies with rats.     

The three attentional networks: on their independence and interactions

The present investigation was aimed to the study of the three attentional networks (Alerting, Orienting, and Executive Function) and their interactions. A modification of the task developed by Fan, McCandliss, Sommer, Raz, and Posner (2002) was used, in which a cost and benefit paradigm was combined with a flanker task and an alerting signal. We obtained significant interactions as predicted. The alerting network seemed to inhibit the executive function network (a larger flanker-congruency effect was found on trials where an alerting signal had been previously presented). The orienting network influenced the executive function network in a positive way (the flanker effect was smaller for cued than for uncued trials). Finally, alertness increased orienting (the cueing effect was bigger after the alerting signal). This last result, taken together with previous findings, points to an influence in the sense of a faster orienting under alertness, rather than a larger one. These results offer new insight into the functioning of the attentional system.     

《易经》的心理思想及其历史影响

通过对《易经》中“心”、“思”范畴的探讨,了解其中心理思想的概貌。并通过对《观》卦爻辞的分析,较为深入地认识《易经》在认知过程、思维层次的探索方面所做出的贡献,以及对先秦诸子所产生的较大的影响,从而证明《易经》为中国辩证逻辑思维之源。     

The effects of age on the neural correlates of successful episodic retrieval: An ERP study

The neural correlates of successful episodic retrieval (recollection), as reflected in event-related potentials (ERPs), were investigated in young (ca. 20 years; n=18) and older (ca. 70 years; n=16) healthy individuals. Subjects classified a series of pictures according to whether each item was new or had been encountered at study in the context of an animacy or a size judgment task. By manipulating the number of times items were presented for study, subsets of test items were formed for which source accuracy did not differ according to age. Relative to ERPs elicited by unstudied pictures, ERPs elicited by items attracting equivalent levels of source accuracy showed marked age-related differences. Those from younger subjects demonstrated the positive-going left parietal and right frontal old/new effects described in several previous studies of source memory. By contrast, analogous ERPs from older subjects contained a large left-lateralized negative effect that overshadowed the positive-going effects evident in the young. No age-related differences in either parietal or frontal ERP old/new effects were detected at electrode sites overlying the right hemisphere. It is possible that the age-related ERP differences observed in this task primarily reflect the use of different kinds of information as a basis for source judgments.