Compassion: An east‐west comparison

Compassion is an emotion that occupies a central position in Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy while it is often a neglected subject in contemporary western philosophy. This essay is a comparison between an Eastern view of compassion based upon Mahāyāna Buddhist perspectives and a western view of the same emotion. Certain principles found in Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy such as the Bodhisattva Ideal, and suffering (dukkha) to name two, are explored for the information they contain about compassion. An essay by Lawrence Blum is taken as representative of a Western view (but not exclusively) and it is analyzed for its shortcomings in light of the Buddhist view. The conclusion briefly describes the value of understanding an eastern view on compassion as a means of filling the void one finds in western medical ethics discourse which focuses so heavily, and redundantly, upon issues such as patient autonomy and paternalism.     

The temporal structure of spoken sentence comprehension in Chinese

Three experiments with 60 native Chinese speakers were conducted to examine the temporal structure of spoken sentence comprehension in Chinese. In the two sentence-gating experiments, listeners heard sentence fragments of various sizes, either successively or individually, and decided on the agent role of the sentence. In the agent-naming experiment, listeners repeated aloud the sentence agent upon hearing the sentence. Converging evidence was derived from these experiments indicating the usefulness of sentence gating in tapping into the temporal structure of comprehension and in evaluating listeners’ comprehension on the basis of partial information. Results from these experiments show that partial sentence information plays a very important role in Chinese sentence comprehension, and that Chinese listeners integrate incomplete and ungrammatical sentence fragments by reference to complete and grammatical models in the language. It is argued that these processing characteristics reflect properties of the Chinese language in which few morphological, grammatical, and syntactic constraints are placed on the relationships between sentence constituents.     

汉语语义记忆提取的初步研究

对汉语语义记忆的提取进行了两个实验。实验1是自由联想实验,从十三个句子中选出二十三个词作为刺激词。结果表明,以两词间所保持的常识关系来定义的语义距离,对预测自由联想的作业是有效的。实验2采用反应时技术,对真假命题判断及信息提取的时间进行了考查。实验结果与A.M.Collins等人的结果一致,说明了存储于网络不同水平上的句子其提取时间不同这一事实。结果还表明,在信息提取阶段上,汉字字形的作用不是一个重要的因素。     

妄想型与非妄想型精神分裂症唤醒水平(皮肤电反应)的初步探讨

问 题 机体如果连续处于高唤醒水平,就会出现中枢神经系统兴奋-抑制关系紊乱的现象。一般的后果是抑制机制受损害而产生中枢性调节障碍(Malmo 1959)。在行为上,唤醒水平表现为机体作出反应、准备行动的能量动员水平。对精神病人唤醒水平的研究     

初中代数“有理数”程序教学实验研究

本研究对程序教学与传统教学的效果作了对比。研究表明,程序教学可以缩短学习时间、提高学习效果、激发学习动机,有助于自学能力的培养。如果程序教材能够符合学生的认识规律,在教材中尽量增加启发因素,那么程序教学对于思惟能力的培养也可以起到积极的作用。     

文昌鱼的光动反应

文昌鱼的中枢神经系统早在上个世纪就受到神经解剖学家们的注意。这是因为它代表着动物演化上的一个很典型的阶段。在这个阶段,动物身体的背侧开始有了神经管。这个神经管在外形上很象脊椎动物胚胎初期形成的神经管,其内部的神经组织也较简单。此外,正如神经管初成阶段的脊椎动物胚胎一样,文昌鱼还不具备发育的和特异     

对中学生创造力的测验研究

本研究以《中学生创造性思惟练习》施测于812名中学生,并请教师对学生的创造性进行评定,然后将《练习》分数和评定等级与有关因素加以比较,结果表明: 1.用《练习》来评鉴中学生的创造力是可信并有效的。2.中学生的创造力呈正态分布。3.创造力高的学生具有某些共同的人格特征。4.学生的创造力与学习成绩有相关,但相关不很高。5.中学生在创造思惟的变通性上表现出男优于女的倾向,其他方面的差异不显著。6.独生与非独生子女在创造力上无差异。7.学生中干部的创造力高于非干部。     

The Stroop congruency effect is more observable under a speed strategy than an accuracy strategy

Naming the ink color of an incongruent color word (e.g., RED printed in green) usually takes longer than naming the ink color of a color bar. However, when the ink matches the word (e.g., RED printed in red), naming tends to be faster. These phenomena are known as the STroop interference effect and the Stroop congruency effect, respectively. Although the interference effect has been robust and reliable across studies, the congruency effect tends to be elusive. It was hypothesized that this variation in outcomes might be related to subjects' response strategy. The experiment conducted to test this hypothesis induced either a speed or an accuracy strategy in two separate groups of subjects. Significant interference effects were found for both groups and the magnitudes did not differ. At the same time, the congruency effect was observed in the speed group but not in the accuracy group. These results suggest that researchers who wish to observe and study the Stroop congruency and interference effects should place special emphasis on speed. Implications of the study for a model of the Stroop effect are also discussed.     

A faith for all seasons

A FAITH FOR ALL SEASONS:ISLAM AND WESTERN MODERNITY. By Shabbir Akhtar. London: Bellew Publishing, 1990. 251pp. Hb. £25.00. ISBN 0–947792–41–4.     

平行斜线诱导的垂直错觉之规律及原因初探

此实验测定了20个大学生和青年工人的垂直错觉。错觉模式的诱导部分为一组平行斜线,测试部分为差不多互相垂直的竖直线和水平线。在平行斜线诱导下,被试产生了把测试部分看成垂直的错觉。错觉量的大小与诱导线的倾斜角度有关。把此错觉模式的诱导部分与测试部分分开,以实体镜观察时(一个眼各看一部分,两眼同时观察)则没有发生错觉,说明此错觉最初可能发生于视网膜上。此错觉可用侧抑制理论来解释。