假言推理中的概率效应

近来Oaksford等人的研究表明,概率信息对假言推理的认知过程有着显著的影响,在一定程度上可以用它来解释和预测个体在推理中的行为反应。该文针对这种新的观点,就假言推理中所涉及的前后件概率信息、条件概率信息、连接概率信息、因果概率信息以及额外前提条件等对假言推理的影响分别做了简要的阐述,并介绍了一些相关的实验研究,最后作了总结和展望。     

Suppressing feelings: A double‐edged sword to consumer judgment and choice

Consumers may suppress their feelings toward the attractive looks of products when they wish to minimize the influence of feelings on their judgments and choices. However, this research suggests that feeling suppression may result in a paradoxical reliance on feelings in product judgments and choices, especially when the product performance judgment is difficult to make. Findings from a series of experiments suggest that this paradoxical effect stems from the requisite resource input for feeling suppression and the consequent resource competition with functionality processing which then impairs product performance judgment.     

有关我国宗教工作方针理论问题的座谈会发言——从“鸦片论”触发的话题谈起

根据中国无神论学会几位从事宗教理论政策研究的理事建议,2010年1月22日本刊编辑部邀请部分长期从事宗教事务管理工作和统战工作的老领导、老同志举行了一次小型座谈会。座谈是由《中国宗教》杂志2008年第11期的文章《从"精神鸦片"到"社会资本"》直接引发的这篇文章涉及到中国共产党对宗教的方针政策究竟是什么,它的理论依据和在中国实践的根据是什么,中华人民共和国建国60年来,前30年与后30年是否有原则性的变化等问题,这些老同志作了正本清源的发言,并介绍了他们在实际工作中的经历与总结。有实践依据,有理论高度,对我们是一种震撼和启迪。会议由学会秘书长、中国社会科学院科学与无神论研究中心主任习五一主持。座谈会上的发言,根据录音略加整理,按发言次序发表如后,供感兴趣的同好者参考。其实,评论执政党的宗教方针政策及其理论和实践,在公开的媒体和学术报刊上早就有了存在各种不同认识和观点,以致引起辩论,应该是正常的,有益的。但自《马克思主义宗教观必须与时俱进》在2001年12月16日首发以来,相关舆论出现了一边倒的迹象,至这篇《从"精神鸦片"到"社会资本"》将这种倾向推到了一个新的坡度,引起人们的特别关注是当然的。不仅如此,《中国宗教》的主管单位是国家宗教事务局。《从"精神鸦片"到"社会资本"》一文的发表,使人容易把作者的言论误作官方的意向,具有了舆论的甚至政策的导向性假象。因此,辨清其中的是非不仅有学术意义,也有现实意义。我们将以此次座谈为契机,就有关问题持续地进行讨论,欢迎大家参与。     

Differentiation of stages in joke comprehension: Evidence from an ERP study

This study aimed to investigate the mechanisms underlying joke comprehension using event‐related potentials (ERPs). Fourteen healthy college students were presented with the context of a story without its joke or nonjoke ending, and then, when the story ending was presented, they were asked to make a funny/unfunny judgment about these endings. The behavioral results showed that there was no significant difference between funny and unfunny items, which meant that subjects could understand funny items as easily as unfunny ones. However, the ERP results showed that funny items initially elicited a more negative ERP deflection (N350–450) over frontocentral scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generators in the left temporal gyrus and the left medial frontal gyrus; it is suggested that these areas might be involved in detecting the incongruent element in joke comprehension. Between 600 and 800 ms, funny items subsequently elicited a more negative ERP deflection (N600–800) over frontocentral scalp regions and a more positive ERP deflection (P600–800) over posterior scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generator in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), an area involved in the breaking of mental set/expectation and the forming of novel associations. Finally, funny items elicited a more positive ERP deflection (P1250–1400) over anterior and posterior scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generators in the middle frontal gyrus and the fusiform gyrus, areas that might be related to the affective appreciation stage in joke process. Unlike that of Coulson and Kutas (2001), the present study might support the hypothesis of a three stage model of humor processing (humor detection, resolution of incongruity and humor appreciation).     

Hydrogen-induced cold cracking in heat-affected zone of low-carbon high-strength steel

The Y-groove cracking test by submerged arc welding was employed to study the susceptibility of a low-carbon high-strength steel to hydrogen-induced cold cracking (HICC). The morphology of hydrogen cracks was observed using an electron probe microscope. The results showed that the heat-affected zone (HAZ) has a higher susceptibility to HICC than the weld metal and that increasing heat input can improve the HICC resistance of the weldment. The intergranular microcracking is the main HICC mode at the lowest heat input condition, accompanied with some transgranular microcracks attached to complex inclusions. In combination with phase transformation behaviour in sub-zones, the effect of the phase transformation sequence is proposed to try to illustrate the fact that the fine-grained HAZ has higher probability of hydrogen cracking than the coarse-grained HAZ owing to the occurrence of hydrogen enrichment in the fine-grained HAZ after the transformation.     

Healthcare sector reform and its influence on public hospitals in mainland China

The government has launched the healthcare sector reform since the 1980s. From the beginning, the reform has been controversial. What is then the real purpose of the reform? Is it only to reduce the government's burden of health care or establish a just and effective healthcare system? Can healthcare be geared by the market or should the government play a guiding role in it?     

Cognitive disruption and altered hippocampus synaptic function in Reelin haploinsufficient mice

The heterozygote reeler mouse (HRM) shows many neuroanatomical and biochemical features that are also present in some human cognitive disorders, such as schizophrenia. In the present study, hippocampal dependent plasticity and cognitive function of the HRM were characterized in detail in an attempt to reveal phenotypic functional differences that result from Reelin haploinsufficiency. The HRM and wild type mice show similar levels of overall activity, coordination, thermal nociception, startle responses, and anxiety-like behavior. In addition, both genotypes show similar shock threshold, identical cued freezing behavior and comparable spatial learning in Morris water maze tasks. However, a significant reduction in contextual fear conditioned learning was observed in the HRM. Electrophysiological studies in hippocampal CA1 synapses revealed a plethora of differences between genotypes. The HRM exhibits reduced field excitatory postsynaptic potentials in responses to similar synaptic inputs, lowered paired pulse facilitation ratio and impaired long-term depression and tetanus-induced long-term potentiation (LTP). Also, deficits were detected in LTP elicited by theta burst stimulation or by a whole cell pairing protocol. These physiologic differences could not be accounted for by changes in the overall amount of glutamate receptor subunits. In addition, it was determined that network-driven excitatory and inhibitory activities recorded in CA1 pyramidal neurons showed that the HRM had comparable amplitude and frequency of spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents, but a marked reduction in spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents. Thus, the HRM exhibits a specific hippocampal-dependent learning deficit accompanied with a pronounced impairment of hippocampal plasticity and functional inhibitory innervation.     

Comparison of brain mechanisms underlying the processing of Chinese characters and pseudo-characters: an event-related potential study

Most Chinese characters are composed of a semantic radical on the left and a phonetic radical on the right. The semantic radical provides the semantic information; the phonetic radical provides information concerning the pronunciation of the whole character. The pseudo‐characters in the study consisted of different sub‐lexical parts of real Chinese characters and consequently they also had the semantic radical and the phonetic radical. But they were not readable and had no actual meaning. In order to investigate the spatiotemporal cortical activation patterns underlying the orthographic, phonological and semantic processing of Chinese characters, we used event‐related brain potentials (ERPs) to explore the processing of Chinese characters and pseudo‐characters when 14 healthy Chinese college students viewed the characters passively. Results showed that both Chinese characters and pseudo‐characters elicited an evident negative potential peaking around 120 ms (N120), which appeared to reflect initial orthographic distinction and evaluation. Then, Chinese pseudo‐characters elicited a more positive ERP deflection (P220) than did Chinese characters 200–250 ms after onset of the stimuli. It was similar to the recognition potential (RP) and might reflect the integration processes of phonological and semantic processing on the basis of early orthographic information. Dipole source analysis of the difference wave (pseudo‐characters minus characters) indicated that a generator localized in the left temporal‐occipital junction contributed to this effect, which was possibly related to phonological and perceptual–semantic information integration. Between 350–450 ms, a greater negativity (N360) in pseudo‐characters as compared to characters was found over midline fronto‐central scalp regions. Dipole analysis localized the generator of N360 in the right parahippocampal cortex. Therefore, the N360 might be an N400 component and reflect the higher‐level semantic activation on the basis of orthographic, phonological and perceptual–semantic processing.     

当代心智哲学研究的12个问题及其他

自古希腊文明时期起,人类就开始了对心智(m ind)奥秘孜孜不倦的探索。然而,在20世纪后半叶之前,心智在哲学中的研究一直处于非主流状态。在过去的30年里,这种情况发生了很大的改变,心智哲学成为哲学研究的中心论题之一,它带动和涵盖了其他许多哲学分支的研究。心智哲学的当代领军人物之一、美国著名哲学家塞尔(John R.Searle)甚至指出:“50年前语言哲学被认为是‘第一哲学’,现在这一位置由心智哲学所取代。”[1]正是基于这一认识,塞尔在他的新作《心智》一书中总结了当代心智哲学应该加以深入研究的12个基本问题,这些问题是在笛卡尔传统…