Core Knowledge and the Emergence of Symbols: The Case of Maps

Map reading is unique to humans but is present in people of diverse cultures, at ages as young as 4 years old. Here, we explore the nature and sources of this ability and ask both what geometric information young children use in maps and what nonsymbolic systems are associated with their map-reading performance. Four-year-old children were given two tests of map-based navigation (placing an object within a small three-dimensional [3D] surface layout at a position indicated on a two-dimensional [2D] map), one focused on distance relations and the other on angle relations. Children also were given two nonsymbolic tasks, testing their use of geometry for navigation (a reorientation task) and for visual form analysis (a deviant-detection task). Although children successfully performed both map tasks, their performance on the two map tasks was uncorrelated, providing evidence for distinct abilities to represent distance and angle on 2D maps of 3D surface layouts. In contrast, performance on each map task was associated with performance on one of the two nonsymbolic tasks: Map-based navigation by distance correlated with sensitivity to the shape of the environment in the reorientation task, whereas map-based navigation by angle correlated with sensitivity to the shapes of 2D forms and patterns in the deviant-detection task. These findings suggest links between one uniquely human, emerging symbolic ability, geometric map use, and two core systems of geometry.     

Elaboration and choice

Dhar and Gorlin (2013) proposed a dual-process perspective on choice. We applaud the effort to generate such a model, and we support the effort to integrate potentially disparate literatures under a general theoretical approach. In an attempt to further that goal of integration, we discuss similarities and differences between the proposed approach and the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty, 1977, Petty and Cacioppo, 1979, Petty and Cacioppo, 1986) — one of the earliest models of evaluative judgment to propose different mechanisms and consequences of judgments formulated at different levels of motivation and ability to process available information. In addition, because many choice settings involve familiar options that have been previously evaluated, we discuss potential implications of the literature on influences of attitudes on behavior (which can often be framed as involving a choice to act or not or to act in one way rather than another). In each case, we believe that these previous social psychological literatures provide insights that could enhance and extend the proposed model.     

胸腰段爆裂性骨折的手术策略选择

胸腰段爆裂性骨折是最常见的脊柱损伤之一,而手术治疗是其主要的治疗方式,选择最优的手术路径、做出最佳的临床抉择,是其治疗的首要目标。本文对胸腰段爆裂性骨折的不同手术入路方式及其特点做了比较和探讨,认为以最优化为原则,选择一期后路小切口有限减压的手术方式,是治疗胸腰段爆裂性骨折的最佳手术策略。     

罗尔斯的公共理性理论及其与正义理论的关系

公共理性是罗尔斯在完善其正义理论的过程中提出的重要理念,但它并不是一个前后一致的理论,它只是在本初意图上是罗尔斯正义理论的组成部分,后来逐渐演变成具有相对独立性的理论形态。罗尔斯之所以将公共理性理论脱离原有的正义理论,在于其正义理论的失败。     

Korean deaf adolescents' recognition of written words for taxonomic categories of different levels

Deaf college students seem to have relatively stronger associations from words for taxonomic categories of basic (e.g., snake) to those of super-ordinate (e.g., reptiles) level than vice versa compared with hearing students in word association (Marschark, Convertino, McEvoy & Masteller, 2004). In deciding whether two sequentially presented words for taxonomic categories of different levels are conceptually related, deaf adolescents might therefore have a poorer performance when they see a category name before than when they see it after one of the corresponding exemplar words. Deaf Korean adolescents were found to recognize words for taxonomic categories of super-ordinate level with lower efficiencies than those of basic level. Their accuracy seemed to reflect a reversed typicality effect when they decided that first-presented words for taxonomic categories of basic level were conceptually related to second-presented words for those of super-ordinate level. It was argued that deaf Korean adolescents went through a temporary stage of having iconic representations of several exemplars of the category aroused in working memory before the abstract semantic representation was fully activated when they saw the word for a taxonomic category of super-ordinate level.     

Distinguishing the time course of lexical and discourse processes through context, coreference, and quantified expressions

How does prior context influence lexical and discourse-level processing during real-time language comprehension? Experiment 1 examined whether the referential ambiguity introduced by a repeated, anaphoric expression had an immediate or delayed effect on lexical and discourse processing, using an eye-tracking-while-reading task. Eye movements indicated facilitated recognition of repeated expressions, suggesting that prior context can rapidly influence lexical processing. However, context effects at the discourse level affected later processing, appearing in longer regression-path durations 2 words after the anaphor and in greater rereading times of the antecedent expression. Experiments 2 and 3 explored the nature of this delay by examining the role of the preceding context in activating relevant representations. Offline and online interpretations confirmed that relevant referents were activated following the critical context. Nevertheless, their initial unavailability during comprehension suggests a robust temporal division between lexical and discourse-level processing.     

论整合推理的认知与跨文化实证研究的可能途径

一般的认知理论具有一个共同的基本假定,人的心智特征和结构具有普遍性,而跨文化研究则表明,东西方人的认知模式具有差异性。以推理这一基本而主要的思维形式为切入点,在已有文献基础上比较认知理论与跨文化研究关于推理机制的成果：并在双过程加工理论的框架下,寻找推理机制的普遍性与文化差异性的边界条件,整合上述两者的研究成果。     

Do working memory-driven attention shifts speed up visual awareness?

Previous research has shown that content representations in working memory (WM) can bias attention in favor of matching stimuli in the scene. Using a visual prior-entry procedure, we here investigate whether such WM-driven attention shifts can speed up the conscious awareness of memory-matching relative to memory-mismatching stimuli. Participants were asked to hold a color cue in WM and to subsequently perform a temporal order judgment (TOJ) task by reporting either of two different-colored circles (presented to the left and right of fixation with a variable temporal interval) as having the first onset. One of the two TOJ circles could match the memory cue in color. We found that awareness of the temporal order of the circle onsets was not affected by the contents of WM, even when participants were explicitly informed that one of the TOJ circles would always match the WM contents. The null effect of WM on TOJs was not due to an inability of the memory-matching item to capture attention, since response times to the target in a follow-up experiment were improved when it appeared at the location of the memory-matching item. The present findings suggest that WM-driven attention shifts cannot accelerate phenomenal awareness of matching stimuli in the visual field.     

Children's self‐reports and parents' reports of internalising and externalising problems in Chinese and Anglo‐Celtic children in Australia

The Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) and Youth Self‐Report (YSR) are widely used measures of internalising and externalising problems in children and adolescents, but cross‐cultural differences in these problems have not been examined in Australian children of Chinese and Anglo‐Celtic ancestry. Fifty‐nine Chinese (27 boys and 32 girls) and 65 Anglo‐Celtic Australian (35 boys and 30 girls) children aged 10–13 years completed the YSR, and one of their parents completed the CBCL. Cross‐informant agreement between these two measures was also examined. No differences were found between the Chinese and Anglo‐Celtic groups on parents' and children's ratings on any syndrome or overall scales. The overall level of agreement between YSR and CBCL scores was poor in the Anglo‐Celtic group (intraclass correlation coefficient for total problems = 0.33), but there was no agreement between these scores in the Chinese group. Results highlight the need to obtain multiple sources of information in assessments of mental health problems in children from different cultural backgrounds.