Individual differences in fast-and-frugal decision making: Neuroticism and the recognition heuristic

The fast-and-frugal recognition heuristic (RH) claims that people base inferences on recognition only, thus ignoring further knowledge they possess. This claim has been repeatedly challenged, while recent evidence suggests that there are substantial individual differences in adhering to the RH. However, no personality or ability factors driving (non-)use of the RH have, as yet, been identified. In the present study, neuroticism was hypothesized to be a determinant of using the RH: participants high in neuroticism were expected to avoid making use of their knowledge beyond recognition, thus avoiding a diagnostic test of their abilities. The results corroborate this hypothesis: neuroticism predicted participants’ adherence to the RH while the other Big 5 factors and intelligence yielded no additional explanatory power. Moreover, the effect of neuroticism was not mediated by the accessibility of knowledge thus lending preliminary support for the notion that this effect may, in fact, be genuinely motivational in nature.     

Eye movements during spoken word recognition in Russian children

This study explores incremental processing in spoken word recognition in Russian 5- and 6-year-olds and adults using free-viewing eye-tracking. Participants viewed scenes containing pictures of four familiar objects and clicked on a target embedded in a spoken instruction. In the cohort condition, two object names shared identical three-phoneme onsets. In the noncohort condition, all object names had unique onsets. Coarse-grain analyses of eye movements indicated that adults produced looks to the competitor on significantly more cohort trials than on noncohort trials, whereas children surprisingly failed to demonstrate cohort competition due to widespread exploratory eye movements across conditions. Fine-grain analyses, in contrast, showed a similar time course of eye movements across children and adults, but with cohort competition lingering more than 1s longer in children. The dissociation between coarse-grain and fine-grain eye movements indicates a need to consider multiple behavioral measures in making developmental comparisons in language processing.     

3～5岁幼儿反事实思维的发展研究

该研究采用结果和前提反事实推理任务,选取58名3-5岁幼儿为被试,考察了其反事实思维能力的发展。结果表明:1.3岁儿童在结果反事实推理中的得分显著低于4岁和5岁儿童,而4岁和5岁儿童的得分并不存在显著差异;2.幼儿的前提反事实推理因结构和方向不同而表现出不同的年龄变化趋势;3.幼儿产生的上行和下行反事实论断之间不存在显著差异。如成人一样,幼儿较少产生减法反事实。     

A Deep Inference System for the Modal Logic S5

We present a cut-admissible system for the modal logic S5 in a formalism that makes explicit and intensive use of deep inference. Deep inference is induced by the methods applied so far in conceptually pure systems for this logic. The system enjoys systematicity and modularity, two important properties that should be satisfied by modal systems. Furthermore, it enjoys a simple and direct design: the rules are few and the modal rules are in exact correspondence to the modal axioms. Presented by Heinrich Wansing     

3~5岁幼儿自我延迟满足的发展特点及其中澳跨文化比较

采用实验室实验和情境观察相结合的方法,考察了我国3~5岁幼儿自我延迟满足发展的特点及中澳幼儿自我延迟满足的跨文化差异。研究结果表明：(1) 3~5岁幼儿自我延迟满足平均延迟时间随年龄增长而延长;3岁幼儿使用延迟策略少,4岁幼儿主要使用寻求策略,5岁幼儿主要使用寻求策略和自我分心、问题解决策略,自我言语控制策略在整个幼儿期始终不具有显著优势性。(2) 澳大利亚幼儿自我延迟满足发展水平高于我国同龄幼儿;在延迟策略选择上中澳幼儿既具有差异性,又具有一定的相似性;文化价值观通过教育影响着幼儿自我延迟满足的发展。     

Relationship between psychological stress and lymphocytic 5′-ectonucleotidase

The relationship between psychological stress and lymphocytic 5-ectonucleotidase, an enzyme marker for lymphocyte differentiation, was studied. Lymphocytic 5-ectonucleotidase was decreased significantly by about twofold in persons experiencing psychological stress, with a corresponding change in Total Mood Disturbance scores of the Profile of Mood States. Enzyme values were reversible in that they returned to normal once the stress had been reduced. Administration of high doses of ascorbate to severely depressed patients also normalized 5-ectonucleotidase activities, and implied that low enzyme values in stressed persons may be mediated by oxygen radical damage. This finding was consistent with previous reports of heightened inflammatory responses occurring in depressed patients. The primary cause of lowered 5-ectonucleotidase during stress may be the breakdown in the homeostatic mechanisms of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and immune system resulting in lymphoid tissue resistance to corticosteroids. It is suggested that this lowering of lymphocyte 5-ectonucleotidase may contribute to stress-mediated immune suppression by inhibiting lymphocyte maturation.     

Abstract modal logics

In this paper we develop a general framework to deal with abstract logics associated with a given modal logic. In particular we study the abstract logics associated with the weak and strong deductive systems of the normal modal logicK and its intuitionistic version. We also study the abstract logics that satisfy the conditionC ⁺(X)=C( _in I ⁿ X) and find the modal deductive systems whose abstract logics, in addition to being classical or intuitionistic, satisfy that condition. Finally we study the deductive systems whose abstract logics satisfy, in addition to the already mentioned properties, the property that the operatorC ⁺ is classical relative to some new defined operations.Work partially supported by Spanish DGICYT grant PB90-0465-C02-01.Presented byJan Zygmunt     

A developmental perspective on reading dysfunction: Accuracy and rate criteria in the subtyping of dyslexic children

Children referred with specific reading dysfunction were subtyped as accuracy disabled or rate disabled according to criteria developed from an information processing model of reading skill. Multiple measures of oral and written language development were compared for two subtyped samples matched on age, sex, and IQ. The two samples were comparable in reading fluency, reading comprehension, word knowledge, and word retrieval functions. Accuracy disabled readers demonstrated inferior decoding and spelling skills. The accuracy disabled sample proved deficient in their understanding of oral language structure and in their ability to associate unfamiliar pseudowords and novel symbols in a task designed to simulate some of the learning involved in initial reading acquisition. It was suggested that these two samples of disabled readers may be best described with respect to their relative standing along a theoretical continuum of normal reading development.     

Spatial and ordinal components of form perception and literacy

We suppose that the visual nervous system possesses compensatory rectifying mechanisms by means of which it achieves “constancy” of visual recognition despite variation in physical appearance of the stimulus object. Using geometric rotations, reflections, and other transformations of text as the physical variation, we studied the recognizability of the texts and the influence that practice in reading one type of transformation exerted on the recognition of others. The mathematical structure of the training set was used as a clue to the perceptual mechanisms mediating transfer, isolating perceptual functions involving a geometric transformation and an ordinal operator. The main feature of the theory is its emphasis upon a dialogue or interaction between ongoing problem-solving processes in visual rectification and the sample being recognized. The theory developed is contrasted with other theories of pattern recognition in which concepts such as stimulus generalization, tuned detectors, and preprocessing play major roles. A relation of this theory to problems encountered among disabled readers (“dyslexics”) is also brought out.