Bigrams and the richness of the stimulus

Recent challenges to Chomsky's poverty of the stimulus thesis for language acquisition suggest that children's primary data may carry "indirect evidence" about linguistic constructions despite containing no instances of them. Indirect evidence is claimed to suffice for grammar acquisition, without need for innate knowledge. This article reports experiments based on those of Reali and Christiansen (2005) , who demonstrated that a simple bigram language model can induce the correct form of auxiliary inversion in certain complex questions. This article investigates the nature of the indirect evidence that supports this learning, and assesses how reliably it is available. Results confirm the original finding for one specific sentence type but show that the model's success is highly circumscribed. It performs poorly on inversion in related constructions in English and Dutch. Because other, more powerful statistical models have so far been shown to succeed only on the same limited subset of cases as the bigram model, it remains to be seen whether stimulus richness can be substantiated more generally.     

A short proof of a theorem of Falmagne

Falmagne (J. Math. Psychol. 18 (1978) 52) proved the sufficiency of the Block-Marschak inequalities (in: I. Olkin, S. Ghurye, W. Hoefding, W. Madow, H. Mann (Eds.), Contributions to Probability and Statistics, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, 1960, pp. 97-132) and normalization equalities for a complete system of choice probabilities to be induced by rankings. Here, we give a considerably shorter proof of this result. Our approach combines Möbius inversion and network flows.     

Varieties of Linear Calculi

A uniform calculus for linear logic is presented. The calculus has the form of a natural deduction system in sequent calculus style with general introduction and elimination rules. General elimination rules are motivated through an inversion principle, the dual form of which gives the general introduction rules. By restricting all the rules to their single-succedent versions, a uniform calculus for intuitionistic linear logic is obtained. The calculus encompasses both natural deduction and sequent calculus that are obtained as special instances from the uniform calculus. Other instances give all the invertibilities and partial invertibilities for the sequent calculus rules of linear logic. The calculus is normalizing and satisfies the subformula property for normal derivations.     

Famous face recognition,face matching,and extraversion

It has been previously established that extraverts who are skilled at interpersonal interaction perform significantly better than introverts on a face-specific recognition memory task. In our experiment we further investigate the relationship between extraversion and face recognition, focusing on famous face recognition and face matching. Results indicate that more extraverted individuals perform significantly better on an upright famous face recognition task and show significantly larger face inversion effects. However, our results did not find an effect of extraversion on face matching or inverted famous face recognition.     

试论来知德的像象观与错综说

像象观和错综说,是来氏易学中的两大创见。来知德所谓的易象内涵,包含"事理之彷佛近似"和"可以想像"两个层面。这一像象观,是对《系辞传》以来的模写说、特别是朱熹易象说的一个重大发展和推进,其实质是对易模写说如何可能和如何建构这一问题所作的覃思和论说。错,在形式上指的是爻性皆对整相反的两个卦。综的形式则有两种:一是四正之卦在别卦中或上或下的变化;二是四隅之卦或一别卦与其颠倒后所得之卦之间的关系。而综的第一种形式,似从未有学者注意到和发明过。错、综虽形式各异,但二者得以确立的形上学理据却都是阴阳之理:错实质上是阴阳的相互对待,综则是阴阳的上下流行。在来氏易学中,错综不仅是取象条例,而且是卦序的内在建构原则。来知德的像象观和错综说,在易学史上具有非常重要的意义。     

Recognizing disguised faces

Across three experiments, we evaluated the effects of “disguises” on observers’ face identification performance using naturalistic images in which individuals posed with a variety of wigs and eyeglasses. Experiment 1 tested recognition memory performance with and without disguises and showed that any changes in these facial attributes hindered performance, replicating previous findings. More interestingly, Experiment 1 revealed that a change in hairstyle or the removal of eyeglasses had more impact on performance than did the addition of eyeglasses. In Experiment 2, disguised and undisguised faces were presented upright or inverted to examine whether the performance decrements seen in Experiment 1 were attributable to disruption of processing strategies for faces. Despite showing an overall effect of disguise on performance, there was no interaction between inversion and disguise. This suggests that disguises are not directly affecting processing strategies, but instead disguises are likely encoded as part of the overall representation. Similarly, in Experiment 3, the composite face paradigm was used to examine whether the impact of disguises is attributable to disruption of holistic processing for faces. Again, we found an overall effect of disguise on performance, but here we also observed that the presence of disguises interacted with participants’ tendency to form holistic face representations.     

Specifying the human body configuration

Three experiments investigated the specific spatial relations that define the human body configuration. In Experiment 1, participants searched for scrambled bodies amongst normal distractors. In Experiments 2 and 3 participants were asked to identify whether single body images (upright or inverted) were scrambled or normal. Scrambled bodies had head or limbs displaced to either symmetrical or asymmetrical positions. Experiment 1 showed that asymmetrical violations are recognized faster than symmetrical violations. All three experiments revealed that when the number of structural violations is held constant, head violations are recognized faster than limb violations. Experiment 3 also showed a greater inversion effect for scrambled bodies that maintained head on top and vertical symmetry, providing evidence that these are key spatial relations in the human body configuration. Overall, the results supported our hypothesis that the human body configuration is defined primarily by a head at the apex of a vertically symmetrical body.     

非面孔物体倒置效应形成过程的认知神经机制

物体识别, 尤其是人造新异物体专家识别形成过程的神经机制是了解大脑可塑性的一个重要窗口。当前, 从行为学上或神经机制上探讨物体特定角度体验程度与物体专家识别形成关系的研究较少, 本项目采用事件相关电位与行为训练相结合的方法, 分别选择在社会生活中自然形成的某类物体识别专家和经人为训练形成的人造新异物体识别专家作为被试, 研究非面孔物体识别倒置效应从无到有、从小到大整个过程的脑机制。通过对倒置效应大小的操纵, 分离出专家识别状态下的ERP成分, 并分析专家识别形成过程的脑电动态变化过程, 探讨非面孔物体识别大脑可塑性变化的神经机制。在上述研究的基础上, 研究者试图提出物体特定角度体验程度与物体识别加工方式选择关系模型并完善当前物体识别整体布局加工连续量假设(configural processing continuum)理论。     

躯体知觉的认知神经机制

摘 要：人类躯体是由各部位按照一定的空间关系组成的,与人类面孔相似,也是对称的。它也能提供个体身份和行为方式等信息,如年龄、性别、意图、情感状态等。它与面孔相辅相成,共同促成对个体身份的辨别。躯体知觉是指大脑对进入视觉加工系统中的人类躯体刺激的侦察,感知或识别。躯体知觉应当如面孔知觉研究一样受到更多的关注。文章概述、评价了躯体知觉相关的认知神经研究,着重介绍了躯体知觉的认知和神经机制,并提出了一些值得进一步研究的问题。     

正立和倒立的威胁性身体表情的识别

为探索身体表情的加工时程以及加工方式是否为构形加工,采用ERP技术考察对正立和倒立的威胁性身体表情（恐惧和愤怒）的识别。行为结果发现倒置效应存在。ERP结果发现：早期阶段已有对威胁性情绪（P1）和倒置效应（N1）的加工;中期阶段主要存在对倒置效应的加工（N170）;晚期阶段,威胁性情绪在正立条件上得到更多的加工（P3和LPP）。结果表明,威胁性身体表情加工有独特的时间进程,加工方式以构形加工为主。