COMPARISON OF PROTOTYPE AND ROTE INSTRUCTION OF ENGLISH NAMES FOR CHINESE VISUAL CHARACTERS

This study compared prototype and rote instruction of English names for Chinese visual characters. In the prototype condition, participants were taught the meaning of the prototype that served as the distinctive feature of multicomponent characters. In the rote condition, participants traced the character and wrote its translation. Participants learned more rapidly and maintained more words in the prototype condition.     

Birkhoff-like sheaf representation for varieties of lattice expansions

Given a variety we study the existence of a class such that S1 every A can be represented as a global subdirect product with factors in and S2 every non-trivial A is globally indecomposable. We show that the following varieties (and its subvarieties) have a class satisfying properties S1 and S2: p-algebras, distributive double p-algebras of a finite range, semisimple varieties of lattice expansions such that the simple members form a universal class (bounded distributive lattices, De Morgan algebras, etc) and arithmetical varieties in which the finitely subdirectly irreducible algebras form a universal class (f-rings, vector groups, Wajsberg algebras, discriminator varieties, Heyting algebras, etc). As an application we obtain results analogous to that of Nachbin saying that if every chain of prime filters of a bounded distributive lattice has at most length 1, then the lattice is Boolean.We wish to thank Lic. Alfredo Guerin and Dr. Daniel Penazzi for helping us with linguistics aspects. We are indebted to the referee for several helpful suggestions. We also wish to thank Professor Mick Adams for providing us with several reprints and useful e-mail information on the subject.Suported by CONICOR and SECyT (UNC).     

General education,cultural diversity,and identity

The issue of this paper is cultural plurality as a problem for public, general education and for (personal) identity. In order to examine this question, one needs to be clear about the meaning of the concepts of general education, on the one hand, and cultural diversity on the other. In the first section, we will fix the meaning of these concepts. A conceptual distinction between cultural diversity and cultural pluralism will be introduced. In the second section, it will be argued that open pluralism can only be maintained if there is a basic common culture apart from the cultural diversity that pluralism affirms. Therefore, there is yet an indispensable role for general education in an open, pluralistic society. In the third section we will look at two metaphors that give an opposite significance to the relation between identity and diversity: the conversational metaphor and the food metaphor mishmash. The final section expands on the conversational metaphor by way of an exposition of Ricoeur's hermeneutics of the self. It supplies us with a promising concept of identity that is not in complete opposition to diversity.     

RESPONSE TO CRITIQUES OF ETHICS IN AN AGE OF TECHNOLOGY

Abstract. Both Roger Shinn and Robert Stivers ask whether technology has a momentum of its own that is difficult if not impossible to control (“autonomous technology” or “technological inevitability”). I reply that the difficulty in controlling technology is a product of economic and political institutions (such as corporate lobbying and campaign contributions) rather than of any inherent characteristics of technology. Against Stivers's assertion that the ecosystem should be the center of value in environmental ethics, I defend the process view that all beings are valuable, but they are not equally valuable in their richness of experience or their contribution to the experience of others. I also consider his caveats about ambiguities in the concept of sustainability. Two questions raised by Mary Gerhart are taken up: the difficulties of interdisciplinary writing and the role of theological ethics in discussions of public policy. In dialogue with Frederick Ferre I explore the role of alternative visions of the good life as a source of social change. In the face of diminished concern about social justice and environmental sustainability among citizens and in Congress since the book was written, I express long-range hope, but not optimism about the short-term prospects for change.     

Characteristics and consequences of help-giving practices in contrasting human services programs

Relationships between human services program models and help-giving practices, and between both program models and help-giving practices and help-seeker control appraisals were examined in a study of 107 low socioeconomic background families. Three kinds of human services agencies were included in the study, each of which differed in terms of their implicit and explicit assumptions about the families they served and the roles professionals and families played as part of helping relationships. Results support the hypotheses that (a) a program philosophy that was family centered would be associated with more empowering help-giving practices compared to more professionally centered philosophies and (b) a family-centered program philosophy and empowering help-giving practices would be related to an enhanced sense of personal control over needed supports and resources from a target help-giver.     

A. F. Losevs personalistische ontologie

A. F. Losev, one of the most important Russian philosophers and historians of ancient aesthetics and culture in the 20th century, develops in his ‘Dialectics of the Myth’ (Dialektika mifa), 1930, a personalistic ontology by using elements of neoplatonic philosophy and Orthodox Christian belief. According to Losev reality in all its different expressions and ontological strata must be understood as “mythical”, i.e. as “living mutual exchange of subject and object”. The subjective and personal aspect of reality is not grounded in man’s epistemic relation to it alone; reality in itself has to be characterized as personal and subjective. The main philosophical opponent is Descartes, the founder of “modern rationalism and mechanism”.

     

The application of the satir model of family therapy to the families in Hong Kong: A personal reflection

Practitioners in Hong Kong have shown an increasing interest in various family therapy approaches since the 1980s. This paper offers a critique of the major concepts and techniques of the Satir model applied to families in Hong Kong. Cultural considerations are examined in relation to the family structure and hierarchy, the Chinese self and self-esteem, communication patterns, and family rules. Implications for the application of the Satir model of family therapy in Hong Kong are discussed.     

编码方式对汉字短时记忆提取的影响

短时记忆提取是认知心理学研究中的重要课题之一。自Sternberg(1 966)提出短时记忆提取作的是序列的从头到尾的完全搜索以来 ,许多研究者对短时记忆提取进行了广泛的研究 ,提出了序列的自动停止的搜索、平行加工、直接存取 ,以及序列搜索和直接存取双重模型等许多不同看法 ,引起了激烈争论。本研究的目的是试图探索编码方式对汉字短时记忆提取的影响。实验运用Sternberg的“探测法” ,以随机排列的汉字作识记组和探测项刺激。实验结果表明 :编码方式对汉字短时记忆提取有很大影响 ,当用声音编码方式提取短时记忆汉字时 ,被试倾向于从头到尾的完全的搜索 ;当用形状编码时 ,被试倾向于作自动停止的搜索。     

关于听觉条件下中文字词劣效果的研究

对听觉条件下中文字词劣效果的问题进行了实验考察,结果发现：在文章听点作业中,被试对高、低频目标字词语音的正误判断量存在着显著性差别,前者较后者成绩差,表现出字词劣效果的现象;在单字词的听点作业中,未发现被试对高、低频目标字词语音正误判断量方面的显著性差别;无论在文章还是单字词的听点作业中,被试对高、低频目标字词语音的正误判断量均比较低下,表明语音知觉的范畴性特征对字词语音的辩认准确性具有较大影响。     

Thoughts and feelings and things: A new psychiatric epistemology

Epistemology — the study of knowledge — is a philosophical discipline with close ties to psychiatry. When epistemologists address specific questions about how knowledge is actually realized by human beings, their philosophy must be informed by empirical studies of the sort psychiatrists now take up in a variety of forms. As this paper describes, psychiatrists can likewise improve their understanding of human psychology through a deeper appreciation of philosophical analysis in epistemology.The aim of this article is to introduce a unifying framework within which the experience from different approaches to psychiatry — (1) the conceptual schemas of cognitive psychiatry, (2) the mental structures of psychoanalytic psychiatry, (3) the categorical forms of existential psychiatry, and (4) the neural pathways of biological psychiatry — can all be applied productively to the central question of epistemology. By establishing a broad understanding of the problem of knowledge, this new view of epistemology is developed within the idiom of each psychiatric approach. In addressing themselves to a unitary problem, these diverse psychiatric approaches are themselves revealed, not as competing points of view, but as complementary views of a single subject. The result is a new epistemology that can not only bring the insights of psychiatry to philosophy, but can also contribute to the care of patients when psychiatrists bring this broader view to their clinical work.