Hebb repetition effects in visual memory: The roles of verbal rehearsal and distinctiveness

A version of the Hebb repetition task was used with faces to explore the generality of the effect in a nonverbal domain. In the baseline condition, a series of upright faces was presented, and participants were asked to reconstruct the original order. Performance in this condition was compared to another in which the same stimuli were accompanied by concurrent verbal rehearsal to examine whether Hebb learning is dependent on verbal processing. Baseline performance was also compared to a condition in which the same faces were presented inverted. This comparison was used to determine the importance in Hebb learning of being able to visually distinguish between the list items. The results produced classic serial position curves that were equivalent over conditions with Hebb repetition effects being in evidence only for upright faces and verbal suppression as having no effect. These findings are interpreted as posing a challenge to current models derived from verbal-domain data.     

Improving conditional discrimination learning and memory in five-year-old children: Differential outcomes effect using different types of reinforcement

Previous studies have demonstrated that discriminative learning is facilitated when a particular outcome is associated with each relation to be learned. When this training procedure is applied (the differential outcomes procedure; DOP), learning is faster and better than when the typical common outcomes procedure or nondifferential outcomes (NDO) is used. Our primary purpose in the two experiments reported here was to assess the potential advantage of DOP in 5-year-old children using three different strategies of reinforcement in which (a) children received a reinforcer following a correct choice (“ + ”), (b) children lost a reinforcer following an incorrect choice (“ ? ”), or (c) children received a reinforcer following a correct choice and lost one following an incorrect choice (“ + / ? ”). In Experiment 1, we evaluated the effects of the presence of DOP and different types of reinforcement on learning and memory of a symbolic delayed matching-to-sample task using secondary and primary reinforcers. Experiment 2 was similar to the previous one except that only primary reinforcers were used. The results from these experiments indicated that, in general, children learned the task faster and showed higher performance and persistence of learning whenever differential outcomes were arranged independent of whether it was differential gain, loss, or combinations. A novel finding was that they performed the task better when they lost a reinforcer following an incorrect choice (type of training “ ? ”) in both experiments. A further novel finding was that the advantage of the DOP over the nondifferential outcomes training increased in a retention test.     

Form and Variability During Sit-to-Stand Transitions: Children Versus Adults

In performing the sit-to-stand transition, young children (6- to 7-year-olds) were expected to display a movement form similar to that of adults. However, movement consistency was predicted to be poorer in children than in adults because they lack refinement of motor control processes. Kinematic analysis of 10 repetitions of the sit-to-stand movement was carried out for 6 typically developing children and 6 adults. Supporting the authors' prediction of comparable form, no differences were evident between age groups for sequence of joint onsets, proportional duration of segmental motion, or in angle-angle plots of displacement at 2 segments. In contrast, within-participant variability was found to be higher for children: Coefficients of variation for most kinematic measures were twice those seen for adults. The authors interpret the children's lack of movement consistency as a reflection of inadequate stabilization of an internal model of intersegmental dynamics. Whereas adults have attained a skill level associated with refinement of that model, children have not. Children have an additional control problem because changes in body morphology throughout childhood require ongoing updating of the internal model that controls intrinsic dynamics.     

Converting a Freudian analysis into a Jungian one: obsession,addiction, and an answer from Job

In his analyses of obsessional patients, Sigmund Freud suggested that they suffered from intrusive cognitions and compulsive activities. Early psychoanalysts delineated the phenomenology of obsessionality, but did not differentiate what is currently termed obsessive‐compulsive disorder from obsessional personality. However, it was widely recognized that the success of psychoanalysis with obsessional patients was limited due to rigid characterological defences and transference resistances. The present paper examines the case of a middle‐aged obsessional academic who had been treated for nearly twenty years in a ‘classical' Freudian psychoanalysis prior to entering Jungian analysis. It examines how persistent focus on Oedipal conflicts undesirably reinforced the transference resistance in this obsessional man, and suggests that focusing instead on diminishing the harshness of the super‐ego via the therapeutic alliance, and fostering faith in the salutary aspects of unconscious processing has led to salutary results in this case. The biblical book of Job is adopted as ancient instruction in how to address the scrupulosity and addictive mental structuring of obsessionality in analysis.     

Social networking site use: Linked to adolescents' social self‐concept,self‐esteem,and depressed mood

Adolescents spend a substantial amount of time using social networking sites (SNSs); however, little is known regarding whether such use is associated with indicators of adjustment. The present study employed a multidimensional measure of SNS use to investigate the link between Australian adolescent SNS use and indicators of adjustment. Youth (N = 1,819, 55% female) from 34 diverse high schools across Western Australia were surveyed. The results showed that frequency of SNS use was linked to higher social self‐concept while investment in SNSs was associated with lower self‐esteem and higher depressed mood. Furthermore, having an SNS was linked to more negative indicators for female adolescents compared with male adolescents, although the link between frequency of use and investment in SNSs to indicators of adjustment was not moderated by gender. The present study highlights the complexity of the relationship between adolescent SNS use and indicators of adjustment, and offers insight into the diverse types of adolescent use of SNSs.     

Should Inherent Human Dignity Be Considered Intrinsically Heuristic?

What are “human rights” supposed to protect? According to most human rights doctrines, including most notably the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), human rights aim to protect “human dignity.” But what this concept amounts to and what its source is remain unclear. According to Glenn Hughes (2011), human rights theorists ought to consider human dignity as an “intrinsically heuristic concept,” whose content is partially understood but is not fully determined. In this comment, I criticize Hughes's account. On my view, understanding inherent human dignity as an intrinsically heuristic concept tethers it to an “indeterminateness of sense,” which leaves it open to exploitation from theorists unsympathetic to the moral salience of rights and what rights are supposed to protect.     

Overcoming overconfidence in learning from video-recorded lectures: Implications of interpolated testing for online education

The video-recorded lecture represents a central feature of most online learning platforms. Nonetheless, little is known about how to best structure video-recorded lectures in order to optimize learning. Here, we focused on the tendency for high school and college students to be overconfident in their learning from video-recorded modules, and demonstrated that testing could be used to effectively improve the calibration between predicted and actual performance. Notably, interpolating a lecture with repeated tests helped to boost actual performance to the level of predicted performance, whereas a single test following the lecture served to lower unrealistic judgments of learning. The value of improving performance to match predictions of learning and other avenues for future research regarding meta-comprehension of video-recorded lectures is discussed.     

论易学"涪陵学派"的形成、特点与深远影响

形成于两宋交替时代而极盛于南宋的易学"涪陵学派",具有悠久的理学传统、庞大的学术队伍、强烈的爱国感情以及浓厚的地域特色等特点.该学派对我国封建社会后期"程朱理学"的形成起到了承传的作用,对四川特别是涪陵的文化与教育有着极其深远的影响.