Children's development of analogical reasoning: insights from scene analogy problems

We explored how relational complexity and featural distraction, as varied in scene analogy problems, affect children's analogical reasoning performance. Results with 3- and 4-year-olds, 6- and 7-year-olds, 9- to 11-year-olds, and 13- and 14-year-olds indicate that when children can identify the critical structural relations in a scene analogy problem, development of their ability to reason analogically interacts with both relational complexity and featural distraction. Error patterns suggest that children are more likely to select a distracting object than to make a relational error for problems that present both possibilities. This tendency decreases with age, and older children make fewer errors overall. The results suggest that changes in analogical reasoning with age depend on the interplay among increases in relational knowledge, the capacity to integrate multiple relations, and inhibitory control over featural distraction.     

All Finitely Axiomatizable Tense Logics of Linear Time Flows Are CoNP-complete

We prove that all finitely axiomatizable tense logics with temporal operators for ‘always in the future’ and ‘always in the past’ and determined by linear fows time are coNP-complete. It follows, for example, that all tense logics containing a density axiom of the form ■ⁿ⁺¹_F p → ⁿ_F p, for some n ≥ 0, are coNP-complete. Additionally, we prove coNP-completeness of all ∩-irreducible tense logics. As these classes of tense logics contain many Kripke incomplete bimodal logics, we obtain many natural examples of Kripke incomplete normal bimodal logics which are nevertheless coNP-complete.     

Bootstrapping the lexicon: a computational model of infant speech segmentation

Prelinguistic infants must find a way to isolate meaningful chunks from the continuous streams of speech that they hear. BootLex, a new model which uses distributional cues to build a lexicon, demonstrates how much can be accomplished using this single source of information. This conceptually simple probabilistic algorithm achieves significant segmentation results on various kinds of language corpora - English, Japanese, and Spanish; child- and adult-directed speech, and written texts; and several variations in coding structure - and reveals which statistical characteristics of the input have an influence on segmentation performance. BootLex is then compared, quantitatively and qualitatively, with three other groups of computational models of the same infant segmentation process, paying particular attention to functional characteristics of the models and their similarity to human cognition. Commonalities and contrasts among the models are discussed, as well as their implications both for theories of the cognitive problem of segmentation itself, and for the general enterprise of computational cognitive modeling.     

Lateralized effects of target location on reaction times when preparing for manual aiming at a visual target

To elucidate the temporal characteristics of information processing for motor action differing in complexity in relation to both perceptual and cognitive information processing, we investigated whether the reaction times (RTs) to a visual target would be affected by task complexity (finger lifting or manual aiming), pre-cueing (with a pre-cue or without a pre-cue), or target location (five horizontal positions). Using the right hand, seven right-handed subjects performed two tasks, finger lifting and manual aiming at a target, with or without a pre-cue. The pre-cue announced the location of the target to be presented. An ANOVA showed significant interactions between task and location and between pre-cue and location with no significant interaction between task and pre-cue, indicating that the task-location interaction does not depend on whether or not a pre-cue is given. The manual-aiming RTs were longer than the finger-lifting RTs, and the effects of the target location on the RTs differed for finger lifting and manual aiming. It can be assumed that the longer RTs of manual aiming reflect the time for information processing that is needed when preparing for the aiming action per se, which is an extra movement performed in addition to the simple initiation of finger lifting. Differential RTs (DRTs) calculated by subtracting the finger-lifting RTs from the aiming RTs were therefore examined. The DRTs significantly differed for target locations (i.e., a lateralized effect), with the DRTs for an ipsilateral target appearing to be significantly shorter than those for contralateral and central targets. The lateralized effect appearing on the DRTs may be mediated by the processing of visual-spatial information about visual targets as motor preparations are made for manual aiming.     

Young children's performance on the balance scale: the influence of relational complexity

Three experiments investigated the effect of complexity on children's understanding of a beam balance. In nonconflict problems, weights or distances varied, while the other was held constant. In conflict items, both weight and distance varied, and items were of three kinds: weight dominant, distance dominant, or balance (in which neither was dominant). In Experiment 1, 2-year-old children succeeded on nonconflict-weight and nonconflict-distance problems. This result was replicated in Experiment 2, but performance on conflict items did not exceed chance. In Experiment 3, 3- and 4-year-olds succeeded on all except conflict balance problems, while 5- and 6-year-olds succeeded on all problem types. The results were interpreted in terms of relational complexity theory. Children aged 2 to 4 years succeeded on problems that entailed binary relations, but 5- and 6-year-olds also succeeded on problems that entailed ternary relations. Ternary relations tasks from other domains--transitivity and class inclusion--accounted for 93% of the age-related variance in balance scale scores.     

被信任者社会身份复杂性对其可信性的影响

被信任者社会身份是单一的还是多样的, 这种数量差异可以体现其社会身份的复杂性。本研究探讨了被信任者社会身份复杂性(单一身份、多重身份)如何影响人们对其可信性的评价。实验1考察了被信任者社会身份复杂性对其可信性的影响以及社会距离在其中的中介作用。实验2用于检验被信任者所属群体类型(内群体、外群体)是否调节他们的社会身份复杂性对其可信性的影响。研究结果表明：被信任者多重社会身份的凸显会提高人们对其可信性的评价, 社会距离在二者之间起着完全中介作用; 群体类型对社会身份复杂性的影响具有调节作用, 社会距离的中介作用在对外群体成员的可信性评价中更为明显。     

团队作业特征研究现状与展望

团队作业特征是团队有效性模型中的重要输入变量,是团队绩效差异的贡献因素。作业特征在个体与团队层面的相关理论基础表明,团队作业特征包括技能多样性、作业同一性、作业重要性、反馈、自主性、作业互依性、作业复杂性七个核心要素。以此为基础介绍了作业特征在个体与团队层面的相关效应研究;团队作业特征模型测量、作业特征作用机制、作业特征要素的深入研究则可作为未来研究的重点     

Emergence of a Social Inquiry Group: A Story of Fractals and Networks

This article relates the emergence of a group of faculty researchers utilizing complexity science approaches. The narrative emerges from three projects combining research into complexity, communities, and technologies. Details of how the research was initiated, and the nature and quality of the conversational method, are provided. In addition, theoretical concepts that were consciously applied and others that arose through insights from the data as it was collected are discussed. Although this is like most real narratives, a never-ending story, it concludes with a presentation of some of the ideas that separate complexity-informed research from other paradigms.     

ON SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST AND OTHER CORPORATE MYTHS

Although the doctrine of “survival of the fittest” is central to the Modern paradigm, it is not, as most Modernists would claim, the unvarnished truth. Indeed if we begin to think of the marketplace as a model of dynamic complexity then the logic of cooperation is inescapable. The point is that if business leaders refuse to accept that cooperation is a defining principle, not merely an abstract altruistic ideal but an essential strategy for the sustainable, long-term success of the businesses they are building, then they will continue to undermine their own best interests in the name of competitive dominance.     

COMPLEXITY IN NURSING EDUCATION: EXAMPLES OF THE PARADIGM

Edgar Morin proposed that knowledge construction is best enacted via a complex and circular approach between both the part and the whole, while never enacting a strictly reductionistic or strictly holistic approach. It is the ability to connect and unite the parts within the whole via a dynamic circular process between the parts and whole that frees us from fragmented knowledge and helps us to bridge the gap between our seemingly disparate-competing nursing paradigms. This article examines the benefits of utilizing Morin's complexity theory, the dialogical, and circular processes in creating a liberating structural framework or paradigm for nursing education.