Children Use Temporal Cues to Learn Causal Directionality

The ability to learn the direction of causal relations is critical for understanding and acting in the world. We investigated how children learn causal directionality in situations in which the states of variables are temporally dependent (i.e., autocorrelated). In Experiment 1, children learned about causal direction by comparing the states of one variable before versus after an intervention on another variable. In Experiment 2, children reliably inferred causal directionality merely from observing how two variables change over time; they interpreted Y changing without a change in X as evidence that Y does not influence X. Both of these strategies make sense if one believes the variables to be temporally dependent. We discuss the implications of these results for interpreting previous findings. More broadly, given that many real‐world environments are characterized by temporal dependency, these results suggest strategies that children may use to learn the causal structure of their environments.     

Behavioral science integration: A practical framework of multi-level converging evidence for behavioral science theories

Several frameworks exist to help science in organizing known information, connecting previously disparate phenomena, promoting understanding, and identifying gaps in knowledge. This paper integrates previous frameworks that have been used in the behavioral sciences to produce a more comprehensive, specific, and complete framework, consonant with the process of scientific discovery as based on multiple, independent, and converging lines of evidence. This multi-level convergence framework is designed specifically for the analysis and understanding of human cognitive/behavioral traits, in contrast to more general frameworks that are designed to be applied relatively widely (such as across all information processing systems or across all biological organisms). This integrated framework overcomes gaps in prior frameworks, provides a more complete picture of the interrelationships between various aspects of the behavioral sciences, and can aid in evaluating theories, both for comparison and identifying gaps in evidentiary support.     

You Get What You Need: An Examination of Purpose‐Based Inheritance Reasoning in Undergraduates,Preschoolers, and Biological Experts

This set of seven experiments examines reasoning about the inheritance and acquisition of physical properties in preschoolers, undergraduates, and biology experts. Participants (N = 390) received adoption vignettes in which a baby animal was born to one parent but raised by a biologically unrelated parent, and they judged whether the offspring would have the same property as the birth or rearing parent. For each vignette, the animal parents had contrasting values on a physical property dimension (e.g., the birth parent had a short tail; the rearing parent had a long tail). Depending on the condition, the distinct properties had distinct functions (“function‐predictive”) were associated with distinct habitats (“habitat‐predictive”), or had no implications (“non‐predictive”). Undergraduates' bias to view properties as inherited from the birth parent was reduced in the function‐ and habitat‐predictive conditions. This result indicates a purpose‐based view of inheritance, whereby animals can acquire properties that serve a purpose in their environment. This stance was not found in experts or preschoolers. We discuss the results in terms of how undergraduates' purpose‐based inheritance reasoning develops and relates to larger‐scale misconceptions about Darwinian evolutionary processes, and implications for biology education.     

The Effects of Prior Learned Strategies on Updating an Opponent's Strategy in the Rock,Paper, Scissors Game

To explore how model building adapts to changing environments, we had participants play “rock‐paper‐scissors” against a computer that played a frequency bias or a player‐dependent bias and then switched. Participants demonstrated their use of prior experience in how quickly they recognized and exploited changes in the computer's play strategy; in general, the more similar the strategies, the more efficient the updating. These findings inform our understanding of previously reported updating impairments in right‐brain damaged patients.     

多级评分模型下的题库结构对CAT的影响分析

在多级评分模型下,项目的难度参数或步骤参数有多个,在对多级评分模型进行选题时,通常对项目的多个难度参数用一个综合的指标来概括.当对每个项目的难度参数进行有效的综合后,综合后的难度参数分布发生了改变,这时如果增加适量的平均难度较难或较易的项目进入题库,测验的精度和项目的曝光率都有一定的改善.     

大学生的基本兴趣及其与专业承诺的关系

该研究调查了1304名来自18个不同专业领域的大学生的基本兴趣和专业承诺,并用回归法分析了特定基本兴趣与专业承诺之间的关系.结果发现：（1）大学生的31种基本兴趣在二维空间中呈现近似圆形的排列,且基本兴趣结构上的性别差异不明显;（2）在14个专业领域内大学生的特定基本兴趣能显著预测其专业承诺,所解释的变异量平均为20％,接近中等水平的效果大小;（3）在不同专业领域内基本兴趣对专业承诺的影响效果大小有所不同.     

中美高等医学教育结构比较研究

高等医学教育结构合理化是衡量医学教育发展水平的重要指标, 是研究和制定医学教育发展战略的科学依据。优化高等医学教育结构对促进社会经济发展、提高教育经济效益具有重要作用。对中美高等医学教育结构进行比较, 旨在发现, 两国医学教育结构存在的差异。通过比较发现, 我国高等医学教育存在布局不合理、专业设置紊乱、专业层次结构偏低等问题。需要加强国家宏观规划和监督, 发展西部医学教育, 调整医学教育布局, 优化专业层次结构, 提升医学人才综合素质的培养。     

“犯罪人心理”与“犯罪心理”辨析

关于“犯罪心理结构”之争,已经集中在“犯罪心理”或“犯罪人心理”这个焦点上。反对“犯罪心理结构”者认为,犯罪心理实际上是不存在的,犯罪人心理在很多方面（甚至一切方面）同守法公民没有区别。因此,犯罪心理学实际上是一门研究“犯罪人心理”的学科。笔者认为,这是一种违反逻辑的、必将导致取消犯罪心理学的推论。     

句子先提述的参与者在可提取性上的优势现象

下述五个实验就汉语句子成分（包括句子的参与者及其动作）的提述次序对其可提取性的影响进行了研究,结果表明：（１）句子先提述的参与者比后提述的参与者容易被提取,提述的次序对参与者的可提取性有明显影响。（２）先提述参与者的这种优势与句子呈现的方式有一定的关系。（３）在系列呈现的条件下,先提述参与者的易提取性与探测词呈现的延迟间隔有关。（４）在系列呈现的条件下,参与者以名词形式出现时,被试的反应速度较快,而参与者以名字的形式出现时,反应则较慢;在同时呈现的条件下这种差异基本消失。（５）句子参与者的行动（即句子的动词）的提述次序对其可提取性也有明显的影响,说明提述次序对句子成分的可提取性的影响,不只限于句子参与者本身。     

Priming word order by thematic roles: No evidence for an additional involvement of phrase structure

Three experiments are reported that studied the priming of word order in German. Experiment 1 demonstrated priming of the order of case-marked verb arguments. However, order of noun phrases and order of thematic roles were confounded. In Experiment 2, we therefore aimed at disentangling the impact of these two possible factors. By using primes that differed from targets in phrase structure but were parallel with regard to the order of thematic roles, we nevertheless found priming demonstrating the critical impact of thematic roles. Experiment 3 replicated the priming effects from Experiments 1 and 2 within participants and revealed no evidence for a modulation of priming by phrase structure. Consequently, our findings suggest that word order priming crucially depends on the structural outline of thematic roles rather than on the linearization of phrases.