Quantifiers and question answering in young children

Two hypotheses were tested about how young children answer questions with the quantifiers all and some: (a) that children use syntactic cues in determining which noun phrase is quantified, and (b) that children evaluate a some-statement as part of evaluating an all-statement. To test these hypotheses, the same group of 60 4- to 7-year-olds were asked four contrasting types of quantitative questions. The results indicated that children can use syntactic cues under some presentation conditions. However, there was no evidence for an asymmetry between the all-and some-questions. A model of how young children might answer quantitative questions was then considered.     

The dark side of fire: Postmodern critique and the elusiveness of the ideological

As scholars commonly maintain, the coming of modernity raised the stakes regarding the pursuit of objective truth and inaugurated the critique of error, unfounded beliefs, prejudice, and ideological interest. In our times, postmodernism has turned the weapons of critique against modernity itself and promoted the wholesale rejection of reason; in the aftermath, without any appraisal criteria left, ideological opinions keep growing in numbers, get decentralized and multifaceted , and are considered as equivalent voices expressing the different experiences of individuals and local groups. But is this inward and self-destructive turn of critique warranted? Unpacking the relevant arguments one finds many contradictions inside postmodernism, derivative of its peculiar antinomial relations to modernity/modernism. A discussion of the various meanings and forms of the notion of meta-narrative demonstrates the weaknesses of both the absolutist (modernist) and radical relativist (postmodernist) positions and points the way toward a moderate, critico-pragmatic understanding of the relationships between, on the one hand, knowledge and critique and, on the other, ideology.     

The Wind Chilled the Spectators, but the Wine Just Chilled: Sense, Structure, and Sentence Comprehension

Anticipation plays a role in language comprehension. In this article, we explore the extent to which verb sense influences expectations about upcoming structure. We focus on change of state verbs like shatter , which have different senses that are expressed in either transitive or intransitive structures, depending on the sense that is used. In two experiments we influence the interpretation of verb sense by manipulating the thematic fit of the grammatical subject as cause or affected entity for the verb, and test whether readers' expectations for a transitive or intransitive structure change as a result. This sense-biasing context influenced reading times in the postverbal regions. Reading times for transitive sentences were faster following good-cause than good-theme subjects, but the opposite pattern was found for intransitive sentences. We conclude that readers use sense-contingent subcategorization preferences during on-line comprehension.     

Hidden presence: race and/in the history,construct, and study of western esotericism

ABSTRACT

Except for a few studies that explore the intersections between esoteric ideas/practices and white supremacy, race has largely been ignored in the field of Western esotericism. This article seeks to partake in remedying this lacuna. To do so, it provides a deconstructive analysis of the way race has operated in the field. I argue that race, although consistently overlooked, has functioned as a ‘hidden presence’ that has shaped both the historical formation of the field and the construct of Western esotericism – so much so, in fact, that we may conceive it as a subtext in and for the dominant ‘grand narrative’ of Western esotericism. In conclusion, I investigate recent attempts to omit ‘Western’ as a definitive adjective in the study of esotericism, thereby proposing that, even as we move ‘beyond the West,’ we must also continue to investigate the entanglements of ‘Western’ and whiteness.     

情绪变化的自动化加工：来自EMMN的启示

人脑如何自动化加工瞬息万变的情绪信息?研究者们在借鉴听觉通道的失匹配负波(mismatch negativity, MMN)研究的基础上, 进一步发展出了表情失匹配负波(expression mismatch negativity, EMMN), 以此作为视觉情绪信息前注意加工的重要指标。与以往的一般视觉线索的视觉失匹配负波(visual mismatch negativity, vMMN)有所区别, EMMN研究专注于人脑如何自动化加工瞬息万变的情绪信息。当前的研究主要探讨了不同类型的面部表情、不同性别、高低流体智力个体的EMMN差异, 以及自闭症、抑郁症、精神分裂症等异常个体EMMN的特点。此外, 从预测编码的角度阐释了EMMN的机制。今后的研究有必要聚焦EMMN在临床诊断和治疗中的应用, 考察不同情绪线索EMMN的特点, 并进一步揭示EMMN的神经机制。     

A DIRECT PROMPTING STRATEGY FOR INCREASING RECIPROCAL INTERACTIONS BETWEEN HANDICAPPED AND NONHANDICAPPED SIBLINGS

We investigated the effects of a sibling training procedure, consisting of direct prompting and modeling, on the occurrence of reciprocal interactions between nonhandicapped and handicapped siblings. Data were obtained for training, generalization, and follow-up. Results of a multiple-baseline design across three pairs of siblings showed that: (a) direct prompting of interactions was an effective strategy for increasing reciprocal interactions between handicapped and nonhandicapped siblings; (b) the training procedure resulted in increased levels of initiations and responsiveness to initiations; (c) reciprocal interactions between siblings generalized to larger play groups or across settings; (d) reciprocal interactions between handicapped subjects and untrained, nonhandicapped peers increased without direct training; (e) the siblings' levels of interactions were maintained at 6 mo follow-up; and (f) these findings were judged socially valid by the siblings' parents.