Fodor’s riddle of abduction

How can abductive reasoning be physical, feasible, and reliable? This is Fodor’s riddle of abduction, and its apparent intractability is the cause of Fodor’s recent pessimism regarding the prospects for cognitive science. I argue that this riddle can be solved if we augment the computational theory of mind to allow for non-computational mental processes, such as those posited by classical associationists and contemporary connectionists. The resulting hybrid theory appeals to computational mechanisms to explain the semantic coherence of inference and associative mechanisms to explain the efficient retrieval of relevant information from memory. The interaction of these mechanisms explains how abduction can be physical, feasible, and reliable.     

The ethics of morphing

Here’s one piece of practical reasoning: “If I do this then a person will reap some benefits and suffer some costs. On balance, the benefits outweigh the costs. So I ought to do it.” Here’s another: “If I do this then one person will reap some benefits and another will suffer some costs. On balance, the benefits to the one person outweigh the costs to the other. So I ought to do it.” Many influential philosophers say that there is something dubious about the second piece of reasoning. They say that it makes sense to trade-off costs and benefits within lives, but not across lives. In this paper I make a case for the second piece of reasoning. My case turns on the existence of morphing sequences—sequences of possible states of affairs across which people transform smoothly into other people.

比较应用题的问题表征策略研究

采用2×2×4三因素混合实验设计,对不同年级学生解比较应用题过程中的各种指标进行分析,结果表明:学生解比较应用题时的问题表征策略存在显著的年级差异;数学成绩优生、差生存在不同的问题表征策略;题目呈现方式对学生的问题表征策略有显著影响。     

Imagining human enhancement: whose future,which rationality?

This article critically evaluates bettering human life. Because this involves lives that do not exist yet, the article investigates human eugenics and enhancement through the social prism of ‘the imaginary’ (defined ‘as a set of assumptions and concepts for thinking and speaking about human enhancement and its future direction’) [1]. “Exploring basic assumptions underlying the idea of human enhancement” investigates underlying assumptions and claims for human enhancement. Firstly, human eugenics and enhancement entangles a factual as well as a normative claim about what improvement/betterment maybe constitutive of. Secondly, claims about what a better life is, is often a future orientated claim about whether certain kinds of life that do not exist yet should ever exist. Moral images of thought are introduced and how they work to make normative judgments about lives that do not exist. This implicates the moral problem of difference, where an image of a ‘better’ life—classically expressed in eugenics as a ‘superior’ and/or ‘normal’ life—necessarily entails inferiority and/or deviance from a norm. “Moral imagination in contemporary fiction and the history of old eugenics”, introduces moral images in history of eugenics and demonstrates how examples fall foul of the problem. “The new (liberal) eugenics and the moral image of therapy” examines progress in contemporary debates, the move from authoritarian to non-authoritarian eugenics (human enhancement), and how, to some extent, this has solved the problem of difference, through liberal defence of personal choice. “The heart of the eugenic issue” suggests that personal choice in liberal non-authoritarian eugenics is not immune to basic drive behind all eugenic arguments; desire as lack which is expressed as the continual dissatisfaction of not having our future expectations met.

决策中的框架效应再探

框架效应是指对相同决策任务不同方式的描述会影响决策者对备择选项的认知．大量研究已证实了框架效应的存在。本研究采用经典的“海难”问题,进一步探讨了决策任务中的框架效应。结果发现,在生命问题和财产问题中均没有发现框架效应的存在。在面对生命问题时,总体上人们倾向于冒险;在面对财产问题时,总体上倾向于保守。另外在面对生命问题时,女生比男生更倾向于冒险。     

不同类型问题的关键信息表征及其认知加工研究

目的:研究关键信息表征在不同类型问题解决中的作用;方法:本研究使用五种不同类型问题作为实验材料对75名文理科大学生进行问题解决研究,并采用回归统计分析了关键信息、过程策略、信息处理方式三个解题要素对正确解答的效应;结果:(1)关键信息对正确解答作用显著,关键信息表征对正确解题有较好的预测作用;(2)关键信息在不同类型问题解决中的作用有所不同;(3)过程策略对正确解答效应显著。     

道德情绪判断、错误信念与行为问题的关系——损人情境中幼儿反应的一项研究

运用投射性情境故事和Rutter量表(教师问卷)研究了204名幼儿对损人情境的道德情绪判断、错误信念水平、行为问题及其关系。结果表明:(1)男性幼儿的违纪行为显著高于女性,神经症行为得分在不同年龄之间差异达到显著性水平。(2)随年龄增长,对成功损人者之情绪判断为积极的人数会减少、而判断为消极的人数会增加,对失败损人者之情绪判断为消极的居多、而对成功损人者情绪判断为积极的为主。(3)幼儿已经基本能完成道德情境中的错误信念任务,当接受别人的"错误"表扬时会产生积极情绪。(4)未完成错误信念任务儿童的神经症得分显著高于完成者,对成功损人者之情绪判断为积极的儿童的神经症得分显著高于判断为消极者。     

高职学生心理健康问题研究

高职学生是中国高校学生中的一个特殊群体。职业化教育模式影响下的高职学生．面对的是学历教育与职业教育并举的教育,职业心理和学习心理折射出高职学生在职业定势、学习动机、成才抱负、人际关系、青春期回应等方面的诸多心理健康问题。本研究从问卷探源到本质归因,提出高职学生心理健康教育问题的具体应对策略和思考。     

The reasoning skills and thinking dispositions of problem gamblers: a dual‐process taxonomy

We present a taxonomy that categorizes the types of cognitive failure that might result in persistent gambling. The taxonomy subsumes most previous theories of gambling behavior, and it defines three categories of cognitive difficulties that might lead to gambling problems: The autonomous set of systems (TASS) override failure, missing TASS output, and mindware problems. TASS refers to the autonomous set of systems in the brain (which are executed rapidly and without volition, are not under conscious control, and are not dependent on analytic system output). Mindware consists of rules, procedures, and strategies available for explicit retrieval. Seven of the eight tasks administered to pathological gamblers, gamblers with subclinical symptoms, and control participants were associated with problem gambling, and five of the eight were significant predictors in analyses that statistically controlled for age and cognitive competence. In a commonality analysis, an indicator from each of the three categories of cognitive difficulties explained significant unique variance in problem gambling, indicating that each of the categories had some degree of predictive specificity. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.