Optimal versus heuristic planning of object manipulations: A review and a computational model of the continuous end-state comfort effect

Human beings select actions that facilitate the execution of later actions. For example, humans tend to select grasps that ensure that forthcoming object manipulations end in a comfortable posture (“end-state comfort effect”). Basic experimental results and their explanation within the optimal control framework are reviewed. I conclude that the discrete grasp selection tasks, which are commonly used to study anticipatory planning, leave room for alternative explanations. Moreover, the results of seven experiments employing a continuous grasp selection task seem incompatible with the optimal control (of end-state comfort) account. I introduce the weighted integration of multiple biases (WIMB) model, which accounts for many aspects of the selection of human grasp orientations in continuous tasks. Additionally, it accounts for the precision effect and hysteresis effect. The model shows that the brain may rely on a simple heuristic and does not actually has to anticipate the end-state of a movement to select effective grasps for object manipulations.     

Exploring early developmental changes in face scanning patterns during the perception of audiovisual mismatch of speech cues

Young infants are capable of integrating auditory and visual information and their speech perception can be influenced by visual cues, while 5-month-olds detect mismatch between mouth articulations and speech sounds. From 6 months of age, infants gradually shift their attention away from eyes and towards the mouth in articulating faces, potentially to benefit from intersensory redundancy of audiovisual (AV) cues. Using eye tracking, we investigated whether 6- to 9-month-olds showed a similar age-related increase of looking to the mouth, while observing congruent and/or redundant versus mismatched and non-redundant speech cues. Participants distinguished between congruent and incongruent AV cues as reflected by the amount of looking to the mouth. They showed an age-related increase in attention to the mouth, but only for non-redundant, mismatched AV speech cues. Our results highlight the role of intersensory redundancy and audiovisual mismatch mechanisms in facilitating the development of speech processing in infants under 12 months of age.     

The Ojibwa Vision Quest

Like other Algonkian-speaking groups, the Ojibwa traditionally sought personal relations with guardian spirits whom they encountered in visions, as a rite of passage into status as adults. Visions were sometimes sought as early as age three or four, and were generally accomplished no later than puberty. The procedures for cultivating visions blended practical and ritual elements. The procedures were both explained informally and portrayed in myths and belief-legends. Roheim interpreted vision quests in keeping with Freud's general theory of religion, as evidence of fixated Oedipus complexes; but a pathologizing interpretation is inappropriate. Detailed analyses of both boys' and girls' self-reports readily support diagnoses of healthy genitality, rather than Oedipal fixation. Vision quests are better regarded as manifestations of ego ideals, leading in most cases to improved ego–superego integration.     

西方心理疗法的整合趋势及其前瞻

由于认识到各种心理疗法皆有不足,故从20世纪70年代以后,人们开始探讨心理疗法的整合问题。可从总体上把它划分为三个彼此关联的层面：技术上的折衷;寻求对疗效起作用的共同因素;以及理论上的整合。心理疗法整合的目的并不是要到一个能囊括一切的完美的体系,而是让人们以更为开放的态度和更为开阔的眼光,多维度、多视角地探索各疗法间相得益彰的方式。     

文本阅读中简单推理情境下的信息整合

研究采用动窗技术探讨了文本阅读中需要简单推理情境下的信息整合发生的时机。本研究通过三个实验证明了在需要简单推理情境下的文本阅读中 ,需要推理的信息整合是即时发生的 ,而不是经过追溯才发生 ,在这种情况下支持文本阅读的更新追随假设理论。同时本研究发现文本阅读中协调性整合不是以词为单位的。     

中西医结合若干问题的比较思考

讨论中西医结合对西医临床思维的影响。对于慢性病中医注意病人的主观症状,与病人就医的缘由一致;西医重视客观的功能和结构异常,其判断结果有时未必能被病人接受。近年来西医开始重视病人的生活质量,其实中医的辨证指标有很多就是针对病人的生活质量。中医的整体观念同样体现在急性感染的治疗中,现代研究显示,清热解毒法除祛邪外也兼顾扶正。中西医结合促进了中西药合用,但须注意合理应用,避免合用的不良效果。     

家庭功能与流动青少年认同整合的关系:希望与父母文化持守的作用

本研究采取整群抽样的方法对来自广东省三所民办中学的1345名流动青少年进行问卷调查,探查流动青少年的家庭功能对其认同整合的影响,以及希望和父母文化持守在其中所起的作用。结果表明：（1）流动青少年的家庭功能正向预测了认同整合。（2）希望在流动青少年的家庭功能与其认同整合两者间起部分中介作用,家庭功能既对认同整合产生直接影响,也通过希望对认同整合产生间接影响;（3）流动青少年的父母文化持守调节了家庭功能与认同整合的关系。     

Visual perceptual and handwriting skills in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder

ObjectiveChildren with Developmental Coordination Disorder demonstrate a lack of automaticity in handwriting as measured by pauses during writing. Deficits in visual perception have been proposed in the literature as underlying mechanisms of handwriting difficulties in children with DCD. The aim of this study was to examine whether correlations exist between measures of visual perception and visual motor integration with measures of the handwriting product and process in children with DCD.MethodThe performance of twenty-eight 8–14 year-old children who met the DSM-5 criteria for DCD was compared with 28 typically developing (TD) age and gender-matched controls. The children completed the Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration (VMI) and the Test of Visual Perceptual Skills (TVPS). Group comparisons were made, correlations were conducted between the visual perceptual measures and handwriting measures and the sensitivity and specificity examined.ResultsThe DCD group performed below the TD group on the VMI and TVPS. There were no significant correlations between the VMI or TVPS and any of the handwriting measures in the DCD group. In addition, both tests demonstrated low sensitivity.ConclusionClinicians should execute caution in using visual perceptual measures to inform them about handwriting skill in children with DCD.     

Integration of spatial information across vision and language

Three experiments investigated whether spatial information acquired from vision and language is maintained in distinct spatial representations on the basis of the input modality. Participants studied a visual and a verbal layout of objects at different times from either the same (Experiments 1 and 2) or different learning perspectives (Experiment 3) and then carried out a series of pointing judgments involving objects from the same or different layouts. Results from Experiments 1 and 2 indicated that participants pointed equally fast on within- and between-layout trials; coupled with verbal reports from participants, this result suggests that they integrated all locations in a single spatial representation during encoding. However, when learning took place from different perspectives in Experiment 3, participants were faster to respond to within- than between-layout trials and indicated that they kept separate representations during learning. Results are compared to those from similar studies that involved layouts learned from perception only.