Evocation of functional and volumetric gestural knowledge by objects and words

We distinguish between grasping gestures associated with using an object for its intended purpose (functional) and those used to pick up an object (volumetric) and we develop a novel experimental framework to show that both kinds of knowledge are automatically evoked by objects and by words denoting those objects. Cued gestures were carried out in the context of depicted objects or visual words. On incongruent trials, the cued gesture was not compatible with gestures typically associated with the contextual item. On congruent trials, the gesture was compatible with the item's functional or volumetric gesture. For both gesture types, response latency was longer for incongruent trials indicating that objects and words elicited both functional and volumetric manipulation knowledge. Additional evidence, however, clearly supports a distinction between these two kinds of gestural knowledge. Under certain task conditions, functional gestures can be evoked without the associated activation of volumetric gestures. We discuss the implication of these results for theories of action evoked by objects and words, and for interpretation of functional imaging results.     

学科领域知识和学业成绩对工作记忆广度的影响

引入Alexander领域知识概念形成数学学科领域知识,以七年级有理数单元为研究材料,编写问卷和E-Prime实验程序,筛选60名初中生为被试,考察数学学科领域知识和学业成绩对工作记忆广度的影响。研究发现:(1)学优生的认知过程知识和问题条件知识显著高于学困生,而学理内容知识差异不显著;(2)在简单加工任务上,学优生和学困生工作记忆广度差异不显著。在复杂任务上,学优生的工作记忆广度都显著高于学困生;(3)当工作记忆广度任务中存储部分的词语和数学学科领域知识相关时,问题条件知识分数和认知过程分数能够显著地预测工作记忆广度。而不相关时,仅问题条件知识分数能够显著地预测工作记忆广度。     

3~4岁幼儿谎言概念理解的特点及心理理论、父母教养方式的作用

以165名3~4岁幼儿为研究对象,采用情境故事法考察谎言概念理解的年龄特点,并进一步探讨幼儿心理理论、父母教养方式对幼儿谎言概念理解的作用。结果表明:(1)幼儿对说真话行为与说谎行为的概念理解不是同步发展的,对说谎的概念理解要早于对说真话的理解,4岁幼儿的谎言概念理解水平高于3岁;(2)控制幼儿的年龄和言语能力后,心理理论与谎言概念理解显著正相关,专制教养方式与谎言概念理解显著负相关;(3)幼儿心理理论在专制教养方式与谎言概念理解之间起部分中介作用。     

基于Q矩阵和广义距离的认知诊断方法

规则空间方法(RSM)和属性层级方法(AHM)是两种重要的认知诊断方法, 近年来受到了广泛关注。本文在属性层级方法和丁树良等人(2009, 2010)改进的Q矩阵理论的基础上, 通过定义观察反应模式与理想反应模式之间的广义距离, 给出了一种识别被试知识状态的认知诊断方法, 即广义距离判别法。通过DINA模型生成被试的作答反应矩阵进行模拟研究, 以模式判准率和属性判准率作为衡量被试知识状态分类准确率指标, 将广义距离判别法、RSM和AHM的分类A方法分别与DINA模型进行比较。结果表明, 本文提出的广义距离判别法具有更好的分类效果。     

Acting in ignorance

This paper considers and rejects the arguments that have been given in favour of the view that one can only act for the reason that p if one knows that p. The paper contrasts it with the view I hold, which is that one can act for the reason that p even if it is not the case that p.     

Knowing Versus Caring: The Role of Affect and Cognition in Political Perceptions

This paper examines the importance of political knowledge in shaping accurate perceptions of the political world—specifically, how levels of general political knowledge influence the accuracy of specific political judgments, how those judgments might also be shaped by "wishful thinking," and how political knowledge attenuates the impact of wishful thinking on political judgments. Predictions of who would win the U.S. presidential election in 1984, 1988, 1992, and 1996, as surveyed in the National Election Studies conducted in those years, were used as a measure of the accuracy of political perceptions. Analysis of these data reveals that both political knowledge and wishful thinking are important determinants of the accuracy of people's perceptions; in addition, the impact of wishful thinking on perceptions is attenuated by political knowledge.     

The Near-Death Experience: Knowledge and Attitudes of College Students

There is a considerable literature documenting the effects of a near-death experience (NDE) on persons who actually undergo the experience, in terms of their attitudes and opinions about NDEs. However, investigations of how much nonexperiencers know about NDEs and their attitudes towards them are in short supply. This study examined the relationship in people who have not had an NDE between attitudes toward and knowledge of near-death experiences. Subjects were undergraduate students, with a mean age of 32 years. The Near-Death Phenomena Knowledge and Attitudes Questionnaire was employed to assess attitudes toward and knowledge of NDEs. Results indicated that both knowledge and attitudes were relatively normally distributed, and that level of knowledge significantly predicted attitudes towards NDEs, accounting for 34 percent of the common variance.     

“Intrinsically” or just “Instrumentally” Valuable? On Structural Types of Values of Scientific Knowledge

Debates about scientific (though rarely about otherforms of) knowledge, research policies or academic trainingoften involve a controversy about whether scientificknowledge possesses just “instrumental” value or also “intrinsic” value. Questioning this common simpleopposition, I scrutinize the issues involved in terms of agreater variety of structural types of values attributableto (scientific) knowledge. (Intermittently, I address thepuzzling habit of attributing “intrinsic” value to quitedifferent things, e.g. also to nature, in environmentalethics.) After some remarks on relevant broader philosophicaldebates about scientific knowledge, I pave a path throughthe (terminological) thicket of structural types of values. Our initial simple opposition is shown to conflate thedistinctions intrinsic/extrinsic and instrumental (or justuseful)/final. Next, I consider the value(s) of knowledgeand knowing in general and their possible value components(like the values of truth and justifiedness). After havingdiscussed the types of value of everyday knowledge,especially its functional and constitutive value (notionsintroduced earlier), I argue that these can or should alsobe attributed to scientific knowledge, thus departing fromboth objectivist and sociological views of science. One could say that I offer a certain defense of theintrinsic value of scientific knowing (and the inherentvalue of scientific knowledge) and some importantdifferentiations of its “instrumental values”. I alsocaution (in relation with my puzzle) against drawing hastymoral conclusions. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Resisting Explanation

Although explanation is widely regarded as an important concept in the study of rational inquiry, it remains largely unexplored outside the philosophy of science. This, I believe, is not due to oversight as much as to institutional resistance. In analytic philosophy it is basic that epistemic rationality is a function of justification and that justification is a function of argument. Explanation, however, is not argument nor is belief justification its function. I argue here that the task of incorporating explanation into the theory of rational inquiry poses a serious challenge to our basic concept of epistemic rationality as well as the a priori method of inquiry that still lies at the heart of analytic philosophy. Specifically, it pushes us toward a much stronger form of naturalism than is generally thought necessary, one in which argument and explanation are recognized as distinct and equally fundamental cognitive processes whose dynamic relationship is one of the central issues in the theory of rationality.     

青少年元记忆能力发展的认知研究

元记忆是个体所具有的与自己的记忆活动有关的信念及监控系统 ,其发展研究包括元记忆知识的习得与发展、元记忆监控能力的发展等。 2 0年来的研究表明 :青少年元记忆能力的发展具有年龄阶段性和关键期 ,年龄和教育训练是其两个重要影响因素。但该领域研究还存在理论概括性不高、被试代表性不强和比较缺乏多因素实验研究等问题。其未来的研究中宜采用多因素实验设计 ,不断提高研究的系统性和生态学效度