4-6岁儿童在小模型旋转任务中的线索学习与位置学习*

以90名4-6岁儿童为被试,探讨了儿童在小模型旋转任务中利用线索学习和位置学习表征空间位置的年龄特点。研究结果表明:(1)儿童对线索学习的利用要优于对位置学习的利用;(2)4岁儿童已经可以使用线索学习的方式表征空间位置,但到6岁左右才开始能够使用基于方向的位置学习;(3)线索特征对于儿童的线索学习有显著影响,明显、突出的线索有利于儿童的线索学习。     

知道与不知道要学多少：类别学习中样例量的预期作用

采用“5/4模型”类别结构探讨了类别学习中样例量的预期作用。设置了两种学习条件(“知道样例量”和“不知道样例量”), 分别探讨两种学习条件下的学习效率、学习策略以及所形成的类别表征。106名大学生参加了实验, 结果表明：在类别学习中, 样例量的预期作用显著, 知道样例量组的学习效率高于不知道样例量组; 样例量的预期作用对类别学习效率的影响是通过影响学习过程中使用的策略来实现的; 样例量的预期作用不影响两种学习条件的学习后形成的类别表征, 且两种学习条件的被试自始至终表现出样例学习的表征模式。     

儿童数字线表征的发展——心理长度的影响

探讨儿童在数字线估计任务中心理长度的发展及其对数量表征模式的影响.选取7~9岁儿童共109名进行数字线估计任务测试,设置了10cm和20cm两种长度条件,要求儿童完成根据位置判断数字任务(position to number,PN任务).结果表明儿童在数字线PN任务中存在心理长度,且7岁儿童心理长度的范围超过10,随着儿童年龄的增长,他们的心理长度范围不断缩小;心理长度范围影响儿童的表征模式,随着心理长度范围的缩小,儿童的数字线表征出现从指数模式到线性模式的变化趋势;与表征模式的发展趋势一致,儿童估计的精确性随年龄增长逐渐提高.     

降低决策冲动性的方法及其神经机制

大量实验研究显示, 成瘾患者、多动症患者和病态赌博者在决策中表现出冲动偏好。目前研究冲动性决策偏好的经典实验范式是延迟折扣任务。通过延迟折扣任务, 心理学家揭示了冲动性决策偏好的神经机制并构建了多种理论, 包括单一系统评价理论、双系统评价理论、自我控制理论和自我参照加工理论。基于这些理论, 已经发展出了多种降低决策冲动性的方法, 包括想象未来具体事件、工作记忆训练、预先承诺以及提高血液中葡萄糖水平, 其背后的神经机制是通过认知控制和价值表征理论来实现的。未来研究方向需集中于价值计算、价值系统和多体素模式分析(MVPA)在改善决策冲动性以及内在机制研究上的应用。     

先天性音乐障碍的音高空间表征能力研究

利用音高空间表征任务、心理旋转任务和音高辨别任务,探讨先天性音乐障碍者音高空间表征能力、心理旋转加工能力和音高辨别能力。结果发现：先天性音乐障碍组音高空间表征任务标准差、心理旋转任务错误率和音高辨别任务错误率均显著高于控制组。 这些结果表明先天性音乐障碍并非音乐特异性障碍,而是音乐相关性障碍。     

汉字识别的反启动效应

为验证记忆的重叠表征理论,采用包括基线测量的启动实验范式,通过三个系列实验探讨了汉字识别的反启动效应。实验一结果表明,与基线条件相比,启动显著提高了启动的汉字的识别正确率,但却显著降低了与该汉字部分字形相同的未启动的汉字的识别正确率;实验二和三结果显示,反启动效应不是源于注意偏向和疲劳因素。因此,汉字识别中存在反启动效应,这为重叠表征理论提供了新的支持证据。     

Pointing with the eyes: the role of gaze in communicating danger

Facial expression and direction of gaze are two important sources of social information, and what message each conveys may ultimately depend on how the respective information interacts in the eye of the perceiver. Direct gaze signals an interaction with the observer but averted gaze amounts to "pointing with the eyes", and in combination with a fearful facial expression may signal the presence of environmental danger. We used fMRI to examine how gaze direction influences brain processing of facial expression of fear. The combination of fearful faces and averted gazes activated areas related to gaze shifting (STS, IPS) and fear-processing (amygdala, hypothalamus, pallidum). Additional modulation of activation was observed in motion detection areas, in premotor areas and in the somatosensory cortex, bilaterally. Our results indicate that the direction of gaze prompts a process whereby the brain combines the meaning of the facial expression with the information provided by gaze direction, and in the process computes the behavioral implications for the observer.     

Proper Semantics for Substructural Logics,from a Stalker Theoretic Point of View

We study filters in residuated structures that are associated with congruence relations (which we call -filters), and develop a semantical theory for general substructural logics based on the notion of primeness for those filters. We first generalize Stone’s sheaf representation theorem to general substructural logics and then define the primeness of -filters as being “points” (or stalkers) of the space, the spectrum, on which the representing sheaf is defined. Prime FL-filters will turn out to coincide with truth sets under various well known semantics for certain substructural logics. We also investigate which structural rules are needed to interpret each connective in terms of prime -filters in the same way as in Kripke or Routley-Meyer semantics. We may consider that the set of the structural rules that each connective needs in this sense reflects the difficulty of giving the meaning of the connective. A surprising discovery is that connectives , ⅋ of linear logic are linearly ordered in terms of the difficulty in this sense. Presented by Wojciech Buszkowski     

The scientific use of ‘representation’ and ‘function’: avoiding explanatory vacuity

Nearly all of the ways philosophers currently attempt to define the terms ‘representation’ and ‘function’ undermine the scientific application of those terms by rendering the scientific explanations in which they occur vacuous. Since this is unacceptable, we must develop analyses of these terms that avoid this vacuity. Robert Cummins argues in this fashion in Representations, Targets, and Attitudes. He accuses ‘use theories’ of representational content of generating vacuous explanations, claims that nearly all current theories of representational content are use theories, and offers a non-use theory of representational content which avoids explanatory vacuity. One task I undertake in this article is to develop an alternative non-use theory which avoids an objection fatal to that theory. My second task is to adapt Cummins’ argument to criticize most current analyses of ‘function,’ which undermine scientific explanation in an analogous way. Though Cummins does not explicitly argue in this manner, his own analysis of ‘function,’ by avoiding any appeal to use, avoids the explanatory vacuity to which they succumb. Consequently, I endorse Cummins’ notion of function. However, although use theories fail as analyses of the terms ‘representation’ and ‘function,’ they can still make significant contributions to the sciences employing these terms. For, while philosophers seeking to define ‘representation’ and ‘function’ must avoid incorporating representational and functional uses into their definitions, scientists must still find a way to determine which representations and functions are being used. Suitably re-construed use theories of representation and function may in many cases assist them in this task.     

Representation over time: the effects of temporal distance on similarity

Similarity is central in human cognition, playing a role in a wide range of cognitive processes. In three studies, we demonstrate that subjective similarity may change as a function of temporal distance, with some events seeming more similar when considered in the near future, while others increase in similarity as temporal distance increases. Given the ubiquity of inter-temporal thought, and the fundamental role of similarity, these results have important implications for cognition in general.