POLITICS: Automated ideological reasoning

POLITICS is a system of computer programs which simulates humans in comprehending and responding to world events from a given political or ideological perspective. The primary theoretical motivations were: (1) the implemention of a functional system which applies the knowledge structures of Schank and Abelson (1977) to the domain of simulating political belief systems; (2) the development of a tentative theory of intentional goal conflicts and counterplanning. Secondary goals of the POLITICS project include developing a representation for belief systems, investigating cognitive processes such as goal-directed inferencing, and the integration of several types of knowledge representations into a functional system.     

Human and computational question answering

The ability to answer questions about a text is the strongest possible demonstration of text comprehension. The question-answering problems that arise in a story-understanding system are discussed. Some solutions are described and illustrated by a computer program, which reads stories, and answers questions.     

Extraversion and compatibilist intuitions: a ten-year retrospective and meta-analyses

ABSTRACT

The past ten years have seen multiple attempts to estimate the relation between the global personality trait extraversion and compatibilist free will judgments. Here, we contribute to that line of research by conducting a meta-analysis of 17 published and eight unpublished studies (N = 2,811) estimating that relation. Overall, the mean effect size was modest but remarkably robust across materials, locations, and labs (z = .19, 95% CI .15-.24, p < .001). No significant publication bias was detected in the studies (t (23) = 1.88, p = .07). While there was no significant heterogeneity in the studies (Q (24) = 34.42, p = .08, I² = 26.05), a moderator analysis suggested that the effect is strongest in cases that contain highly affective actions (e.g., murder) (z = .22, 95% CI .17-.28, p < .001) and weakest in cases that contain actions with low affect (e.g., asking whether free will is compatible with determinism) (z = .09, 95% CI -.05-.23, p = .22). The meta-analysis provides additional evidence that extraversion is related to compatibilist free will judgments and helps to identify opportunities to discover boundary conditions and more proximal causal mechanisms for the relation. The results of the meta-analysis also have implications for informed decision making.     

Contributions of parents and peers to children's moral socialization

This article is concerned with the process of moral development, or specifically, how children acquire a sense of right and wrong from their interactions with two major agents of socialization—parents and peers. The first section of the paper critically examines the literature on parental influences and draws several conclusions about the ways in which parents affect children's moral character. The focus then shifts to a review of the literature on peer group contributions to moral socialization. The paper concludes by examining the literature on cross-pressures, and offering a perspective on the ways in which parental and peer group influences combine to affect children's moral development.     

Taking Racism to Heart: Race-Related Stressors and Cardiovascular Reactivity for Multiracial People

Multiracial people experience an accumulation of racial stress for both their minority and their multiracial identities, yet no research has examined the physiological impact of this stress. This within-groups experimental study examined whether two race-related stressors—identity invalidation and discrimination from family—affect cardiovascular reactivity for Black/White multiracial adults (N = 60). The authors found a Condition × Phase interaction effect indicating that discrimination from family affected blood pressure. Invalidation had no effect on blood pressure. Las personas multirraciales experimentan una acumulación de estrés racial tanto a causa de su identidad multirracial como de su identidad como minoría, pero no hay investigaciones que hayan examinado el impacto psicológico de este estrés. Este estudio experimental dentro de grupos examinó si dos factores causantes de estrés relacionados con la raza (la invalidación de la identidad y la discriminación por parte de la familia) afectan a la reactividad cardiovascular de personas adultas multirraciales blancas/negras (N = 60). Los autores hallaron un efecto de interacción Condición × Fase que indica que la discriminación por parte de la familia tuvo un efecto sobre la presión sanguínea. La invalidación no tuvo efecto sobre la presión sanguínea.     

早期儒家与易学

孔子老而好易,思想也随之发生了一些变化.子思受孔子晚年之教,他的思想中也有受易学影响的痕迹.郭店楚基竹简中的儒家著作,学界一般认为是子思学派的著作,这批竹简中也有深受易学影响的痕迹.从这些事实来看,<史记>所载孔子与<易>关系的事迹是可信的.     

Comparing natural and abstract categories: A case study from computer science

In order to address the issue of whether abstract and concrete objects are categorized similarly, this paper looks at how computer scientists categorize the common concepts of their field. Using the methodology of Rosch, Mervis, Gray, Johnson, and Boyes-Braem (1976) and of Rosch and Mervis (1975) to identify the categorizations used by computer scientists, this study found that the categorization phenomena reported for concrete objects are quite general, operating over a wider range than was previously thought.     

Verbs,time, and modality

In the first part of this paper it is argued that Vendler's classification of verbs into aspectual categories, called activities, accomplishments, achievements, and states, is better seen as classifying the meanings of sentences, and a recursive scheme for describing the aspectual character of sentences is presented. In the second part, this scheme is applied to the discussion of the epistemic and deontic meanings of the modal verbs must, will, and may. In particular, the relation between the “future” and “nonfuture” senses of epistemic will is examined.