Inferring hidden causal structure

We used a new method to assess how people can infer unobserved causal structure from patterns of observed events. Participants were taught to draw causal graphs, and then shown a pattern of associations and interventions on a novel causal system. Given minimal training and no feedback, participants in Experiment 1 used causal graph notation to spontaneously draw structures containing one observed cause, one unobserved common cause, and two unobserved independent causes, depending on the pattern of associations and interventions they saw. We replicated these findings with less-informative training (Experiments 2 and 3) and a new apparatus (Experiment 3) to show that the pattern of data leads to hidden causal inferences across a range of prior constraints on causal knowledge.     

人因学发展的新取向

当前新技术、人机交互的新特征、社会和人的新需求给中国人因学(Human Factors)的进一步发展创造了一个有利时机。本文首先讨论和分析了一些具有代表性的开拓了人因学科研究深度和广度的新技术和新途径, 包括神经人因学, 认知工程, 协同认知系统, 社会技术系统; 以及人因学科应用中的一些挑战和策略。然后, 就进一步发展我国的人因学科, 本文提出首先要解决的问题是建立多学科交叉的人因学科的科研教育体制, 并在此基础上, 注重理论创新, 以创新设计为突破点, 在智能系统、用户体验、航天航空和医疗健康等领域中优先发展和应用。当前迫切需要解决的是, 建立完善的人因学科高校教育体系, 建立完善的人因学科多学科交叉的科研体系, 以及建立人因学科行业资质标准和设计标准体系。     

Paradoxical cross-over due to attention to high or low spatial frequencies

The mechanisms underlying the right hemisphere's dominance for spatial and attentional functions lacks a comprehensively explanation. For example, perceptual biases, as observed in line bisection and related tasks, might be caused by an attentional asymmetry or by perceptual processes such as a specialization of the left and right hemisphere for high and low spatial frequencies (SFs), respectively. Here we used the gratingscales task to measure perceptual bias in SF judgements, and we cued participants' attention either to high or low SFs. Participants showed a leftward bias when comparing the high SF components of the stimulus, and a rightward bias when comparing the low SF components-opposite to what would be expected from a hemispheric lateralization for SFs. Two control experiments used different strategies to manipulate the width of the attentional window. However, we observed no influence on perceptual bias, thus ruling out the possibility that the results in Experiment 1 were due to differences in attentional window size. These data support the idea of an attentional asymmetry underlying perceptual bias. Our results provide novel support for the role of attentional asymmetry in perceptual biases.     

Children’s Gender–Emotion Stereotypes in the Relationship of Anger to Sadness and Fear

Children’s perceptions of the emotional reactions of same- and different-sex characters in stories containing ambiguous and unambiguous emotional contexts were examined. According to the Parallel-Constraint-Satisfaction Theory (Kunda and Thagard. Psychological Review, 103, 284–308, 1996), stereotypes are more likely to be utilized in ambiguous contexts, defined here as those likely to elicit multiple emotional responses. Seventy suburban U.S. preschoolers were read vignettes describing boys or girls in ambiguous or unambiguous emotion-inducing events and reported how the vignette characters were feeling. Results suggest that the perceptions of participants were more likely to reflect gender–emotion stereotypes (e.g. perceiving males as angry and females as sad) in ambiguous contexts than in unambiguous contexts. Results are discussed in terms of children’s emerging understanding of gender–emotion stereotypes.     

Beyond Therapy and Enhancement: The Alteration of Human Nature

With the rapid progress and considerable promise of nanobiotechnology/neurosciences there is the potential of transforming the very nature of human beings and of how humans can conceive of themselves as rational animals through technological innovations. The interface between humans and machines (neuro-digital interface), can potentially alter what it means to be human, i.e., the very idea of human nature and of normal functioning will be changed. In this paper, I argue that we are potentially on the verge of a paradigm shift in terms of the ends and goals of techno-science and its applications in the biomedical sciences. In particular, the development of brain-computer interfaces could reconceptualize the very notion of what it means to be human. Hence, we should not limit our reflections of applications in terms of therapy and enhancement but also include an examination of applications aiming at the alteration of human nature. To this end I will first delineate the potential paradigm shift and then map out four distinct clusters of concerns in relation to the brain-computer interface. Finally, I argue that our moral and philosophical reflections should follow a procedural model based on managed consensus due to our pluralistic context.

Nanotechnology, Enhancement, and Human Nature

Is nanotechnology-based human enhancement morally permissible? One reason to question such enhancement stems from a concern for preserving our species. It is harder than one might think, however, to explain what could be wrong with altering our own species. One possibility is to turn to the environmental ethics literature. Perhaps some of the arguments for preserving other species can be applied against nanotechnology-based human enhancements that alter human nature. This paper critically examines the case for using two of the strongest arguments in the environmental ethics literature to show that nanotechnology-based human enhancements are impermissible: 1) Our species, like many other naturally occurring species, has aesthetic value. So, nanotechnology-based human enhancements that alter our species should be prohibited. 2) Our species plays valuable ecological roles. Nanotechnology-based human enhancements that alter our species are likely to interfere with our species playing our ecologically valuable roles. So, such enhancements should be prohibited. Neither argument, ultimately, proves conclusive. The paper concludes, however, that considerations underlying both arguments may show us that some nanotechnology-based human enhancements are impermissible.     

公共行政部门人力资源培训新视角

吸收现代企业的人力资源管理思想是近年来公共行政部门人事管理工作的趋势。公共行政管理部门人力资源培训工作体系如何在先进的现代培训理念框架内实现为公共行政部门服务的针对性和有效性,是一个具有现实意义的问题。本文从培训目标、培训内容、培训方式、培训师资和评估激励5个方面探讨了公共行政管理部门干部教育培训管理工作的标准。     

Stimulus complexity and prospective timing: clues for a parallel process model of time perception

Whereas many studies have considered the role of attention in prospective timing, fewer have established relations between movement complexity and prospective timing. The present study aims at assessing to what extent motion complexity interferes with prospective timing and at delineating a neuropsychophysical plausible model. We have thus designed a visual paradigm presenting stimuli in sequential pairs (reference comparison interval). Stimuli are motionless or moving according to different complexities, and stimulus complexities are intermixed within each pair. To prevent a possible attention-sharing effect, no concurrent task was required. Our study suggests that movement complexity is a key component of duration perception, and that the relative judgement of durations depends on spatio-temporal features of stimuli. In particular, it shows that movement complexity can bias subjects’ perception and performance, and that subjects detect that comparison intervals are longer than reference before their end. In the discussion, we advocate that the classical internal clock model cannot easily account for our results. Consequently, we propose a model for time perception, based on a parallel processing between comparison interval perception and the reconstruction of the reference duration.     

Effects of Attention on the Strength of Lexical Influences on Speech Perception: Behavioral Experiments and Computational Mechanisms

The effects of lexical context on phonological processing are pervasive and there have been indications that such effects may be modulated by attention. However, attentional modulation in speech processing is neither well documented nor well understood. Experiment 1 demonstrated attentional modulation of lexical facilitation of speech sound recognition when task and critical stimuli were identical across attention conditions. We propose modulation of lexical activation as a neurophysiologically plausible computational mechanism that can account for this type of modulation. Contrary to the claims of critics, this mechanism can account for attentional modulation without violating the principle of interactive processing. Simulations of the interactive TRACE model extended to include two different ways of modulating lexical activation showed that each can account for attentional modulation of lexical feedback effects. Experiment 2 tested conflicting predictions from the two implementations and provided evidence that is consistent with bias input as the mechanism of attentional control of lexical activation.     

Stonewalling through Schizophrenia: An Anti-Gay Rights Culture in Hong Kong?

With its British colonial legacy and Chinese make-up, Hong Kong provides a stimulating stadium and lens through which to examine the validity of the use of “culture” in arguing against homosexuality and the development and protection of the rights of sexual minorities. After a brief account on the legal developments in Hong Kong on homosexuality, this article examines how the argument that Hong Kong has an inherently anti-gay rights culture, which simultaneously emphasizes Confucianism and Christianity, and which the government then uses to stonewall the development and protection of the rights of sexual minorities, merely illuminates an underlying schizophrenia as to what that culture actually is. In the process of my diagnosis, I will also discuss whether Confucianism and Christianity indeed oppose homosexuality and sexual minority rights.