理解心理学:历史形态、特征与评析

理解心理学是一种坚持心理学的人文科学取向,倡导人特有研究方式的建构与运用,以达成对人及其心理生活本质或生命意义与价值的理解、描述为目标的心理学流派、思想主张或形态。其发展先后呈现出知识论取向的理解心理学、价值论(或生存论)取向的理解心理学、整合论取向的理解心理学。在方法论上具有鲜明的人文主义特征,致力于探究人的社会本性,构筑了人文科学心理学的历史样态。未来,理解心理学还需摒弃非此即彼的思维方式,携手说明心理学共同推动心理学走向成熟     

How visually impaired cyclists ride regular and pedal electric bicycles

The present study investigates whether visually impaired cyclists compensate for their vision limitations by maintaining a lower speed or a larger distance to the kerb than normally sighted cyclists when riding a regular bicycle or pedal electric bicycle (pedelec). A normally sighted control group (n = 10), a peripheral visual field loss group (n = 9), and a low visual acuity group (n = 12) rode a fixed route (7.5 km) in the Netherlands on a regular bicycle and on a pedelec. Speed and lateral position were measured when participants cycled a (I) one-way cycle path, (II) two-way cycle path, (III) residential area, and (IV) shared space zone. With regard to both the regular bicycle and the pedelec, no significant speed or lateral position differences were found between the three groups. In conclusion, for some people with severe and permanent visual impairments, and under certain circumstances, regular bicycle and pedelec riding may be possible without noticeable speed reduction or adapted lane position to compensate for their functional impairment. The present findings may further optimise the cycling advice provided by mobility trainers of vision rehabilitation centres and the independent mobility of visually impaired people.     

Visual search for positional relationships between pattern elements

The purpose of these experiments was to illustrate how a search for positional relationships between the elements in a stimulus pattern is effortful and serial, whereas a search for pattern elements (without requiring any positional information) takes place rapidly and in parallel. In all three experiments of this study, the target and distractor patterns consisted of two vertical line segments. In the experiment concerning the search for positional relationships between pattern elements, one of the line segments in a line pair had a gap, and the observer's task was to indicate whether the positional order of the two lines was identical in all the line pairs of the display, or whether the line segments were in a mirror-image order in one line pair (the target). In the two experiments concerning the search for pattern elements (no positional information was required), the observer's task was to look for a line pair with one gap line (the target) among line pairs containing two broken lines or among line pairs with unbroken lines. In all three tasks, the reaction time for a correct target detection was measured. The results showed that the search in the first task was highly serial, and in the second and third tasks of "feature" searches, the search time was nearly independent of the number of distractor pairs. It is suggested that this dissociation may be interpreted in the context of the quality of information processing in extrafoveal vision, i. e. the elements of a stimulus pattern can be clearly visible outside the fovea, but it is not possible to perceive accurately the positional relationships between them.     

The pigeon's perception of saturation.

Three experiments used similar methods to investigate the pigeon's perception of saturation of monochromatic lights. This trial-wise procedure consisted of brief presentations of positive and negative stimuli in random sequence. Pecks to the positive stimuli were occasionally reinforced on a low fixed-ratio schedule. The first study determined absolute thresholds for "white" and monochromatic lights by establishing a discrimination between lights of various radiances and a dark key. Experiment II investigated generalization from a white light to various monochromatic lights under conditions that minimized the use of luminance as a cue. The third experiment examined discrimination of various monochromatic lights along a colorimetric purity continuum; responses to white light were reinforced, while responses to lights that combined white and monochromatic lights in various proportions were not. The results indicated that lights of different wavelength differ in saturation, but that all are discriminable from white. Wavelengths between 550 and 600 nm are least saturated for the pigeon, and saturation increases markedly as wavelength decreases below this region of the spectrum.     

Produire et réviser la morphologie flexionnelle du nombre : de l'accès à une expertise

To understand how children and adults produce written text, you must first be able to describe how they acquire some basic mechanisms. This is the reason to study the acquisition and use of simple orthographic principles. Following this idea, the research of Largy, Fayol et al. concerns nominal and verbal agreement in French. This article proposes a synthesis of the recent development in this domain. Through the study of two competences to be acquired by the writer — (1) to produce the flexional morphology of number in written text and (2) to revise and judge the correctness of this production — this article presents and discusses in which way the learner access to a writing expertise, always relative.     

The Epistemological Status of Vision and its Implications for Design

Computational theories of vision typically rely on the analysis of two aspects of human visual function: (1) object and shape recognition (2) co-calibration of sensory measurements. Both these approaches are usually based on an inverse-optics model, where visual perception is viewed as a process of inference from a 2D retinal projection to a 3D percept within a Euclidean space schema. This paradigm has had great success in certain areas of vision science, but has been relatively less successful in understanding perceptual representation, namely, the nature of the perceptual encoding. One of the drawbacks of inverse-optics approaches has been the difficulty in defining the constraints needed to make the inference computationally tractable (e.g. regularity assumptions, Bayesian priors, etc.). These constraints, thought to be learned assumptions about the nature of the physical and optical structures of the external world, have to be incorporated into any workable computational model in the inverse-optics paradigm. But inference models that employ an inverse optics plus structural assumptions approach inevitably result in a naïve realist theory of perceptual representation. Another drawback of inference models for theories of perceptual representation is their inability to explain central features of the visual experience. The one most evident in the process and visual understanding of design is the fact that some visual configurations appear, often spontaneously, as perceptually more coherent than others. The epistemological consequences of inferential approaches to vision indicate that they fail to capture enduring aspects of our visual experience. Therefore they may not be suited to a theory of perceptual representation, or useful for an understanding of the role of perception in the design process and product.