中国古代形上学中数字观念的发展

数字观念的源起很早,《易》占可能是已知最早的源头,自先秦经两汉至宋明,数字观念问题意识有较大转变．先秦思想家以数字观念解释万物的生成,建构其宇宙观．汉代数字观念继续朝向神秘化、复杂化的方向发展,以卦气观念为核心的思想影响所及,几无处不在．为回应玄学和佛学的冲击,宋明儒者注重以数字观念建构形上学,既运用数字描述形质世界的秩序和意义,又处处强调数字所表述的形上本体的普遍性和超越性．而且,宋儒的数字形上学和汉儒的数字观念有若干传承的关系．     

小学儿童在空间概念中的内隐学习实验研究

本研究以一、三、五年级小学儿童为被试,探查小学儿童在不同学习模式下空间概念的发展情况。研究结果如下:(1)不同学习模式下,儿童的认知发展呈现不同的趋势;(2)随认知任务难度的增加,不同学习模式的成绩出现差异;(3)不同学习模式下,不同难度任务的成绩存在差异。     

Concept formation in non-verbal categorization tasks in brain-damaged patients with and without aphasia

The study of thinking in patients with aphasic language impairments has long since been considered as means for learning about neuropsychological processes. In the present investigation, a non-verbal categorization task was used, requiring the subjects to sort several common objects according to different principles. The experimental group consisted of aphasic patients with motor and sensory aphasia. Two control groups were used, one consisting of normal subjects and the other of non-aphasic patients with injuries in the right hemisphere of the brain. The sorting behaviour was analysed according to several aspects. The final product of the categorization was assessed, as well as the behavioural processes observed during the sorting. The results were expressed in terms of different conceptual levels achieved. The results of the investigation showed that the aphasics were significantly inferior to normal controls both quantitatively and qualitatively in all sorting aspects. Possible mechanisms underlying the deficiencies in the sorting behaviour of the two aphasic groups were discussed.     

Stimulus equivalence and transitive associations: A methodological analysis

When a number of two-stimulus relations are established through training within a set of stimuli, other two-stimulus relations often emerge in the same set without direct training. These, termed "transitive stimulus relations," have been demonstrated with a variety of visual and auditory stimuli. The phenomenon has served as a behavioral model for explaining the emergence of rudimentary comprehension and reading skills, and the development of generative syntactic repertoires. This article considers the range of relations that can arise between a given number of stimuli in a class, the number of directly established two-stimulus relations necessary for the emergence of transitive relations, the forms that training sets of stimuli can take, and the number of transitive two-stimulus relations that can be induced without direct training. The procedures needed to establish and assess transitive stimulus control, the possible interactions between the training and testing procedures, and the constrainst these interactions place upon the analysis of transitive stimulus control are also examined. The present analysis indicates that in a transitivity test, choice among such stimuli may be controlled by (1) the relation between the sample and the positive comparison stimulus (transitive stimulus control), (2) the relation between the sample and the negative comparison stimulus (S- rule control), and (3) possible discriminative properties that may inadvertently be established in the positive and negative comparison stimuli (valence control). Methods are described for distinguishing these three forms of stimulus control.     

A behavioral technology for producing concept formation in university students

Three experiments analyzed the effectiveness of a textbook incorporating "concept programming" in producing concept formation in university students. The concept programming portion of each lesson requires students to determine which concept is illustrated by each of 20 short fictional stories about everyday behavioral situations. The stories are selected to illustrate and contrast the concepts of that lesson. Student responses are heavily prompted during the initial stories of each lesson. The first experiment demonstrated that students generalize to entirely novel examples from the examples in the textbook. The second experiment demonstrated that the concept programming portion of the textbook is a critical component in producing generalization. The third experiment demonstrated that the amount of concept formation produced by the concept programmed textbook is greater than that produced by a widely used standard textbook.     

Concept learning by monkeys with video picture images and a touch screen.

Two rhesus monkeys were trained in a same/different task to discriminate digitized computer-stored picture stimuli. The pictures were digitized from 35-mm slides and presented in pairs on a computer monitor. The monkeys were required to touch the pictures and then make a choice response to indicate whether the pictures were identical or nonidentical. The response areas and stimuli were located to the sides of the picture stimuli. Responses were defined and monitored by an infrared matrix touch screen. After learning the same/different task, both monkeys showed performance accuracy with novel picture stimuli similar to that with training picture stimuli. This accurate novel-picture transfer indicates that a same/different concept had been learned, a concept similar to the one they had previously demonstrated in a different apparatus with rear-projected slide stimuli and a response lever.     

Motion as a natural category for pigeons: Generalization and a feature-positive effect

Three groups of pigeons were trained with a modified discriminative autoshaping procedure to discriminate video images of other pigeons on the basis of movement. Birds of all groups were shown the same video images of other pigeons, which were either moving or still. The group to whom food was presented only after moving images learned the discrimination very quickly. A second group, to whom food was given only after still images, and a pseudocategory group, to whom food was presented after arbitrarily chosen stimuli, showed no evidence of discrimination during acquisition training. Extinction conditions led to clear differences in peck rates to moving and still images in the second group but not in the pseudocategory group. The result is related to the feature-positive effect. Generalization tests showed that the discrimination performance was based on visual features of the stimuli but was invariant against changes of size, perspective, brightness, and color. Furthermore, discrimination was maintained when novel images of pigeons under different viewing angles and seven other types of motion categories were presented. It is argued that the discrimination is based not on a common motion feature but on motion concepts or high-order generalization across motion categories.     

Technology in Medicine: Ontology,Epistemology, Ethics and Social Philosophy at the Crossroads

In reference to the different approaches in philosophy(of medicine) of the nature of (medical) technology,this article introduces the topic of this specialissue of Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, that is,the way the different forms of medical technologyfunction in everyday medical practice. The authorselaborate on the active role technology plays inshaping our views on disease, illness, and the body,whence in shaping our world.     

Same/different concept learning in the pigeon: the effect of negative instances and prior adaptation to transfer stimuli

Pigeons were trained on a matching-to-sample or oddity-from-sample task with shapes (circle and plus). Half of each group was exposed to “negative instance” trials i.e., for matching birds, neither comparison key matched the sample, and for oddity birds both comparison keys matched the sample. When all birds were transferred to a new task involving colors (red and green), nonshifted birds (transferred from matching to matching, or oddity to oddity) performed significantly better than shifted birds (transferred from matching to oddity, or oddity to matching), but only if they had experienced negative instances of the training concept. When all birds were exposed to negative instances of the transfer task and then transferred to a new color task (yellow and blue), dramatic transfer effects were observed. The effect of pre-exposure to the yellow and blue colors, in order to reduce transfer-stimulus novelty, had a minor effect on transfer.     

Greenwald提出的内隐联想测验介绍

内隐联想测验(Implicit Association Test,简称IAT)是Greenwald等于1998年提出的一种新的内隐社会认知的研究方法,其采用的是一种计算机化的辨别分类任务,以反应时为指标,通过对概念词和属性词之间的自动化联系的评估进而来对个体的内隐态度等进行间接测量。该文先对内隐联想测验的由来、原理进行了介绍,再从性能及应用两方面对已有的相关研究进行了归纳、整理和论述。最后,通过分析指出该方法符合现代心理测量学的最新发展方向,将有着强大的生命力。