Homophonic context effects when naming Japanese kanji: evidence for processing costs?

The current study investigated the effects of phonologically related context pictures on the naming latencies of target words in Japanese and Chinese. Reading bare words in alphabetic languages has been shown to be rather immune to effects of context stimuli, even when these stimuli are presented in advance of the target word (e.g., Glaser & Düngelhoff, 1984 Glaser, W. R. and Düngelhoff, F. J. 1984. The time course of picture–word interference. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 10: 640–654. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Roelofs, 2003 Roelofs, A. 2003. Goal-referenced selection of verbal action: Modeling attentional control in the Stroop task. Psychological Review, 110: 88–125. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). However, recently, semantic context effects of distractor pictures on the naming latencies of Japanese kanji (but not Chinese hànzì) words have been observed (Verdonschot, La Heij, & Schiller, 2010 Verdonschot, R. G., La Heij, W. and Schiller, N. O. 2010. Semantic context effects when naming Japanese kanji, but not Chinese hànzì. Cognition, 115: 512–518. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). In the present study, we further investigated this issue using phonologically related (i.e., homophonic) context pictures when naming target words in either Chinese or Japanese. We found that pronouncing bare nouns in Japanese is sensitive to phonologically related context pictures, whereas this is not the case in Chinese. The difference between these two languages is attributed to processing costs caused by multiple pronunciations for Japanese kanji.     

Processing negative numbers by transforming negatives to positive range and by sign shortcut

Numerals are processed by a phylogenetically old analogue magnitude system. Can culturally new negative numerals be processed using this same representation? To find out whether magnitude representation could be used, we contrasted three possible processing mechanisms: an extended magnitude system for both positive and negative numbers, a mirroring mechanism that could transform negative values to the positive range to be processed on the positive magnitude system, and a sign shortcut strategy that can process the signs of numbers independently of the absolute values of numerals. To test these three hypotheses, a comparison task was used and the reaction time pattern, numerical distance, and Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect was analysed. The results revealed a mirroring process along with a sign shortcut mechanism. The SNARC effect was observed only when positive numbers were compared.     

Review

Book reviewed in this article:
David Ray Griffin, Religion and Scientific Naturalism: Overcoming the Conflicts     

综合性大学开设长学制高等医学教育的初步研究

我国现有的医学教育学制偏短,不利于培养高质量医学人才。综合性大学有着许多办学优势,有利于开设长学制医学教育,因此,要发挥综合性大学的优势,实行多通道办学模式,学分制和弹性学制,强化公共基础教育和人文素质教育,改善办学条件,提高管理水平,努力培养能参与国际竞争的高层次医学人才。     

现代认知心理学关于图式模型的研究

对现代认知心理学关于知识图式的研究作了系统的阐述,分析了产生式系统取向和联结主义取向的优缺点。指出：图式模型研究的整合观是近来及以后认知心理学研究的主要课题之一。     

Therapist responses to requests for disclosure of therapeutic records: An introductory study

This paper describes a questionnaire survey of therapists in the UK who have been subject to requests for disclosure of client records as part of a legal process. Therapist responses are outlined in terms of the perceived effect of such disclosure on the client, therapist and the therapeutic relationship. Negative effects included the experience of exposure of sensitive client material in an adversarial legal system, of powerful emotional responses by therapists, and a sense of feeling professionally de‐skilled in an unfamiliar and often challenging legal environment. Positive effects for the client included the achievement of valued outcomes such as compensation, and, for the therapist, the facilitation of support for the client in this process. These findings are discussed in terms of a contrast between therapist perceptions of consensual and contested disclosure. In the former, therapist and client are in agreement about the restorative value and outcome of disclosure. In contested disclosure, the process is experienced as disrupting therapeutic privacy, undermining professional self‐confidence and introducing an unwelcome element of critical re‐evaluation of client motives for undertaking therapy.     

关于哲学的问题研究

“恰当地提出问题”对于哲学甚至比对于科学更为重要,它体现出哲学活动的特殊性质。提问开放新的视域。使我们超出习见,进入思考和对话。着重于提出问题而非构造理论,在今天可以被视为一种研究哲学的方式。当今时代给我们提出了大量需要研究的课题,也要求我们能够提出自己的问题。另一方面,20世纪哲学的自我批判,不仅使哲学的一些基本范畴被重新审视,它的探索方式乃至其功能与合法性根据也受到质询。对问题的研究已成为把握时代和探索哲学发展途径的入手处。     

《姤卦》意辨--兼谈卦意研究的态度和方法

有关《姤卦》意的解释,历来众说纷纭。通过研究周王朝初期社会习俗,特别是婚姻制度的制定和施行,结合文献,分析象意,考据卦辞,认为本卦的主题旨在宣扬周礼婚姻制度的必要性、时代性、进步性,同时也表现了这一婚姻制度的局限性,悲剧性。并对当前《易经》研究的一些不足现象,从注重历史、卦身分析、占辞研究等方面提出看法和建议。     

A framework and two sketches concerning psychoanalytical training and practice

The author discusses the mode of knowledge production in psychoanalysis based on a reflection on the psychoanalytical education and its relationship to clinical practice. She points out that there is a risk in a form of clinical activity found in our education, which, under the fascination of the analyst's power of operating in the metaphorical domain of words, loses sight of the material dimension of the clinical action. In other words, this form of clinical activity loses sight of the meeting with another human being, of the repertoire of theories and experiences that informs this action and the patient's and the analyst's concrete life situation. The author highlights the role of writing as a privileged way of dealing with the material and immaterial facts that constitute the clinical action and reflects on some of the forces that structure nowadays the reception of knowledge production inside the psychoanalytical field. She uses the notion of 'minor literature', by Franz Kafka, to express the possibility that a live circuit of writings exchanged among psychoanalysts can offer to an interchange of experiences and ideas that is the live expression of the history of the psychoanalytical groups. A clinical session is presented in order to promote considerations about the psychoanalytical education, theory and practice.     

Left caloric vestibular stimulation as a tool to reveal implicit and explicit parameters of body representation

Homeostatic parameters, such as temperature, are related to body representation. In this study, we measured whether caloric vestibular stimulation (CVS) alters body temperature and tactile processing, and if in the direction predicted by a holistic body matrix representation.Skin temperature and tactile two-point discrimination (TPD) acuity were measured for both arms before, immediately after and with a delay from CVS. Participants were also administered a personality questionnaire and an anxiety inventory to rule out confounding factors. Two control experiments were planned to exclude casual variations.Our results show that temperature drops significantly in both arms after CVS. CVS also induces a bilateral improvement in tactile acuity (even though not immediately after but in the delayed condition). Finally, these effects are not due to learning, as demonstrated by the control experiment.In summary, our results suggest that vestibular stimulation updates body representation, supporting the evidence in favor of a body matrix.