A developmental dissociation between category and function judgments about novel artifacts

Two studies investigated the relative importance of information about intended design and current use on judgments about the function (Experiment 1) or category (Experiment 2) of novel artifacts in preschool children and adults. Adults assigned function and name on the basis of information about design across all conditions, while children’s decisions about function dissociated from decisions about category. Function judgments (in both 4 and 6-year-olds) were neutral between design and current use, both when the current use was idiosyncratic (e.g. performed by just one agent) and conventional (performed by many people; Experiment 1). By contrast, where category judgments were required for the very same objects (Experiment 2), children named according to design intentions - but only if the alternate function was idiosyncratic. Judging function and assigning category are thus cognitive tasks that draw on different information across development, a fact that should be captured by theories of developing artifact concept structure.     

时序知觉研究方法及其影响因素

时序知觉是个体对直接作用于感觉器官的客观事件顺序性的知觉。时序判断任务和同时性判断任务是研究时序知觉的经典实验范式。时序知觉不仅受机体变量,刺激变量及反应变量的影响,还受注意和通道等中介变量的影响。个体的意识和潜意识在同时性、非同时性和序列性时间知觉中的作用问题有待进一步探索。     

信息呈现顺序对公平判断形成的影响

在公平启发理论的基础上,以130名大学生为被试采用实验室实验探讨了信息呈现顺序对公平判断形成的影响。结果表明：（1）信息呈现顺序能够影响人们的公平判断——当结果适宜性信息更早获得时,结果公平对公平判断的影响要大于结果适宜性信息较晚呈现时的影响;（2）公平形式偏好对公平判断的信息效应具有调节作用,即当高偏好信息先于低偏好信息出现时,公平判断的顺序效应会得到加强;而在低偏好信息先于高偏好信息出现的情况下,公平判断的顺序效应会被减弱。     

A Precautionary Tale: Separating the Infant from the Fetus

This article confronts growing conservative opposition to abortion based on the claim that abortion is morally equivalent to infanticide. By examining the relationship between moral skepticism and precautionary ethics the article promotes a completely permissive position on abortion from conception to birth while consistently rejecting the possibility that such a position entails permissive implications for infanticide. The article introduces and traces the implicit relationship between moral skepticism, the precautionary principle and political liberalism.

The hedgehog and the Borg: Common morality in bioethics

In this commentary, I critically discuss the respective views of Gert and Beauchamp–Childress on the nature of so-called common morality and its promise for enriching ethical reflection within the field of bioethics. Although I endorse Beauchamp and Childress’ shift from an emphasis on ethical theory as the source of moral norms to an emphasis on common morality, I question whether rouging up common morality to make it look like some sort of ultimate and universal foundation for morality, untouched by the dialectics of time and reflective equilibrium, was an equally good move. As for Gert’s magisterial conception of common morality, I conclude that certain elements of his system are controversial at best and woefully inadequate at worst. He has a tendency to find in common morality what he himself put there, and his highly restricted conception of duties of assistance strikes this reader as ad hoc, inadequately defended, and unworthy of a project whose goal is to lessen the amount of misery in the world.

Relative quantity judgment by Asian elephants (Elephas maximus)

This study investigated whether Asian elephants can make relative quantity judgment (RQJ), a dichotomous judgment of unequal quantities ordered in magnitude. In Experiment 1, elephants were simultaneously shown two baskets with differing quantities of bait (up to 6 items). In Experiment 2, elephants were sequentially presented with baits, which could not be seen by elephants in their total quantities. The task of elephants was to choose the larger quantity in both experiments. Results showed that the elephants chose the larger quantity with significantly greater frequency. Interestingly, the elephants did not exhibit disparity or magnitude effects, in which performance declines with a smaller difference between quantities in a two-choice task, or the total quantity increases, respectively. These findings appear to be inconsistent with the previous reports of RQJ in other animals, suggesting that elephants may be using a different mechanism to compare and represent quantities than previously suggested for other species.     

Moral Obligation and Moral Motivation in Confucian Role-Based Ethics

How is the Confucian moral agent motivated to do what he or she judges to be right or good? In western philosophy, the answer to a question such as this depends on whether one is an internalist or externalist concerning moral motivation. In this article, I will first interpret Confucian ethics as role-based ethics and then argue that we can attribute to Confucianism a position on moral motivation that is neither internalist nor externalist but somewhere in between. I will then illustrate my claim with my reading of Mencius 6A4, showing that it is superior to readings found in the literature, which typically assume that Mencius is an internalist.     

判断与决策中的锚定效应

versky和Kahneman提出锚定与调整启发式以来,锚定效应在不同领域判断与决策研究中得到广泛验证,提出了不同类型的锚定效应、多种研究范式、心理机制的不同理论观点,以及锚定效应作为有关心理现象的内在作用机制。文章阐述了锚定效应的最新研究进展,提出应深化对锚的种类和形态研究,以丰富的技术手段发展锚定效应神经心理机制研究,系统地进行锚定效应影响因素研究,深入探讨锚定现象对人的心理与行为的正负面影响以及锚定效应与其他有关心理现象间的关系     

大学生偶发和外显编码中的自我参照效应

在自我参照范式中加入偶发编码加工方式,并采用R/K判断范式考察中国大学生在偶发编码和外显编码方式中的记忆成绩.结果发现:在R指标上,偶发编码方式和外显编码方式中均出现了自我参照效应和母亲参照效应;参照自我加工的记忆成绩显著高于参照母亲加工的记忆成绩;外显编码方式中的记忆成绩显著高于偶发编码方式的记忆成绩.结果提示,当需提高对信息的记忆成绩时,只要呈现自我线索就足够了,并不需要对其进行外显编码加工.     

大学生负面身体自我认知加工偏好

基于负面身体自我图式理论,采用词汇判断任务的实验范式,探讨负面身体自我者的认知加工偏好。研究1考察胖负面身体自我大学生对胖相关的身体信息词加工偏好,结果表明,加工胖身体相关词的编码速度比对照组显著更快,对胖消极和隐喻词偏好量大于积极词。研究2考察瘦负面身体自我大学生对瘦相关的身体信息词的加工偏好,发现对瘦相关词的编码速度显著比对照组更快,但对瘦积极词、消极词、隐喻词、形似词编码的偏好量不存在差异。结果支持负面身体自我图式指导认知加工