3─6岁儿童层级类概念发展的实验研究

以３－６岁儿童为被试,以７个常见物体种类的图片为实验材料,按概念水平（基本类概念及上级类概念）以及选择图与目标图的感知相似程度（高、中、低）将实验材料分为四种类型,对３－６岁儿童层级类概念的发展过程进行了研究。结果表明：（１）３岁幼儿已能按基本类概念标准进行正确的种类匹配;对于上级类概念,３－５岁儿童的匹配能力尚较差,６岁基本达到掌握水平。（２）实验材料的感知相似程度对３－５岁儿童的上级类概念匹配操作有显著性影响,６岁儿童才摆脱了这种制约作用。     

3─6岁儿童层级类概念发展的实验研究

以３－６岁儿童为被试,以７个常见物体种类的图片为实验材料,按概念水平（基本类概念及上级类概念）以及选择图与目标图的感知相似程度（高、中、低）将实验材料分为四种类型,对３－６岁儿童层级类概念的发展过程进行了研究。结果表明：（１）３岁幼儿已能按基本类概念标准进行正确的种类匹配;对于上级类概念,３－５岁儿童的匹配能力尚较差,６岁基本达到掌握水平。（２）实验材料的感知相似程度对３－５岁儿童的上级类概念匹配操作有显著性影响,６岁儿童才摆脱了这种制约作用。     

字符的知觉表征及其启动

实验以英文单词,汉字和图片为材料,采用速示补笔测验测量了大脑左右半球的启动效应。结果是,如果学习与测验的字体和大小不变,则视觉启动右半球高于左半球。其他材料不产生这种效应。这表明,至少有一个分离的系统对构成启动的汉字的视觉表征进行编码,此系统在右半球表征形状特异形状特异信息更有效;对字符抽象特征的表征,两半球无显著差异,速示补笔测量的是前语义水平的知觉表征,是一种知觉（数据驱动）内隐记忆测验。     

Failure of Retrospective Inference in Rats' Taste Aversion

Three experiments explored the possibility of retrospective inference in the rat. Experiment 1 revealed that poisoning of an element of a taste compound after single compound poisoning enhanced aversion to the other element, and that presentation of an element without poison after the compound poisoning reduced aversion to the other element. These results were opposite to those predicted by retrospective inference. Experiment 2 eliminated some confounding variables and examined the effect of element poisoning after compound poisoning. The result again was opposite to what the retrospective view predicts. The results, however, accorded with the idea that within-compound learning was established during compound presentation, and subsequent poisoning or nonpoisoning of one element affected response to the other element via the within-compound learning. In Experiment 3, the possibility of within-compound learning was reduced by using sequential presentation of tastes, but there was no indication of retrospective inference even under this condition.     

The knowledge content of statistical data

An information-theoretic framework is used to analyze the knowledge content in multivariate cross classified data. Several related measures based directly on the information concept are proposed: the knowledge content (S) of a cross classification, its terseness (Zeta), and the separability (Gamma _X ) of one variable, given all others. Exemplary applications are presented which illustrate the solutions obtained where classical analysis is unsatisfactory, such as optimal grouping, the analysis of very skew tables, or the interpretation of well-known paradoxes. Further, the separability suggests a solution for the classic problem of inductive inference which is independent of sample size.     

Effects of lines of progress and semilogarithmic charts on ratings of charted data

The extent to which interrater agreement and ratings of significance on both changes in level and trend are affected by lines of progress and semilogarithmic charts was investigated. Thirteen graduate students rated four sets of charts, each set containing 19 phase changes. Set I data were plotted on equal interval charts. In Set II a line of progress was drawn through each phase on each chart. In Set III data points were replotted on semilogarithmic charts. In Set IV a line of progress was drawn through each phase of each Set III chart. A significant main effect on interrater agreement was found for lines of progress as well as a significant 2-way interaction between lines of progress and change type. Three main effects (chart type, lines of progress, and type of change) and a significant 3-way interaction were found for ratings of significance. Implications of these data for visual analysis of charted data are discussed.     

Statistical inference for false positive and false negative error rates in mastery testing

This paper describes an asymptotic inferential procedure for the estimates of the false positive and false negative error rates. Formulas and tables are described for the computations of the standard errors. A simulation study indicates that the asymptotic standard errors may be used even with samples of 25 cases as long as the Kuder-Richardson Formula 21 reliability is reasonably large. Otherwise, a large sample would be required.This work was performed pursuant to Grant No NIE-G-78-0087 with the National Institute of Education, Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Huynh Huynh, Principal Investigator. Points of view or opinions stated do not necessarily reflect NIE position or policy and no official endorsement should be inferred. The editorial assistance of Joseph C. Saunders is gratefully acknowledged.     

CRITICAL REALISM REDUX: A RESPONSE TO JOSH REEVES

This article combines an appreciation of several themes in Josh Reeves's Against Methodology in Science and Religion: Recent Debates on Rationality and Theology while arguing in favor of critical realism. The author holds that critical realism manages to combine the objective truth reached through inference and especially cognitive acts of judgment as well as the various, contingent historical contexts that also define where science is practiced. Reeves advocates a historical perspective, but this article claims that in order for critical realism to be credible, a philosophical perspective must be maintained.     

THEORIZING RELIGION AND QUESTIONING THE FUTURE OF ISLAM AND SCIENCE

Will there be any joint future for science and Islam? Although such questions have recently received considerable attention, more basic questions are often ignored. This article aims at addressing some of those more basic questions through exploring the assumptions that underlie different possible understandings of the question about the future of Islam and science. By investigating the relation between conceptualizations of religion and the question about the future of Islam and science, it will be argued that different understandings of the concept of religion (i.e., whether it denotes real objects, whether it is universal, and whether it is belief centered) lead to extremely different readings of the question. Besides, it will be argued that different answers to the question about the future of Islam and science can be understood in terms of the inference to best theological explanation; thus, the criteria that one assumes for the best theological explanation result in different criteria for evaluation of the answers.     

Introspection during visual search

Recent advances in the field of metacognition have shown that human participants are introspectively aware of many different cognitive states, such as confidence in a decision. Here we set out to expand the range of experimental introspection by asking whether participants could access, through pure mental monitoring, the nature of the cognitive processes that underlie two visual search tasks: an effortless “pop-out” search, and a difficult, effortful, conjunction search. To this aim, in addition to traditional first order performance measures, we instructed participants to give, on a trial-by-trial basis, an estimate of the number of items scanned before a decision was reached. By controlling response times and eye movements, we assessed the contribution of self-observation of behavior in these subjective estimates. Results showed that introspection is a flexible mechanism and that pure mental monitoring of cognitive processes is possible in elementary tasks.