Forbidding Science: Some Beginning Reflections

Growing powers to manipulate human bodies and minds, not merely to heal disease but to satisfy desires, control deviant behavior, and to change human nature, make urgent questions of whether and how to regulate their use, not merely to assure safety and efficacy but also to safeguard our humanity. Oversight in democratic societies rightly belongs to the polity, not merely to self-appointed experts, scientific or ethical. Yet the task of governing the uses of dangerous knowledge is daunting, and there is little evidence that we have the will or the wisdom to do it well.

归纳推理多样性效应的发展及其争论

归纳推理多样性效应指的是在归纳论断中,前提项目数量越多、越多样,将能构成归纳力度越强的推理。已有研究表明成人的归纳推理明显受到前提项目多样性的影响,而幼儿的相关研究却存在着两种对立的观点：一是认为幼儿不能基于多样性进行推理,二是认为5岁左右的幼儿就能够基于多样性进行推理。出现此争论的原因可能与研究方法方面的差异有关,如实验范式与前提组间差异、实验材料类别与概念范畴、属性特征及呈现方式、推理形式;此外,儿童的知识经验也是一个影响因素。未来研究可以结合相关领域的研究范式;深入挖掘影响儿童表现出多样性效应的因素;将任务设计多样化;将实验任务的计分方式多样化;开展相关的应用研究。     

动画教学代理对多媒体学习的影响:学习者经验与偏好的调节作用

以往研究发现,动画教学代理对多媒体学习效果的影响不一致,可能受到学习者特征和偏好的调节。本研究以“空调的组成部分及工作原理”为实验材料,采用两个实验控制教学代理有无、经验高低和代理偏好,探讨动画教学代理对多媒体学习的影响。实验1发现与无代理组相比,代理组对教学视频的注视点个数更多,平均眼跳潜伏期更短,学习兴趣也更高;低经验者在代理条件下的迁移成绩更好。实验2发现学习者在偏好代理和非偏好代理条件下的迁移成绩好于无代理组;偏好代理组感知到更低的认知负荷,对总体视频的注视点个数和注视频率更多,平均眼跳潜伏期更短,对学习内容的注视点个数更多。结论认为：在多媒体中加入教学代理不会减少学习者对学习内容的注意,能提高多媒体学习效果,支持社会代理理论假设;教学代理能提高低经验者的学习效果,但对高知识经验者无明显作用;加入学习者偏好的代理形象会促进学习,但加入学习者非偏好的代理形象并没有阻碍学习。     

动画速度和学习者经验对多媒体学习的影响

以往研究显示,动画教学的效果很可能受到学习者先前知识经验与动画速度的影响。研究选取高经验和低经验的学习者,操纵动画播放速度为快、中和慢三个水平,利用眼动仪记录学习过程中的注意,探讨学习者经验和动画速度对学习效果和注意分配的影响。结果发现,在即时测验上,学习者经验和动画速度没有交互作用;在延迟测验上,低经验者在快速下成绩优于中速;高经验者对图片注视时间长于低经验者。研究认为,在即时测验上,学习者的经验水平不会影响动画速度的教学效果;在延迟测验上,低经验者在快速呈现动画时学习效果更好,学习者经验和动画速度对学习效果的影响更可能随着时间推移体现出来;基于整体型学习材料,高经验者比低经验者更关注图片。     

Emotion knowledge,emotion regulation,and psychosocial adjustment in children with nonverbal learning disabilities

Nonverbal learning disability is a childhood disorder with basic neuropsychological deficits in visuospatial processing and psychomotor coordination, and secondary impairments in academic and social-emotional functioning. This study examines emotion recognition, understanding, and regulation in a clinic-referred group of young children with nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD). These processes have been shown to be related to social competence and psychological adjustment in typically developing (TD) children. Psychosocial adjustment and social skills are also examined for this young group, and for a clinic-referred group of older children with NLD. The young children with NLD scored lower than the TD comparison group on tasks assessing recognition of happy and sad facial expressions and tasks assessing understanding of how emotions work. Children with NLD were also rated as having less adaptive regulation of their emotions. For both young and older children with NLD, internalizing and externalizing problem scales were rated higher than for the TD comparison groups, and the means of the internalizing, attention, and social problem scales were found to fall within clinically concerning ranges. Measures of attention and nonverbal intelligence did not account for the relationship between NLD and Social Problems. Social skills and NLD membership share mostly overlapping variance in accounting for internalizing problems across the sample. The results are discussed within a framework wherein social cognitive deficits, including emotion processes, have a negative impact on social competence, leading to clinically concerning levels of depression and withdrawal in this population.     

Googled assertion

Recent work in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science can help to explain why certain kinds of assertions—made on the basis of information stored in our gadgets rather than in biological memory—are properly criticizable in light of misleading implicatures, while others are not.     

知识划界、追赶焦虑与中国本土心理学的理论建构导向

科学心理学以方法为中心的知识建构策略,内在地要求它与常识心理学划界以谋求自然科学分支的学科地位,其代价是对人类心理之情感与意义维度的隔离。在移植西方心理学体系的过程中,科学心理学的争议也内含于中国心理学的发展轨迹中,同时还附加了学术边陲地区特有的学科追赶焦虑。中国本土心理学理论应突破科学至上的观念束缚,致力于发展具有现实解释力和价值引导力的人文主义导向的心理学理论,以切实解决中国现实社会中的心理问题,并在世界心理学界发出真正的中国声音。     

Changing the Academic Integrity Climate on Campus Using a Technology-Based Intervention

This article focuses on the use of a technology-based intervention to change academic integrity (AI) knowledge and attitudes. Using a sample of more than 5,000 freshman students drawn from two major midwestern universities in the United States over a 3-year period, an online intervention was used to determine whether AI knowledge and attitudes could be changed. Based the results of this study, AI knowledge and attitudes can be improved using an online intervention. These results contribute to a better understanding of the AI climate on campus and suggest that technology-based interventions can be used to enhance knowledge and change attitudes toward AI on campus.     

The effect of diabetes knowledge and attitudes on self-management and quality of life among people with type 2 diabetes

We examined the effect of diabetes knowledge and attitudes on self-management and quality of life (QoL) of people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We employed a cross-sectional study design. A total of 137 female and 129 male participants with T2DM completed the diabetes knowledge scale (DKN), Diabetes Integration Scale-19 (ATT19), Summary of Diabetes Self-care Activities (SDSCA) scale, and Diabetes Quality of Life (DQoL) scale, measuring diabetes knowledge, attitudes, self-management, and QoL respectively. The SDSCA scale measures diet, exercise, blood glucose monitoring, and foot care. The DQoL scale measures satisfaction and impact of QoL. An initial path model that tested the inter-relationships of the study variables was first identified based on previous research. Then, the path model was tested using Mplus 7.3. In the final model, diabetes knowledge was a significant predictor of attitudes and self-management in terms of blood glucose monitoring and foot care. Attitudes was a significant predictor of impact of QoL. Self-management in terms of blood glucose monitoring was a significant predictor of impact of QoL and diet was a significant predictor of satisfaction and impact of QoL. Exercise and foot care aspects of Self-management were significant predictors of satisfaction and impact of QoL respectively. The final model showed a good fit to the data: RMSEA = .045 (90% CI: .009, .071; Clfit = .601), CFI = .950, SRMR = .058. The findings suggest a theoretical basis to direct the development of appropriate health programs and interventions for improving QoL in people with T2DM and warrant replication in diverse samples.     

A cognitive-based model of tool use in normal aging

While several cognitive domains have been widely investigated in the field of aging, the age-related effects on tool use are still an open issue and hardly any studies on tool use and aging is available. A significant body of literature has indicated that tool use skills might be supported by at least two different types of knowledge, namely, mechanical knowledge and semantic knowledge. However, neither the contribution of these kinds of knowledge to familiar tool use, nor the effects of aging on mechanical and semantic knowledge have been explored in normal aging. The aim of the present study was to fill this gap. To do so, 98 healthy elderly adults were presented with three tasks: a classical, familiar tool use task, a novel tool use task assessing mechanical knowledge, and a picture matching task assessing semantic knowledge. The results showed that aging has a negative impact on tool use tasks and on knowledge supporting tool use skills. We also found that aging did not impact mechanical and semantic knowledge in the same way, confirming the distinct nature of those forms of knowledge. Finally, our results stressed that mechanical and semantic knowledge are both involved in the ability to use familiar tools.