The interaction between gaze direction and facial expressions in newborns

The ability to decode facial expressions is an important component of social interaction and functioning. This ability is even more fundamental early in life, prior to the development of verbal communication. However, it is still unclear whether newborns can detect, discriminate and process facial expressions, and, if so, what the mechanisms underlying this ability are. In this study, we extend the investigation of perceived emotional expression by manipulating gaze direction with different facial expressions. Specifically, newborns were presented with faces displaying neutral, fearful, or happy facial expressions accompanied with direct or averted gaze, and tested in a visual preference paradigm. Four experiments were conducted in which different combinations of expression and gaze were used. However, only in the fourth experiment did newborns show a visual preference for a specific emotional display; they looked significantly longer at a happy face than a neutral one only when both were accompanied with direct gaze. These results provide support for the advantage of happy facial expressions in the development of a face processing system and suggest that this preference reflects experience acquired during the first few days after birth.     

Examining the role of social cues in early word learning

Infants watched a video of an adult pointing towards two different objects while hearing novel labels. Analyses indicated that 14- and 18-month-olds looked longer at the target object, but only 18-month-olds showed word learning. The results suggest that different types of social cues are available at different ages.     

Two types of serial dependence in visual working memory

Stimulus representations in working memory depend on memory traces of past stimuli both from previous trials and from the current trial. However, it is unclear whether the same or different mechanisms underlie this serial dependence across and within trials. We directly contrasted estimates of bias for pairs of immediately successive stimuli across and within trials. In each trial, participants memorized two consecutive motion direction stimuli (S1 and S2) and after a short delay were cued to report one of them. We found serial dependence across trials: The current S1 was attracted towards the preceding S2 when the latter had been cued for report. In contrast, within the same trial S2 was repulsed from S1. In addition, repulsion within a trial occurred for a broader range of motion direction differences between stimuli than attraction across trials. A second experiment in which 25% of trials did not require a response demonstrated that across‐trial attraction did not depend on whether the previous S2 actually had to be reported. Our findings provide evidence for two types of serial dependence operating across and within trials. They support the notion of different mechanisms integrating or segregating current from similar past memory contents depending on their task relevance.     

Higher levels of estradiol replacement correlate with better spatial memory in surgically menopausal young and middle-aged rats

The current study investigated whether, for spatial reference memory, age impacts (1) sensitivity to surgical ovarian hormone loss (Ovx), (2) response to estradiol therapy (ET), and (3) the relation between circulating estradiol levels and memory scores in ovary-intact sham and Ovx plus ET rats. Young, middle-aged and aged Fischer-344 rats received sham, Ovx or Ovx plus ET treatments, and were then tested on the Morris maze. After the last test trial, a probe trial was given whereby the platform was removed. Circulating estradiol levels were then determined and correlated with performance. In Study 1, Ovx facilitated learning on day one, but impaired performance after day one, in young rats. Ovx did not influence performance in middle-aged rats. In young and middle-aged Ovx rats, ET enhanced performance with higher exogenous estradiol levels correlating with better performance during testing and the probe trial. There was no relationship between endogenous estradiol levels and performance in sham young or middle-aged rats. Study 2 showed that, like middle-aged rats, aged rats were not impacted by Ovx. Further, for aged Ovx rats, the ET regimen that was beneficial at earlier ages was no longer effective during test trials, and had only minor benefits for platform localization as assessed by the probe trial. Collectively, the findings suggest that the effects of Ovx as well as responsivity to the currently utilized ET regimen changes with age. Further, there appears to be a distinction between sensitivity to Ovx and responsiveness to ET after Ovx for spatial reference memory performance.     

Two-year-olds use artist intention to understand drawings

Adults appreciate that an abstract visual representation can be understood through inferring the artist's intention. Many investigators have argued that this capacity is a late-emerging developmental accomplishment, a claim supported by findings that preschool children ignore explicit statements about intent when naming pictures. Using a simplified method, we explored picture naming in 2-year-olds. Experiment 1 found that when an adult artist drew an object, children later mapped a novel name for the drawing to the object that the adult had been looking at. Experiment 2 suggests that this response was not merely because there was more attention given to that object. These findings are consistent with the view that children are naturally disposed to reason about artifacts, including artwork, in terms of inferred intention.     

Human Allocentric Heading Orientation and Ability

ABSTRACT— Since the discovery of head-direction cells in nonhuman mammals, we have learned a great deal about how an internal compass-like system functions in the mammalian brain. In contrast, we know very little about how this system operates in humans—or, for that matter, whether humans even have an internal compass for computing body heading. This article reviews a recent line of inquiry that uses animal models of head-direction-system functioning to motivate behavioral research on human sense of direction.     

Is knowledge a natural kind?

The project of treating knowledge as an empirical object of study has gained popularity in recent naturalistic epistemology. It is argued here that the assumption that such an object of study exists is in tension with other central elements of naturalistic philosophy. Two hypotheses are considered. In the first, “knowledge” is hypothesized to refer to mental states causally responsible for the behaviour of cognitive agents. Here, the relational character of truth creates a problem. In the second hypothesis “knowledge” is hypothesized to refer to mental states causally responsible for the evolutionarily successful behaviour of cognitive agents. Here, the problem lies in the fact that evolution by natural selection is not necessarily conducive to truth. The result does not necessarily amount to eliminativism, however, since the naturalist may consistently reject the condition of truth that lies behind these problems.     

论政治道德的定位

政治生活的整合和政治文明的建设要求对政治道德进行合理的定位。政治道德的定位问题既涉及政治道德体系的内容问题,又关涉什么样的政治道德才是合理的问题。政治道德应该定位于政治公共领域这一客观基础;应该定位于个人权利与公共利益相结合的视角;应该定位于目的（或者功利）与道义（或者义务）的统一。     

The use of social and salience cues in early word learning

This article explores young infants' ability to learn new words in situations providing tightly controlled social and salience cues to their reference. Four experiments investigated whether, given two potential referents, 15-month-olds would attach novel labels to (a) an image toward which a digital recording of a face turned and gazed, (b) a moving image versus a stationary image, (c) a moving image toward which the face gazed, and (d) a gazed-on image versus a moving image. Infants successfully used the recorded gaze cue to form new word-referent associations and also showed learning in the salience condition. However, their behavior in the salience condition and in the experiments that followed suggests that, rather than basing their judgments of the words' reference on the mere presence or absence of the referent's motion, infants were strongly biased to attend to the consistency with which potential referents moved when a word was heard.