Identification and integration of sensory modalities: Neural basis and relation to consciousness

A key question in studying consciousness is how neural operations in the brain can identify streams of sensory input as belonging to distinct modalities, which contributes to the representation of qualitatively different experiences. The basis for identification of modalities is proposed to be constituted by self-organized comparative operations across a network of unimodal and multimodal sensory areas. However, such network interactions alone cannot answer the question how sensory feature detectors collectively account for an integrated, yet phenomenally differentiated experiential content. This problem turns out to be different from, although related to, the binding problem. It is proposed that the neural correlate of an enriched, multimodal experience is constituted by the attractor state of a dynamic associative network. Within this network, unimodal and multimodal sensory maps continuously interact to influence each other’s attractor state, so that a feature change in one modality results in a fast re-coding of feature information in another modality. In this scheme, feature detection is coded by firing-rate, whereas firing phase codes relational aspects.     

计算机适应性测验条件下认知设计项目预测参数的影响

自动化项目生成(Automatic Item Generation)中的项目参数是基于认知项目设计的刺激特征集预测的, 在不确定性来源上较之用经验数据标定的参数更为复杂。文章通过实证研究分析了在计算机适应性测验条件下基于认知设计系统法生成的抽象推理测验(ART)项目预测参数对能力参数估计的精确性。研究表明, 项目预测参数比相应标定参数分布更为趋中。这种回归效应既影响到能力参数估计误差大小, 也导致适应性测验过程中项目选择的差异。在控制了项目选择差异之后, 能力参数估计误差较之基于项目标定参数的能力估计误差大, 但差别并不明显。两者相应的能力估计值相关很高, 对应能力值之间的差异很小, 且几乎贯彻整个能力分布区间。     

Why Research-Oriented Design Isn’t Design-Oriented Research: On the Tensions Between Design and Research in an Implicit Design Discipline

Human–computer interaction (HCI) is the discipline concerned with the design, evaluation, and implementation of interactive computing systems. Unlike many empirical sciences, HCI researchers do not typically solely study existing technologies, styles of interaction, or interface solutions. On the contrary, one of the core activities in contemporary HCI is to design new technologies – in the form of software and hardware prototypes – that act as vehicles through which HCI researchers’ ideas materialize and take on concrete form. Despite this situation, there is a very modest discussion in the discipline on the role of design as an activity in the research process; whether or not HCI could in fact be better understood as a design discipline than as an empirical science; and if, and if so how, the design element in HCI goes with its empirical claims. This paper is specifically about the element of design as currently manifest in HCI research. We dig deeper into HCI as a design discipline by suggesting, analyzing, and discussing what appear to be tensions between two competing traditions in the relationship between design and research.     

NLP简快心理治疗方法的模式整合及其优势

NLP简快心理疗法于20世纪70年代创立于美国,80～90年代得到完善、发展和逐步推广。它吸取了精神分析、行为主义及人本主义流派的理论和治疗方法并加以整合优化,形成了以检定语言模式、思考与暗示语言模式、激发潜意识与自我暗示模式为优势和特点的心理咨询与治疗的方法,对心理咨询和治疗理论与实践的发展起到了积极的作用。     

《中国人群死亡及其危险因素：流行水平、趋势和分布》的主要发现

简要描述了中国人群的死亡变化趋势,主要死因构成,在不同地区和人群中的分布。结果表明结核等传染病、母婴疾病死亡率下降,冠心病、脑卒中、糖尿病、肺癌、肝癌等疾病死亡率上升明显。吸烟与被动吸烟、不良膳食习惯、静坐生活方式,是慢性病上升的重要因素;酒后驾驶等交通违章行为与每年上升10%的交通伤害死亡率密切相关。     

Need for recovery, home-work interference and performance: Is lack of concentration the link?

This study examines the mechanisms through which experiences in the home domain influence work performance by bringing together the literature on recovery and the work-family interface. A longitudinal study among 123 employees from different organizations was conducted to investigate whether need for recovery and home-work interference (HWI) impeded concentration at work 1 month later, and whether concentration adversely affected in-role performance over time. Structural equation modeling analysis supported these hypotheses. Whereas need for recovery and HWI had negative, lagged effects on concentration, concentration had a positive lagged effect on in-role performance. Moreover, need for recovery and HWI were reciprocal and negatively related over time, suggesting that these two states may create a negative spiral in the home domain that could easily intrude into the work domain. These findings increase our insight in the processes leading to reduced performance at work, and suggest that organizations should facilitate opportunities for recovery.     

Further analysis of the matching law to describe two- and three-point shot allocation by professional basketball players

The matching law was used to analyze whether the proportion of shots taken from two- or three-point range would match the proportional reinforcement rates produced by those shots when the reinforcement rate of three-point shooting was changed. Rule changes in 1994 and 1997 altered the distance of the three-point line in the National Basketball Association, which created a quasiexperimental reversal design, thereby naturally changing three-point reinforcement rates. The present data partially confirmed predictions made by the matching law, in that increases in the relative rate of three-point shots attempted corresponded to increases in the relative rate of three-point shots made.     

Change,Contradiction, and Overconfidence: Chinese Philosophy and Cognitive Peculiarities of Asians

This article discusses philosophical influence, especially the influence made by Confucianism and Daoism, on the way Asian people see and understand the world. Recently, Richard Nisbett drew a connection between Chinese philosophy (Confucianism and Daoism) and the cognitive profiles of the people who live in Asian countries where Confucianism and Daoism are strong social and cultural traditions. He argues that there is a peculiar way that Asians think and perceive things and this cognitive pattern is influenced by a group of principles derived from Chinese philosophy. This article critically analyzes Nisbett’s explanation, his emphasis on the principle of change in particular, and provides an alternative explanation of the connection between Chinese philosophy and cognitive peculiarities of Asians. Asians combine and integrate opposite viewpoints not because they believe that things change in all unexpected directions, but because they see the world as a big system with interrelated and mutually influencing components.     

空间行为关系类比匹配中客体相似性的作用

客体相似性在类比匹配中的作用,是一直存在着争论的问题。该研究通过交叉匹配结合与分离的材料设计,控制类比源和类比目标之间不同相似性,探讨了客体相似性在儿童和成人空间行为关系类比匹配中的作用。实验一通过让儿童和成人完成单目标匹配任务,检验客体相似性对儿童和成人类比匹配影响的不同。实验二采用眼动技术对客体相似性在成人类比匹配过程中的作用进行分区域探讨。结果发现,客体相似性影响儿童空间行为关系类比匹配的成绩,但不影响成人的成绩。成人类比匹配的过程受到结合在关系结构之内的客体相似性的影响。我们提出优先-限制调整观点解释客体相似性在类比匹配中的作用。     

Ten-year-old girls' and boys' body composition and peer victimization experiences: prospective associations with body satisfaction

This study examined prospective associations between 10-year-olds’ weight and height, their perception of shape and stature, frequent experiences of peer victimization, and different aspects of body esteem at age 13. Participants were 474 girls and 400 boys participating in a two-wave longitudinal questionnaire study. Main results were that whereas actually being heavier built at age 10 was associated with girls’ increments in body dissatisfaction, the mere perception of being too heavy was associated with boys’ poorer body satisfaction. Also, boys who believed that they were too short were more dissatisfied at follow-up. Whereas frequent peer victimization had long-term associations with girls’ weight-esteem, teasing targeted towards appearance was associated with boys’ more negative beliefs about what others think about their appearance. Finally, participants had become significantly more dissatisfied at age 13, suggesting that this is a time in life when both girls and boys risk becoming increasingly critical towards their appearance.