Cornell College: Program in Science and Religion

Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, has established a new interdisciplinary program in science and religion. One of the features of this program is an undergraduate major in science and religion that requires substantial course work in at least one of the natural sciences as well as course work in philosophy, religion, and history. As a result of a grant from the John Templeton Foundation, Cornell College will offer a special course, God and Physics: From Aquinas to Quantum Mechanics (April 1998), and will sponsor an international symposium on creation and contemporary cosmology (April 1999). Opportunities exist for interested scholars to come to Cornell as Templeton Visiting Fellows in order to participate in these activities.     

双耳分听和补笔对立即回忆延迟回忆影响的实验研究

通过两个实验探讨集中注意和补笔练习对立即回忆、延迟回忆的影响。实验一以英语单词为学习材料,使用组间设计方法,实验组采用附加追随程序和补笔练习;控制组为自定学习方式。学习结果表明：在自由回忆英文单词、听写英文单词和中译英三个方面,实验组的学习成绩明显高于控制组;实验组的学习方式更有利于低分组学生的学习。实验二的学习方式与实验一相同,通过４次测试的回归分析发现,实验组的学习发展水平明显高于控制组。     

遗忘症患者外显与内隐记忆分离的实验研究：自由回忆与再认任务

采用WMS－CR和MMSE筛选了9名遗忘症患者,采用自由回忆和再认两项任务观察了他们及正常对照组的外显记忆。结果发现：遗忘症患者两项外显记忆任务操作呈分离现象,自由回忆任务操作明显受损,再认任务的操作尽管较对照组低,但与对照组差异未达显著性水平。推论;①外显记忆受患者损伤的颞叶或间脑结构调节。②再认任务至少包含两种性质不同的潜在加工过程,一种为意识性重组加工,另一种为无意识自动加工,两者相互独立地贡献再认任务的操作。正常人意识性重组加工的贡献占优势,掩盖了无意识的作用。遗忘症患者意识性重组加工损伤,无意识自动加工部分代偿作用。③先前研究未对遗忘症患者进行认知功能的筛选,患者对再认障碍可能源于其他认知功能障碍,而非记忆障碍之故。     

重点中学与普通中学学生非智力因素的比较研究

本研究分别对重点中学与普通中学初一、初三年级学生的非智力因素状况进行调查,结果表明初一年级学生的非智力因素水平在两类学校之间不存在差异,而初三年级学生的非智力因素水平在两类学校之间存在着显著性差异（Ｐ＜０．０５）。随着年龄的增长,重点中学与普通中学学生的非智力因素水平都有所发展,但重点中学的学生发展得更好。本研究表明学校的教育环境影响着学生非智力因素的发展。     

过去时间的心理结构

４０８名大学生被试用秒、分、小时、日、星期、年和月７个时间单位和模糊统计试验方法对４０个不定的过去时间修饰词作经验赋值,结果显示：（１）过去时间和未来时间在心理结构上是对称的,分为三个心理时间段,即以秒和分为计时单位的“较近的过去”和“较近的未来”,以小时、日和月为计时单位的“近的过去”和“近的未来”,和以年为计时单位的“远的过去”和“远的未来”。（２）随着时间修饰词的词义离现在由近至远,其词义地     

初中一,二年级学生的亲子冲突

本研究选取北京市两所普通中学１９２名初一和初二学生为被试,通过学生对８个方面亲子冲突的评价,探讨初中生亲子冲突的特点。研究发现,（１）初中生早期的亲子冲突处于较低水平;（２）与母亲的冲突多于与父亲的冲突,女生尤其如此;（３）多数亲子冲突随年级而增加;（４）在多数冲突上,男生与父母的冲突多于女生;（５）亲子冲突最多的三个方面为日常生活安排、学业和家务,而冲突最少的为隐私。     

Finitism,Divisibilty, and the Beginning of the Universe: Replies to Loke and Dumsday

Some philosophers contend that the past must be finite in duration, because otherwise reaching the present would have involved the sequential occurrence of an actual infinity of events, which they regard as impossible. I recently developed a new objection to this finitist argument, to which Andrew Ter Ern Loke and Travis Dumsday have replied. Here I respond to the three main points raised in their replies.     

Finitism and Divisibility: A Reply to Puryear

Puryear (AJP, 2014) develops an objection against a prominent attempt to show that the universe must have a temporal beginning. Here I formulate a reply.     

Implicit sequence learning in ring‐tailed lemurs (Lemur catta)

Implicit learning involves picking up information from the environment without explicit instruction or conscious awareness of the learning process. In nonhuman animals, conscious awareness is impossible to assess, so we define implicit learning as occurring when animals acquire information beyond what is required for successful task performance. While implicit learning has been documented in some nonhuman species, it has not been explored in prosimian primates. Here we ask whether ring‐tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) learn sequential information implicitly. We tested lemurs in a modified version of the serial reaction time task on a touch screen computer. Lemurs were required to respond to any picture within a 2 × 2 grid of pictures immediately after its surrounding border flickered. Over 20 training sessions, both the locations and the identities of the images remained constant and response times gradually decreased. Subsequently, the locations and/or the identities of the images were disrupted. Response times indicated that the lemurs had learned the physical location sequence required in original training but did not learn the identity of the images. Our results reveal that ring‐tailed lemurs can implicitly learn spatial sequences, and raise questions about which scenarios and evolutionary pressures give rise to perceptual versus motor‐implicit sequence learning.     

Control by reinforcers across time and space: A review of recent choice research

Reinforcers affect behavior. A fundamental assumption has been that reinforcers strengthen the behavior they follow, and that this strengthening may be context‐specific (stimulus control). Less frequently discussed, but just as evident, is the observation that reinforcers have discriminative properties that also guide behavior. We review findings from recent research that approaches choice using nontraditional procedures, with a particular focus on how choice is affected by reinforcers, by time since reinforcers, and by recent sequences of reinforcers. We also discuss how conclusions about these results are impacted by the choice of measurement level and display. Clearly, reinforcers as traditionally considered are conditionally phylogenetically important to animals. However, their effects on behavior may be solely discriminative, and contingent reinforcers may not strengthen behavior. Rather, phylogenetically important stimuli constitute a part of a correlated compound stimulus context consisting of stimuli arising from the organism, from behavior, and from physiologically detected environmental stimuli. Thus, the three‐term contingency may be seen, along with organismic state, as a correlation of stimuli. We suggest that organisms may be seen as natural stimulus‐correlation detectors so that behavioral change affects the overall correlation and directs the organism toward currently appetitive goals and away from potential aversive goals. As a general conclusion, both historical and recent choice research supports the idea that stimulus control, not reinforcer control, may be fundamental.