CONSCIOUSNESS AND QUANTUM MECHANICS: OPTING FROM ALTERNATIVES

We present a model of a fundamental property of consciousness as the capacity of a system to opt among presented alternatives. Any system possessing this capacity is “conscious” in some degree, whether or not it has the higher capacity of reflecting on its opting. We argue that quantum systems, composed of microphysical particles, as studied by quantum mechanics, possess this quality in a protomental form. That is, such particles display the capacity to opt among alternatives, even though they lack the ability to experience or communicate their experiences. Human consciousness stands at the opposite end of the hierarchy of conscious life forms as the most sophisticated system of which we have direct acquaintance. We contend that it shares the common characteristic of a system capable of opting among alternatives. Because the fundamental property of consciousness is shared by human beings and the constituents of elementary matter in the universe, our model of consciousness can be considered as a modified form of panpsychism.     

多级评分聚类诊断法的影响因素

从测验和被试两个层面探讨了属性数目、属性层级关系、被试知识状态分布、属性层级误设和Q矩阵误设等因素对GRCDM的影响, 以进一步考察GRCDM的特性。研究发现：(1)GRCDM对属性数目无依赖, 随属性数目的增多判准率反而增高; (2)被试知识状态分布对GRCDM判准率高低无影响; (3)属性层级误设对GRCDM的影响与属性层级类型有关, 当属性层级为无结构型和发散型时, “属性层级关系错乱”的判准率降幅最大; (4)Q矩阵误设对GRCDM的影响因层级关系而异, 收敛型和发散型受影响较小, 无结构型和线型的判准率在属性既冗余又缺失时降幅最大。     

The Pursuit of Status in Social Groups

ABSTRACT— Status differences are ubiquitous and highly consequential. Yet with regard to human social groups, basic questions persist about how status differences develop. In particular, little is known about the processes by which individuals pursue status in social groups. That is, how do individuals compete and jockey for status with their peers? The current paper reviews recent research that helps fill this gap in our knowledge. Specifically, studies of a variety of face-to-face groups show that individuals pursue status by enhancing the apparent value they provide to their group. Individuals compete for status not by bullying and intimidating others, as some theorists have proposed, but by behaving in ways that suggest high levels of competence, generosity, and commitment to the group.     

Tatsuoka 矩阵理论的修正

K .K.Tatsuoka和她同事开发的规则空间模型（RSM）是一种在国内外有较大影响的认知诊断模型,但是Tatsuoka的RSM中 矩阵理论存在缺陷和错误,这些失误使得RSM中用布尔描述函数（BDF）计算被试理想项目反应模式（IRP）的方法缺乏理论依据。这里揭示了Tatsuoka的 矩阵理论的缺陷和错误并引进既不使用BDF又便于应用的计算IRP的方法;接着还介绍一种由可达阵计算简化 阵的方法,该方法显示了可达阵在构造认知诊断测验的重要性。这些结果对丰富 矩阵理论及正确使用RSM进行认知诊断有一定的意义     

ABUNDANT NATURE'S LONG-TERM OPENNESS TO HUMANE BIOCULTURAL DESIGNS

Not by Genes Alone excellently explains Peter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd's important ideas about human gene‐culture co‐evolution to a broader audience but remains short of a larger vision of civilization. Several decades ago Ralph Burhoe had seen that fertile possibility in Richerson and Boyd's work. I suggest getting past present reductionistic customs to a scientific perspective having an integral place for virtue. Subsystem agency is part of this view, as is the driving role of abundance, whose ultimate origins are in the mysterious, quintessentially energetic Big Bang. The free‐rider problem may not impede higher social organization as inexorably as Richerson and Boyd believe; “the tragedy” of enervating leakage from “the commons” may often be less influential than an invigorating flow of externalities to the commons. Eukaryotic origins mark the origin of inevitable wider sharing as higher living systems evolve. I use a metaphor of flesh and spirit in drawing a parallel between that turning point and the wide sharing that occurs in civilization. This helps solve the enigma of the demographic transition. Why do so many productive participants in first‐world societies severely restrict their selfish‐gene reproduction to below replacement birth rate? It is not because culture is maladaptive but because civilization's brain and womb have become partially differentiated in distinct populations. Considerations of social boundaries, myths of sacrifice, and human creativity help in understanding how human social evolution taps potentials present in reality. Human beings' diverse vigorous activities—the organized ones and the inadvertent ones, the wise and the foolish, the good and the bad, the carefully thoughtful and the merely playful—provide the ground of being, or primordial soup, for cultural entities that transcend our intentions. If we have it right for the most part and are fortunate, we will continue to emerge at higher levels.     

Dominance,aggression, and the functional use of space in institutionalized female adolescents

This is a study of an institutionalized group of female adolescents observed for a nine-week period. These girls were observed to determine the characteristics of their dominance relations and how, in turn, this aspect of their social environment was related to use of their physical environment. Correlational analyses between observational and sociometric data suggested that dominance rank was based upon the frequency of being the recipient of a dominance act. Fewer dominance acts were initiated against higher ranking girls. Dominance ranking was not based upon frequency of initiating a dominance act towards others. Higher ranking girls were the ones most frequently observed alone in their own bedroom. Bedrooms were highly desiuable areas used for grooming (eg, setting hair, ironing clothes, putting on cosmetics, resting) as girls sought to gain popularity with the institution's male population. Comparison of results with findings in similar studies on male adolescents suggest some tentative generalizations as to sex difference in dominance and territoriality.     

Estimation of the hypothesis hierarchy in probabilistic inference tasks*

Is there a hierarchical order among the hypotheses about functional rules in probabilistic inference tasks, i.e. what is the construction and the procedure of the “hypothesis sampling mechanism” employed by the subjects in this kind of task? According to the hypothesis sampling model initially proposed by Brehmer (1974) there should be a hierarchical order among the hypotheses in the subject's hypothesis pools. The procedures of hypothesis sampling and testing ought to follow this strict data independent order (see e.g. Sniezek, 1986; Brehmer, 1987). Knez (1991a, b) showed, however, that this assumption may be incorrect. As a follow up to these results the question regarding the construction of the subject's hypothesis pools was reapproached in the present study. The results indicated a consistency with the hierarchical assumption (Brehmer, 1974) only regarding the relation between the linear and nonlinear rules but not within these types of rules.     

RITUAL, TIME, AND ENTERNITY

Abstract. It is argued here that the construction of time and eternity are among ritual's entailments. In dividing continuous duration into distinct periods ritual distinguishes two temporal conditions: (1) that prevailing in mundane periods and (2) that prevailing during the intervals between them. Differences in the frequency, length, and relationship among the rituals constituting different liturgical orders are considered, as are differences between mundane periods and ritual's intervals with respect to social relations, cognitive modes, meaningfulness, and typical interactive frequencies. Periods, it is observed, relate to intervals as everchanging to never-changing, and close relationships of never changing to eternity, eternity to sanctity, and sanctity to truth are proposed. In the argument that ritual's "times out of time" really are outside mundane time, similarities to the operations of digital computers and Herbert Simon's discussion of interaction frequencies in the organization of matter are noted.     

Perceptual Learning

The extent of adult improvement in not only complex but also simple perceptual tasks is remarkable. Although this phenomenon has been noted and studied since the middle of the 19th century, recent advances in the study of brain physiology and anatomy afford new insights. Improvement specificity suggests that changes involve early sensory cortical areas, previously thought to lose their plasticity following the first years. The critical role of selective attention, even in learning the simplest tasks, as well as the precedence of learning easy cases, suggests the involvement of high-level cortical areas. Learning easy cases is more general than learning difficult cases. This pattern suggests the involvement of both high- and low-level areas in an orderly manner, with easy learning beginning at high-level areas and harder cases being resolved by access to low-level areas. The mapping of behavioral findings to underlying brain sites provides a unified framework for this interdisciplinary field.     

The Dream of Consensus: Finding Common Ground in a Bioethical Context

Consensus is the holy grail of bioethics, the lynch pin of the assumption that well informed, well intentioned people may reach generally acceptable positions on ethically contentious issues. It has been especially important in bioethics, where advancing technology has assured an increasing field of complex medical dilemmas. This paper results on the use of a multicriterion decision making system (MCDM) analyzing group process in an attempt to better define hospital policy. In a pilot program at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, a series of small scale focus groups was constituted to examine criteria defining organ transplant eligibility. Criteria were organized hierarchically using the Analytic Hierarchy Process, an MCDM approach, and the resulting data was analyzed using Expert Choice 9.0, software designed to facilitate AHP analysis. Qualitative and quantitative analysis map barriers to practical consensus in a way not previously possible.