A mental number line in human newborns

Humans represent numbers on a mental number line with smaller numbers on the left and larger numbers on the right side. A left‐to‐right oriented spatial–numerical association, (SNA), has been demonstrated in animals and infants. However, the possibility that SNA is learnt by early exposure to caregivers’ directional biases is still open. We conducted two experiments: in Experiment 1, we tested whether SNA is present at birth and in Experiment 2, we studied whether it depends on the relative rather than the absolute magnitude of numerousness. Fifty‐five‐hour‐old newborns, once habituated to a number (12), spontaneously associated a smaller number (4) with the left and a larger number (36) with the right side (Experiment 1). SNA in neonates is not absolute but relative. The same number (12) was associated with the left side rather than the right side whenever the previously experienced number was larger (36) rather than smaller (4) (Experiment 2). Control on continuous physical variables showed that the effect is specific of discrete magnitudes. These results constitute strong evidence that in our species SNA originates from pre‐linguistic and biological precursors in the brain.     

Is the sunny side up and the dark side down? Effects of stimulus type and valence on a spatial detection task

In verbal communication, affective information is commonly conveyed to others through spatial terms (e.g. in “I am feeling down”, negative affect is associated with a lower spatial location). This study used a target location discrimination task with neutral, positive and negative stimuli (words, facial expressions, and vocalizations) to test the automaticity of the emotion-space association, both in the vertical and horizontal spatial axes. The effects of stimulus type on emotion-space representations were also probed. A congruency effect (reflected in reaction times) was observed in the vertical axis: detection of upper targets preceded by positive stimuli was faster. This effect occurred for all stimulus types, indicating that the emotion-space association is not dependent on sensory modality and on the verbal content of affective stimuli.     

视听整合加工及其神经机制

通常人们接收到来自不同感觉通道的信息时, 首先在大脑中各个分离的区域单独进行加工处理, 而后在多感官区进行整合。前人关于言语感知中视听整合加工的神经成像研究认为, 视觉和听觉信息能够相互影响; 两者进行整合的关键区域是人脑左后侧的颞上沟, 其整合效应受时间和空间因素的限制。未来的研究应致力于建立更加合理的实验范式和数据分析方法来探讨整合加工的脑区机制, 把多感官整合研究进一步延伸到更加复杂的领域。     

When good theories make bad predictions

Chaos-related obstructions to predictability have been used to challenge accounts of theory validation based on the agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental data (Rueger & Sharp, 1996. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 47, 93–112; Koperski, 1998. Philosophy of Science, 40, 194–212). These challenges are incomplete in two respects: (a) they do not show that chaotic regimes are unpredictable in principle (i.e., with unbounded resources) and, as a result, that there is something conceptually wrong with idealized expectations of correct predictions from acceptable theories, and (b) they do not explore whether chaos-induced predictive failures of deterministic models can be remedied by stochastic modeling. In this paper we appeal to an asymptotic analysis of state space trajectories and their numerical approximations to show that chaotic regimes are deterministically unpredictable even with unbounded resources. Additionally, we explain why stochastic models of chaotic systems, while predictively successful in some cases, are in general predictively as limited as deterministic ones. We conclude by suggesting that the way in which scientists deal with such principled obstructions to predictability calls for a more comprehensive approach to theory validation, on which experimental testing is augmented by a multifaceted mathematical analysis of theoretical models, capable of identifying chaos-related predictive failures as due to principled limitations which the world itself imposes on any less-than-omniscient epistemic access to some natural systems. We give special thanks to two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments that have substantially contributed to the final version of this paper     

An interaction between prosody and statistics in the segmentation of fluent speech

Sensitivity to prosodic cues might be used to constrain lexical search. Indeed, the prosodic organization of speech is such that words are invariably aligned with phrasal prosodic edges, providing a cue to segmentation. In this paper we devise an experimental paradigm that allows us to investigate the interaction between statistical and prosodic cues to extract words from a speech stream. We provide evidence that statistics over the syllables are computed independently of prosody. However, we also show that trisyllabic sequences with high transition probabilities that straddle two prosodic constituents appear not to be recognized. Taken together, our findings suggest that prosody acts as a filter, suppressing possible word-like sequences that span prosodic constituents.     

Temporal order judgment reveals how number magnitude affects visuospatial attention

The existence of spatial components in the mental representation of number magnitude has raised the question regarding the relation between numbers and spatial attention. We present six experiments in which this relation was examined using a temporal order judgment task to index attentional allocation. Results demonstrate that one important consequence of numerical processing is the automatic allocation of spatial attention, which in turn affects the perception of the temporal order of visual events. Given equal onset time, left-side stimuli are perceived to occur before right-side stimuli when a small number (1, 2) is processed, whereas right-side stimuli are perceived to occur before left-side stimuli when a larger number (8, 9) is processed. In addition, we show that this attentional effect is specific to quantity processing and does not generalize to non-numerical ordinal sequences.     

Efficacious Surroundings: Temple Space and Buddhist Well-being

This essay argues that the prospect of health and well-being from a Buddhist perspective must take into account an understanding of religiosity as a process of becoming, a culturally and contextually defined praxis of what and who it is we are and would like to become. It is in this process of becoming that a space of healing is made possible. It is not simply that Buddhist temple space is ‘good’ in some sort of clinical manner, but rather that it is active in its will to achieve a space of becoming healthy and whole.

对解释伪忽视机制的两种理论的初步检验

以视野因素对伪忽视的影响为切人点来考察注意的右半球优势理论与表征的空间变形理论对伪忽视机制的解释。使用灰度标尺任务和三视野速示迫选的实验方法研究视野和操作用手因素对伪忽视的影响。结果显示,只有将两种理论结合起来才能对伪忽视机制作出更好的解释。     

Depicting a Liminal Position in Ethnomethodology, Conversation Analysis and Membership Categorization Analysis: The Work of Rod Watson

This paper provides a provisional examination of Rod Watson's work and contributions to EM/CA/MCA, in part through a critique of misrepresentations of his arguments in secondary accounts of his work. The form of these misrepresentations includes adumbration and traducement of his arguments. Focusing on the reflexivity of category and sequence and turn-generated categories, we suggest that his analytic position within ethnomethodological fields is unique and remarkable, yet largely unacknowledged. We argue that a re-examination of the body of Watson's work makes relevant explicit and appropriate acknowledgement of his contributions through his unconventional approach and his extension of prior works in novel and stimulating directions.     

Through the Iron Curtain: analytical space in post-Soviet Russia

This paper discusses the experience of working as an analyst in post-totalitarian Russia in order to explore some of the general theoretical and clinical issues involved in working in a different cultural and linguistic context, and the particular problems encountered in the Russian cultural context. It describes how the Soviet regime worked actively to create a new totally collective mentality through the destruction of individual differences and the collectivization of private space, and the effects this produced in the individual and collective psyche. It examines the difficulties encountered when working with Russian analysands in creating and maintaining the setting, in preserving boundaries, in creating analytical space, and in working with certain particular transference-countertransference dynamics. It focuses on the contrast between my own Western experience of space and the spatial experience of the analysands, and describes the process of helping them use analytical space to interiorize and create a new experience of psychic space. The paper uses dreams to illustrate some of these dynamics, and the particular psychic problems associated with the traumas created by totalitarian regimes.