The Conceptual Fetters of the Mind-Body Problem

The crux of our encounter with the mind-body problem originates from a predicament on the underlying ontological level—from the category of concepts, it seems that the form for grasping the subjective aspects of the mind is incommensurable with the one for understanding the objective level of the brain. This is reflected in the fact that empirical expression is restricted by language, that psychological events cannot be incorporated into strict laws, and that the subject has a path that, with his own mental state, others cannot share. In order to make progress in cracking the mind-body problem, this paper tries to abandon the assumption that “psychology” and “physics” are mutually exclusive and are incompatible ontological categories. The “mind” and “body” are considered as two interchangeable yet non-coexisting perspectives. Therefore, events in the body are represented as conceptions in the mind, and have an expressive correspondence with one another. Meanwhile, the approach for achieving such correspondence involves the entity itself—the ability of the organism to perform purposeful activities constitutes the source of its internal activities. Through the connection of life categories—or rather, the coupling of living beings and their worlds—the mind and body maintain mechanisms which can be jointly realized.     

When senses meet functions: an amodal stage in conceptual processing

Research has shown that concepts are associated with modality-specific features widely distributed in the brain and that semantic hubs or convergence zones may exist to mediate or integrate distributed representations. Although much neuropsychological and neuroimaging literature has provided support for the existence of hubs/convergence zones from the spatial perspective, opinions differ as to whether the representations in the hubs/convergence zones are modality-specific or amodal. The current ERP study aimed to explore whether there is an amodal stage in conceptual processing from the temporal perspective. Participants were presented with prime-target pairs and were asked to judge whether the prime (a sensory or functional feature) could be an attribute of the target (a noun in a natural or artifactual category). The results revealed that a semantic hub or convergence zone may be reached no later than 350–450?ms in conceptual processing and that the representations in the hub may be amodal.     

时间焦点对前后方向上内隐时空映射的影响——来自汉族和羌族的证据

采用不同的研究方法考察汉族和羌族被试内隐时空映射的联结方向及其影响因素。实验1利用时间图表任务发现, 汉族被试对“过去在前”和“未来在前”两种内隐时空映射没有表现出明显偏好, 而羌族被试更加倾向于使用“过去在前”的内隐时空映射。由于二者均使用汉语, 但其内隐时空映射却存在差异, 显示出时间语言和时间思维的分离性。实验2利用时间焦点量表考察汉族和羌族被试对过去和未来时间的关注程度。结果发现, 前者对过去和未来的注意力程度相当, 而后者表现出较强的“过去朝向思维”, 说明文化中的时间焦点偏好可以较好地预测二者的内隐时空映射。实验3利用时间概念分类任务发现, 内隐时空映射有利于促进汉族和羌族被试时间概念的表征和加工, 出现了“隐喻一致性效应”。整个研究表明, 汉族和羌族文化中个体对待时间的态度可以决定其内隐时空映射联结方向, 支持“时间焦点假设”。     

The concept of the 50-minute hour: Time forming a frame for the unconscious

Abstract

The 50-minute hour is a feature of psychoanalytic work that is most commonly discussed in the context of case reports. This paper examines it as a concept. The author starts by describing the origin of the 50-minute hour and its development as an element of the psychoanalytic setting or framework. Next, he considers the significance of the clock as a relational factor in the session and reflects on the alienness of the time of day to the unconscious, and the consequences of this alienness. He then uses a clinical example to illustrate the phenomenon of the stretching effect of time in analytic sessions. Finally, the author demonstrates how cleverly the 50-minute hour excises the time needed for unconscious processes from our accelerated present; he shows that it challenges the social convention of time, and has a structuring effect in that it “times” psychic processes.     

Mindfulness,sport and the body: the justification of physical education revisited

This paper offers a preliminary account of the educative potential of mindfulness by revisiting the long-debated status of physical activity and sport as educationally worthwhile. We argue that previous attempts in the tradition of analytic philosophy of education to offer a justification of physical activity and sport have not been sufficiently grounded in the most distinctive feature of those activities—the body. As an alternative, we claim that the theory and practice of body-based mindfulness can explain how physical activity can satisfy the analytic philosopher of education R.S. Peters’ requirement that for an activity to be educationally worthwhile, it must possess ‘wide-ranging cognitive content’. We conclude that physical activity and sport are justifiable on Petersian grounds: physical activity can broaden understanding mostly inaccessible to the kinds of theoretical activities (science and/or philosophy) that Peters argued are exemplary. We then assess the implications for this argument in terms of how such an account can inform physical educators’ understanding of the place of physical education and sport in their teaching practice.     

Freud,Jung and The Great Chain of Being

For some time, it has been clear that psychoanalytic theories are built upon the kind of master narratives Roy Schafer, a New York psychoanalyst, described in 1980. As such, psychoanalytic theories may today have lost some of their initial scientific credibility in that they can no longer be seen as summarizing findings from data collected in a research environment. As aids in participating in their patients’ process of healing, however, narratives continue to be used by practitioners and reflect allegiance to core beliefs and propositions with roots in long‐standing Western thought. In this article, the metaphors in master narratives of Freud and Jung are compared with a conceptual system identified by cognitive linguists as ‘The Great Chain of Being’. Based on this analysis, the article proposes that theoretical formulations have mainly a secondary role to play in achieving good outcomes. The most critical element is the therapist's capacity to access a specific narrative for what transpires throughout each treatment.     

汉语常用颜色词的概念结构

采用自然分类和多维标度的方法,研究了汉语常用颜色词的概念结构。结果表明,汉语常用颜色词的语义空间具有按原型分布的特点。常用颜色词的概念结构有3个维度:1.彩色/非彩色;2.暖色/冷色;3.颜色的互补和对比。整个研究表明,颜色认知既受光波的物理属性和人眼的生物特性影响,又受语言和社会文化影响。     

马普人类发展研究所毕生发展心理研究中心：研究主题和研究活动展示

Paul B. Baltes于1981年在马普人类发展研究所成立的毕生发展心理研究中心已经使毕生发展心理学成为了发展心理学中的一个重要的概念分支。2004年以来,中心已经将研究项目扩展到了发展行为神经科学。中心主要在三个主题上开展研究工作: (1) 研究作为成熟、学习和衰老的交互作用的结果, 毕生的不同发展阶段中人类行为变化的规律: (2) 发展能够整合来自于自身机能、时间序列、以及行为和神经层面分析等领域实证证据的理论和方法体系。(3) 通过探索不同年龄可塑性上的差异寻找发展的机制。中心继续重点关注成人晚期和老年期, 这为理论和实践上的创新提供了独特的机遇。同时, 中心加强了对包括婴儿期和儿童早期在内的个体发展早期阶段的研究。本文报告了来自四项从行为和神经层面分析感觉和认知发展的研究的最新发现。