Mapping self‐reported to behavioral impulsiveness: The role of task parameters

Despite being regarded as indicators of a common psychological capacity, behavioral and self‐reported measures of impulsiveness have been found to barely correlate with each other. Acknowledging the construct's multidimensional nature, the present study set out to map dissociable components of behavioral self‐control (delay discounting, response inhibition) onto lower‐order facets of self‐reported impulsiveness. In addition, we examined whether the relationship between response inhibition and self‐reported impulsiveness depends on the balance between facilitative and interfering priming processes involved in a laboratory task. In two consecutive studies, 185 participants completed laboratory self‐control tasks as well as self‐report questionnaires designed to measure facets of impulsiveness. Correlational analyses revealed an association between subscales of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) and response inhibition in a go/no‐go paradigm involving simultaneously presented task‐irrelevant distractors. This association vanished when an onset asynchrony between distractor and target stimuli was introduced. Previous findings regarding correlations between BIS subscales and delay discounting or intra‐individual response variability could not be replicated. Results indicate that the relationship between response inhibition and self‐reported impulsiveness critically varies as a function of subtle task parameters. Focusing on these procedural details and the multidimensionality of self‐reported impulsiveness might allow for a more differentiated analysis of the convergent validity of self‐control measures.     

Reliability and validity of the Leuven Perceptual Organization Screening Test (L‐POST)

Neuropsychological tests of visual perception mostly assess high‐level processes like object recognition. Object recognition, however, relies on distinct mid‐level processes of perceptual organization that are only implicitly tested in classical tests. Furthermore, the psychometric properties of the existing instruments are limited. To fill this gap, the Leuven perceptual organization screening test (L‐POST) was developed, in which a wide range of mid‐level phenomena are measured in 15 subtests. In this study, we evaluated reliability and validity of the L‐POST. Performance on the test is evaluated relative to a norm sample of more than 1,500 healthy control participants. Cronbach's alpha of the norm sample and test–retest correlations for 20 patients provide evidence for adequate reliability of L‐POST performance. The convergent and discriminant validity of the test was assessed in 40 brain‐damaged patients, whose performance on the L‐POST was compared with standard clinical tests of visual perception and other measures of cognitive function. The L‐POST showed high sensitivity to visual dysfunction and decreased performance was specific to visual problems. In conclusion, the L‐POST is a reliable and valid screening test for perceptual organization. It offers a useful online tool for researchers and clinicians to get a broader overview of the mid‐level processes that are preserved or disrupted in a given patient.     

消费者如何看待和评价融合产品?——基于融合产品特征和消费者个体特征的分析

融合产品是将不同品类的功能整合到一个平台上的产品形态,如智能手机等.电子科技的进步和消费者需求的拉动促使产品的融合不断成熟,逐渐成为高科技产品的主流.面对令人眼花缭乱的融合产品,消费者将如何进行评价？文章通过对融合产品领域文献的回顾和梳理,从融合产品的产品特征、消费者的个体特征两大方面深入细致地探讨了消费者对融合产品的评价机制及影响因素,整合了基础产品的特征、新增功能的特征、基础产品与新增功能之间的关系、消费者先前拥有的经历、消费者所花费的认知资源、消费者的心理解释水平等相关变量,最终提出了一个包含11个命题的全新的理论分析框架,为未来深入探讨该领域相关的问题提供了可借鉴的理论依据.     

《物种起源》中的类比方法及其论证作用

达尔文在《物种起源》中区分了自然选择学说包括的两种不同的原理：适应原理和性状分歧原理。他对类比方法的应用也有两种：一是类比论证,二是发现的启发法。关于适应原理的类比只起到了启发法的作用,达尔文对这种类比的理解是假说一演绎主义的;关于性状分歧原理的类比是一种归纳推理,达尔文对这种类比的理解是归纳主义的。     

Reflective equilibrium and moral objectivity

Ever since the introduction of reflective equilibrium in ethics, it has been argued that reflective equilibrium either leads to moral relativism, or that it turns out to be a form of intuitionism in disguise. Despite these criticisms, reflective equilibrium remains the most dominant method of moral justification in ethics. In this paper, I therefore critically examine the most recent attempts to defend the method of reflective equilibrium against these objections. Defenders of reflective equilibrium typically respond to the objections by saying that either reflective equilibrium can in fact safeguard moral objectivity or alternatively, even if it cannot, that there simply are no reasonable alternatives. In this paper, I take issue with both responses. First, I argue that given the non-foundationalist aspirations of reflective equilibrium, moral objectivity cannot be maintained. Second, I argue that reflective equilibrium is not the only game in town once intuitionism has been discarded. I argue that given their own normative ambitions, combined with their rejection of intuitionism, proponents of reflective equilibrium have reason to take alternative methods of moral justification, and more specifically transcendental arguments, more seriously than they have done so far. I end by sketching the outlines of what this alternative methodology might look like.     

The Medieval Origins of Conceivability Arguments

The central recommendation of this article is that philosophers trained in the analytic tradition ought to add the sensibilities and skills of the historian to their methodological toolkit. The value of an historical approach to strictly philosophical matters is illustrated by a case study focussing on the medieval origin of conceivability arguments and contemporary views of modality. It is shown that common metaphilosophical views about the nature of the philosophical enterprise as well as certain inference patterns found in thinkers from Descartes to Chalmers have their origin in the theological concerns of the Scholastics. Since these assumptions and inference patterns are difficult to motivate when shorn of their original theological context, the upshot is that much post‐Cartesian philosophy is cast in an altogether unfamiliar, and probably unwelcome, light. The methodological point, however, is that this philosophical gain is born of acquaintance with the history of ideas.     

禅修对创造性思维的影响

禅修是一种能够对人类心理有广泛影响的训练工具。作为两种重要、相似但又不同的禅修方式, 冥想和正念对创造性思维中的发散思维和聚合思维产生了不同影响。在发散思维方面, 冥想主要通过对注意调控和无意识激活影响以及对解题动机和情绪的有效调控两方面显著增强了发散思维, 尤其是认知灵活性; 在聚合思维方面, 正念和冥想的影响相当复杂, 主要是通过聚合思维所需的执行功能和可能涉及表征重构来促进定势转移或功能固着的消除。就机制而言, 禅修对创造性思维的影响总体上不仅得益于走神时的无意识关联加工, 而且受禅修中诱发的情绪效应的调节。基于这些, 对未来研究的趋势进行了展望。     

A Pragma-Dialectical Approach of the Analysis and Evaluation of Pragmatic Argumentation in a Legal Context

This paper answers the question how pragmatic argumentation which occurs in a legal context, can be analyzed and evaluated adequately. First, the author surveys various ideas taken from argumentation theory and legal theory on the analysis and evaluation of pragmatic argumentation. Then, on the basis of these ideas, she develops a pragma-dialectical instrument for analyzing and evaluating pragmatic argumentation in a legal context. Finally she demonstrates how this instrument can be used by giving an exemplary analysis and evaluation of pragmatic argumentation in a decision of the Dutch Supreme Court.     

Normative and Descriptive Analyses of Simpson's Paradox in Decision Making

Suppose that you are evaluating two delivery companies. Your investigation shows that Company B has a better on-time rate for small packages and also for large packages. Despite Company B's performance, however, Company A has a better overall on-time rate. This situation exemplifies Simpson's Paradox, in which the judged relationship between two variables (e.g., company and performance) differs depending on whether that relationship is viewed within subcategories of a third variable (e.g., package size) or in the aggregate. A normative analysis is presented arguing that the reasonableness of using the third variable depends upon the sample size as well as the separation between and variability within categories. To test subjects' abilities to behave appropriately in Simpson's Paradox situations, we examined responses to variations in these factors in five studies. Results showed that subjects had little or no sensitivity to differing stimulus set sizes. Also, subjects were sensitive to relationship strength and the variability within and between groups, and in nonnormative ways. Subjects' judgment behavior is related to a broader perspective concerning selection among multiple available levels of analysis based on a consideration of argument strength.     

Moral supervenience

Abstract

It is widely held, even among nonnaturalists, that the moral supervenes on the natural. This is to say that for any two metaphysically possible worlds w and w′, and for any entities x in w and y in w′, any isomorphism between x and y that preserves the natural properties preserves the moral properties. In this paper, I put forward a conceivability argument against moral supervenience, assuming non-naturalism. First, I argue that though utilitarianism may be true, and the trolley driver is permitted to kill the one to save the five, there is a conceivable scenario that is just like our world in all natural respects, yet at which deontology is true, and the trolly driver is not permitted to kill the one to save the five. I then argue that in the special case of morality, it is possible to infer from the conceivability of such a scenario to its possibility. It follows that supervenience is false.