The effects of presentation time on preference for curvature of real objects and meaningless novel patterns

Objects with curved contours are generally preferred to sharp‐angled ones. In this study, we aim to determine whether different presentation times influence this preference. We used images of real objects (experiment 1) and meaningless novel patterns (experiment 2). Participants had to select one of two images from a contour pair, curved and sharp‐angled versions of the same object/pattern. With real objects, the preference for curved versions was greatest when presented for 84 ms, and it faded when participants were given unlimited viewing time. Curved meaningless patterns were preferred when presented for 84 and 150 ms. However, in contrast to real objects, preference for meaningless patterns increased significantly in the unlimited viewing time condition. Participants discriminated poorly between the two versions (curved and sharp‐angled) of the meaningless patterns in the 84‐ and 150‐ms presentations (experiment 3). Therefore, in short times with meaningless patterns, participants selected mostly the curved version without being aware of the difference. In conclusion, presentation time, type of stimulus, and their interaction influence preference for curvature.     

Transfer of baseline reject control to transitivity trials and its effect on equivalence class formation

This study explored the role of baseline reject control on transitivity responding. In Experiment 1, participants learned to respond to a baseline of arbitrary AB and AC conditional relations, and then they were exposed to transitivity‐like BC and CB trials in which the correct comparison stimulus was replaced by a novel stimulus (D). Five of 10 participants selected stimulus D, but only 1 showed expansion of the baseline stimulus classes to include the D stimuli. In Experiment 2, the emergence of symmetry and transitivity from baseline relations was assessed before participants were exposed to the transitivity‐like trials. Six of 8 participants who showed emergence of equivalence relations selected the D stimuli on transitivity‐like trials and provided evidence that baseline classes expanded to include these stimuli. In Experiment 3, these 6 participants selected novel stimuli (E) in additional transitivity‐like trials, and all showed that the E stimuli had become members of the previously established classes, which now comprised 5 members. A route for the emergence of transitivity by way of the transfer of baseline between‐classes reject control is discussed.     

Investigating stereotype structure with empirical network models

In this work we present empirical network models as a new approach in the investigation of stereotype structure. We will argue that empirical network models can provide more insight into stereotype structure because they do not suffer from the inherent constraints of factor analysis and multidimensional scaling (e.g., group features interpreted homogeneously only on the basis of their shared variance, impossibility to adequately represent cognitive schemas, difficulties to make inferences on the basis of dimensions potentially overlapping). In the present research we show how empirical network models can represent stereotypes as dynamic cognitive structures clustered in different substructures. These structures will be based on both the stereotype content and the co-occurrence of features in each group target. Additionally, this research shows how using empirical networks can contribute to broadening the interpretation of stereotypes representing them in the framework of prejudice or intergroup attitudes.     

质疑星座决定人格特质的实证研究

星象学的基本假设是一个人出生时的星运位置可以决定其人格特质和重大际遇。本研究以16PF为工具,测查了165名大一学生,并按被试的出生日期和时辰确定了其星座。总的来说,结果不支持星座决定人格倾向的理论。     

Typicality effects in contingency-shaped generalized equivalence classes

Two experiments were conducted using match-to-sample methodologies in an effort to model lexical classes, which include both arbitrary and perceptual relations between class members. Training in both experiments used a one-to-many mapping procedure with nonsense syllables as samples and eight sets of abstract stimuli as comparisons. These abstract stimuli differed along a number of dimensions, four of which were critical to the experimenter-defined class membership. Stimuli in some comparison sets included only one of the class-defining features, but stimuli in other sets included two, three, or all four of the critical features. After mastery of the baseline training, three types of probe tests were conducted: symmetry, transitivity/equivalence, and novel probe tests in which the training nonsense syllables served as samples, and comparisons were novel abstract stimuli that included one or more of the class-defining features. Symmetry and transitivity/equivalence probe tests showed that the stimuli used in training became members of equivalence classes. The novel stimuli also became class members on the basis of inclusion of any of the critical features. Thus these probe tests revealed the formation of open-ended generalized equivalence classes. In addition, typicality effects were observed such that comparison sets with more critical features were learned with fewer errors, responded to more rapidly, and judged to be better exemplars of the class. Contingency-shaped stimulus classes established through a match-to-sample procedure thus show several important behavioral similarities to natural lexical categories.     

THE WHOLE BRAIN AS THE BASIS OR THE ANALOGICAL EXPRESSION OF GOD

Abstract. As human beings we inevitably try to explain our experience. In philosophical language, we deal with transcendent assertions and aspirations. The issue, then, is: how can we talk about what matters, given the structures inherent in language and basic to the way we are made? Instead of the philosophical category of Being, I advance a case for giving the human brain privileged status as an analogical expression of God, the symbol-concept of what matters most, and then suggest the illumination which can come with using that analogical expression, especially as that analogy connects us with the environment at the limbic level and constructs our world at the cerebral level.     

“Plausible insofar as it is intelligible”: Quine on underdetermination

Quine’s thesis of underdetermination is significantly weaker than it has been taken to be in the recent literature, for the following reasons: (i) it does not hold for all theories, but only for some global theories, (ii) it does not require the existence of empirically equivalent yet logically incompatible theories, (iii) it does not rule out the possibility that all perceived rivalry between empirically equivalent theories might be merely apparent and eliminable through translation, (iv) it is not a fundamental thesis within Quine’s philosophy, and (v) it does not carry with it the anti-realistic consequences often associated with the thesis in recent debates. The paper analyzes Quine’s views on the matter and the changes they underwent over the years. A conjecture is put forth about why Quine’s thesis has been so widely misrepresented: Quine’s writings up to 1975 tackled primarily the formulation and justification of the thesis, but afterwards were concerned mostly with the question whether empirically equivalent rivals to the theory we hold are to be considered true also. When this latter discussion is read without bearing in mind Quine’s earlier formulation and justification of the thesis, his thesis seems to have stronger epistemic consequences than it actually does. A careful reading of his later writings shows, however, that the formulation of the thesis remained unchanged after 1975, and that his mature and considered views supported only a very mitigated version of the thesis.     

Measurement Equivalence of the Trauma Symptom Checklist-40 for Chemically Dependent African American and Caucasian Women: A Preliminary Study

The Trauma Symptom Checklist-40 (TSC-40) is a brief self-report measure of trauma-related symptoms. Using a confirmatory factor analysis framework, this preliminary study examined whether the TSC-40 provided a good fit for 50 African American and 52 Caucasian economically and educationally disadvantaged women enrolled in a residential treatment program. A 5-factor structure of the TSC-40 appeared to be more applicable for our sample than the original 6-factor model. This 5-factor model includes negative mood, interpersonal problems, sleep disturbance, dissociative-like symptoms, and sexual problems. Equivalent factor structure and factor loadings emerged for the two ethnic and racial groups. Implications pertaining to trauma assessment are discussed.     

The development of functional and equivalence classes in high-functioning autistic children: the role of naming.

The development of functional and equivalence classes was studied in four high-functioning, preschool-aged autistic children. Initially, all subjects failed to demonstrate match-to-sample relations indicative of stimulus equivalence among two three-member classes of visual stimuli. Then, 2 subjects showed emergence of those relations after they were taught to assign the same name to all members in each class. Next, subjects were taught names for new stimuli outside the match-to-sample format. On subsequent match-to-sample tests, 2 subjects demonstrated untrained conditional relations among the stimuli given a common name. New, unnamed stimuli were then related via match-to-sample training to stimuli from sets of named stimuli. Tests for emergent conditional relations between the new unnamed stimuli and the named stimuli yielded positive results for 1 subject and somewhat mixed results for 3 subjects. Finally, without naming, 2 subjects developed stimulus equivalence among two new three-member classes of visual stimuli. These data suggest that naming may remediate failures to develop untrained conditional relations, some of which are indicative of stimulus equivalence.     

Functional equivalence classes in rats: Repeated olfactory discrimination reversals and delayed stimulus probes

The simultaneous matching-to-sample procedures that are widely used to study stimulus equivalence in human participants have generally been unsuccessful in animals. However, functional equivalence classes have been demonstrated in pigeons and sea lions using a concurrent repeated reversal discrimination procedure. In this procedure, responding to one set of stimuli is reinforced but responding to a different set is not and the set associated with reinforcement is changed with multiple reversals during the experiment. The experiments reported here were designed to assess whether functional equivalence classes could be demonstrated in rats using similar techniques. Rats were initially trained with two sets of olfactory stimuli (six odors/set). Following many reversals, probe reversal sessions were conducted in which rats were exposed to a subset of the members of each set and, later in the session, the withheld stimuli were introduced. Responding to these delayed probe trials in accord with the reversed contingencies constituted transfer of function. There was some evidence of transfer in Experiment 1, but the effects were relatively weak and variable. Experiment 2 introduced procedural changes and found strong evidence of transfer of function consistent with the formation of functional equivalence classes. These procedures offer a promising strategy to study symbolic behavior in rodents.