GENERALIZATION OF NAMING RESPONSES TO OBJECTS IN THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT AS A FUNCTION OF TRAINING STIMULUS MODALITY WITH RETARDED CHILDREN

Picture-cards, photographs, and real objects were compared as training stimuli in order to determine which best facilitated the generalization of naming responses learned in a special training room to real objects in the natural environments of four retarded children. The amount of transfer of naming behavior between the three stimulus modes and the average amount of training time required per stimulus mode were also assessed. Three of the four children displayed considerably more generalization to the real objects in the natural environment when they were trained with real objects. The fourth child displayed substantial generalization regardless of the training stimulus mode. No particular training stimulus mode clearly facilitated the transfer of naming responses to other modes or greatly reduced training time. The results of two supplementary procedures conducted with one child showed that: (1) training in several environments facilitated generalization to real objects in the natural environment when real objects were used as training stimuli but not when picture-cards were used, and (2) transfer from picture-cards to real objects was facilitated by training other picture-cards and the real objects portrayed by them at the same time.     

Vowels, syllables, and letter names: differences between young children's spelling in English and Portuguese

Young Portuguese-speaking children have been reported to produce more vowel- and syllable-oriented spellings than have English speakers. To investigate the extent and source of such differences, we analyzed children's vocabulary and found that Portuguese words have more vowel letter names and a higher vowel-consonant ratio than do English words. In a spelling experiment, we found that Portuguese speakers used more vowels, but did not produce more syllabic spellings, than did English speakers. The differences that we observed are attributable to quantitative differences in the languages and their writing and letter name systems. They do not support the widespread idea that speakers of Romance languages pass through an additional, syllabic, stage of development.     

How Could Chinese Thinking Modes Integrate into Contemporary Western Epistemology? —A Hybrid Perspective of Both AI and the Confucian Theory of the Rectification of Names

Post-Gettier contemporary epistemology is different from traditional epistemology in the sense that the former is concerned more with the normative dimension of knowledge, while the latter is concerned more with how knowledge is actually formed. Due to the cultural differences concerning how to understand key epistemological terms like “knowledge,” “belief,” and “justification,” the Chinese-speaking philosophical world, analytic thinkers precluded, has long been unable to appreciate the fruits of the post-Gettier epistemology. Two intermediate moves are proposed to take for filling the gap between post-Gettier epistemology and the Chinesespeaking intellectual community: Firstly, the fusion of AI and epistemology is encouraged, hence, such a move would provide a chance to double-check the putative universal applicability of specific conclusions of the post-Gettier epistemology from an engineering perspective; secondly, an algorithmoriented reconstruction of the Confucian theory of the rectification of names is also encouraged to bring new life to some traditional Chinese-based thoughts on the process of epistemic justification.     

Looking for Whitehead

Saul Kripke in his revolutionary and influential series of lectures from the early 1970s (later published as the book Naming and Necessity) famously resurrected John Stuart Mill's theory of proper names. Kripke at the same time rejected Mill's theory of general terms. According to Kripke, many natural kind terms do not fit Mill's account of general terms and are closer to proper names. Unfortunately, Kripke and his followers ignored key passages in Mill's A System of Logic in which Mill enunciates a sophisticated and detailed theory of natural kind terms that anticipates and is in some ways superior to Kripke's.     

Searching for interference effects in learning new face–name associations

In three experiments we attempted to increase interference using experimental manipulations in a face–name learning paradigm. All experiments included young and older adult participants because ageing is associated with increases in both susceptibility to interference and difficulty in learning face–name associations. None of the experiments produced interference for either age group: The inclusion of confusable (i.e., ambiguous) names and occupations, having to learn an additional piece of information in association with each face, and requiring participants to guess when uncertain all failed to negatively impact name learning. Interference does not appear to be the critical mechanism underlying the difficulty of learning proper names, and it cannot account for older adults' disproportionate decline in name-learning ability.     

On the Emotions

Art historians and philosophers often talk about the interpretive significance of titles, but few have bothered with their historical origins. This omission has led to the assumption that an artwork's title is its proper name, since names and titles share the essential function of facilitating reference to their bearers. But a closer look at the development of our titling practices shows a significant point of divergence from standard analyses of proper names: the semantic content of a title is often crucial to the identification, individuation, and interpretation of its associated artwork. This paper represents a first step towards an empirically centred study of our titling practices. I argue that, in order to accept titles as proper names, we must first recognize the social, rather than the referential, function of naming.     

Intensifying attachment-related sadness and decreasing anger intensity among individuals suffering from unresolved anger: The role of relational reframe followed by empty-chair interventions

This study examined whether two therapy interventions – relational reframe followed by empty chair – were associated with increases in sadness intensity and decreases in anger intensity among a sample of 61 undergraduate students suffering from unresolved anger toward an attachment figure (e.g. parent, sibling, and past-romantic partner). Participants underwent a single analog therapy session comprised of three interventions delivered in sequence: empathic focus on their anger; relational reframe; and empty-chair enactment. Participants retrospectively reported on the intensity of their attachment-related anger and sadness during the session using an interpersonal process recall procedure. Results showed that over the course of the relational reframe and empty-chair intervention sequence, sadness intensity increased and anger intensity decreased. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.