REREADING THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE IN TRANSATLANTIC PERSPECTIVE

William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience is one of the world's most popular attempts to meld science and religion. Academic reviews of the book were mixed in Europe and America, however, and prominent contemporaries, unsure whether it was science or theology, struggled to interpret it. James's reliance on an inherently ambiguous understanding of the subconscious as a means of bridging between religion and science accounts for some of the interpretive difficulties, but it does not explain why his overarching question was so obscure, why psychopathology and unusual experiences figured so prominently, or why he gave us so many examples and so little argument. To understand these persistent puzzles we need to do more than acknowledge James's indebtedness to Frederic Myers's conception of the subconscious. We need to read VRE in the context of the transatlantic network of experimental psychologists and psychical researchers who provided the primary intellectual inspiration for the book. Doing so not only locates and clarifies the underlying question that animated the work but also illuminates the structural and rhetorical similarities between VRE and Myers's Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death. In contrast to the individual case studies of hysterics, mediums, and mystics produced by others in this network, both Myers and James adopted a natural-history approach in which they arranged examples of automatisms to produce a rhetorical effect, thus invoking science in order to evoke a religious response. Where Myers organized his examples to make a case for human survival of death, James organized his to make a case for the involvement of higher powers in the transformation of the self. Read in this way, VRE marks a dramatic shift from a religious preoccupation with life after death to a religious preoccupation with this-worldly self-transformation.     

Post‐traumatic functional recovery and reorganization in animal models: A theoretical and methodological challenge

Studies addressing cerebral functional localization face methodological and theoretical problems. Lesion experiments expect that when a functionally specialized structure is missing, its function can be deduced from the resulting impairments. Mostly, however, initial impairments are partially or fully eliminated through functional recovery. Apparently, such a recovery contradicts the notion of functional localization. In order to understand the mechanisms of recovery, improved methodology and a new theoretical framework are required. Insights into the mechanisms of recovery can be achieved by using “challenge” techniques, where functionally recovered individuals are exposed to organic and behavioral challenges, e.g. pharmacological manipulations or additional lesions, as well as modified test situations. Using such methods, a number of principles of functional recovery have emerged. We evaluate some of the available theories of post‐traumatic recovery against these principles and find that none of them can account for the principles. Finally, we present a new conceptual framework – the Reorganization of Elementary Functions (REF) model. This model reconceptualizes the term “function”, suggests mechanisms of post‐traumatic reorganizations, and resolves the contradiction between localization and functional recovery.     

评价中心的基本特点与发展趋势

本文对人才测评的高端技术——评价中心进行了较为客观的评价,不仅阐述了评价中心及其主要核心技术的功能和特点,揭示了评价中心在甄选人才方面的科学性和有效性,而且指出了评价中心存在的一些局限性,同时介绍了评价中心的改革趋势和最新发展,从而帮助人们能够全面、正确地认识评价中心的作用和意义。     

Perspectives on consumer decision making: an integrated approach

In the consumer behaviour literature several perspectives on consumer decision making have been considered, including the ‘value perspective’, the ‘information processing perspective’, the ‘emotional perspective’ and ‘cue utilisation theory’. In this paper, a framework which integrates several perspectives on consumer decision making and hypothesises possible links between several basic constructs is developed. The framework is tested by the use of two experimental designs. The results of this study support the complexity of consumer decision making with the following findings. First, consumers do not use their cognitive and affective skills independently, rather they affect each other. Secondly, the cognitive, evaluative constructs of quality and attitude had significant direct effects on buying intention in both experiments, whereas the affective construct of emotion had no significant effects on buying intention in both experiments. Thirdly, in both experiments price affected perceived quality, which in turn affected attitude, which in turn affected buying intention. At the same time, price had no direct effect on buying intention. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

压抑遗忘的影响因素

人在生活中的一些负性经历或无效信息可以通过压抑提取而遗忘,这种遗忘称为压抑遗忘。压抑遗忘不仅受压抑时长、压抑次数、实验材料的情绪效价和唤醒度、期待效应等的影响,还受个体的年龄和精神障碍等的影响。今后应着重考察精神疾病个体记忆控制网络内的连接强度与压抑遗忘的关系,澄清压抑遗忘是否存在补偿机制。     

Investigation of the relationship between social isolation, self-esteem, aggression and computer game play in Japanese adolescents

Some support for expressed concern over the negative consequences of computer game play was obtained by Colwell and Payne (2000) in a questionnaire survey of UK adolescents. A second study was carried out in Tokyo, Japan, to test for generality of findings. There was strong evidence of similarity in relation to play patterns, but in contrast to the UK sample, number of good friends and self-esteem did not relate to game play. A principal components analysis of a scale to measure needs met by game play resulted in the same two previously obtained factors; 'companionship' and 'prefer to friends'. However, in contrast to the UK sample, 'companionship' did not relate to play. A positive relation between the 'prefer to friends' factor and play was obtained for both boys and girls (boys only in the UK), thus providing support for the 'electronic friendship' hypothesis. There was evidence of a positive relation between play and aggression, but a preference for aggressive games was associated with lower aggression scores, and this raises questions for the 'causal hypothesis'.     

视觉运动知觉脑机制的研究现状

视觉运动是探索脑功能的一个重要研究途径,该对视觉运动通路与色彩的关系、视觉运动知觉的产生,对于视觉信息的不同阶段的处理以及立体视觉等若干问题进行了回顾与讨论,并概述了其中若干理论及其争论,提出了未来视觉研究可能存在的问题与研究方向。     

Vernon Smith开创的实验经济学及其对心理学研究的启示

2002年度诺贝尔经济学奖得主Vernon Smith是实验经济学的创始人。他获奖的原因是“在实验经济分析尤其是选择性市场机制研究中引入了实验室实验”,开创了经济学研究的新领域。该文介绍了实验经济学的理论基础、其主要研究领域以及实验经济学的新方向——神经经济学的研究。该文着重介绍并分析了实验经济学中与心理学研究有关的部分,以期对心理学研究有所启示。     

来自经济学的启示:关于心理学科的一些思考

从许多方面看,经济学与心理学都存在着共同之处。自20世纪70年代起,主流经济学在解释现实上的失败引发了经济学界的深刻反思,这些反思带给心理学的启示有：(1)心理学与经济学同属社会科学,而不是中间科学或二重科学;(2)统一的范式并不见得是这类以人为研究对象的社会科学的理想状态;(3)实验方法的发展方向不在于越来越精密地控制试验,而是允许不确定性的存在,并通过对不确定性的研究和发掘促进学科的进步。     

安慰剂效应研究实验设计的历史和发展

安慰剂处理从最初作为研究某种真实治疗效应的控制条件, 已演变为研究者直接关注的研究目标, 其实验范式也发生了相应变化。双盲随机设计关注真实的治疗是否优于安慰剂处理; 欺骗设计直接比较安慰剂处理效应和自然历史效应的差异, 关注安慰剂效应本身; 公开隐藏设计通过计算公开治疗效应和隐藏治疗效应之差来估计安慰剂效应的大小; 平衡范式可同时观察安慰剂效应和真实治疗效应; 强化范式通过条件性强化获得加强的安慰剂效应, 是研究其作用机制的优化方案; 本课题组建立的迁移强化范式, 研究安慰剂效应从痛觉到情绪的迁移, 是强化范式的重要补充。