Scaling pigeons' choice of feeds: bigger is better.

Preferences of hungry pigeons among 10 grains and pellets were analyzed using a Thurstone scaling procedure. The recovered scales were positively correlated with size of the feed. The correlations improved when the Thurstonian assumption of equal-sized discriminal dispersions (Case V) was replaced with the assumption of proportional-sized dispersions (Case VI), as entailed by Weber's law. The correlations weakened when the experiments were conducted with the pigeons close to their free-feeding weights, where the probability of sampling alternative grains increased. In the final experiment, exposure to a large pellet shifted the preferences between two smaller pellets.     

The rhetorical strategy of boundary-work

An extended version of Gieryn's notion of boundary-work, supplemented with insights of Thomas Goodnight, is used to represent the central role of rhetoric in disputes on the boundary of science and the public. From a study of the Tarasoff-case it is shown that the rhetorical process of turning obstacles into resources works to move the boundary between a science and the law. It is concluded that rhetorical scholars can and must play a part in the resolution of boundary disputes and that concrete case-studies of boundary-work may deepen criticism of argument.     

面部表情的类别知觉及其个体差异

面部表情类别知觉效应是指连续变化的表情在人脑中按照类别表征, 且不同类别的表情之间存在明显的类别界线。介绍了面部表情类别知觉效应的行为和脑电研究范式及基础研究, 综述了攻击性、抑郁症、精神分裂症、社交焦虑等对面部表情类别知觉的影响, 以及面部表情类别知觉的发展研究。综述表明, 类别知觉研究能够揭示不同人群表情知觉类别界线及其偏移情况, 有助于解释相应的社会行为。未来研究应注重对面部表情类别知觉效应的个体差异和神经生理机制的探索。     

边界弹性与工作-家庭冲突、增益的关系：基于人?环境匹配的视角

本研究从人?环境匹配理论的视角探讨工作和家庭边界弹性能力和边界弹性意愿对个体工作?家庭冲突和工作?家庭增益的交互影响。通过问卷法共获得494份有效数据, 基于多项式回归分析和反应曲面分析的结果表明：工作弹性能力与工作弹性意愿的匹配对工作→家庭冲突有显著的负向效应, 对工作→家庭增益无显著影响; 家庭弹性能力与家庭弹性意愿的匹配对家庭→工作冲突、家庭→工作增益有显著的负向效应。     

篇章阅读理解中句子边界对整体连贯性的影响

通过四个实验考察句子边界对整体连贯性的影响。实验运用不一致程序(inconsistent paradigm)进行。实验一结果发现,当目标行1(target line)不是一个完整句子时,被试阅读完目标行2(post-target line)后才会意识到目标行1中的不一致。实验二结果发现,当目标行1是一个完整句子时,被试阅读完目标行1后就可立刻意识到其中的不一致,但探测词的反应时在两种条件下则并没有明显差异。这两个实验的结果表明,句子边界作为一种信号,提示读者在阅读下一句子前要完成当前句子的整合加工。实验三结果发现,目标行1以一个无关词(如然后)结束时,被试阅读完目标行1后也可立刻注意到其中的不一致,这表明句号对背景信息的整合不是必需的。实验四考察了分号的作用,结果显示:被试阅读完目标行1后并没有意识到其中的冲突。根据本研究的结果,可以推测句号在理解过程中起着重要影响,而其它句子边界(如:分号)的作用则并不明显。     

Permeability and Demarcation in the Psychoanalytic Process Functions of the Contact‐Barrier1

Introjection, identifi cation and projection are concepts that designate processes in which something is being put into or taken out of something else. These processes presuppose the overcoming of some form of separation between two entities. The permeability or impermeability of a fi ctive boundary between the representations of subject and object set the emotional tone of their coexistence. There are moments of complete diffusion, in which subject and object can no longer be differentiated, and moments of autistic enclosure in which the individual can no longer be reached at all. Permeability and demarcation result from the processing of stimuli carried out by the ‘contact‐barrier’, as an ego function. Stimuli of internal, libidinal or aggressive origin, as well as ‘im‐pressions’ of external origin, are classifi ed and processed with the aid of various kinds of factors arising from coagulated object‐relational experiences. Whereas for Freud the contact‐barrier regulates the quantity of energy and founds a topographical structure, Bion understands the contact‐barrier as a psychic function that simultaneously regulates boundary demarcation and making contact. In the psychoanalytic process, the contact‐barrier created by patient and analyst regulates the events in the transference and countertransference. An awareness of the struggle for contact and demarcation at the dynamic boundary representations that are constantly being recreated by both partners in the analytic process may be helpful in our clinical work. The author presents an examination of the ways in which patient and analyst make contact and demarcate the boundaries, which provides a better understanding of the dynamics of transference processes. He demonstrates this in relation to clinical material.     

Calibration of phase field parameters demonstrated on kinetics of a shrinking single grain

The phase field method is frequently employed to simulate evolution of rather complex microstructures. In order to accurately describe the real kinetics of a specific material system, the phase field parameters must be calibrated to standard thermodynamic quantities such as interface mobilities or interface energies. This letter presents a convenient method, based on thermodynamic modelling of shrinking of a single grain embedded in single crystal (matrix), how to calibrate the phase field parameters. It also shows, how the required thermodynamic quantities can be met by proper rescaling of a phase field simulation carried out for given phase field parameters.     

权变视角下的情绪劳动:调节变量及其作用机制

调节变量是近年来情绪劳动研究关注的重点问题之一。实证研究显示,反映员工个体特征、工作情境特征的多组变量以及文化情境对情绪劳动效应具有显著的调节作用。权变视角下的情绪劳动研究发现:(1)展现规则在组织、行业、文化三个不同水平影响个体在工作场所的情绪表达;(2)表层扮演潜在的消极效应可以借助个体内在的保护机制或通过组织管理干预被削弱、消除,甚至是转化为积极的力量;(3)深层扮演的积极效应具有较高的跨人群、跨情境稳定性;(4)文化情境对情绪劳动作用过程具有重要的约束作用。在一定条件下,情绪劳动要求、情绪劳动行为都可以成为有益于员工的组织生活要素。     

ARGUMENTS FROM NOTHING: GOD AND QUANTUM COSMOLOGY

This essay explores a simple argument for a Ground of Being, objections to it, and limitations on it. It is nonsensical to refer to Nothing in the sense of utter absence, hence nothing can be claimed to come from Nothing. If, as it seems, the universe, or any physical ensemble containing it, is past‐finite, it must be caused by an uncaused Ground. Speculative many‐worlds, pocket universes and multiverses do not affect this argument, but the quantum cosmologies of Alex Vilenkin, and J. B. Hartle and Stephen Hawking, which claim that the universe came from literally nothing, would. I argue that their novel project cannot work for reasons both physical (their “nothing” is actually a vacuum state governed by eternal physical laws) and methodological (physical theory cannot explain the emergence of the physical per se). Thus my argument stands. However, as David Hume showed, a posteriori arguments like mine infer a creation, and Creator, of a certain character, namely, a stochastic concept of creation and a panentheistic, partly physical Creator lacking omniscience and omnipotence. Rather than undermining the cosmological argument, as Hume intended, these limitations liberate the concept of the Ground from unnecessary problems, as Hartshorne suggested.