The role of pattern recognition in children's exact enumeration of small numbers

Enumeration can be accomplished by subitizing, counting, estimation, and combinations of these processes. We investigated whether the dissociation between subitizing and counting can be observed in 4‐ to 6‐year‐olds and studied whether the maximum number of elements that can be subitized changes with age. To detect a dissociation between subitizing and counting, it is tested whether task manipulations have different effects in the subitizing than in the counting range. Task manipulations concerned duration of presentation of elements (limited, unlimited) and configuration of elements (random, line, dice). In Study 1, forty‐nine 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds were tested with a computerized enumeration task. Study 2 concerned data from 4‐, 5‐, and 6‐year‐olds, collected with Math Garden, a computer‐adaptive application to practice math. Both task manipulations affected performance in the counting, but not the subitizing range, supporting the conclusion that children use two distinct enumeration processes in the two ranges. In all age groups, the maximum number of elements that could be subitized was three. The strong effect of configuration of elements suggests that subitizing might be based on a general ability of pattern recognition.     

人本主义心理学评价新探

本文从宏观上对人本主义心理学提出了新的评价。指出其主要贡献：（1）把人的本性与价值提到了心理学研究的首位；（2）突出人的动机系统与高级需要的重要作用；（3）提出实验客观范式与经验主观范式综合的新构想；（4）促进以人为本的组织管理与教育改革以及心理治疗的发展。根本缺陷：（1）未摆脱自然主义人性论的羁绊；（2）渗透个人本位主义精神；（3）缺乏实证性的检验与支持。     

基于模式分类的中医医案分析技术

中医药经历数千年的发展,已积累了大量数据,特别是从古到今的医案数据,但这些数据因没有用现代信息手段整理、分析,而不能为中医药的科学研究提供支持。本文将模式分类技术应用于医案数据的分析中,从已知的病症推断出所属的证型。该方法能够进行自动学习,不需要专家的辅助即可从医案中学习到病症和证型的联系。     

新编中国基督教通史的几点看法

从20世纪90年代以来,笔者所见国内外发表的论述有关中国基督教史研究状况的文章有10多篇①。这些文章对笔者写作本文多有启发,如比利时钟鸣旦教授撰写的《基督教在华传播史研究的新趋势》,旨在以近年来重要的范式变换为出发点,分梳剖析基督教在华传播史研究领域内新近出现的一些趋势;香港建道神学院邢福增博士撰写的《近代中国基督教史的研究趋向——以美国及台湾为例》一文,从较宏观的角度回顾并评检美国及中国台湾地区在近代中国基督教史方面的研究范式转换和趋向,提出了建立“中国基督教史学统”的观点。不过,这些文章虽然也涉及如何编撰中国基督教通史的问题,但并非从多角度专门论述编撰规范问题。本文在参考相关论述的基础上,经过认真考虑,提出从指导思想、研究方法、体裁与体例、内容与分期、文献资料、语言及翻译问题、编写队伍等7个方面思考编撰中国基督教通史的规范问题的建议,以期引起进一步讨论。     

Extending problem-solving procedures through reflection

A large-sample (n = 75) fMRI study guided the development of a theory of how people extend their problem-solving procedures by reflecting on them. Both children and adults were trained on a new mathematical procedure and then were challenged with novel problems that required them to change and extend their procedure to solve these problems. The fMRI data were analyzed using a combination of hidden Markov models (HMMs) and multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA). This HMM–MVPA analysis revealed the existence of 4 stages: Encoding, Planning, Solving, and Responding. Using this analysis as a guide, an ACT-R model was developed that improved the performance of the HMM–MVPA and explained the variation in the durations of the stages across 128 different problems. The model assumes that participants can reflect on declarative representations of the steps of their problem-solving procedures. A Metacognitive module can hold these steps, modify them, create new declarative steps, and rehearse them. The Metacognitive module is associated with activity in the rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (RLPFC). The ACT-R model predicts the activity in the RLPFC and other regions associated with its other cognitive modules (e.g., vision, retrieval). Differences between children and adults seemed related to differences in background knowledge and computational fluency, but not to the differences in their capability to modify procedures.     

Modeling the emergence of informational content by adaptive networks for temporal factorisation and criterial causation

Propagated activation of neurons through their network is an important process in the brain. Another crucial part of neural processing concerns adaptation over time of characteristics of this network such as connection strengths or excitability thresholds. This adaptation can be slow, as in learning from a multiple experiences, or it can be fast, as in memory formation. These adaptive network characteristics can be considered informational criteria for activation of a neuron. This then is viewed as a form of emergent information formation. Activation of neurons is determined by such information via a process termed criterial causation. In the current paper, the relationship of criterial causation with the principle of temporal factorisation for the dynamics of the world in general is explored. Temporal factorisation describes how the world represents information about its past in its present state, which then in turn determines the world’s future. In the paper, it is shown how these processes are analysed in more detail and modeled by (adaptive) network models.