“时间窗”—— 认知加工的后勤基础

时间加工是认知加工的内在属性。因此, 理解发生在知觉或更广泛的认知过程中的时间加工极为重要。为了应对中枢信息加工所面临的外部挑战, 大脑显然已形成了一些用于整合信息的特殊时间窗。已经发现, 其中一个时间窗介于数十毫秒的范围内, 它用于为意识活动产生必要的建构单元。来自反应时、时序阈限以及神经元结构振荡反应的研究为该时间窗的存在提供了实证证据。另一个时间窗的作用范围是2~3秒, 它用于产生“主观现在感”或作为使知觉体的标识保持不变的时间整合区间。支持该窗口存在的实验证据来自时距再现、两可图形、感觉运动同步以及神经生理学研究。还有一种时间窗以昼夜节律的形式存在。所有的心理和生理功能似乎都有着24小时的周期性变化。时间窗的紊乱会以神经或精神疾病的形式表现出来, 这恰恰表明了在基础研究之外对时间加工进行研究的重要性。     

回避性依恋和注意偏向：刺激普遍性与刺激特定性

采用工作记忆算式-词对广度任务,通过87名大学生探索依恋回避倾向性与注意的关系。研究发现：依恋回避与三类词的工作记忆成绩呈负相关;工作记忆广度类型、词类型主效应显著;工作记忆广度类型与词类型交互作用显著。结果表明：回避性依恋者具有回避性注意偏向;回避性注意偏向既有刺激普遍性,又有刺激特定性,依恋性刺激比中性刺激更容易在信息加工早期被防御性地排除;回避性注意偏向具有调节情绪的功能性价值。为去激活策略情绪调节观提供了跨文化研究证据。     

共变信息的程度差异对归因的影响

本研究通过两个实验探讨了1种自我关联的共变信息的程度差异对归因的影响。实验1中38名被试阅读一些情境,情境中包含被试好/不好的结果、及相关的一致性信息,并操作一致性的程度,然后在原因的4个维度进行归因。结果表明一致性高/低分别被归于人的外/内因,而一致性信息无或不明确时的归因则在内外归因之间。同时在4个原因维度均表现出利己归因偏好,一致性信息的程度差异对利己归因偏好没有显著干扰作用。实验2采用实验1的方法但给予了区别性信息,实验2基本复制了实验1的结果。另外本研究发现一致性或区别性高时在可控制性维度利己归因偏好消失。最后探讨了共变信息对归因及利己归因偏好的影响。     

Changing your mind about things unseen: Toddlers' sensitivity to prior reliability

The goal of this research was to investigate the extent to which young children use the past reliability of another person’s statements to make inferences about the accuracy of that person’s claims about a hidden toy. When children interacted with a previously reliable speaker, both 30- and 36-month-olds searched in the new location of the toy, in line with the speaker’s statement. When children interacted with an unreliable speaker, the 36-month-olds were less likely to rely on her false statement and instead searched either in the original location of the toy or in a neutral location. The 30-month-olds, however, searched in the location indicated by the speaker even when the speaker was unreliable. These results show that by 36 months of age, children begin to use reliability in processing a speaker’s episodic claims and can flexibly update their representations of absent objects depending on the reliability of the speaker.     

Information integration study of Metelli's and Morinaga's theories of achromatic transparency

Information integration methodology was used to test Metelli's and Morinaga's theories of achromatic transparency. Stimuli were transparent achromatic disks on a background formed by two adjacent horizontal rectangles. The common border of these rectangles divided each disk in two halves. Let P and Q be the luminances of the left and right halves of a disk and let A and B be those of the left and right rectangles, respectively. Transparency is given by the ratio (P – Q)/(A – B) in Metelli's theory and is given by a weighted average of the ratios (P – Q)/(A – Q) and (P – Q)/(P – B) in Morinaga's theory. Participants rated the transparency of disks with A and B fixed and P and Q combined factorially. Morinaga's theory closely predicted the resulting pattern of curves and Metelli's theory predicted it incorrectly. Morinaga's theory could also account well for individual differences in the ratings of transparency. The results support the general idea that transparency depends on the integration of photometric luminance information rather than on the integration of perceived lightness information.     

儿童特质推理与情绪和效价线索理解的关系

本研究从情绪、效价两个角度探讨儿童特质理解与线索理解的关系。372名4、5、7岁儿童完成了贴标签和行为预测两类特质推理任务。实验一显示,所有年龄段儿童都能完成对情绪性特质害羞和胆小的推理,且特质和行为评定与情绪评定呈显著正相关;实验二显示,所有年龄段均能完成双重性质特质助人为乐和自私的推理,特质和行为评定与效价、情绪评定均呈显著正相关,回归分析则只有效价评定进入方程。结果说明,儿童完成情绪性特质推理任务时与情绪理解能力关系密切,而对双重性质特质推理时更多的与效价理解能力有关。     

Perception of intersensory synchrony in audiovisual speech: not that special

Perception of intersensory temporal order is particularly difficult for (continuous) audiovisual speech, as perceivers may find it difficult to notice substantial timing differences between speech sounds and lip movements. Here we tested whether this occurs because audiovisual speech is strongly paired (“unity assumption”). Participants made temporal order judgments (TOJ) and simultaneity judgments (SJ) about sine-wave speech (SWS) replicas of pseudowords and the corresponding video of the face. Listeners in speech and non-speech mode were equally sensitive judging audiovisual temporal order. Yet, using the McGurk effect, we could demonstrate that the sound was more likely integrated with lipread speech if heard as speech than non-speech. Judging temporal order in audiovisual speech is thus unaffected by whether the auditory and visual streams are paired. Conceivably, previously found differences between speech and non-speech stimuli are not due to the putative “special” nature of speech, but rather reflect low-level stimulus differences.     

Born to learn or born to win? Birth order effects on achievement goals

Given the widespread use and well-known consequences of achievement goals in different competence-relevant situations, it is important to gain a thorough understanding of how these differences in goal pursuit are formed. Using different analytic approaches, we show that birth order lies at the heart of people’s goal preferences as we consistently found that firstborns have developed a preference for mastery goals (which are based on self-referenced standards of competence), whereas secondborns have developed a preference for performance goals (which are based on other-referenced standards of competence). These findings may help explain why people differently define, experience, and respond to competence-relevant situations, including the workplace, the classroom, and the ball field.     

SHUTTING DRETSKE’S DOOR

Dretske proposes a theory of knowledge in terms of a theory of information, but wishes to deny that empirical knowledge settles the large question of scepticism. This leads him to deny the closure of knowledge under known entailment. In a recent paper J?ger argues that Dretske’s theory of information entails closure for knowledge, ‘at least for the kind of propositions here at issue’ (J?ger 2004:194). If J?ger is right, Dretske is seriously embarrassed and must give something up. In this paper I show that there are two flaws in J?ger’s argument. The principle of informational closure considered by J?ger is incompatible with Dretske’s theory of information, and J?ger’s argument that Dretske is committed to a certain kind of substitution instance of that principle of informational closure is invalid. I propose adequacy conditions on signalled information and use them to motivate a formulation of a general closure principle for signalled information. I show that Dretske’s account of information satisfies the adequacy conditions, but in a way which commits him to an instance of the general closure principle. I argue that Dretske is consequently committed to closure for some cases of knowledge for which he wishes to deny closure. Finally, I sketch how, on the basis of the closure principle to which Dretske is committed, J?ger’s broader argument may yet go through.     

On the Meaning of Screens: Towards a Phenomenological Account of Screenness

This paper presents a Heideggerian phenomenological analysis of screens. In a world and an epoch where screens pervade a great many aspects of human experience, we submit that phenomenology, much in a traditional methodological form, can provide an interesting and novel basis for our understanding of screens. We ground our analysis in the ontology of Martin Heidegger's Being and Time [1927/1962], claiming that screens will only show themselves as they are if taken as screens-in-the-world. Thus, the phenomenon of screen is not investigated in its empirical form or conceptually. It is rather taken as a grounding intentional orientation that conditions our engagement with certain surfaces as we comport ourselves towards them “as screens.” In doing this we claim to have opened up the phenomenon of screen in a new and meaningful way.