When 9 is not on the right: Implications from number-form synesthesia

Number-form synesthetes consciously experience numbers in spatially-defined locations. For non-synesthete individuals, a similar association of numbers and space appears in the form of an implicit mental number line as signified by the distance effect–reaction time decreases as the numerical distance between compared numbers increases. In the current experiment, three number-form synesthetes and two different non-synesthete control groups (Hebrew speaking and English speaking) performed a number comparison task. Synesthete participants exhibited a sizeable distance effect only when presented numbers were congruent with their number-form. In contrast, the controls exhibited a distance effect regardless of congruency or presentation type. The findings suggest that: (a) number-form synesthesia impairs the ability to represent numbers in a flexible manner according to task demands; (b) number-form synesthesia is a genuine tangible experience, triggered involuntarily; and (c) the classic mental number line can be more pliable than previously thought and appears to be independent of cultural-lingo direction.     

Verbal predicates foster conscious recollection but not familiarity of a task-irrelevant perceptual feature – An ERP study

Research on the effects of perceptual manipulations on recognition memory has suggested that (a) recollection is selectively influenced by task-relevant information and (b) familiarity can be considered perceptually specific. The present experiment tested divergent assumptions that (a) perceptual features can influence conscious object recollection via verbal code despite being task-irrelevant and that (b) perceptual features do not influence object familiarity if study is verbal-conceptual. At study, subjects named objects and their presentation colour; this was followed by an old/new object recognition test. Event-related potentials (ERP) showed that a study-test manipulation of colour impacted selectively on the ERP effect associated with recollection, while a size manipulation showed no effect. It is concluded that (a) verbal predicates generated at study are potent episodic memory agents that modulate recollection even if the recovered feature information is task-irrelevant and (b) commonly found perceptual match effects on familiarity critically depend on perceptual processing at study.     

Dogs recall their owner's face upon hearing the owner's voice

We tested whether dogs have a cross-modal representation of human individuals. We presented domestic dogs with a photo of either the owner's or a stranger's face on the LCD monitor after playing back a voice of one of those persons. A voice and a face matched in half of the trials (Congruent condition) and mismatched in the other half (Incongruent condition). If our subjects activate visual images of the voice, their expectation would be contradicted in Incongruent condition. It would result in the subjects’ longer looking times in Incongruent condition than in Congruent condition. Our subject dogs looked longer at the visual stimulus in Incongruent condition than in Congruent condition. This suggests that dogs actively generate their internal representation of the owner's face when they hear the owner calling them. This is the first demonstration that nonhuman animals do not merely associate auditory and visual stimuli but also actively generate a visual image from auditory information. Furthermore, our subject also looked at the visual stimulus longer in Incongruent condition in which the owner's face followed an unfamiliar person's voice than in Congruent condition in which the owner's face followed the owner's voice. Generating a particular visual image in response to an unfamiliar voice should be difficult, and any expected images from the voice ought to be more obscure or less well defined than that of the owners. However, our subjects looked longer at the owner's face in Incongruent condition than in Congruent condition. This may indicate that dogs may have predicted that it should not be the owner when they heard the unfamiliar person's voice.     

5岁儿童能够理解假装的心理表征:对Moe任务的质疑

本研究通过三个实验对Lillard的Moe假装任务进行了重复与改进,旨在探讨儿童对假装行为中知识状态作用的理解,进而讨论儿童对假装的心理本质的理解。实验一表明,“是否”问题使得5岁儿童在该任务上表现出肯定回答倾向;实验二表明．当改变提问方式,在问题中提供选择项目后,5岁儿童在该任务上的通过率有显著提高．肯定回答倾向明显减弱;实验三表明,当减少指导语中相互矛盾的信息、明确指出主人公知道某物而不知道另一物以及减弱对未知状态和知道状态的强调的情况下．5岁儿童能根据主人公所知道的事物来推断出其行为是在假装成该事物,能理解到知识状态在假装行为中的作用。这一结果表明5岁儿童能够理解到假装中所隐含的心理表征,Lillard所提出的Moe任务范式低估了儿童对假装的心理本质的理解能力。     

Prospective coding in event representation

A perceived event such as a visual stimulus in the external world and a to-be-produced event such as an intentional action are subserved by event representations. Event representations do not only contain information about present states but also about past and future states. Here we focus on the role of representing future states in event perception and generation (i.e., prospective coding). Relevant theoretical issues and paradigms are discussed. We suggest that the predictive power of the motor system may be exploited for prospective coding not only in producing but also in perceiving events. Predicting is more advantageous than simply reacting. Perceptual prediction allows us to select appropriate responses ahead of the realization of an (anticipated) event and therefore, it is indispensable to flexibly and timely adapt to new situations and thus, successfully interact with our physical and social environment.     

聋生和听力正常学生解决加减文字题的眼动比较研究

采用EyetinkⅡ眼动记录仪,探讨了聋生与解题正确率高的听力正常学生表征和解决加减文字题的差异。被试为小学3年级学生．聋生12名．听力正常学生8名。研究结果表明：（1）在解决加减文字题时,聋生与解题正确率高的听力正常学生在阅读方式、关注关键信息上有显著差异,很多聋生阅读没规律．漏看文字题的关键信息;（2）聋生解决加减文字题的困难与其不能正确表征文字题的文本有关。     

言语理解中的知觉符号表征与命题符号表征

采用移动窗口技术探讨言语理解中信息表征的方式。被试为华南师范大学本科生96名。实验材料按照探测图画中物体的形状跟先前阅读的句子中描述的物体的隐含形状的关系总体上分为两类,一类是匹配版本,一类是不匹配版本。采用相关样本t检验分别对两种条件下图画再认的反应时间和正确率进行统计分析。实验1中被试读完句子以后马上进行图画探测任务,结果表明这时被试头脑中进行的是知觉符号表征。实验2中被试的阅读任务难度增大,结果表明这时被试头脑中进行的是命题符号表征。实验3中被试阅读的关键信息进入长时记忆以后再进行图画探测任务,结果表明这时被试头脑中进行的也是命题符号表征。总的实验结果表明言语理解中既存在知觉符号表征,也存在命题符号表征,知觉符号表征是信息表征的一种早期状态,人类头脑中最终的信息表征形式主要是命题符号表征。     

THOG问题的演译结构及其非Wason-Brooks判定方法

本文探讨THOG问题的演绎结构及其非Wason-Brooks判断方法,据于Wason-Brooks判断程序和THOG问题逻辑结构的分析导致如下结论：1．Wason-BrooksTHOG判定方法并非判定THOG的唯一方法;2、被试选择那一种演绎判定模式取决于被试如何对原问题进行等效表征转换;3．判断失败可能意味着被试存在短时记忆容量障碍或者等效表征转换障碍。     

Are There Any Rules?

The ``model of rules' that Ronald Dworkin attacks is an absurdmodel of law, if rules are taken to be standards that have nounspecified counterinstances, and whose application isalways uncontroversial. Dworkin gives good reason to thinkthat there are no such standards or virtually none in (e.g.)English law. But the model of rules is not misconceived, asDworkin claims. Rather, it needs a better understanding of the idea of a rule. I argue that the view that the law of a community is a system of rules needs to meet an importantchallenge that Dworkin has raised for jurisprudence: to accountfor the fact that legal rights and duties are frequentlycontroversial. I give an account of social rules thatexplains why controversy over their application in particularcases is common, and can be deep. So controversy gives noreason to reject the model of rules.     

Citizens' Sense of Justice and the Legal System

When an actor commits a wrong action, citizens have perceptions of the kind of responsibility the actor incurs, the degree to which the act was mitigated or justified, and the appropriate punishment for the actor. The legislatively mandated law of criminal courts, statutes, and criminal codes deals with the same issues. Experimental evidence shows that there are important discrepancies between the principles that people and legal codes use to assign responsibility. That is, the moral retributive-justice principles that people use are sometimes in conflict with the directions in which modern code drafters are taking criminal law. These discrepancies may cause citizens to feel alienated from authority, and to reduce their voluntary compliance with legal codes.