Multiple Local Solutions and Geomin Rotation

In exploratory factor analysis, factor rotation is conducted to improve model interpretability. A promising and increasingly popular factor rotation method is geomin rotation. Geomin rotation, however, frequently encounters multiple local solutions. We report a simulation study that explores the frequency of local solutions in geomin rotation and the implications of such phenomena. The findings include: (1) multiple local solutions exist for geomin rotation in a variety of situations; (2) ? = .01 provides satisfactory rotated factor loadings in most situations; (3) 100 random starts appear sufficient to examine the multiple solution phenomenon; and (4) a population global solution may correspond to a sample local solution rather than the sample global solution.     

Positive Affect and Flexibility: Overcoming the Precedence of Global over Local Processing of Visual Information

Previous findings on the relationship between positive mood and global processing are often based on visual matching tasks that involve a choice between global and local strategies. Preferences for global processing in positive mood, however, do not imply a reduced ability to process locally. The present experiment tested the assumption that positive affect increases flexibility in cognitive processing as indicated by the ability to overcome global precedence, and to respond rapidly to non-dominant (local) features when the task necessitates it. Consistent with expectations, participants responded significantly faster to local targets after positive compared to neutral and negative prime words. The typical precedence of global over local processing observed after neutral and negative prime words was reversed after positive prime words. Findings support the assumption that positive affect increases cognitive flexibility. Furthermore, findings suggest that mood-related preferences in global versus local processing cannot be generalized to processing ability.     

On The Universal and Local Aspects of Confucianism

To counter the tendency of making Confucianism “localized” and thereby turning Confucianism research into research of local social history, the author criticizes this tendency and thinks it is unilateral to emphasize or stress the importance of a small unit’s locality, but ignore the oneness of the distribution of Confucianism and the universality of Confucian thought. The thesis emphasizes that the main schools of Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties are all not local ones and cannot be reduced to reflections of some local need and social structure. The author points out that we need to self-examine the following phenomena: aggrandizing the function of local social structure to culture and thought, coming down academic schools to reflections of local social benefits, opposing this kind of research to the research of thought itself, thus rejecting philosophical research and analysis of thought itself.     

Is Detecting a Target in a Compound Geometric Shape Influenced by Stimulus Density? A Developmental Study

We studied the pattern of performance in elementary school children and adults detecting a target in compound geometric shapes. The target was randomly presented at the global, local, or neither level of compound shapes with different elemental density. A significant difference between the pattern of performance in children and adults emerged when the geometric shape was constructed with fewer constituent parts. That is, children showed difficulties in recognizing the global level while adults could efficiently process it. We suggest that global processing continues to develop as children grow older. Also, integration ability could benefit from increasing familiarity with the geometric concepts.     

A Speeded Item Response Model with Gradual Process Change

An item response theory model for dealing with test speededness is proposed. The model consists of two random processes, a problem solving process and a random guessing process, with the random guessing gradually taking over from the problem solving process. The involved change point and change rate are considered random parameters in order to model examinee differences in both respects. The proposed model is evaluated on simulated data and in a case study. The research reported in this paper was supported by IAP P5/24 and GOA/2005/04, both awarded to Paul De Boeck and Iven Van Mechelen, and by IAP P6/03, awarded to Iven Van Mechelen. Yuri Goegebeur’s research was supported by a grant of the Danish Natural Science Research Council.     

等级图形加工半球偏侧化的发展

以往的研究显示,大脑对等级视觉信息的加工有半球偏侧化的现象,左半球有加工局部特征的优势,右半球有加工整体的优势。本研究采用2年级、4年级、6年级和成人4个年龄组的被试,对等级复合图形中的靶子做选择判断,通过单侧呈现来考察整体-局部加工的大脑功能偏侧化发展。结果发现反应时发展呈现从局部优先到整体优先的过程,半球偏侧化发展呈现从无偏侧化到左侧呈现较右侧呈现更强的整体优先。发展的转折点可能在4～6年级(约9岁～12岁)之间。     

语篇中代词指代的研究进展

代词的指代在语篇局部连贯性中具有关键作用。中心理论是代词指称中的重要理论,它解释了语篇中代词的分布规律;注意驱动理论是在中心理沦的基础上结合重音预设解释重音或非重音代词。影响代词指称的因素有语义因素和结构因素。对代词的认知研究另一方面主要集中在对歧义代词的解释．对歧义代词的解释的研究一方面采用重复姓名不利实验范式,另一方面的研究采用的研究方法是探测词任务。在汉语中对代词的研究主要是对文本语篇的研究。     

视知觉组织在整体知觉中的作用--脑损伤病人的实验研究

本实验研究大脑损伤如何影响复合图形的整体知觉。三例病人脑损伤部位分别在大脑枕区、顶区、颞区、额区及基底节和豆状核。复合图形被呈现给病人和正常对照被试。强迫选择识别等任务表明,当空间相邻性决定局部图形的知觉组织时,病人识别整体性质的正确率高于(ZD和FL)或略底于(GK)识别局部性质的正确率;当形状相似性决定局部图形的知觉组织时,病人识别整体性质的正确率显著降低,而识别局部性质的正确率受到的影响较小。在同样的任务中正常被试识别整体和局部性质的正确率受知觉组织因素的影响很小。这些结果提示大脑损伤对整体知觉的破坏可能主要通过影响基于形状相似性的知觉组织实现。     

Handling Locally Stratified Inconsistent Knowledge Bases

This paper investigates the idea of reasoning, in a local (or contextual) way, under prioritized and possibly inconsistent knowledge bases. Priorities are not supposed to be given globally between all the beliefs in the knowledge base, but locally inside sets of pieces of information responsible for inconsistencies. This local stratification offers more flexibility for representing priorities between beliefs. Given this local ordering, we discuss five basic definitions of influence relations between conflicts. These elementary notions of influence between two conflicts A and B exhaustively explore the situations where solving A leads to solve B. Then we propose natural approaches to restore the coherence of a knowledge base on the basis of influence relations between locally-stratified conflicts.     

Conditional Reinforcers and Informative Stimuli in A Constant Environment

Five pigeons responded on steady-state concurrent variable-interval variable-interval schedules of food presentation in which half of the foods were removed and replaced with nonfood stimuli. Across conditions, the stimuli were either paired or unpaired with food, and the correlation between the ratio of food deliveries on the two alternatives and the ratio of nonfood stimuli was either −1, 0, or +1. Neither the pairing of stimuli with food, nor the correlation between stimuli and food, affected generalized-matching performance, but paired stimuli had a demonstrable effect at a local level of analysis. This effect was independent of the food–stimulus correlation. These results differ from results previously obtained in a frequently changing environment. We attribute this difference in results to differences in the information value of response-contingent stimuli in frequently changing versus relatively constant environments, as well as to differences between forward pairing and simultaneous pairing of the stimuli with food.