Discovering the Alphabetic Principle: A Lost Opportunity for Educational Reform

We review the recently published report by the Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children from a behavior analytic perspective. The authors prescribe what children should learn to be successful readers based on the correlates of reading and the developmental progression of reading errors. The report offers no discussion of theoretical models that can be used by teachers and parents to reform reading instruction or specific procedures that have been shown to be effective at promoting various reading skills. We discuss these omissions in terms of the level of research included in the review, the authors' structural approach to synthesizing this research, and the constructivist orientation common to many early childhood educators. The paper concludes by identifying models and strategies from the behavior analysis literature that can be used to guide instruction and offers a modest suggestion for future reviews of reading research.     

Constraint on word-learning constraints

Many researchers have agreed that word learning in young children is guided by so-called "word-learning principles." However, these principles may make it difficult to learn a substantial part of the lexicon unless they are appropriately controlled. To learn proper names, the taxonomic assumption and/or the shape bias must be overridden; to learn names for substances, withdrawal of the whole-object assumption and/or the shape bias is required; and to learn lexical hierarchies, the mutual exclusivity assumption must be suspended. In certain languages, syntax can provide useful information in this situation. For example, if a novel noun is given to an object for which the name is known in the syntactic frame "This is X," English-speaking children may assume the noun to be a proper noun, and this will help them override the taxonomic assumption. However, this information is not available to Japanese children, since the Japanese language does not have grammatical markers to flag the distinction between count nouns and mass nouns, or the distinction between proper nouns and common nouns. In this paper, I discuss how Japanese children get around this problem.     

Isotonic ordinal probabilistic models (ISOP)

The concept of an ordinal instrumental probabilistic comparison is introduced. It relies on an ordinal scale given a priori and on the concept of stochastic dominance. It is used to define a weakly independently ordered system, or isotonic ordinal probabilistic (ISOP) model, which allows the construction of separate sample-free ordinal scales on a set of subjects and a set of items. The ISOP-model is a common nonparametric theoretical structure for unidimensional models for quantitative, ordinal and dichotomous variables.Fundamental theorems on dichotomous and polytomous weakly independently ordered systems are derived. It is shown that the raw score system has the same formal properties as the latent system, and therefore the latter can be tested at the observed empirical level.I wish to thank 3 reviewers and 2 editors who contributed a lot to the readability and precision of the article.     

A method of optimal scaling for multivariate ordinal data and its extensions

This paper develops a method of optimal scaling for multivariate ordinal data, in the framework of a generalized principal component analysis. This method yields a multidimensional configuration of items, a unidimensional scale of category weights for each item and, optionally, a multidimensional configuration of subjects. The computation is performed by alternately solving an eigenvalue problem and executing a quasi-Newton projection method. The algorithm is extended for analysis of data with mixed measurement levels or for analysis with a combined weighting of items. Numerical examples and simulations are provided. The algorithm is discussed and compared with some related methods.Earlier results of this research appeared in Saito and Otsu (1983). The authors would like to acknowledge the helpful comments and encouragement of the editor.     

基于比较视野下当代大学生性心理与教育的研究

在从比较的视野对国内学者针对不同性别、不同专业、不同学校类型等的大学生性心理特点以及中外高校大学生性教育的历史与现状、性教育的对象、性教育的内容与形式、性教育的队伍、性教育的成效等差异进行分析、对比研究的基础上,从中获得启示和借鉴,以推动我国高校对当代大学生性教育的有效开展。     

内隐记忆研究的实验方法探索：启动效应计量方法的改进思路及其实验研究

以实验鉴定了常规的启动效应计量方法的有效性程度,并为客观地计量启动效应,创用了“超意识广度法”、“二次比较法”等．结果发现：（１）如被试数量较少,以不同补笔率为“基线值”所求得的启动效应之间发生显著差异的可能性存在;（２）超意识广度法能克服“阈下呈现刺激法”“分散注意法”的不足,为内隐记忆提供有利的识记情境;（３）“二次比较法”能为正常人内隐记忆的存在提供更为直接、可靠的证据,并能客观、精确地计量启动效应。     

差异与互补:皮亚杰与维果茨基认知发展观比较的新思考

皮亚杰与维果茨基是10世纪两位最有影响的发展心理学家．他们开辟了研究儿童发展的两条线路。这两种取向存在着根本性的差异,同时在研究方法与具体观点中又存在着多方面的类似和交叉．两种取向互动互补．共同描绘了儿童发展的整体画卷。     

Model comparison of nonlinear structural equation models with fixed covariates

Recently, it has been recognized that the commonly used linear structural equation model is inadequate to deal with some complicated substantive theory. A new nonlinear structural equation model with fixed covariates is proposed in this article. A procedure, which utilizes the powerful path sampling for computing the Bayes factor, is developed for model comparison. In the implementation, the required random observations are simulated via a hybrid algorithm that combines the Gibbs sampler and the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm. It is shown that the proposed procedure is efficient and flexible; and it produces Bayesian estimates of the parameters, latent variables, and their highest posterior density intervals as by-products. Empirical performances of the proposed procedure such as sensitivity to prior inputs are illustrated by a simulation study and a real example.This research is fully supported by a grant from the Research Grant Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. CUHK 4346/01H). The authors are thankful to the Editor, the Associate Editor, and anonymous reviewers for valuable comments which improve the paper significantly, and grateful to ICPSR and the relevant funding agency for allowing use of the data in the example. The assistance of Michael K.H. Leung and Esther L.S. Tam is gratefully acknowledged.     

竞争情境下社会比较认知偏差实验研究

本文以在校大学生为被试,考察社会比较的一个重要领域—学业竞争中的比较偏差。通过操纵竞争双方的实力(强VS.弱)以及竞争对手的信息清晰度(清晰VS.模糊)来考察不同的任务类型与信息清晰度对竞争中认知偏差的影响,以及探讨认知偏差对决策者决策意图的影响。结果发现,在社会比较中,面对不同类型的问题,会出现不同的认知偏差;竞争双方信息清晰时优于常人效应会减弱;认知偏差会影响个体的决策意图和决策行为。