Evaluating Explanations in Law, Science, and Everyday Life

ABSTRACT— This article reviews a theory of explanatory coherence that provides a psychologically plausible account of how people evaluate competing explanations. The theory is implemented in a computational model that uses simple artificial neural networks to simulate many important cases of scientific and legal reasoning. Current research directions include extensions to emotional thinking and implementation in more biologically realistic neural networks.     

练习背景下表征水平的变化

Karmiloff-Smith提出的表征重述理论认为表征重述是人类获取知识的重要途径。为探讨练习是否能够提供表征重述的机会从而促进表征水平的变化,对29名小学一年级儿童进行数字分解组合任务的研究。结果表明：（1）练习背景下约有半数儿童的表征从内隐水平发展到外显水平,但其他儿童的表征水平没有发生任何变化;（2）练习背景下儿童表征变化的路线并不完全像Karmiloff-Smith设想的那样经由程序阶段到元程序阶段再到概念化阶段,而是存在其他多种可能的发展路线;（3）练习背景下儿童获得的表征的灵活性是有限的,即可以推广到近迁移问题上,而难以推广到远迁移问题上     

Synthetic Neuroethology

Computation and philosophy intersect three times in this essay. Computation is considered as an object, as a method, and as a model used in a certain line of philosophical inquiry concerning the relation of mind to matter. As object, the question considered is whether computation and related notions of mental representation constitute the best ways to conceive of how physical systems give rise to mental properties. As method and model, the computational techniques of artificial life and embodied evolutionary connectionism are used to conduct prosthetically enhanced thought experiments concerning the evolvability of mental representations. Central to this essay is a discussion of the computer simulation and evolution of three-dimensional synthetic animals with neural network controllers. The minimally cognitive behavior of finding food by exhibiting positive chemotaxis is simulated with swimming and walking creatures. These simulations form the basis of a discussion of the evolutionary and neurocomputational bases of the incremental emergence of more complex forms of cognition. Other related work has been used to attack computational and representational theories of cognition. In contrast, I argue that the proper understanding of the evolutionary emergence of minimally cognitive behaviors is computational and representational through and through.     

The repressed and implicit knowledge

The distinction between implicit (non-conscious) and explicit (conscious) knowledge made by cognitive scientists is applied to the psychoanalytic idea of repressed contents. The consequences of repression are suggested to have been caused by implicit representations. Repressed memories can also be treated in terms of explicit representations, which are prevented from becoming activated. Implicit knowledge cannot, however, be made conscious, and thus the idea of becoming conscious of the repressed desires and fears that have never been conscious is contradictory. This tension may be relieved by reconceptualising the idea of becoming conscious of the repressed. It is suggested that this could be seen as creating explicit knowledge about the effects of implicit representations. By applying the implicit/explicit knowledge distinction, psychoanalytic ideas concerning the repressed could be connected to current views in the domain of cognitive orientation.     

内隐时间表征的实验研究

用两个实验五种作业,探讨内隐时间表征存在的可能性及其特点。结果表明：在表征动量中,（1）无论诱导图形内隐运动方向向左还是向右,测试图形与识记图形之间位置偏移的错误率在与诱导图形内隐运动方向一致的条件下比不一致的条件下大;（2）诱导图形内隐运动的一致性时间顺序消失之后,表征动量不存在;（3）在100ms的时间范围内,识记图形、测试图形之间的保持时距与记忆位置偏移呈线性相关;（4）在水平方向和垂直方向上,客体的概念和背景知识对表征动量无影响,研究结果肯定了表征动量中内隐时间表征的存在并具有方向性、顺序性、连续性和认知不可渗透性的特点。     

Monotheism and the Spirituality of Reason

In this paper I propose a cognitive interpretation of the emergence of monotheism. I first distinguish between two fundamentally different conceptions of representation: one intuitive, which favors an analog model of rational cognition, and one discursive, which favors a digital model. While both Hellenism and Judaism may have been instrumental in setting civilization on the path to reason and law, it is the discursive or digital conception of God as a single universal Judge, I argue, that provides the foundational axiom of the moral logic of the Hebrew Scriptures. That is, in monotheism, God came to be represented differently.     

当前西方文本阅读研究的主要共识与争议

当前,西方研究者在文本阅读研究中取得了一些共识,主要体现在文本表征结构的层次性与情境模型多维性两个方面;而对于文本表征的加工历程则存在较大争议,形成了记忆基础的文本加工观、建构主义文本加工观和情境模型多维加工观三种有代表性的理论。     

利用倒转图考察儿童认知发展的初步研究

利用倒转图设计的实验考察了3—6岁儿童视觉认知的发展特点,研究结果表明：3岁儿童对倒转后的图形重新认知有难度。4岁及以后的儿童对倒转图重新认知的能力得到迅速发展。对倒转图的认知不仅涉及视知觉能力,同时也反映了儿童关于二维图画表征的观念。我们推测,在3岁或更早儿童的观念中,二维图画与其所指物之间的关系是严格的一一对应的。研究还对利用倒转图考察儿童知觉观点采择的可行性进行了探讨。倒转图可以成为研究儿童认知及社会性发展的有效工具。     

小学生应用题表征的类型和特点

以124名小学六年级学生为被试。采用应用题解决问卷考查了我国小学生应用题表征的类型和特点。结果表明小学生应用题的表征方式有复述内容、图式表征、图片表征、直译表征、语义结构分析等;成功解题者和不成功解题者对各种表征方式的使用次数上没有显着差异;成功解题者和不成功解题者在各种表征方式下的解题成绩有显着差异,成功解题者在图式表征、直译表征和语义结构分析表征下的成绩显着优于不成功解题者。