The allure of equality: uniformity in probabilistic and statistical judgment

Uniformity, that is, equiprobability of all available options is central as a theoretical presupposition and as a computational tool in probability theory. It is justified only when applied to an appropriate sample space. In five studies, we posed diversified problems that called for unequal probabilities or weights to be assigned to the given units. The predominant response was choice of equal probabilities and weights. Many participants failed the task of partitioning the possibilities into elements that justify uniformity. The uniformity fallacy proved compelling and robust across varied content areas, tasks, and cases in which the correct weights should either have been directly or inversely proportional to their respective values. Debiasing measures included presenting individualized and visual data and asking for extreme comparisons. The preference of uniformity obtains across several contexts. It seems to serve as an anchor also in mathematical and social judgments. People’s pervasive partiality for uniformity is explained as a quest for fairness and symmetry, and possibly in terms of expediency.     

Distributed skill functions and the meshing of knowledge structures

The scope of knowledge space theory was extended by bringing into the picture the underlying skills and capabilities that are relevant to solving the problems in a knowledge domain. A major challenge to this approach comes from the need to aggregate distributed information on (partially) overlapping domains and skill sets. The notion of a distributed skill function is introduced for formalizing the integration of several skill functions that represent the assignment of skills to problems. It is shown that their consistency is captured by the meshability of the delineated knowledge structures. This result draws upon a characterization of the meshing of finite or infinite collections of knowledge structures, which extends and generalizes previous results on the binary case. The discussion covers implications for knowledge assessment and for practical applications, such as integrating skill assignments coming from different experts or distributed resources in technology-enhanced learning.     

贝叶斯网在认知诊断属性层级结构确定中的应用

K. K. Tatsuoka和她同事研究的规则空间模型(RSM)是一种在国内外有较大影响的认知诊断模型, 但是Tatsuoka的RSM是由学科专家先从已编制的测验中抽取出属性, 然后给出测验的关联Q阵, 再由该Q阵导出属性间的层级关系。已有研究证明, 这种做法所得到的属性间的层级关系难以保证是正确的, 甚至难以保证属性间的层级关系是唯一确定的。这里利用贝叶斯网进行结构学习, 从被试的属性掌握模式中挖掘出属性间的层级关系, 学习所得到的层级关系可以用来验证由RSM中的方法得到的层级关系。模拟实验和实证研究的结果都显示了该方法所得到的属性层级关系是有参考价值的, 可以为命题或测量专家带来有用的信息。     

Beyond illusion: Psychoanalysis and the question of religious truth1

In this paper the author critically examines the nature of the positive, reconciliatory attitude towards religion that has become increasingly prevalent within psychoanalytic thinking and writing over the past 20 years. She shows how this positive attitude rests on a change in the nature of the prototype of religion and its reassignment to the realm of illusion, thus making irrelevant an issue most central both to psychoanalysis and to traditional Judeo‐Christian belief ‐ the passionate search for truth. The author demonstrates how the concern with truth, and specifically with the truth of religious claims, lies at the basis of the opposition between psychoanalysis and religion but, paradoxically, also provides the common ground for dialogue between the two. She argues that, as Freud developed his ideas regarding the origin of conviction in religious claims in his Moses and monotheism (1939), the nature of this common ground was expanded and the dialogue became potentially more meaningful. The author concludes that meaningful dialogue emerges through recognition of fundamental differences rather than through harmonisation within a realm of illusion. In this light, the present study may also be seen as an attempt to recognise fundamental differences that have been evolving within psychoanalysis itself.     

幽门螺杆菌相关性胃炎的时空特征研究

研究幽门螺杆菌导致胃黏膜病理损伤表现的多样性与年龄的关系。进行胃镜检查的患者,排除其它脏器疾病,测定尿素酶表达程度,观察黏膜损伤情况并取病理。结果是不同程度尿素酶表达的幽门螺杆菌感染性胃炎表现不同的病理特征;年龄、幽门螺杆菌感染时间及生活事件是相互作用的原因。幽门螺杆菌特征性慢性感染过程及其致病方式使胃黏膜的病理变化有了多样性,高尿素酶表达的幽门螺杆菌引起的增生性病灶乃至隆起性病变的机会随年龄增加及胃黏膜的病理变化而增长。     

Analysis of the creation of 'emptiness', of 'nothingness', in certain types of psychosis

Some psychotic patients manage to create nothingness and emptiness thanks to the amount of work their ego accomplishes. That is the paradox we find in schizophrenic patients, their ego is simultaneously weak and powerful. When we analyse how this nothingness/emptiness is created, we enter into a strange world in which the patient's ego is, in part, defective and fragmented; his or her thinking apparatus, capacity for perceiving and feeling are under attack. Yet this same ego can call on intellectual ability, imagination and tremendous energy in order to create a highly complex structure, thanks to which the psychotic individual manages to create a kind of para-organization of space by splitting 'nothingness' (the space between representations) and 'density' (a compact magma made up of many different highly-condensed representations). Both nothingness and density may give the impression that the patient is 'nowhere to be found' and therefore impossible to analyse. In this paper, I shall describe these mechanisms as they appear in the clinical material of a female psychotic patient.     

The 'body–container': A new perspective on the 'body–ego'

Psychoanalytic theory and practice tend to focus on metaphorical and symbolic mental representations in a way that often pushes aside the importance of a bodily 'presence' possessing qualities that can not and should not be subordinated to the representational structure. By introducing the 'body – container' model, this paper reintroduces the concrete physical body into the psychoanalytic discourse in a more direct way. This clinical – theoretical model links the 'body-ego' ( Freud, 1923 ) to the container idea ( Bion, 1962 ) aiming to creates a new integrative psyche-soma scheme. The 'body – container' experience is available as a subjective realization through a priori psycho-physical forms structured as an envelope and a central vertical axis. These forms are the outcome of our given bodily structure experienced under the 'magnetic' force of object relation. The mental envelope is already discussed in psychoanalytic theory ( Anzieu, 1989, 1990 ; Bick, 1968 ) and I wish to introduce the characteristics of the vertical axis which I call 'the frontal spine', emphasizing its constitutional reciprocity with the skin envelope. The proposed model offers new insights into the psycho-physical organization in primitive mental states and may contribute to the understanding of the complementary structural relation between embodied and represented in human experience. Two clinical examples illustrate the therapeutic work relevant to disturbances in the primal psycho-physical space organization at different developmental levels.     

A new definition of well-behaved discrimination functions

A discrimination function shows the probability or degree with which stimuli are discriminated from each other when presented in pairs. In a previous publication [Kujala, J.V., & Dzhafarov, E.N. (2008). On minima of discrimination functions. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 52, 116–127] we introduced a condition under which the conformity of a discrimination function with the law of Regular Minimality (which says, essentially, that “being least discriminable from” is a symmetric relation) implies the constancy of the function’s minima (i.e., the same level of discriminability of every stimulus from the stimulus least discriminable from it). This condition, referred to as “well-behavedness,” turns out to be unnecessarily restrictive. In this note we give a significantly more general definition of well-behavedness, applicable to all Hausdorff arc-connected stimulus spaces. The definition employs the notion of the smallest transitively and topologically closed extension of a relation. We provide a transfinite-recursive construction for this notion and illustrate it by examples.     

Tatsuoka 矩阵理论的修正

K .K.Tatsuoka和她同事开发的规则空间模型（RSM）是一种在国内外有较大影响的认知诊断模型,但是Tatsuoka的RSM中 矩阵理论存在缺陷和错误,这些失误使得RSM中用布尔描述函数（BDF）计算被试理想项目反应模式（IRP）的方法缺乏理论依据。这里揭示了Tatsuoka的 矩阵理论的缺陷和错误并引进既不使用BDF又便于应用的计算IRP的方法;接着还介绍一种由可达阵计算简化 阵的方法,该方法显示了可达阵在构造认知诊断测验的重要性。这些结果对丰富 矩阵理论及正确使用RSM进行认知诊断有一定的意义