The Therapeutic Community Sing: Music Therapy Inpatient Group Process

Early psychoanalytic authors and music educators in both Europe and the United States pointed to the contemporary use of music therapy as a powerful modality in an inpatient psychiatric unit. The inpatient community sing is discussed in its capacity to address both individual and group goals. A clinical vignette from such a group is presented and discussed.     

Modelling audiovisual integration of affect from videos and music

Two experiments examined how affective values from visual and auditory modalities are integrated. Experiment 1 paired music and videos drawn from three levels of valence while holding arousal constant. Experiment 2 included a parallel combination of three levels of arousal while holding valence constant. In each experiment, participants rated their affective states after unimodal and multimodal presentations. Experiment 1 revealed a congruency effect in which stimulus combinations of the same extreme valence resulted in more extreme state ratings than component stimuli presented in isolation. An interaction between music and video valence reflected the greater influence of negative affect. Video valence was found to have a significantly greater effect on combined ratings than music valence. The pattern of data was explained by a five parameter differential weight averaging model that attributed greater weight to the visual modality and increased weight with decreasing values of valence. Experiment 2 revealed a congruency effect only for high arousal combinations and no interaction effects. This pattern was explained by a three parameter constant weight averaging model with greater weight for the auditory modality and a very low arousal value for the initial state. These results demonstrate key differences in audiovisual integration between valence and arousal.     

关于克里普克模态性的一个自然主义解释

The Kripkean metaphysical modality (i.e. possibility and necessity) is one of the most important concepts in contemporary analytic philosophy and is the basis of many metaphysical speculations. These metaphysical speculations frequently commit to entities that do not belong to this physical universe, such as merely possible entities, abstract entities, mental entities or qualities not realizable by the physical, which seems to contradict naturalism or physicalism. This paper proposes a naturalistic interpretation of the Kripkean modality, as a naturalist’s response to these metaphysical speculations. It will show that naturalism can accommodate the Kripkean metaphysical modality. In particular, it will show that naturalism can help to resolve the puzzles surrounding Kripke’s a posteriori necessary propositions and a priori contingent propositions. __________ Translated from Zhexue yanjiu 哲学研究 (Philosophical Researches), 2008, (1): 18–26     

多感觉整合测量范式中存在的影响因素探讨

已有的多感觉整合研究范式多采用不同单通道刺激和双通道刺激随机呈现的方式进行测量。在这种范式中混有通道转换效应, 该效应可能导致多感觉整合的测量结果不准确。因此, 分析清楚实验范式中通道转换效应的影响因素, 并以此为依据设计合理的整合测量范式, 是进行多感觉整合研究的一个必要前提。本文首先通过实验一验证了在经典的整合测量范式中通道转换效应的影响方式; 进而, 在实验二中通过控制前后刺激的信号强度的一致性, 分析了通道转换效应的特点。综合分析显示, 通道转换效应是由前一刺激差异所造成的对当前刺激通道加工的注意资源分配和警觉水平的变化所导致。该结果表明, 在多感觉行为测量中, 需先根据前一刺激通道分类后再进行分析。     

内源性注意与外源性注意的跨通道比较

该研究利用空间线索技术的实验模式,考察跨视觉和听觉通道的内源性选择注意与外源性选择性注意的相互关系。实验结果表明：(1)听觉中央线索在较长的SOA(至少500毫秒)条件下,可以引导内源性空间选择性注意;同时外周线索突现也能自动化地吸引部分注意资源。(2)听觉和视觉选择注意是分离的加工通道,但二者之间存在相互联系。     

Does sensitivity in binary choice tasks depend on response modality?

In most models of vision, a stimulus is processed in a series of dedicated visual areas, leading to categorization of this stimulus, and possible decision, which subsequently may be mapped onto a motor-response. In these models, stimulus processing is thought to be independent of the response modality. However, in theories of event coding, common coding, and sensorimotor contingency, stimuli may be very specifically mapped onto certain motor-responses. Here, we compared performance in a shape localization task and used three different response modalities: manual, saccadic, and verbal. Meta-contrast masking was employed at various inter-stimulus intervals (ISI) to manipulate target visibility. Although we found major differences in reaction times for the three response modalities, accuracy remained at the same level for each response modality (and all ISIs). Our results support the view that stimulus-response (S-R) associations exist only for specific instances, such as reflexes or skills, but not for arbitrary S-R pairings.