Chisholm on Perceptual Knowledge: Foundationalism versus Coherentism

Abstract: Chisholm refuted phenomenalism as a theory of the justification of perceptual beliefs. He argued, following Thomas Reid, that some perceptual beliefs were justified in themselves, which provided a foundation for empirical knowledge. The question that remains is whether the foundational justification provided offers an adequate explanation of how justification is connected with truth. The search for a truth connection led me from foundationalism to a coherence theory of justification that, contrary to my intentions, was inspired by an observation of Chisholm himself.     

Complete Axiomatizations for Reasoning about Knowledge and Branching Time

Sound and complete axiomatizations are provided for a number of different logics involving modalities for the knowledge of multiple agents and operators for branching time, extending previous work of Halpern, van der Meyden and Vardi [to appear, SIAM Journal on Computing] for logics of knowledge and linear time. The paper considers the system constraints of synchrony, perfect recall and unique initial states, which give rise to interaction axioms. The language is based on the temporal logic CTL*, interpreted with respect to a version of the bundle semantics.     

The Relationship Between Need for Closure and Conservative Beliefs in Western and Eastern Europe

This work explored the hypothesis that need for closure is associated with the adoption of conservative ideology. Two different studies on eastern and western European samples (Polish and Flemish) supported the hypothesis that need for closure—as measured by Webster and Kruglanski's (1994 ) Need for Closure Scale—is related to conservative beliefs. However, in the second study, a negative relationship between need for closure and economic conservatism in the Polish sample was noted, whereas a positive relationship occurred in the Flemish sample. These results may be accounted for by the Need for Simple Structure factor of Neuberg, Judice, and West (1997 ) and by specific rather than non-specific epistemic processes.     

Ideological Orientation and Political Transition in Hong Kong: Confidence in the Future

In the two-component model of ideological orientation, a person's ideological position is jointly influenced by attitudinal and affective components. The present study adopted this conceptual model to predict confidence in the future of Hong Kong. Questionnaire responses were collected from 395 adults (56.8% men and 43.2% women) in Hong Kong in April 1995, some 2 years before its transfer from British to Chinese control. The results show that the level of confidence in Hong Kong was related to both attitudinal and affective identification with Hong Kong and China. These findings suggest that the transfer of government may have brought to the surface a collision of the divergent political cultures of Hong Kong and mainland China, resulting in two antagonistic political orientations that predicted confidence in the future of Hong Kong.     

Psychoeducational Interventions with Pediatric Cancer Patients: Part I. Patient Information and Knowledge

We present a systematic review of published research on psychoeducational interventions for children with cancer. The current lack of an organizational model for this literature makes it difficult to form a coherent picture of the scattered literature and draw nomothetic conclusions. A model is described that is based on functional concepts from the literature on learning and instructional design. It is argued that it makes sense conceptually to analyze psychoeducational interventions in terms of psychoeducational principles, especially if the purpose is to illuminate the learning processes involved. Three categories of intervention are distinguished and the first of these, informational interventions to influence patient knowledge, is considered in this paper, and the other two categories will be reviewed in a subsequent paper. This review is organized by categories of information needs, intervention modes, and major types of independent variables. We concluded that the research supports few generalizable conclusions at this time, except that development of health-related knowledge in children is best accomplished by information transfer methods that are highly interactive and individualized. Interactive multimedia formats such as video games are seen as having the best potential, but further research is required.     

知识点认知规律的实验研究

知识点是人的认知单位,人学习知识,必须以知识点为单位、逐个知识点地学习。本实验以概念学习为例,研究了人一次学习一个知识点与同时学习两个知识点时的成绩差异。研究结果表明,1. 在概念中的信息组块数不超过短时记忆容量的前提下,一次学习一个概念,构成概念的信息组块数对概念掌握影响不显著。2.在同样条件下,一次学习一个知识点的成绩好于同时学习两个知识点的成绩,从而验证了知识点认知规律。     

儒家伦理与政治文明

我们遵循取其精华,去其糟粕,古为今用的原则,对于儒家政治伦理及其治国思想进行新的开发,转化,创新和利用,可以为建设当代中国政治明提供服务。     

Two modes of confidence rating: An effect of episodic information of participant's own past responses in a repeated-question paradigm

Abstract: General knowledge questions with two answer alternatives were employed in experimental session 1; in session 2, the same questions were presented together with participants' own session-1 responses. In order to examine whether or not the episodic information of participant's own responses would suppress standard confidence-rating mode in session 2, rates of answer- and confidence-changes between sessions were analyzed. In session 2, participants were able to change the confidence value to another, if they thought the initial value inadequate. They then had a chance to change the answer to the other and rated their confidence in the new answer. The major results were as follows: (a) Between-session answer change rate was very low; (b) Between-session answer change rate was not a monotonic decreasing function of confidence; (c) However, the rate depended on confidence change from session 1 to before-answer-change rating. These results clearly contrasted with a previous study ( Saito, 1998 ) in which episodic information of participant's own session 1 answers and confidence values was not presented. It was argued that the episodic information triggered another mode of confidence rating or a decision inertia effect.     

Creative Thinking Processes: The Past and the Future

For more than one hundred years, students of creativity, including seminal efforts published in the Journal of Creative Behavior , have sought to identify the key processes people must execute to produce creative problem solutions. In recent years, we have seen a consensual model of key creative thinking processes being accepted by the field. In the present effort, we review the evidence bearing on the eight core processes proposed in this consensual model. Subsequently, directions for future research on creative thinking processes are discussed.     

Comments on Where the Creativity Research Has Been and Where Is It Going

This Commentary examines where the creativity research has been and where it is going. They key points include evolving definitions of creativity, interdisciplinarity in the creativity research, divergent thinking as a reliable index of creative potential, improvements in testing, the impact of technology, the inclusion of political, moral, and everyday creativity in the research, the use of semantic networks and conceptual maps, the creative economy, and the need to extricate personal creativity from social recognition.