Water,Plant, Light,and Mirror: On the Root Metaphors of the Heart-Mind in Wang Yangming’s Thought

Clarifying Wang Yangming’s thought through a study of his root metaphors of heart-mind is an important step toward explaining his further concepts of the human world. Along with the root metaphors of water and mirror, the metaphors of plant and light work together for Wang to form a coherent theoretical and practical system of xin (heart-mind). This method is also a good way to unravel the various theories of the “three teachings” that are intermingled in his thinking. By using this methodology Wang’s attempts to harmonize several ancient traditions of heart-mind that appear as possibly polarized to modern readers, are illuminated (though they did not appear contradictory to the Neo-Confucians).     

视觉空间关系判断的分离与协同

采用任务表征相互影响范式,通过三个实验探讨了类别空间关系判断和数量空间关系判断的加工特性和相互关系.结果表明:(1)先行类别关系启动有利于数量空间关系判断,对类别空间关系判断没有影响;先行数量关系启动对两个判断任务均无影响.(2)先行类别关系干扰降低两个空间关系判断的绩效,先行数量关系干扰对两个空间关系判断没有影响.(3)先行类别关系对空间关系判断的启动和干扰效应不局限于特定条件,具有普遍性.研究提示,右脑为优势半球的数量关系加工以左脑为优势半球的类别关系加工为基础,支持视觉空间认知加工既分离又协同的观点.     

Arbitrarily applicable spatial relational responding

Spatial reasoning, where novel spatial relationships are inferred based on trained relationships, can be conceptualized as arbitrarily applicable spatial relational responding. Here, we conducted two experiments to develop and validate, for the first time, a laboratory procedure to establish arbitrarily applicable spatial relational responding in adult humans. In Experiment 1, participants were trained on nonarbitrary spatial relational tasks designed to establish contextual cues for left of, right of, above, and below. Contextual cues were then used to train a series of arbitrary spatial relations involving four abstract shapes. Following training in a subset of arbitrary relations (A is left of B, B is above C, C is right of D), subsequent testing examined the emergence of untrained spatial relations (B is right of A, C is below B, D is left of C, D is below A and A is above D). When absent in initial tests, spatial relational responding was facilitated by a remedial training procedure incorporating nonarbitrary relational guidance. Participants showed patterns of spatial relational responding consistent with test relations. In Experiment 2, a variant reversal design yielded predictable, reversed spatial relational responses. Overall, the present procedures represent the first empirical demonstration of arbitrarily applicable spatial relational responding and thus, arguably, the first functional analytic model of spatial reasoning.     

Improving left spatial neglect through music scale playing

The study assessed whether the auditory reference provided by a music scale could improve spatial exploration of a standard musical instrument keyboard in right‐brain‐damaged patients with left spatial neglect. As performing music scales involves the production of predictable successive pitches, the expectation of the subsequent note may facilitate patients to explore a larger extension of space in the left affected side, during the production of music scales from right to left. Eleven right‐brain‐damaged stroke patients with left spatial neglect, 12 patients without neglect, and 12 age‐matched healthy participants played descending scales on a music keyboard. In a counterbalanced design, the participants' exploratory performance was assessed while producing scales in three feedback conditions: With congruent sound, no‐sound, or random sound feedback provided by the keyboard. The number of keys played and the timing of key press were recorded. Spatial exploration by patients with left neglect was superior with congruent sound feedback, compared to both Silence and Random sound conditions. Both the congruent and incongruent sound conditions were associated with a greater deceleration in all groups. The frame provided by the music scale improves exploration of the left side of space, contralateral to the right hemisphere, damaged in patients with left neglect. Performing a scale with congruent sounds may trigger at some extent preserved auditory and spatial multisensory representations of successive sounds, thus influencing the time course of space scanning, and ultimately resulting in a more extensive spatial exploration. These findings offer new perspectives also for the rehabilitation of the disorder.     

网络词语与非网络词语的知觉差异:时间知觉、空间距离知觉与知觉范围

根据具身认知理论,人们的认知会受到身体活动的影响。网络环境下人的身体活动受到限制,因而其认知活动与非网络环境存在很大的差异。本研究目的在于考察人们对网络词语与非网络的日常词语的时间知觉,空间距离知觉与知觉范围是否有差异。结果发现被试对网络词语的时间知觉更长;网络词语的空间距离感与日常词语没有显著差异;在启动网络词语之后,被试的知觉范围缩小,对中心刺激的反应显著快于边缘刺激。本研究发现了网络词语加工在时间知觉和知觉范围上的变化。     

The organisation of spatial and temporal relations in memory

Episodic memories are comprised of details of “where” and “when”; spatial and temporal relations, respectively. However, evidence from behavioural, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging studies has provided mixed interpretations about how memories for spatial and temporal relations are organised—they may be hierarchical, fully interactive, or independent. In the current study, we examined the interaction of memory for spatial and temporal relations. Using explicit reports and eye-tracking, we assessed younger and older adults’ memory for spatial and temporal relations of objects that were presented singly across time in unique spatial locations. Explicit change detection of spatial relations was affected by a change in temporal relations, but explicit change detection of temporal relations was not affected by a change in spatial relations. Younger and older adults showed eye movement evidence of incidental memory for temporal relations, but only younger adults showed eye movement evidence of incidental memory for spatial relations. Together, these findings point towards a hierarchical organisation of relational memory. The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of the neural mechanisms that may support such a hierarchical organisation of memory.     

Keeping track of where we are: Spatial working memory in navigation

Spatial working memory (WM) seems to include two types of spatial information: locations and relations. However, this distinction has been based on small-scale tasks. Here, we used a virtual navigation paradigm to examine whether WM for locations and relations applies to the large-scale spatial world. We found that navigators who successfully learned two routes and also integrated them were superior at maintaining multiple locations and multiple relations in WM. However, over the entire spectrum of navigators, WM for spatial relations, but not locations, was specifically predictive of route integration performance. These results lend further support to the distinction between these two forms of spatial WM and point to their critical role in individual differences in navigation proficiency.     

The mind beyond our immediate awareness: Freudian, Jungian, and cognitive models of the unconscious

Abstract: Several branches of cognitive science now focus on the nature of the unconscious. This paper explores some of the findings and models from this research. By introducing formulations based on non‐clinical data, the cognitive scientists—in neural linguistics, computational modelling, and neuroscience—may depart from the older psychoanalytic formulations. An understanding of unconscious neural processes is nevertheless emerging showing how synapses are modified by experience and how learning, conscious and unconscious, is due to this important aspect of brain plasticity. Freud and Jung's formulations about the unconscious psyche, representing the main tenets of depth psychology, are also based on a conception of the mind as extending beyond immediate awareness. However, their models are more hypothetical in that their data, almost exclusively, come from treatments of psychotherapy patients and their verbal accounts. So how do these two conceptions of the unconscious match, where do they differ? And how does the neural understanding in the present research support theories and practices of analytic treatments?     

Breast Cancer and the Descent: The Loss and Return of Spring

This article approaches breast cancer as an initiation into a healing process that provides the opportunity for the transformation of a basic fault in the personality. Breast cancer will be approached as a metaphor alerting one to a crises of interiority, a loss of connection to ones inner dimension and ones feminine consciousness. This metaphor contains both the loss of the connection and the possibility of its recovery. The process involves a velocity of descent very difficult to endure; it involves a profound and accelerated unraveling of the rationality that previously served as a container stabilizing the ego. The perilousness of the descent imagery reflects the precipitousness of this unraveling. The precipitous descent is seen as an attempt of the soul to heal and reintegrate the personality by revisiting and illuminating a space abandoned long ago. The integration of this part of the personality results in a return of generativity, energy, and creativity.