Reflections on how color term acquisition is constrained

Compared with object word learning, young children typically find learning color terms to be a difficult linguistic task. In this reflections article, I consider two questions that are fundamental to investigations into the developmental acquisition of color terms. First, I consider what constrains color term acquisition and how stable these constraints are over culture and age. I review recent studies that have identified conceptual, attentional, and linguistic constraints that seemingly operate on the acquisition of color terms compared with object words and the differential acquisition of color terms within a given language. Second, I consider whether these constraints are specific to the acquisition of color terms or whether they reflect more general constraints that operate on other classes of lexical terms such as different abstract property terms.     

Updating imagined translational movements

The aim of this study was to examine the mental processes involved in changes that are the result of imagined translational movements. Participants were presented with a single view of a small spatial display. In a computer-based reaction-time task, spatial judgments were then made relative to four imagined headings that were either the study view or novel views that differed from the study view in terms of imagined rotational and/or translational movements. The main finding was that translational shifts detrimentally affected performance in the absence of concurrent rotations suggesting that imagined translations require additional processing time.     

Navigation in the Morris swim task as a baseline for drug discrimination: a demonstration with morphine

A morphine versus saline discrimination was demonstrated using the Morris swim task as the behavioral baseline. The apparatus was a large circular pool filled with water made opaque by floating polypropylene pellets. Rats were placed in the tank in randomly selected locations (12 trials per session) and could escape by swimming to a platform submerged 2 cm below the surface. Morphine (5.6 mg/kg) or saline was injected prior to training sessions. The position of the platform in a given session depended on the drug condition, thus forming the basis for discriminative responding. Three of the 4 rats acquired the discrimination, as evidenced by direct swims to the condition-appropriate platform. Generalization probe sessions were conducted following acquisition. Probe sessions were preceded by injections of morphine (0, 1.0, 3.0, 5.6, or 10.0 mg/kg) and involved placing the rat in the pool for 1 min without a platform. Swim patterns revealed a gradient, with probe swimming more concentrated in the area of the morphine platform position after higher morphine doses. In addition, dose-dependent increases in the likelihood of swimming first to the morphine-associated platform location were obtained. These results illustrate the generality of drug discrimination across different behavioral procedures, and of particular interest with respect to spatial learning, demonstrate interoceptive stimulus control of navigation.     

Multisensory spatial representations in eye-centered coordinates for reaching

Humans can reach for objects with their hands whether the objects are seen, heard or touched. Thus, the position of objects is recoded in a joint-centered frame of reference regardless of the sensory modality involved. Our study indicates that this frame of reference is not the only one shared across sensory modalities. The location of reaching targets is also encoded in eye-centered coordinates, whether the targets are visual, auditory, proprioceptive or imaginary. Furthermore, the remembered eye-centered location is updated after each eye and head movement. This is quite surprising since, in principle, a reaching motor command can be computed from any non-visual modality without ever recovering the eye-centered location of the stimulus. This finding may reflect the predominant role of vision in human spatial perception.     

A Necessary Relation Algebra for Mereotopology

The standard model for mereotopological structures are Boolean subalgebras of the complete Boolean algebra of regular closed subsets of a nonempty connected regular T ₀ topological space with an additional "contact relation" C defined by xCy x ØA (possibly) more general class of models is provided by the Region Connection Calculus (RCC) of Randell et al. We show that the basic operations of the relational calculus on a "contact relation" generate at least 25 relations in any model of the RCC, and hence, in any standard model of mereotopology. It follows that the expressiveness of the RCC in relational logic is much greater than the original 8 RCC base relations might suggest. We also interpret these 25 relations in the the standard model of the collection of regular open sets in the two-dimensional Euclidean plane.     

客体与空间工作记忆的分离：来自皮层慢电位的证据

利用128导事件相关电位技术,采用延迟匹配任务的实验范式,测查了16名正常被试在完成客体任务和空间任务时的皮层慢电位（slow cortical potentials,简称sp成分）,实验发现：在后部脑区,客体工作记忆与空间工作记忆在慢波活动的时间上存在分离,空间任务更早的诱发出负sp成分,并且空间任务激活更多的后部脑区;左下前额叶在客体工作记忆任务与空间工作记忆任务中都有激活,并且激活强度不存在显著差异;背侧前额叶主要负责客体信息的保持与复述,但左右背侧前额叶的激活强度存在不对称性。     

工作记忆在数学运算过程中的作用

Baddeley和Hitch(1974)提出的工作记忆模型被广泛地应用数学运算领域,但是已有研究还缺乏系统性。首先,当前的研究主要集中在加法和乘法两种运算上,较少涉及减法、除法和更为抽象的代数运算;第二,研究者对语音环路和中央执行系统的作用进行了较深入的研究,但常常忽略视空间模板的作用;第三,工作记忆在数学运算过程中的作用具有动态性,它受到一些外部因素、数学任务内在因素和个体认知因素（如认知策略）的影响;第四,几乎有关研究都肯定中央执行系统在数学运算过程中的重要作用,然而负荷于中央执行系统的次级任务所含成分或功能的复杂性,导致我们很难确定中央执行系统如何作用于数学运算。对这些问题的研究将是未来可能的研究方向     

习惯空间术语对空间认知的影响再探

考察习惯的空间术语对空间认知的影响。实验1考察在有空间语言线索提示下南、北方被试空间认知的差异。结果表明,当给予空间语言线索提示时,南、北方被试都更多地以所提示的空间参考框架定向。但语言线索对南、北方被试影响不同。实验2考察非定向性的习惯空间术语对空间认知的影响。结果表明,“南下北上”的术语影响被试对空间的认知。     

电子地图导航中用户空间定向认知过程机制的研究

通过对33名大学生被试进行研究,考察在电子地图导航系统中四种条件下被试判断方位的反应时的差异,探讨电子地图导航中用户空间定向认知过程的时间模型。结果发现,这四种实验条件下的反应时两两之间存在显著差异,由于这四种条件分别代表用户判断方位时四种所需的认知环节的组合方式,故而证实了电子地图导航中用户空间定向认知过程的时间模型,即：用户方位判断＝心理旋转＋目标搜索＋方位定向。