Parallelism in the Early Moist Texts

Parallelism is present everywhere in the early Moist texts: at the syntactic level, at the semantic level, between sentences, between sets of sentences, between argumentative structures. The present article gives many examples of the phenomenon: parallelism of insistence, insistence from top to bottom, insistence from bottom to top, parallelism with symmetry, parallelism involving negation, subcontraries and negation at deeper levels, parallelism of the argumentative structures. Logic is particularly applied to the study of parallelism involving negation. From the point of view of argumentation, it is shown that many of those constructions have an important role in supporting arguments such as: arguments of generalization, a fortiori arguments, arguments of exemplarity, consequentialist arguments, arguments by comparison. This study draws the attention to the importance of argumentation in the study of Moism and gives a new light on the argument by parallelism (mou 侔) in the “Xiaoqu”: It is a natural extension of what we call “parallelism involving negation,” already very common in the early Moist texts.     

Limited information estimation and testing of discretized multivariate normal structural models

Discretized multivariate normal structural models are often estimated using multistage estimation procedures. The asymptotic properties of parameter estimates, standard errors, and tests of structural restrictions on thresholds and polychoric correlations are well known. It was not clear how to assess the overall discrepancy between the contingency table and the model for these estimators. It is shown that the overall discrepancy can be decomposed into a distributional discrepancy and a structural discrepancy. A test of the overall model specification is proposed, as well as a test of the distributional specification (i.e., discretized multivariate normality). Also, the small sample performance of overall, distributional, and structural tests, as well as of parameter estimates and standard errors is investigated under conditions of correct model specification and also under mild structural and/or distributional misspecification. It is found that relatively small samples are needed for parameter estimates, standard errors, and structural tests. Larger samples are needed for the distributional and overall tests. Furthermore, parameter estimates, standard errors, and structural tests are surprisingly robust to distributional misspecification. This research was supported by the Department of Universities, Research and Information Society (DURSI) of the Catalan Government, and by grants BSO2000-0661 and BSO2003-08507 of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology.     

儿童语言获得之认知发展机制研究新进展

儿童母语的习得是以已有的知识经验为基础的,即概念信息,由此儿童可以对经验过的对象、关系和事件做出区分并加以归类。这为以后儿童语言的获得奠定了基础。因此,儿童首先建立的是对事物的概念性表征,然后再以语言的形式表达之,即获得了语言性表征。但是,当儿童获得了语言表征之后,原先的概念表征还是继续发挥着它应有的作用。     

从前语言到语言转换阶段的语言运用能力发展——3岁前汉语儿童语用交流行为习得的研究

研究着重探讨汉语儿童从前语言到语言交往阶段语用交流行为发展,通过质和量两种方式搜集14-32月儿童与母亲互动交往语料,采用汉化的CHILDES模式转录并用CLAN系统进行分析。研究发现3岁前汉语儿童语用交流行为清晰度的快速增长,语用交往行为类型的明显扩展和语用交流行为核心类型的运作倾向,是该阶段具有标志性的语用发展阶段特征。研究同时发现汉语儿童语用交流行为与母亲的语用交流行为存在着较为密切的关系。     

Modeling the Developmental Patterning of Finiteness Marking in English, Dutch, German, and Spanish Using MOSAIC

In this study, we apply MOSAIC (model of syntax acquisition in children) to the simulation of the developmental patterning of children's optional infinitive (OI) errors in 4 languages: English, Dutch, German, and Spanish. MOSAIC, which has already simulated this phenomenon in Dutch and English, now implements a learning mechanism that better reflects the theoretical assumptions underlying it, as well as a chunking mechanism that results in frequent phrases being treated as 1 unit. Using 1, identical model that learns from child-directed speech, we obtain a close quantitative fit to the data from all 4 languages despite there being considerable cross-linguistic and developmental variation in the OI phenomenon. MOSAIC successfully simulates the difference between Spanish (a pro-drop language in which OI errors are virtually absent) and obligatory subject languages that do display the OI phenomenon. It also highlights differences in the OI phenomenon across German and Dutch, 2 closely related languages whose grammar is virtually identical with respect to the relation between finiteness and verb placement. Taken together, these results suggest that (a) cross-linguistic differences in the rates at which children produce OIs are graded, quantitative differences that closely reflect the statistical properties of the input they are exposed to and (b) theories of syntax acquisition need to consider more closely the role of input characteristics as determinants of quantitative differences in the cross-linguistic patterning of phenomena in language acquisition.     

制造行业管理胜任力与绩效关系的实证研究

通过对571名制造型企业管理者的问卷调查,探索并验证了制造业管理胜任力结构维度,检验了不同背景因素对管理胜任力的影响。结果表明:制造业管理胜任力具有六维结构,包含22个指标,其信度和效度较好;不同管理层次的管理者在制造过程控制和市场营销策划维度上的评价有显著性差异,不同企业规模下的管理者在行业核心理念和产品系统管理维度上的评价有显著性差异;产品系统管理与市场营销策划能力对制造业管理者绩效有良好的预测力。同时发现,制造业管理胜任力不能较好地解释周边绩效的变异量。     

Comparing self-esteem and perceived control as predictors of first-year college students’ academic achievement

Due to its widespread popularity, self-esteem is continually being promoted to students despite limited empirical support for its effectiveness in improving their academic achievement. As a result, constructs that are potentially more salient to academic performance, such as perceived control, have gone relatively unnoticed. Although past research has examined the link between students’ academic achievement and either their self-esteem or perceived control, few studies have compared both constructs simultaneously to elucidate which one is more important to academic success. This longitudinal study directly contrasted the effects of self-esteem and perceived control on the academic performance of 802 first-year college students. After accounting for incoming ability (high school grades), age, and gender, a structural equation model showed perceived control positively predicted students’ GPA. In contrast, the predictive effect of self-esteem on GPA was non-existent. Findings indicate that compared to self-esteem, perceived control is a more powerful predictor of first-year college students’ GPA. Implications for utilizing educational interventions to boost perceived control among college students are discussed.     

Identifying Variables Responsible for Data not Missing at Random

When data are not missing at random (NMAR), maximum likelihood (ML) procedure will not generate consistent parameter estimates unless the missing data mechanism is correctly modeled. Understanding NMAR mechanism in a data set would allow one to better use the ML methodology. A survey or questionnaire may contain many items; certain items may be responsible for NMAR values in other items. The paper develops statistical procedures to identify the responsible items. By comparing ML estimates (MLE), statistics are developed to test whether the MLEs are changed when excluding items. The items that cause a significant change of the MLEs are responsible for the NMAR mechanism. Normal distribution is used for obtaining the MLEs; a sandwich-type covariance matrix is used to account for distribution violations. The class of nonnormal distributions within which the procedure is valid is provided. Both saturated and structural models are considered. Effect sizes are also defined and studied. The results indicate that more missing data in a sample does not necessarily imply more significant test statistics due to smaller effect sizes. Knowing the true population means and covariances or the parameter values in structural equation models may not make things easier either. The research was supported by NSF grant DMS04-37167, the James McKeen Cattell Fund.     

项目组合在结构方程模型中的应用

项目组合（itemparceling）是对同一量表中的若干项目进行整合并形成新的观测指标的过程。虽然一直以来它都是一个有争议的议题,但随着其在结构方程模型中的应用日益广泛,它越来越受到研究者重视。文章从项目组合的基本逻辑、优缺点以及具体方法等方面对项目组合的研究进行了概括,并在此基础上提出了使用的具体建议：（1）根据研究的目的与具体情境选择是否需要组合;（2）组合之前必须首先确定概念的维度性;（3）项目组合最好建立在一定的理论基础上等等。未来的研究可以深入探讨各种组合方法对模型拟合以及参数估计的影响以及项目组合在一些SEM高阶应用中的效果,并进一步与项目反应理论等测量理论相结合