Human symbolic matching-to-sample performance: Effects of reinforcer and sample-stimulus probabilities

Four experiments, each with 6 human subjects, varied the distribution of reinforcers for correct responses and the probability of sample-stimulus presentation in symbolic matching-to-sample procedures. Experiment 1 held the sample-stimulus probability constant and varied the ratio of reinforcers obtained for correct responses on the two alternatives across conditions. There was a positive relation between measures of response bias and the ratio of reinforcers. Experiment 2 held the ratio of reinforcers constant and varied the sample-stimulus probability across conditions. Unlike previous studies that used pigeons as subjects, there was a negative relation between bias and the ratio of sample-stimulus presentations. In Experiment 3, the sample-stimulus probability and the reinforcer ratio covaried across conditions. Response bias did not vary systematically across conditions. In Experiments 1 to 3, correct responses were reinforced intermittently. Experiment 4 used the same procedure as Experiment 3, but all correct responses now produced some scheduled consequence. There was a positive relation between response bias and the ratio of reinforcers. The results suggest that human performance in these tasks was controlled by both the relative frequency of reinforced responses and the relative frequency of nonreinforced responses.     

中转站系统框架的心理学研究

通过总结人类问题求解的特点,我们提出了问题求解的一种中转站系统框架。本文采用口语报告分析所进行的研究表明该框架是一种问题求解方面的知识结构和有效的启发式求解策略。实验证明了次序性、熟悉性、类似性和系统控制性是决定求解能力和效率的关键因素。说明了中转站及其排序、强规则和弱规则及其相互配合、以及中转站系统的控制策略在较大程度上反映和模拟了人在求解复杂的专门问题时的知识结构和控制过程。     

FROM BIOGENETIC STRUCTURALISM TO MATURE CONTEMPLATION TO PROPHETIC CONSCIOUSNESS

Abstract. The publication of Brain, Symbol 3 Experience by Charles D. Laughlin, Jr., John McManus, and Eugene G. d'Aquili marks a significant advance in their biogenetic structural theory. They set forth a neurophenomenology of human consciousness and mature contemplation. A question is raised about their espousal of pristine perception, while their emphasis on polyphasic awareness is appreciated. In their contribution to interdisciplinary dialogue, limitations of gender, neglect of the religious traditions of the West, and linguistic issues are explored. While the style is difficult, the volume promises to become a classic in affirming "the human brain as the main locus of causality."     

Rhetoric,reasonableness and ethics: An essay on Perelman

The article deals with an interpretation of the work of Ch. Perelman. The author tries to determine the meaning of reasonableness in a hermeneutical and anthropological perspective. He then places the work of Perelman in the light of the theory of symbolic interactionism of G.H. Mead.     

The hermeneutic background of C. G. Jung

Hermeneutics has been central to the practice of Jung's psychology from the beginning, although he never fully and consistently developed a hermeneutic method of inquiry and the literature addressing this aspect of his psychology is not extensive. In this paper(1) we undertake a critical re-examination of Jung's relationship to hermeneutic thought, based on his explicit references to hermeneutics in the Collected Works and his theoretical development of the notion of archetypes. Although Jung did not consistently formulate a hermeneutic approach to inquiry, his theoretical development of archetypes is rich in hermeneutic implications. In particular, his notion of the archetype as such can be understood hermeneutically as a form of non-conceptual background understanding. Some implications of this construal of archetypes for Jungian hermeneutics as a form of inquiry are considered.     

内在父亲:理论及其意义

内在父亲是指子女对父亲的内在的、主观的体验,由象征性父亲、内化的父亲体验和父亲意象三成分构成。本文综合回顾内在父亲三成分的理论实质及其与相关心理学理论的关系,在此基础上探讨这一理论的临床意义、家庭意义和社会意义。最后对内在父亲理论的实证研究、跨文化研究、临床干预实践与研究等进行思考和展望。     

Taking time: the tempo of psychoanalysis

In this article the author argues that in order to be psychoanalysis, the 'here and now' technical approach needs to be firmly grounded theoretically and technically in a practice that includes the notion of reverie or its equivalent. The author has argued previously that the analyst's theory is the essential 'third' of the two-person analytic situation. She now suggests that it is specifically the theories of temporality and the attitude of 'evenly suspended attention' or its more contemporary development, 'reverie', that are the crucial aspects of that theory. She refers to these essential aspects as the 'theory in practice' in so far as they are more than a technical approach or a theory of practice but reflect directly a particular analyst's internalisation of the whole psychoanalytic theoretical corpus. While she believes this to be an essential component in any true psychoanalysis, in developing her argument the author looks at situations in which the analyst is particularly prone to forgo this temporal aspect, as is the case when patients show an absence of symbolic thinking within the analytic situation. In fact, with those patients reverie and the visual images it produces within the analyst's mind offer perhaps the only hope of a meeting ground between the concrete and the symbolic and the possibility of avoiding an impasse. Impasse, she suggests, has at its root the absence of reverie as a third and temporal element, inevitably giving rise to concrete thinking on the part of patient and analyst and so to a situation that cannot evolve.     

Meaning as inter-connectedness: theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence

Researchers interested in the study of eudaimonic well-being have devoted increasing efforts in the attempt to define and understand meaning as a core resource fostering human development and successful adaptation to environmental demands. Conceptual models and empirical findings highlighted the pivotal role of relationships and connectedness in the construction and enhancement of meaning throughout life. In this paper connectedness is discussed from an interdisciplinary perspective, encompassing theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence developed within the natural and social sciences. The cross-disciplinary emphasis on the substantial role of inter-connectedness in shaping living systems and human communities will be highlighted. Taking into account these interdisciplinary convergences and empirical evidence obtained from the psychological investigation of the sources and structure of meaning, three levels of connectedness will be identified, namely proximal, distal and symbolic. A comprehensive framework will be proposed, in which inter-connectedness is considered a crucial aspect of the prominent sources of meaning in daily life, as well as the core essence of meaning itself. This approach offers the possibility to explore meaning from a unifying perspective, overcoming disciplinary boundaries and opening new research avenues.     

Doing it again: Obsessions

This paper gives three readings of psychoanalysis based on differing understandings of the repetition compulsion as instanced in the case of Freud's rat man. the first reading is an interpretation of Freud's official analytic theory and practice and can be called the ordinary or naive reading. the second reading brackets the natural standpoint assumed by the first reading, hence requiring scare quotes over the word ‘psychoanalysis'. the second reading is constructed from the perspective of the structuralist and quasi-existential orientation of Lacan. the third and final reading is a sketch of the rat man as if seen through the anasemic lens of Nicolas Abraham. the title of this paper - ‘Doing it again' - refers to our ‘numbers' or symptoms, i.e. the compulsive and repetitive ways in which we relate to others and the potential of each of these psychoanalytic approaches to enable us to catch ourselves at it.