The Correspondence between Human Intelligibility and Physical Intelligibility: The View of Jean Ladrière

This article seeks to explain the correspondence between human intelligibility and that of the physical world by synthesizing the contributions of Jean Ladrière. Ladrière shows that the objectification function of formal symbolism in mathematics as an artificial language has operative power acquired through algorithm to represent physical reality. In physical theories, mathematics relates to observations through theoretic and empirical languages mutually interacting in a methodological circle, and nonmathematical anticipatory intention guides mathematical algorithmic exploration. Ladrière reasons that mathematics can make the physical world comprehensible because of the presence of a rational principle in both kinds of intelligibility.     

Asymptotic clarifications,generalizations, and concerns regarding an extended class of matched pairs tests based on powers of ranks

Recent studies pertaining to an extended class of matched pairs tests based on powers of ranks are discussed. Previous questions regarding the asymptotic properties for this class of tests are clarified and a generalization of this class is described. This generalization raises a previously unanticipated concern about whether or not the analytic comparisons resulting from these tests correspond with an intuitive notion of what is being compared.     

Control rate of response or reinforcement and amphetamine's effect on behavior.

The roles of control response rate and reinforcement frequency in producing amphetamine's effect on operant behavior were evaluated independently in rats. Two multiple schedules were arranged in which one variable, either response rate or reinforcement frequency, was held constant and the other variable manipulated. A multiple differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate seven-second yoked variable-interval schedule was used to equate reinforcement frequencies at different control response rates between multiple-schedule components. Amphetamine increased responding under the variable-interval component. In contrast, amphetamine decreased responding equivalently between components of a multiple random-ratio schedule that produced similar control response rates at different reinforcement frequencies. The results provide experimental support to the rate-dependency principle that control rate of responding is an important determinant of amphetamine's effect on operant behavior.     

非常短暂呈现时间过程中的系列位置效应

以中国汉字为材料,考察不同系列项目呈现时间范式中的系列位置效应,并验证Ｎｅａｔｈ提出的区辨理论公式对中文材料的适用性。结果表明,在非常短暂的系列项目呈现时间,并且项目之间的时间间隔按不同中数比率变化的实验条件中．均存在明显的系列位置效应;但是Ｎｅａｔｈ提出的区辨理论的公式,不能预测本实验结果,从另一个方面说明汉字不同于拼音文字的特点。     

Some implications of a relational principle of reinforcement

A formal statement of a relational principle of reinforcement is developed that makes contact with analyses of choice, interresponse-time distributions, and stimulus control. Some implications for current theoretical and empirical work in the various areas are examined.     

THE RELATION BETWEEN CHOOSING AND WORKING PREVOCATIONAL TASKS IN TWO SEVERELY RETARDED YOUNG ADULTS

This study investigated the relation between prevocational preference, as measured by the client's selection of a task object, and the work that followed that choice. After selecting a task object, the clients worked a task previously assessed to be more or less preferred than the one indicated by the object. The results indicated that when the selection represented a task that was less preferred than the one actually worked, choices for that object increased on subsequent trials. Conversely, when the selection represented a task that was more preferred than the task subject actually worked, choices for the object decreased on subsequent trials. The work that followed object choices reinforced or punished subsequent selections. These findings indicated that the clients' object choices were valid indicators of their preference for working different tasks. They were also consistent with Premack's principle that one class of responses may reinforce or punish a different class of responses for the same individual.     

Matching, contrast, and equalizing in the concurrent lever-press responding of rats

Five rats pressed levers for food reinforces delivered by several concurrent variable-interval variable-interval schedules. The rate of reinforcement available for responding on one component schedule was held constant at 60 reinforcers per hour. The rate of reinforcement available for responding on the other schedule varied from 30 to 240 reinforcers per hour. The behavior of the rats resembled the behavior of pigeons pecking keys for food reinforcers. The ratio of the overall rates of responding emitted under, and the ratio of the time spent responding under, the two components of each concurrent schedule were approximately equal to the ratio of the overall rates of reinforcement obtained from the components. The overall rate of responding emitted under, and the time spent responding under, the variable component schedule varied directly with the overall rate of reinforcement from that schedule. The overall rate of responding emitted under, and the time spent responding under, the constant component schedule varied inversely with the overall rate of reinforcement obtained from the variable component. The local rates of responding emitted under, and the local rates of reinforcement obtained from, the two components did not differ consistently across subjects. But they were not exactly equal either.     

Language Acquisition is Language Change

According to the theory of Universal Grammar, the primary linguistic data guides children through an innately specified space of hypotheses. On this view, similarities between child-English and adult-German are as unsurprising as similarities between cousins who have never met. By contrast, experience-based approaches to language acquisition contend that child language matches the input, with nonadult forms being simply less articulated versions of the forms produced by adults. This paper reports several studies that provide support for the theory of Universal grammar, and resist explanation on experience-based accounts. Two studies investigate English-speaking children’s productions, and a third examines the interpretation of sentences by Japanese speaking children. When considered against the input children are exposed to, the findings of these and other studies are consistent with the continuity hypothesis, which supposes that child language can differ from the language spoken by adults only in ways that adult languages can differ from each other.     

Retributivism and Multiple Offending

This article addresses the question of how multiple offenders – that is, offenders who have committed more than one crime before they are apprehended – should be punished from a retributivist point of view. Two theories are evaluated, both defending the view that there should be a bulk discount for multiple offending. According to the first theory, a bulk discount follows from the idea of a punishment ceiling for types of crimes and the principle of parsimony in punishing. According to the second, the discount follows from a certain view on mercy. However, it is argued that both theories suffer from theoretical flaws and that they are also insufficient in practical terms. That is, they fail to provide a basis for the making of decisions about how multiple-offence cases should be dealt with by the criminal justice system.