The development of category learning strategies: What makes the difference?

Category learning can be achieved by identifying common features among category members, distinctive features among non-members, or both. These processes are psychologically and computationally distinct, and may have implications for the acquisition of categories at different hierarchical levels. The present study examines an account of children’s difficulty in acquiring categories at the subordinate level grounded on these distinct comparison processes. Adults and children performed category learning tasks in which they were exposed either to pairs of objects from the same novel category or pairs of objects from different categories. The objects were designed so that for each category learning task, two features determined category membership whereas two other features were task irrelevant. In the learning stage participants compared pairs of objects noted to be either from the same category or from different categories. Object pairs were chosen so that the objective amount of information provided to the participants was identical in the two learning conditions. We found that when presented only with object pairs noted to be from the same category, young children (6 ? YO ? 9.5) learned the novel categories just as well as older children (10 ? YO ? 14) and adults. However, when presented only with object pairs known to be from different categories, unlike older children and adults, young children failed to learn the novel categories. We discuss cognitive and computational factors that may give rise to this comparison bias, as well as its expected outcomes.     

Current status of the motor program: Revisited

The motor program is a concept that has had a major influence on theorizing in the field of motor control. However, there has been a lack of consensus as to what exactly is a motor program and its role in movement organization and execution. In 1994 Morris, Summers, Matyas, and Iansek concluded from a review of the application of the motor program concept in the field of physical therapy that continued use of the term may impede progress in the field. In this paper we examine what has happened to the motor program concept in the thirteen years since the previous evaluation. The review indicates that although the term is still being used in different ways, the theoretical existence of a motor program appears to be generally accepted by researchers in experimental psychology, movement science, and neurophysiology. The recent development of powerful brain imaging techniques may allow determination of whether the motor program should be regarded as a metaphorical or literal concept.     

中文阅读中的边界效应及其消除：事件持续效应

运用动窗技术探讨中文阅读中的边界效应及其消除的条件,包括3个实验。实验一探讨中文阅读中是否存在边界效应,结果发现,边界效应同样存在于中文阅读中;实验二、三探讨时间切分标记能否消除边界效应以及消除的条件,结果发现,只有当切分标记表示的时间在前一事件持续的时间跨度外时才能消除边界效应,如果切分标记表示的时间仍在前一事件持续的时间跨度内,则不能消除边界效应,本研究称此为事件持续效应。从本研究结果中可以得出,时间切分标记降低了主题转换句子所需要的认知加工能量     

Formal Schooling Influences Two- but Not Three-Dimensional Naming Skills

The modulatory influence of literacy on the cognitive system of the human brain has been indicated in behavioral, neuroanatomic, and functional neuroimaging studies. In this study we explored the functional consequences of formal education and the acquisition of an alphabetic written language on two- and three-dimensional visual naming. The results show that illiterate subjects perform significantly worse on immediate naming of two-dimensional representations of common everyday objects compared to literate subjects, both in terms of accuracy and reaction times. In contrast, there was no significant difference when the subjects named the corresponding real objects. The results suggest that formal education and learning to read and to write modulate the cognitive process involved in processing two- but not three-dimensional representations of common everyday objects. Both the results of the reaction time and the error pattern analyses can be interpreted as indicating that the major influence of literacy affects the visual system or the interaction between the visual and the language systems. We suggest that the visual system in a wide sense and/or the interface between the visual and the language system are differently formatted in literate and illiterate subjects. In other words, we hypothesize that the pattern of interactions in the functional-anatomical networks subserving visual naming, that is, the interactions within and between the visual and language processing networks, differ in literate and illiterate subjects.     

文章结构因素对问题解决迁移影响的研究

探讨阅读过程中文章结构因素对问题解决迁移效果的影响。实验1是在两篇源文章问题解决原理相同条件下探讨其结构类似与否对目标文章的问题解决迁移的影响。结果表明,源文章间结构越不类似,越能促进目标作业问题解决的迁移。实验2是探讨实验1中时间顺序和地理位置两种文章结构在问题解决中是否存在偏性,从而考察实验1的结论是否得以成立。结果证明,时间顺序和地理位置两种文章的组织结构不存在偏性。因而结果可初步表明,文章信息的不同的组织结构方式能促进相同原理条件下的问题解决的迁移。     

速度、步幅与窗口对引导式中文文本阅读工效的影响

引导式显示是在视觉显示终端(VDT)上呈现动态文本的主要方式之一.本研究考察了显示窗口大小、跳动步幅、显示速度等因素对引导式中文文本的阅读工效的影响.实验中采用了3(跳动步幅,被试内变量)×3(显示速度,被试内变量)×2(显示窗口大小,被试间变量)的混合设计,共有18个被试参加了实验.结果发现(1)跳动步幅、显示速度和窗口大小均影响中文文本的阅读工效;(2)达到最佳阅读工效的实验条件在速度和步幅上分别集中于200～400字/分和1～3字/步.最后本文结合中文阅读的相关眼动研究,对这些结果的成因进行了简要的探讨.     

文章标记对高一学生阅读理解的影响

采用测验法,以64名高中一年级学生为被试,探讨文章标记对不同阅读水平学生的回忆成绩和问题解决的影响.结果表明:(1)不同阅读水平读者回忆成绩上的文章标记效应不显著;(2)文章标记对于不同阅读水平学生的问题解决都具有显著的影响作用;(3)不同阅读水平读者的回忆和问题解决成绩存在显著差异.     

EVOLUTION AND SUBJECTIVITY

Evolutionary theory is becoming an all‐encompassing form of explanation in many branches of philosophy. However, emergence theory uses the concept of self‐organization to support yet alter traditional evolutionary explanation. Biologist Stuart Kauffman suggests that the new science will need to tell stories, not simply as a heuristic device but as part of its fundamental task. This claim is reminiscent of C. S. Peirce's criticism of the doctrine of necessity. Peirce's suggestions reference Hegel, and this essay draws out this Hegelian background, addressing the question of subjectivity and issuing some Hegelian reminders so that such evolutionary and emergent theories will consider the implication of this research program on philosophy of mind. The primary focus is on two post‐Kantian, neo‐Hegelian thinkers in contemporary philosophy who deal with this problem: John McDowell and Robert Brandom.     

Text recall and text recognition with and without a title

Abstract: Recall and recognition memory for a text were investigated in two conditions: in one, subjects could understand the text well because they were presented with the title of the text prior to reading it; in the other, they could not understand the text so well because they were not presented with the title. Results showed that recall was better and sentence recognition more accurate when subjects had understood the text. A 1-h delay of the memory test after reading decreased recall performance, but not recognition performance. Different memory representations may have been operating when subjects had understood the text from when they had not.     

Does a prototypical argumentative schema exist? Text recall in 8 to 13 years olds

120 students in grades 3 to 7 (aged 8 to 13) heard an argumentative text and were immediately submitted to a free recall task. The results show that before grade 7, the subjects did not view the text as argumentative. The discussion centers on the relevancy of a prototypical argumentative schema in accounting for these findings.