Rod suppression of cone-mediated information about colour and form during dark adaptation

Following substantial bleaches, the specific form and hue thresholds were measured during dark adaptation with a test stimulus of 1 x 2 degrees at 40 degrees extrafoveally. The wavelength of the test field was varied between runs. The results show that both thresholds started to rise at about the cone-rod break of the dark-adaptation curve, irrespective of wavelength used in the test. Furthermore, the specific threshold for form was found to rise when a scotopic stimulus was superimposed on a photopic test flash. On the other hand, both thresholds remained at the cone-plateau level when the test flash was confined within the rod-free fovea. In order to explain the rise in the specific thresholds, it is suggested that signals from rods generated directly in response to the test stimulus may suppress both cone-mediated form and colour. It is also suggested that this type of rod-cone interaction represents a general characteristic involved in several kinds of visual information processing.     

Visual Evoked Potentials to Geometric Forms: Effects of Spatial Orientation

Five outlined geometric figures of equal contour length were presented monocularly below the fixation point (FP); an upright equilateral triangle (upright triangle), an inverted equilateral triangle (inverted triangle), an upright square (square), a 45°-tilted square (diamond) and a circle. The angular separation between FP and the top of the figures was held constant. Transient visual evoked potentials (VEPs) were recorded monopolarly from inion, 4, 7, 10 cm above it (l, l4, l7, l10) and Cz for ten subjects. The grand-averaged subtracted waves were obtained between the figure and blank (control) conditions. N1 (mean peak latency: 155 ms) and P2 (240 ms) waves were identified. ANOVAs were conducted for the latency and amplitude values. Main results were as follows: On the N1 amplitude at l4 and l, the upright triangle, inverted triangle and diamond figures evoked significantly larger responses than did the square and the circle. However, no significant difference was found among the former three figures. These findings on the N1 amplitude suggest that the effect of a triangle is orientation-free and that of a square is orientation-bound.     

Ideas of self and community: Ethical implications for a communitarian conception of moral autonomy

This paper attempts to construct a concept of moral autonomy thai is compatible with a relationally-based or care-based ethical theory. After critiquing the traditional liberal identification of the ethical self with an abstract rational self detached from community and historical narrative, I argue that the ethical self emerges in a dialectical relation with the community itself. Essentially, I argue for a concept of autonomy that will be analyzed as a critical perspective from within a community rather than as a privileged view from outside. Central to this argument is an understanding of the nature and role of moral conversation in the regeneration of community. The nature of that conversation is examined.     

汉语语句句式表征及命题表征能力的年龄比较

通过三个年龄段的被试对同命题不同句式汉语语句再认的比较,以再认比率和再认反应时为指标,探讨了句子在记忆中的表征问题。研究结果表明：（１）命题表征是一种原始倾向,既不同于记忆准确性的年龄发展,它在性质上又区别于记忆误差。把句式表征与命题表征分化开是后天发展的结果;（２）命题表征的建立和巩固需要时间,但一经建立,巩固性较强。相反,句式表征的巩固性较差。     

奏鸣曲式中调性结构对紧张感的影响——以莫扎特与贝多芬钢琴奏鸣曲为例

音乐紧张感是音乐聆听的基础与重要环节。本研究选取莫扎特与贝多芬的音乐作品, 运用紧张感模型计算与行为实验两种方法, 探讨奏鸣曲式中的调性结构对紧张感的影响。研究发现, 奏鸣曲中呈示部、展开部与再现部三部分的紧张感变化具有差异, 展开部的紧张感高于呈示部与再现部, 再现部的紧张感高于呈示部, 这源于转调距离与转调频率的差异。本研究探讨了在大尺度的真实音乐作品中调性结构对紧张感的影响, 为音乐学领域的研究提供佐证和新的视角。     

镜像等效或守恒及其打破：从行为到认知神经机制的研究证据

镜像等效或守恒是动物与人类个体对两侧对称自然物体的一种进化自适应加工。但是, 这种知觉特性会妨碍包含镜像字符的文字阅读学习。阅读者有必要学会利用镜像泛化抑制的“去学习”机制, 打破镜像等效或守恒, 以获得识别镜像字符的能力。这一过程中, 左侧梭状回皮层通过与早期视觉皮层、顶叶皮层和口语脑网络的交互作用, 逐渐发展出一个可以识别镜像字符的视觉词形区(visual word form area, VWFA)。今后的研究需要关注两半球及其连合纤维在镜像等效或守恒加工中的作用、镜像泛化与抑制的详尽加工机制及其对镜像书写的影响、正常汉语儿童的汉字镜像泛化加工等问题。     

Cartographic systems and non-linguistic inference

It is often assumed that the capability to make inferences requires language. Against this assumption, I claim that inferential abilities do not necessarily require a language. On the contrary, certain cartographic systems could be used to explain some forms of inferences, and they are capable of warranting rational relations between contents they represent. By arguing that certain maps, as well as sentences, are adequate for inferential processes, I do not mean to neglect that there are important differences between maps and sentences. Instead, the purpose of this paper is to highlight interesting distinctions that might affect the way that cartographic thinking works.     

Integral Spirituality, Deep Science, and Ecological Awareness

There is a growing understanding that addressing the global crisis facing humanity will require new methods for knowing, understanding, and valuing the world. Narrow, disciplinary, and reductionist perceptions of reality are proving inadequate for addressing the complex, interconnected problems of the current age. The pervasive Cartesian worldview, which is based on the metaphor of the universe as a machine, promotes fragmentation in our thinking and our perception of the cosmos. This divisive, compartmentalized thinking fosters alienation and self‐focused behavior. I aim to show in this essay that healing the fragmentation that is at the root of the current world crises requires an integrated epistemology that embraces both the rational knowledge of scientific empiricism and the inner knowledge of spiritual experience. This “deep science” transcends the illusion of separateness to discern the unity, the unbroken wholeness, that underlies the diverse forms of the universe. Our perception of connectedness, of our integral place in the web of life, emerges as an attribute of our connection with the eternal, beatific source of all existence. This awakened spiritual vision “widens our circle of understanding and compassion, to embrace all living creatures in the whole of nature” (Einstein, quoted in Goldstein [1976] 1987). Our behavior, as it emerges naturally out of our perception of the sacredness of the natural world, will naturally embody love and respect for all life forms. This vision promotes the healing of our long‐standing alienation from the natural world and offers hope for renewal in the midst of widespread cultural deterioration and environmental destruction.     

Review of Nie Minli’s Being and Substance: On Aristotle’s Metaphysics Z1–9

In his new book Being and Substance: A Study of Aristotle’s Metaphysics Z1–9, Nie Minli, taking a holistic perspective, argues that the primary substance—that is, the individual in Categories—is identical to form, which is the primary substance in Metaphysics Z, and that Z3 has finished arguing what the real candidate of substance is and the inserted Z7–9 texts are the “core and key” of the entire book. In spite of his excellent scholarship and masterful interpretation of Metaphysics Z4–6, Z7, Categories 1–5 and Physics Α, Nie offers insufficient textual support for his interpretation of the primary substance in Metaphysics Z and the content of Z3. Although substance is the subject (hypokeimenon) and a “this” (tode ti) in Categories, it is the ultimate subject (hypokeimenon eschaton) and a “this” (tode ti) and separable (choriston) in Metaphysics. As the ultimate subject, substance is form and matter but not the individual. As a “this” (tode ti) and separable (choriston), substance is form; moreover, the primary substance is form. In my view, that form is substance in Z3 serves more as a plan or outline needed to prove in the following than as a definite conclusion. This article also points out that tode ti in Z8, 1033b21 refers to the individual but not the form. Homōnuma in Z9 cannot be understood as “sharing the same name but with different meaning,” but, rather, simply as “having the same name.”     

Effacements of Form

The theme of this essay is expressed in a line from the Dao De Jing： ＂The great image has no form.＂ The essay shows how this effacement, annulment, or withdrawal of form is realized in ancient Chinese painting （Song and Ming Dynasties） and in the conception of the natural elements to which much of this painting is related. Certain resonances with this effacement of form are identified in the way that recent Continental thought focuses on an effacement of form as it was determined in ancient Greek philosophy.