小学儿童一维空间方位传递性推理能力的发展

研究了小学儿童一维空间方位传递性推理能力的发展水平及认知策略 ,同时 ,对心理模型理论进行了检验。被试为城市中等小学 7岁、9岁、11岁儿童各 2 4名 ,男女各半。 4种实验任务分别为三前提单模型、三前提双模型、四前提单模型和四前提双模型。采用个别实验 ,儿童在前提呈现的情况下进行推理。主要研究结果 :(1)从小学 7岁到 11岁 ,儿童的一维空间方位传递性推理能力明显提高 ,7岁儿童初步形成了一维空间方位推理能力 ,9岁和 11岁基本具有了这种能力 ;(2 )随着年龄增长 ,使用模型建构策略解决问题的儿童人次越来越多 ,绝大部分 11岁儿童都能使用这一策略进行推理。但即使儿童使用了模型建构策略 ,他们的推理成绩也没有反映出模型数量所造成的任务难度差异 ,即不符合心理模型理论关于模型数量的主要预期。     

Black holes, uncanny spaces and radical shifts in awareness

The 'black hole' is a signifier that pervades contemporary experience, conveying the 'gaps' and 'voids' in Western culture and psyche. Depth psychology stemmed from the growing uncanniness of city and psychic spaces during the 19(th) century. There was an emerging fascination with the 'dark Thing'--the 'It' of many names. Like a pandemic, depictions of the 'black hole' experience have continually emerged in the tragic events and cultural malaise of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Art, philosophy, science, psychoanalysis, literature, and cultural studies have variously articulated this frighteningly potent, yet endlessly elusive signifier. A many-sided, dialogical process best provides acquaintance with such a complex phenomenon. Multiple examples and perspectives, as well a detailed case study, will delineate some of its dimensions. They will show that such 'black hole' encounters are not merely negative, but are often the enigmatic source of new awareness and creation.     

Dissimilarity cumulation theory and subjective metrics

We present a new mathematical notion, dissimilarity function, and based on it, a radical extension of Fechnerian Scaling, a theory dealing with the computation of subjective distances from pairwise discrimination probabilities. The new theory is applicable to all possible stimulus spaces subject to the following two assumptions: (A) that discrimination probabilities satisfy the Regular Minimality law and (B) that the canonical psychometric increments of the first and second kind are dissimilarity functions. A dissimilarity function Dab for pairs of stimuli in a canonical representation is defined by the following properties: (1) a≠b?Dab>0; (2) Daa=0; (3) If and , then ; and (4) for any sequence {a_nX_nb_n}_n∈N, where X_n is a chain of stimuli, Da_nX_nb_n→0?Da_nb_n→0. The expression DaXb refers to the dissimilarity value cumulated along successive links of the chain aXb. The subjective (Fechnerian) distance between a and b is defined as the infimum of DaXb+DbYa across all possible chains X and Y inserted between a and b.     

Mapping the color space of saccadic selectivity in visual search

Color coding is used to guide attention in computer displays for such critical tasks as baggage screening or air traffic control. It has been shown that a display object attracts more attention if its color is more similar to the color for which one is searching. However, what does similar precisely mean? Can we predict the amount of attention that a display color will receive during a search for a given target color? To tackle this question, two color‐search experiments measuring the selectivity of saccadic eye movements and mapping out its underlying color space were conducted. A variety of mathematical models, predicting saccadic selectivity for given target and display colors, were devised and evaluated. The results suggest that applying a Gaussian function to a weighted Euclidean distance in a slightly modified HSI color space is the best predictor of saccadic selectivity in the chosen paradigm. Hue and intensity information by itself provides a basis for useful predictors, spanning a possibly spherical color space of saccadic selectivity. Although the current models cannot predict saccadic selectivity values for a wide variety of visual search tasks, they reveal some characteristics of color search that are of both theoretical and applied interest, such as for the design of human–computer interfaces.     

Neural correlates of visuospatial consciousness in 3D default space: Insights from contralateral neglect syndrome

One of the most compelling questions still unanswered in neuroscience is how consciousness arises. In this article, we examine visual processing, the parietal lobe, and contralateral neglect syndrome as a window into consciousness and how the brain functions as the mind and we introduce a mechanism for the processing of visual information and its role in consciousness. We propose that consciousness arises from integration of information from throughout the body and brain by the thalamus and that the thalamus reimages visual and other sensory information from throughout the cortex in a default three-dimensional space in the mind. We further suggest that the thalamus generates a dynamic default three-dimensional space by integrating processed information from corticothalamic feedback loops, creating an infrastructure that may form the basis of our consciousness. Further experimental evidence is needed to examine and support this hypothesis, the role of the thalamus, and to further elucidate the mechanism of consciousness.     

Doing the opposite to what another person is doing

The three studies presented here aim to contribute to a better understanding of the role of the coordinate system of a person's body and of the environment in spatial organization underlying the recognition and production of gestures. The paper introduces a new approach by investigating what people consider to be opposite gestures in addition to identical gestures.     

Study on emotion spaces with centrality measure

In this paper, we study existing models of emotion space using centrality, which is borrowed from network theory, to identify key emotions as the central nodes in a network, for the purposes of understanding the existing emotion spaces better in a new way. With several different definitions of centrality, key emotions are identified for four existing emotion space models. We also propose a method for integrating existing spaces to build a refined space with more emotion terms. Each model identified different key emotions. When we reduced emotion spaces such that they each contained 21 common emotions, the key emotions identified remained different, implying fundamental structural differences among existing emotion space models. These findings call for further experimental verification and the refinement of emotion models for future research to make it more useful in emotion research.     

留学生汉语基本颜色词习得模式诊断研究——以规则空间模型为工具

认知诊断方法能够对留学生各不相同的基本颜色词习得模式进行描述,并且对补救提供建议.本文以规则空间方法对留学生现代汉语普通话基本颜色词的习得模式进行诊断,并提供“学习之路”供补救参考.研究发现,规则空间模型对汉语作为二语的颜色词习得研究适用,研究中的被试全部成功归类;对于汉语基本颜色词基本义和日常生活中较为常见的转义,留学生习得比例也较高;“学习之路”是一种实用的提示学习者补救路径的方法,对于下一步的学习和教学有直接的指导作用.     

Behavioural analysis of interactions between pedestrians and vehicles in street designs with elements of shared space

This paper describes the development and implementation of qualitative behavioural criteria in order to analyse the conduct of pedestrians and vehicles when they are required to interact with each other, with particular interest to street designs with elements of shared space. The new behavioural analysis technique is developed by identifying the fundamental principles that underpin existing traffic analyses, such as traffic conflicts techniques, and adapting those to a qualitative framework that describes the mindset and rationale of road users. The technique is then applied to a case study in London, using video data from periods before and after the redevelopment of the Exhibition Road site from a conventional dual carriageway to a modern design with some elements of shared space. With the main goals being to assess the pedestrians’ confidence and the vehicles’ tolerance/patience when forced to interact with each other, behavioural trends are related to instantaneous characteristics of the vehicle flow (vehicle approach speed and traffic density). The data produced are used to develop and validate qualitative behavioural relationships for pedestrian–vehicle interactions, as well as location-specific conclusions for the Exhibition Road site.     

Driving,Pseudo‐reality and the BTK: A Case Study

The significance of occupational choice, in particular those that involve driving, has not yet been studied or investigated in relation to serial murder. This paper, which adopts a case study approach, attempts to shed light on how driving as an occupation may instrumentally influence the offending behaviour of one North American serial murderer—Dennis Rader. Attention is given towards how spending such significant amounts of time driving may have held deep psychological importance for Rader, with regard to the development of his offending‐oriented fantasies. In particular, the “offending space model” is used to examine the relationship between ‘thinking and doing’. In providing this micro‐level analysis, we suggest that transient oriented occupations provide a rich array of practical advantages that may aid serial murderers in avoiding detection, whilst also holding deep psychological influence in the nurturing and development of their fantasies. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.