The perception of causality in chimpanzees (Pan spp.)

Chimpanzees (Pan spp.) were tested on a habituation/dishabituation paradigm that was originally developed to test for comprehension of causality in very young human infants. Three versions of the test were used: a food item being moved by a hand, a human pushing another human off a chair to obtain a food item, and a film clip of natural chimpanzee behaviour (capturing and eating a monkey). Chimpanzees exhibited similar results to those obtained with human infants, with significantly elevated levels of looking on the dishabituation trials. Since the level of response was significantly greater on natural/unnatural sequences than on unnatural/natural sequences, we conclude that the chimpanzees were not responding just to novelty but rather to events that infringed their sense of natural causation.     

动词隐含因果性和重读对代词加工的影响

采用听觉动窗法和跨通道探测技术,设计3个实验考察了汉语口语句子理解中,动词隐含因果性和重读对代词加工的影响及其时间进程。其中的自变量为动词类型和韵律特征;探测实验中增加探测词类型变量。结果发现：动词隐含因果性影响代词的指认方向;当代词不重读时,动词隐含因果关系在遇到代词后立即影响代词可能先行词的激活水平。代词重读影响“因为”分句的阅读时间,且在代词后立即影响主语型动词语句中代词的加工     

Evaluation on Directed Functional Brain Connectivity during the Expert Rifle Pre-shot Period

Experts require long-term and intense practice to acquire extraordinary motor skills that be known as the brain function regulator. However, the brain function network mechanism of rifle shooters is still unclear. The generalized orthogonalized partial directed coherence (gOPDC) algorithm and local efficiency significance analysis method (LESA) was applied to quantify the difference in directed functional networks between expert and novice rifle shooters during the pre-shot period. The more directed functional connections were observed in alpha and low-beta frequency bands as compared to other bands. Moreover, comparing with the novice’s fluctuant connection, the values of connection (P3→C3) strength were increasing steadily in the experts during the pre-shot period. Fewer connections in left hemisphere networks were obtained in the experts than in the novices. The results validated the “neural efficiency” hypothesis in experts. Moreover, the strength of the functional connection (P3→C3) in the alpha and beta bands serves as a distinguishing feature between experts and novices.     

The dark side of cognitive illusions: When an illusory belief interferes with the acquisition of evidence‐based knowledge

Cognitive illusions are often associated with mental health and well‐being. However, they are not without risk. This research shows they can interfere with the acquisition of evidence‐based knowledge. During the first phase of the experiment, one group of participants was induced to develop a strong illusion that a placebo medicine was effective to treat a fictitious disease, whereas another group was induced to develop a weak illusion. Then, in Phase 2, both groups observed fictitious patients who always took the bogus treatment simultaneously with a second treatment which was effective. Our results showed that the group who developed the strong illusion about the effectiveness of the bogus treatment during Phase 1 had more difficulties in learning during Phase 2 that the added treatment was effective.     

Perceived causality and perceived force: Same or different?

Visually perceived interactions between objects, such as animated versions of billiard ball collisions, give rise to causal impressions, impressions that one object produces some effect in another, and force impressions, impressions that one object exerts a certain amount of force on another. In four experiments, evidence for strong divergence between these two impressions is reported. Manipulations of relative direction of motion and point of contact between the objects had different effects on the causal and force impressions (Experiment 1); delay between one object contacting another and the latter starting to move had a stronger effect on the causal impression than on the force impression (Experiment 2); a context of other moving objects significantly weakened the causal impression but not the force impression (Experiment 3); and there was an inverse relation between an impression of one object penetrating another and the amount of force the former was perceived as exerting on the latter (Experiment 4). These findings are explained in terms of differential effects of instructions on attention, and also in terms of differences in meaning between force and causality.     

ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY AND THE CHALLENGE OF CLONING

Scientific achievements, especially in contemporary biology, have led and continue to lead to uncertainties for some believers with regard to their understanding of the role of God as the creator. This essay, avoiding philosophical jargon, expounds the stance of Islamic philosophy on this matter and argues that such anxiety and doubt are unfounded. Drawing upon the thousand‐year‐old distinction between two types of cause, real and preparatory, as formulated by Muslim philosophers, the argument demonstrates that seeing biological advances as rivaling God's creation, as traditionally understood in the Abrahamic religions, is a premature judgment based on a faulty conflation. This comes to light most clearly through Mulla Sadra's analysis of causality, the far‐reaching implications of which are briefly mentioned.     

急救站救助不及时的侵权——因果关系之确认与按比例赔偿

急救站的救治属院外急救,是急救医学的重要组成部分,而及时性是此类救治的生命所在。论述救护站救护不及时侵权的概念、类型、特点、因果关系和损害赔偿等相关内容,着重讨论英美法系的存活机会损失理论和大陆法系的相当因果关系说在此类侵权诉讼中的应用及两种理论的共同落脚点,即按比例赔偿理论。     

医疗侵权中的因果关系

医疗侵权诉讼中的因果关系认定是个十分复杂的问题.本文首先阐明了法律上的因果关系概念,并介绍了大陆法系和英美法系对因果关系认定的不同理论,指出在医疗侵权诉讼中两大法系的做法值得我国借鉴.     

Religious Naturalism Today

Three questions are addressed. First, concerning the definition of naturalism, I accept the characterization by Rem Edwards (1972) but insist on a materialist or physicalist interpretation of these features. Second, the distinctive characteristic of my religious naturalism is an argument that although a theological position based on a physicalist ontology is constrained by physicalism, the ontology itself does not dictate theological content. Theological content can break free of ontology if this content is valuational rather than ontological. Such a valuational theism becomes possible when Rudolf Bultmann's and Fritz Buri's method of existentialist interpretation is wedded to Henry Nelson Wieman's naturalist conception of God. The knowledge of God in events of grace, therefore, is rooted in moments of creative transformation that are themselves always transformative. This approach makes possible a better approach to the problem of objectivity than Bultmann could achieve. Third, concerning the chief issues facing religious naturalism today, I argue that religious naturalists should more forthrightly confront the issue of ontological materialism and that the most pressing issue concerns thinking out more fully the religious or theological content to be ascribed to such a position after the nature of naturalism is resolved.