Frege,Boolos, and Logical Objects

In this paper, the authors discuss Frege's theory of logical objects (extensions, numbers, truth-values) and the recent attempts to rehabilitate it. We show that the eta relation George Boolos deployed on Frege's behalf is similar, if not identical, to the encoding mode of predication that underlies the theory of abstract objects. Whereas Boolos accepted unrestricted Comprehension for Properties and used the eta relation to assert the existence of logical objects under certain highly restricted conditions, the theory of abstract objects uses unrestricted Comprehension for Logical Objects and banishes encoding (eta) formulas from Comprehension for Properties. The relative mathematical and philosophical strengths of the two theories are discussed. Along the way, new results in the theory of abstract objects are described, involving: (a) the theory of extensions, (b) the theory of directions and shapes, and (c) the theory of truth values.     

现代新儒学基本理论的自我消解

现代新儒家的基本理论主张可概括为 :儒学主流说、儒家道统说、新内圣外王之道、良知自我坎陷说、儒学复兴论。现代新儒学第三代重要代表人物已经偏离或放弃了这些基本的理论和主张 ,走上了文化多元化之路。这无疑意味着现代新儒学基本理论的自我消解。现在 ,这股文化思潮的高峰已经过去 ,已经成为历史。     

Cognitive development in object manipulation by infant chimpanzees

This study focuses on the development of spontaneous object manipulation in three infant chimpanzees during their first 2 years of life. The three infants were raised by their biological mothers who lived among a group of chimpanzees. A human tester conducted a series of cognitive tests in a triadic situation where mothers collaborated with the researcher during the testing of the infants. Four tasks were presented, taken from normative studies of cognitive development of Japanese infants: inserting objects into corresponding holes in a box, seriating nesting cups, inserting variously shaped objects into corresponding holes in a template, and stacking up wooden blocks. The mothers had already acquired skills to perform these manipulation tasks. The infants were free to observe the mothers' manipulative behavior from immediately after birth. We focused on object–object combinations that were made spontaneously by the infant chimpanzees, without providing food reinforcement for any specific behavior that the infants performed. The three main findings can be summarized as follows. First, there was precocious appearance of object–object combination in infant chimpanzees: the age of onset (8–11 months) was comparable to that in humans (around 10 months old).Second, object–object combinations in chimpanzees remained at a low frequency between 11 and 16 months, then increased dramatically at the age of approximately 1.5 years. At the same time, the accuracy of these object–object combinations also increased. Third, chimpanzee infants showed inserting behavior frequently and from an early age but they did not exhibit stacking behavior during their first 2 years of life, in clear contrast to human data.     

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF REINFORCEMENT AND PRACTICE FOR ENHANCING THE CREATIVE WRITING OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN1

Reinforcement (team points) and practice were applied to the written work of 16 fifth graders on three operationally defined components of creative writing, fluency, flexibility, and originality.4 These three components were assessed via five response measures. Fluency was defined as the number of different ideas each student listed in an idea list prepared prior to writing an essay. Flexibility was measured in two ways, idea list flexibility and story flexibility. Idea list flexibility was defined as the number of different kinds of ideas which appeared in each day's list whereas story flexibility was defined as the number of different approaches to the topic that the child used in the story itself. Originality was also measured in two ways, idea list originality and story originality. Idea list originality was defined by the statistical infrequency of ideas in the children's lists of ideas. Story originality was determined by blind, subjective ratings of stories conducted by independent raters. All of the measures of creative responding were demonstrated to be under experimental control. The procedures also raised students' scores on Torrance's Tests of Thinking Creatively With Words on three variables, fluency, flexibility, and originality. Adoption for classroom use seems straightforward.     

Self-control techniques of famous novelists

A statement by a famous contemporary novelist is presented that indicates how he and others, independently of formal behaviorism, used behavioristic methods-specifically, self-recording charts and regularly scheduled daily work hours-to accelerate and maintain their writing outputs. On the basis of his statement and an analysis of his self-recorded data, it is argued that a meaningful and useful analogy can be drawn between writing a novel and emitting a simple operant response on a fixed-ratio schedule.     

Temporal Associations Between Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Depression in Response to Online Expressive Writing Interventions in a Hispanic Sample

Some expressive writing (EW) interventions targeting posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) may reduce both PTSS and comorbid depression symptoms. The temporal associations between PTSS and depression symptom levels in response to EW interventions are unknown. This study examined the directionality of PTSS and depression symptom levels from baseline to 1-week, 1-month, and 3-month follow-ups of two online EW interventions in a Hispanic sample with diverse trauma experiences. Participants (n = 70) completed either emotion-focused or fact-focused writing for 3 consecutive days online. A manifest autoregressive model with cross-lagged effects and treatment condition was analyzed. All but one first-order autoregressive path were statistically significant, with later PTSS and depression scores significantly predicted by those scores at preceding time points. The cross-lagged effects findings suggest that earlier PTSS levels influenced later depression levels, but earlier depression did not influence later PTSS, demonstrating a unidirectional temporal association. Severe PTSS may hinder EW treatment gains in depression. Superior outcomes for emotion-focused writing relative to fact-focused writing were also found.     

Socialization and cognition in children between the age of 18 and 24 months

A cross-cultural study of mother–child dyads was set up to test the hypothesis that sociocultural differences, mediated by variations of maternal intervention, influence the way in which the child manipulates objects and, thereby, his cognitive and social competences. Two series of observations were conducted with three groups of children aged 18–24 months (15 from the American middle class, 15 from French families and 15 from North African families—the last two groups both underprivileged): (a) ‘naturalistic’ observations of two systems of interaction (child–mother and child–children interaction) showed that each child is characterized by one type of object manipulation (protected, induced, activated or autonomous) and that maternal intervention varies with the sociocultural background; assessment of the child's behavioural sequences unravelled his strategies for solving and avoiding conflicts with his peers; (b) observations of the child with a standardized material permitted an evaluation of his cognitive competences for spontaneous problem-solving. Regarding the assumptions of our hypothesis, the results furnish the following conclusions: (1) social and cognitive competences are related to the object manipulation type. In all samples, children characterized by ‘activated’ and ‘autonomous’ manipulation obtain the better results; (2) maternal intervention differs among the samples depending on the sociocultural background; these differences (limitation and physical contact) do not correspond to differences in types of manipulation; (3) type of manipulation is an interactive construction; it characterizes the functioning of the mother–child dyad and its prevailing dynamics between permanence and change. ©1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

汉语阅读发展研究中几种实验任务之间关系的探讨

本研究综合考察汉语阅读获得与发展研究中经常使用的注音、命名与组词,听写与多重选择的关系。结果发现：注音与命名有很强的一致性,并且都与组词有很高的棚关;在这些任务中,听写的难度最大,多重选择最易;几种任务存在共同的加工规律。文章从词汇识别过程讨论了这些结果的理论含义。     

表面概貌对原理运用的影响的实验研究

探讨样例与作业问题的表面概貌相似性对原理运用的影响作用。实验１扩大了Ｒｏｓｓ的研究材料中样例与测题表面概貌方面的差异程度,探讨两者的表面概貌相似性对原理运用的影响。实验２探讨样例与测题在表面概貌的事件类型方面发生改变的条件下,两者的表面概貌相似性对原理运用的影响。实验３探讨在样例与测题表面概貌有两个级别差异的条件下,两者的表面概貌相似性对原理运用的影响。３个实验均采用被试内设计,要求被试学习原理及样例后完成与样例的表面概貌有不同相似关系的测题。结果表明：（１）样例与问题的表面概貌对原理运用有影响,当两者表面概貌发生较大的变化尤其是在表面概貌的事件类型方面发生变化时,其表面概貌相似性对原理运用的影响就会明显地表现出来;（２）样例与问题的表面概貌对原理运用的影响作用,受到两者对象对应性质的制约,当对象对应相似时,其表面概貌相似就会促进解答测题时运用原理,而当两者的对象对应相反时,其表面概貌相似就会对原理运用产生干扰作用。据此可以认为,样例与作业问题表面概貌的相似性,不仅会影响原理的通达,而且也会影响原理的运用。Ｒｏｓｓ关于表面概貌相似与否不影响原理运用的结论应该予以修正。     

Is motion extrapolation employed in multiple object tracking? Tracking as a low-level, non-predictive function

In a series of five experiments, we investigated whether visual tracking mechanisms utilize prediction when recovering multiple reappearing objects. When all objects abruptly disappeared and reappeared mid-trajectory, it was found that (a) subjects tracked better when objects reappeared at their loci of disappearance than when they reappeared in their extrapolated trajectories, (b) disappearance episodes ranging from 150 to 900 ms had virtually no differential effect on performance, (c) tracking deteriorated monotonically as a function of displacement magnitude during disappearance, and (d) tracking did not depend on whether objects moved in predictable paths. Even objects that reappeared backward in their trajectories were tracked dramatically better than objects that reappeared in their extrapolated trajectories. When all objects disappeared and reappeared in ways that implicated the presence of an occluder (i.e., with occlusion and disocclusion cues along fixed contours), tracking again was not predictive, and performance deteriorated with increased displacement. When objects reappeared predictably in 75% of trials, they were still tracked better when they reappeared at their points of disappearance. Theoretical implications of a non-predictive multiple object tracking mechanism are discussed.