PICTORIAL DEPTH PERCEPTION IN GHANAIAN CHILDREN1

Perception de la profondeur picturak chez les enfants ghanéens. — Une étude de la perception de la profondeur picturale chez 122 enfants ghanéens, fréquentant I'école primaire et âgés de 5 à 10 ans, a apporté les résultats suivants : — 1. l'identification correcte des représentations picturales des objets croît progressivement avec l'âge; ce qu'on peut interpréter comme un effet de l'expérience croissante avec les objets représentés. — 2. Les représentations picturales impliquant des abstractions, comme les lignes d'horizon ou les bords de route vues en perspective, sont fréquemment mal identifiées, quelque soit l'âge. Elles sont perçues bidimensionnellement et communément identifiées comme des objets, à qui est souvent attribuée une fonction d'utilité par rapport aux autres composantes du dessin. — 3. Un seul enfant donne des preuves constantes d'une perception tridimensionnelle. Les réponses des autres sujets suggèrent une perception bidimensionnelle. l'A. pense que la familiarité, culturellement déterminée, avec un matériel pictural est d'une importance critique pour le développement de la perception par les enfants de la profondeur picturale. — 4. Une analyse des explications relatives aux relations causales entre les é1éments picturaux suggère I'existence d'un schème commun de pensée, quelque soit l'âge. Ce schème est comparable à la “ pensée égocentrique ” telle que la conçoit Piaget, à condition qu'un contexte culturellement familier puisse entraîner différents schèmes de pensée.     

全球生命伦理学——梦想还是梦魇？

导言对于出席这次在东京召开的第四届国际生命伦理学大会开幕式的很多人来讲,好像有实现了一个梦想的感觉。国际生命伦理学学会和亚洲生命伦理学学会的共同努力是一个强有力的信号：     

Immediate memory in dialling performance with and without simple rehearsal

This experiment was designed to explore the effects of simple rehearsal on immediate memory in telephone dialling performance in a sample of 36 men aged 45 to 60 for whom data on intelligence, vocabulary, emotional stability and occupation were available.

The eight-digit messages were the same as those previously used by Conrad in a study of telephone operators which compared performance on dialling and keysender equipment. Using a Latin square design, subjects were required to dial 10 eight-digit messages in each of six conditions (three with auditory and three with visual presentation). Dialling was carried out (1) immediately the message had been presented; (2) after it had been once vocally rehearsed by the subject; (3) after it had been written down while being vocally rehearsed. A complete record was obtained of all performances, at rehearsal and at dialling.

It was found that with auditory serial presentation, immediate vocal rehearsal and immediate dialling are equally good and both superior to dialling which followed vocal rehearsal. With visual simultaneous presentation, immediate vocal rehearsal is clearly superior to dialling with or without rehearsal, which do not differ. Performance after written-down rehearsal was the worst in both modes of presentation.

A non-linear relationship between intelligence and performance was found, and acute individual differences in performance were observed among the subjects of the highest intelligence.     

Acoustic analysis in the differentiation of Parkinson's disease and major depression

In its early stages, Parkinson's disease (P.D.) may be difficult to distinguish from major depression (M.D.) leading to inappropriate management. Both illnesses are characterized by psychomotor retardation. The neurovegetative symptoms used to diagnose M.D. are not specific and in P.D. may be due to the physical illness itself. Currently, differentiation of the two disorders relies on subjective clinical observation. Improved diagnostic accuracy based on more objective data is needed. To this end, this study used computerized acoustic analysis to contrast speech patterns in P.D. and M.D. The sample consisted of 30 P.D. patients without depression or dementia, 30 patients with uncomplicated M.D., and 31 normal controls, each 60 years of age or over. Of the acoustic variables studied, M.D. patients had significantly reduced rates of speech compared with P.D. patients. The data suggest that this temporal measure of speech may be useful in the differentiation of P.D. and M.D.     

Reorientation in the real world: the development of landmark use and integration in a natural environment

An influential series of studies have argued that young children are unable to use landmark information to reorient. However, these studies have used artificial experimental environments that may lead to an underestimation of the children’s ability. We tested whether young children could reorient using landmarks in an ecologically valid setting. Children aged between 3 and 7 years completed a reorientation task in open parkland, and the properties of the search array (size and distinctiveness) were manipulated in a within-subjects design. Responses were recorded using Global Positioning Systems technology. All age groups performed above chance level, demonstrating that young children can reorient using natural landmarks. This behaviour was modulated by the nature of the search array: children were more accurate when the locations were spaced in a large array, and when the search locations were distinctively coloured. This suggests that the integration between landmarks and search locations, at different spatial scales, is a key factor in characterising human reorientation in the real world.