Naming digits in a semantic blocking paradigm

It is widely agreed that word numerals are processed similar to other words, and, thus, they can be named without semantic mediation. However, there is no consensus about Arabic digits. Although digits seem to have a preferential link to magnitude representation, there is some evidence indicating a possible asemantic route to access phonological information. In the present study, we used a semantic blocking paradigm to explore this question. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to name digits and pictures or numeral words and name of objects in a semantic blocked context and in a mixed context. For both types of numerical notation we found facilitation in the blocked condition relative to the mixed condition. In Experiment 2, participants named two-digit numbers in a blocked condition (short numerical distance) or in a mixed condition (large numerical distance). Again, facilitation was found for the blocked condition relative to the mixed condition. This pattern of results seems to indicate that Arabic digits, like number words, might be named through an asemantic route.     

Sexual and aggressive play fighting of sibling Richardson’s ground squirrels

Play fighting in many species of squirrels can involve sexual play and aggressive play, both of which can lead to wrestling which appears superficially similar. Such convergence can make scoring of the relative frequencies of these two types of play difficult and can lead to the mistaken conclusion that they grade into one another. In this study, both staged laboratory encounters between sibling pairs and spontaneous encounters between siblings in free‐living litters of Richardson’s ground squirrels (Spermophilus richardsonii) were videotaped. Frame‐by‐frame analyses using the Eshkol‐Wachman Movement Notation were employed to record the correlated movements of attack and defense by the partners and to reveal the body areas targeted during each play bout. Whereas sexual play was organized around access to the rump, aggressive play was organized around the shoulders. Although in most cases the defender’s tactics blocked access to the respective target, when contact did occur, it involved mounting in sexual play and nosing or biting in aggressive play. Eighty‐six percent of play fights could be unambiguously categorized as either sexual or aggressive play. Of these, the majority (?80%) involved sexual play. The sex of the participants did not affect the frequency of aggressive play, but in sexual play, males initiated more attacks than females. Once initiated, each form of play fighting remained distinct—if a bout began as sexual play, it would end as sexual play. Furthermore, a counterattack following sexual play was significantly more likely to be sexual than aggressive, and vice versa for counterattacks following aggressive play. Therefore, all the evidence suggested that the two forms of play fighting were not intermixed in Richardson’s ground squirrels. Aggr. Behav. 27:323–337, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

内源性注意与外源性注意对数字加工的不同影响

分别采用内源性注意和外源性注意实验范式,材料为小数（1－4）和大数（6－9）的中文与阿拉伯数字,任务为判断数字是否大于5,考察在注意与非注意条件下不同大小数字加工的距离效应和符号效应。结果发现：⑴在内源性线索和外源性线索的注意条件下,大小数都出现了距离效应;但在非注意条件下,内源性线索时的大小数都出现了距离效应,而外源性线索时只有小数出现了距离效应,大数的距离效应明显减弱或消失。⑵在内源性线索和外源性线索的注意条件下,大小数都没有出现符号效应;但在非注意条件下,大数没有出现符号效应,而小数出现了符号效应（阿拉伯数字的绩效比中文数字差）,并且内源性线索时的符号效应强度小于外源性线索。     

不同注意条件下大数与小数的加工差异

考察在注意（注视点）与非注意（非注视点）条件下数字加工的距离效应和符号效应。采用小数（1－4）和大数（6－9）的中文与阿拉伯数字为材料,以判断数字是否大于5为任务。实验结果表明：⑴ 在注意条件下,大小数都出现了距离效应;而在非注意条件下,只有小数出现距离效应;⑵ 在注意条件下,大小数都没有出现符号效应;而在非注意条件下,只有小数出现符号效应,中文数字绩效显著好于阿拉伯数字。     

Year-one children thinking about and writing ‘large’ quantities / Niños de primer grado pensando en y anotando cantidades ‘grandes’

Abstract

We studied how year-one children in primary school think about and with numbers when they use verbal expressions and numerical notations to suggest ‘very large’ quantities in different contexts of meaning (tokens, an elderly person’s age, stars). We individually interviewed 63 children from schools in Río Negro, Argentina. The analysis identified the different ways children approached the tension that exists between stability and innovation. Context seems to influence the answers given by many of the children who were interviewed. The results showed five cognitive trajectories: in the first two, children did not demonstrate any innovation in their notations. Children in the remaining trajectories (84% of respondents) conducted a kind of numerical ‘take off’ in at least one of the tasks. Knowledge of the number series does not guarantee an easy approach to writing ‘large’ quantities but it does seem to favour a strategy of greater cognitive flexibility.     

Blockchain Identities: Notational Technologies for Control and Management of Abstracted Entities

This paper argues that many so‐called digital technologies can be construed as notational technologies, explored through the example of Monegraph, an art and digital asset management platform built on top of the blockchain system originally developed for the cryptocurrency bitcoin. As the paper characterizes it, a notational technology is the performance of syntactic notation within a field of reference, a technologized version of what Nelson Goodman called a “notational system.” Notational technologies produce abstracted entities through positive and reliable, or constitutive, tests of socially acceptable meaning. Accordingly, this account deviates from typical narratives of blockchains (usually characterized as Turing or state machines), instead demonstrating that blockchain technologies are effective at managing digital assets because they produce abstracted identities through the performance of notation. Since notational technologies rely on configurations of socially acceptable meaning, this paper also provides a philosophical account of how blockchain technologies are socially embedded.     

Notation to symbol: Development in children's understanding of print

Three studies used the moving word task to examine children's understanding of the symbolic nature of print. A card containing a printed word is presented with two pictures, one of which is named by the word. The child is told what the card says and then asked three times what the word is. For the second question, the card is spatially adjacent to the picture it does not name, and 4-year-olds typically respond that the word has changed to name this picture. The studies examined the impact of how the move is carried out and the role of other cognitive abilities (Study 1), the influence of the source of the print and the visibility of the cards (Study 2), and the role of the matching picture in children's solutions (Study 3). In all cases, children continued to name the picture that is closest to the card, indicating an incomplete grasp of how print carries meaning. The conclusion is that children's error in this task represents a fundamental misconception about how print signifies meanings, and that prior to reading, children do not understand the symbolic function of the constituents of print. Furthermore, executive processes of representation and inhibition are identified as significant to children's solutions.     

Universal Grammar as a Theory of Notation

What is common to all languages is notation, so Universal Grammar can be understood as a system of notational types. Given that infants acquire language, it can be assumed to arise from some a priori mental structure. Viewing language as having the two layers of calculus and protocol, we can set aside the communicative habits of speakers. Accordingly, an analysis of notation results in the three types of Identifier, Modifier and Connective. Modifiers are further interpreted as Quantifiers and Qualifiers. The resulting four notational types constitute the categories of Universal Grammar. Its ontology is argued to consist in the underlying cognitive schema of Essence, Quantity, Quality and Relation. The four categories of Universal Grammar are structured as polysemous fields and are each constituted as a radial network centred on some root concept which, however, need not be lexicalized. The branches spread out along troponymic vectors and together map out all possible lexemes. The notational typology of Universal Grammar is applied in a linguistic analysis of the ‘parts of speech’ using the English language. The analysis constitutes a ‘proof of concept’ in (1) showing how the schema of Universal Grammar is capable of classifying the so-called ‘parts of speech’, (2) presenting a coherent analysis of the verb, and (3) showing how the underlying cognitive schema allows for a sub-classification of the auxiliaries.