Do infants have a sense of numerosity? A p‐curve analysis of infant numerosity discrimination studies

Research demonstrating that infants discriminate between small (e.g., 1 vs. 3 dots) and large numerosities (e.g., 8 vs. 16 dots) is central to theories concerning the origins of human numerical abilities. To date, there has been no quantitative meta‐analysis of the infant numerical competency data. Here, we quantitatively synthesize the evidential value of the available literature on infant numerosity discrimination using a meta‐analytic tool called p‐curve. In p‐curve the distribution of available p‐values is analyzed to determine whether the published literature examining particular hypotheses contains evidential value. p‐curves demonstrated evidential value for the hypotheses that infants can discriminate between both small and large unimodal and cross‐modal numerosities. However, the analyses also revealed that the published data on infants’ ability to discriminate between large numerosities is less robust and statistically powered than the data on their ability to discriminate small numerosities. We argue there is a need for adequately powered replication studies to enable stronger inferences in order to use infant data to ground theories concerning the ontogenesis of numerical cognition.     

The Effect of Differential Post-Weaning Environment on the Rigidity of an Animal's Behavior

Seventy-two first, second and third grade boys and girls were administered seriation problems involving different combinations of shape and color variation. Success rates and latency scores were influenced by shape variation, but not by color variation or grade level. The failure to obtain predicted interactions between the effects of grade level and stimulus variation was attributed to the clarity of the relevant stimulus dimension.     

Toward a Reconstruction of Medical Morality

At the center of medical morality is the healing relationship. It is defined by three phenomena: the fact of illness, the act of profession, and the act of medicine. The first puts the patient in a vulnerable and dependent position; it results in an unequal relationship. The second implies a promise to help. The third involves those actions that will lead to a medically competent healing decision. But it must also be good for the patient in the fullest possible sense. The physician cannot fully heal without giving the patient an understanding of alternatives such that he or she can freely arrive—together with the physician—at a decision in keeping with his or her personal morality and values. In today's pluralistic society, universal agreement on moral issues between physicians and patients is no longer possible. Nevertheless, a reconstruction of professional ethics based on a new appreciation of what makes for a true healing relationship between patient and physician is both possible and necessary.     

儿童青少年的创造性人格发展特点的研究

本研究以《威廉姆斯创造性个性倾向测验》为测验工具、以3729名(9～19岁)学生为研究对象,考察了儿童青少年的创造性人格发展的特点及影响因素。研究发现：儿童青少年创造性人格的发展存在阶段性;单亲家庭与双亲家庭的学生在创造性人格水平上没有差异;女生在创造性人格的总水平以及冒险性、想象力维度的得分显著高于男生;不同类型学校学生的创造性人格水平在各个学段都存在差异,并存在不同的发展趋势,其中重点学校学生创造性人格的变化方向是向下的,其显著的下降发生在初高中之间。     

关系研究的新取向：社会网络分析

社会网络分析（Social Network Analysis, SNA）是用社会实体之间的关系来描述、解释和预测社会现象的一种研究取向。SNA提供了深入探究社会环境特征及其对个体心理发展影响的一种方法。本文基于SNA的发展历程,依次介绍了中心性分析、小团体分析、位置分析、QAP以及统计模型法。SNA在社会学研究中得到了较多应用,近年来在心理学研究中开始受到重视。     

The Shaping of Family Therapy Education: An Update

The preparation and credentialing of marital and family therapists in the United States and Canada continues to be significantly affected by the role of accreditation in MFT graduate education. This report on a study of Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education accredited degree programs and non-accredited programs shows some significant differences between the two paths to preparation and credentialing. Accredited programs tend to have more faculty, lower faculty-student ratios, more Approved Supervisors, more financial aid, more programs requiring practica and internships, and more emphasis on professional identification with marital and family therapy. Nonaccredited programs provide more emphasis on psychopathology, psychodiagnostic testing, and cognitive behavioral therapy.     

Some properties of two measures of multivariate association

Two kinds of measures of multivariate association, based on Wilks' and the Bartlett-Nanda-Pillai trace criterionV, respectively, are compared in terms of properties of the univariateR ² which they generalize. A unified set of derivations of the properties is provided which are self-contained and not restricted to decompositions in canonical variates. One conclusion is that asymmetric index based on allows generalization of the multiplicative decomposition ofR ² in terms of squared partial correlations, but not the additive decomposition in terms of squared semipartial correlations, while the reverse is true for anasymmetric index based onV.We are indebted to Jos M. F. ten Berge for some fruitful discussions.     

Where is the History in Mel Gibson’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Passion of the Christ</Emphasis>?

Mel Gibson’s repeated claim for the accuracy of his powerful and popular film, The Passion of the Christ, inevitably raises the question: Where’s the history here? A close analysis leads to these conclusions: Gibson provides no context for understanding the brutality suffered by Jesus in this film, why anyone hated him or followed him. Gibson relies on medieval speculations and 19th century visions for most of the plot and many of the scenes. He whitewashes the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate and presents Pilate’s wife as a crypto-follower of Jesus. He demonizes most of the Jewish leaders, especially the high priest Caiaphas, makes Mary, Jesus’ mother, the unhistorical focus of very many scenes, and ignores the historical Jesus’ critical actions, prophetic social critique, and profound concern for the poor and marginal.     

A narwhal is an animal: partial word knowledge biases adults' decisions

Adults' accuracy on a sentence verification task was measured to assess reliable biases in their responses as a function of their level of knowledge about the target words, as well as adults' ability to reject incorrect ontological category membership for their partially known words. Three levels of word knowledge (known, frontier, and unknown) were assessed in two experiments. Results indicated that participants were conservative decision-makers about sentences using the vocabulary words and that the conservative bias increased in strength as their level of knowledge about the target word increased. When biased guessing was discouraged, results indicated that participants were able to accurately identify both correct and incorrect sentences using targets at all three levels of knowledge, including their partially known words, but were least reliable at rejecting false sentences using unknown targets. Implications for the role of knowing not in adults' vocabulary acquisition are discussed.     

事件性前瞻记忆的加工机制：来自ERP的证据

采用事件相关电位技术,对前瞻记忆的加工机制——主要是执行前的加工机制进行研究。控制条件为单纯的背景任务,实验条件为背景任务含前瞻记忆任务,对两种条件下非靶线索的行为数据进行比较,结果表明实验条件下被试的反应时显著长于控制条件,可能说明两种条件的认知过程存在差异,这种差异在ERPs上主要体现为刺激呈现200ms以后,两种条件的波形和脑地形图存在显著差异。结果支持预备注意加工和记忆加工理论,也部分支持多重加工理论