《易数钩隐图》作者等问题辨

自南宋时起,《易数钩隐图》一书的作者就有二字与二籍贯的争议。本文就有关问题进行了考辨。得出北宋有二刘牧、前刘牧著《易数钩隐图》、黄黎献为之续补等结论。最后指出,彭城刘牧的道学思想应当在宋明理学中占有一席之地。     

Racism en Route

This article argues that in Africa, the nature and advent of racism has to be traced back to the earliest encounters between Africans and Europeans, including the first seven centuries but especially during the slavery and colonial eras. Religion (notably Islam and Christianity), trade, education, culture, and “science” were important incubators and justifiers of racism, in earlier as well as recent times. The paper concludes by proposing some ways in which African theology can stay agile and keep pace with the resilient and adaptive forms of racism in contemporary Africa.     

简帛《周易·夬卦》"丧"字补说

上博三《周易·夬卦》中的“丧”并非误字,马王堆汉墓帛书本与此相应的“牵”实为“桑”字,当读为“丧”,而今本中的“牵”可能系“桑”之形讹。     

THE GOLEM LEGEND AND THE ENIGMA OF FACEBOOK

We are easily misguided as to the true nature of Facebook, and tend to treat it simply as a powerful technological instrument in the service of human intentions. We can, however, gain a better picture of it through recourse to the Jewish tradition of the golem, an image of human beings, created by them in a re-enactment of their own creation by God. It turns into a magic servant in modernity with an inherent dynamic running between its human and its subhuman characteristics. This dynamic is the main cause behind its becoming uncontrollable. In like manner, what is subhuman in Facebook serves its masters and functions under their total control, but also empowers Facebook's increasingly human operation, an algorithm-based capability which raises growing doubts about what counts as human. Facebook implies the crisis of humanity which coincides with the “death of God,” that is, the obsolescence of the idea of a divine creator.     

Kindergarten self-control mediates the gender reading achievement gap: A population-based cohort study

Could superior self-control explain the gender difference in reading achievement favoring girls? To test this idea, we drew on a unique population-based sample (N = 11,336) where self-control was measured in kindergarten using a multimethod battery of assessments. Girls showed substantially higher levels of self-control in kindergarten (β = 0.47) and outperformed boys on standardized tests of reading achievement in third/fourth grade (β = 0.20). Further, kindergarten self-control prospectively predicted reading achievement throughout elementary school (β = 0.37). Connecting these findings, our mediation analyses revealed that the female self-control advantage in kindergarten could account for subsequent gender differences in reading achievement. Our results suggest that early gender differences in self-control may represent a key pathway through which gender disparities in reading skills, vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension occur.     

睡眠不足对人际交互的影响及其认知神经机制

睡眠不足会对人的认知、情感和人际交互产生诸多影响。这种影响在社会情绪层面表现为个体情绪共情和认知共情的减少,易激惹性与愤怒情绪的增加;在社会行为层面则表现为亲社会行为的减少和攻击行为的增加。在睡眠不足状态下,情绪系统和认知系统功能连接的减弱可能是这些变化的潜在机制。未来应结合生态效度较高的睡眠操作手段,系统考察睡眠不足如何导致各种高级社会情绪的改变,以及这些社会情绪的变化如何导致社会行为的变化。     

Who buys New Energy Vehicles in China? Assessing social-psychological predictors of purchasing awareness,intention, and policy

This paper investigates the salience of social-psychological factors in explaining why drivers purchase (or fail to purchase) New Energy Vehicles (NEVs)—including hybrid electric vehicles, battery electric vehicles, and fuel cell electric vehicles—in China. A questionnaire measuring six dimensions (including attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, personal norms, low-carbon awareness and policy) was distributed in Tianjin, where aggressive policy incentives for NEVs exist yet adoption rates remain low. Correlation analysis and hierarchical multiple regression analyses are applied data collected through 811 valid questionnaires. We present three main findings. First, there is an “awareness-behavior gap” whereby low-carbon awareness has a slight moderating effect on purchasing behavior via psychological factors. Second, subjective norms has a stronger influence on intention to purchase New Energy Vehicles than other social-psychological factors. Third, acceptability of government policies has positive significant impact on adoption of New Energy Vehicles, which can provide reference potential template for other countries whose market for New Energy Vehicles is also in an early stage.     

ACQUISITION AND FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF MANDING WITH AUTISTIC STUDENTS

Three autistic students were trained to request a specific object from an adult “supplier” with the sentence, “Give me —” and to deliver that object to another adult, the “director.” Subsequently, the degree to which the object offered by the supplier controlled the “Give me —” verbal response was assessed by delivering to the student an object other than the one requested. Despite knowing the names of all objects used in the experiment, students accepted and delivered to the director any object offered by the supplier regardless of its match with the requested object. After training to say “That's not it. Give me —” when nonrequested objects were offered, students responded differentially to requested and nonrequested objects, suggesting control of the “Give me —” response by the requested object, a characteristic of a mand. These results generalized across settings and objects. Results are discussed in terms of the training technique to establish manding and the functional analysis of the resulting verbal behavior.     

Conditioning of appetitive and consummatory sexual behavior in male Japanese quail.

Two different types of stimulus objects, a live female quail artificially adorned with bright orange feathers and an inanimate toy dog, served as conditioned stimuli. For subjects in experimental groups, the conditioned stimuli were presented shortly before access to a sexually receptive normal female quail. For subjects in control groups, exposure to the conditioned stimuli was unpaired with copulatory opportunity. Subjects in the experimental but not in the control groups quickly came to approach the location of the conditioned stimulus objects. When an adorned female quail served as the conditioned stimulus, the conditioned approach behavior was controlled by a combination of the presence of the orange adornments and the visual cues of the head and neck of the female bird, and the approach behavior persisted as the adorned female moved to new locations. When the toy dog served as the conditioned stimulus, the conditioned approach behavior was limited to the spatial cues that surrounded the toy dog during conditioning trials. Although both types of stimulus objects evoked conditioned approach behavior, only the adorned female stimulus supported copulatory behavior. This last finding indicates that copulatory behavior can become redirected toward novel stimuli as a result of conditioning, but only under special circumstances. The results are consistent with the suggestion that appetitive components of reproductive behavior are more susceptible to conditioning than consummatory components. Possible reasons for this are discussed, together with implications of the results for the contribution of conditioning processes to sexual selection.