The Control of Reaching Movements by Young Infants

Samples of reaches were obtained from groups of infants aged 4.5, 6, and 7.5 months. Split-screen video recordings were transcribed as sequences of (x,y,z) hand coordinates, and the hand path was examined for evidence of initial aiming and subsequent correction of the movement path. At all ages, the initial direction of the movement was correlated with target direction, providing evidence that the hand was aimed toward the target. Additionally, changes in movement direction made after the commencement of the movement tended to curve the hand path toward the target, providing evidence of error correction. Local minima of hand speed evident within segments of continuous motion were associated with turn toward the target. However, the movement path was also curved toward the target within the movement elements bounded by these minima. This finding was seen as consistent with "continuous" correction of movement errors and as contrary to the suggestion that infant movements are concatenations of ballistic movement units whose boundaries are marked by troughs in the speed profile.     

The Role of Organizations in Reaching Older Adults About Vision Loss

ABSTRACT

Vision impairment affects approximately 17% of Americans age 45 and older. Yet, 94% of adults with self-reported vision loss did not receive any type of vision rehabilitation services to help them retain independence. These findings underscore the need for promoting awareness about what can be done when vision fails. A national dissemination initiative was designed and implemented to place vision loss on the radar screen of older adults. This article highlights strategies to reach the target population through public libraries, and through aging and vision organizations. The evaluation focused on the impact of the educational materials and recommendations for future outreach efforts.     

莫言《透明的红萝卜》中俗语的日译技巧

汉语中的俗语是中国文化智慧和精华的结晶,它的翻译和传播,符合"中国文化走出去"的大政方针,有利于提高中国在国际社会的文化软实力。从莫言的成名作《透明的红萝卜》中的俗语出发,根据纽马克提出的关联翻译法,研究译者著名汉学家藤井省三的俗语日译技巧,借鉴其经验用以指导翻译实践和提高翻译理论认识。藤井在翻译俗语时用到了顺译、补偿、加注等多种翻译技巧,忠实传达了原文本的内容和风格,符合纽马克关联翻译法中上乘翻译的定义。     

The Development of a Linkage between Count Nouns and Object Categories: Evidence from Fifteen- to Twenty-One-Month-Old Infants

Recent research suggests that, although young children appreciate many different kinds of conceptual relations among objects, they focus specifically on taxonomic relations in the context of word learning. However, because the evidence for children's appreciation of this linkage between words and object categories has come primarily from children who have made substantial linguistic and conceptual advances, it offers limited information concerning the development of this linkage. In the experiments reported here, we employ a match-to-sample task to focus specifically on the development of an appreciation of the linkage between words (here, count nouns) and object categories in infants in the period just prior to and just subsequent to the naming explosion. The results demonstrate that, for 21-month-old infants, most of whom have recently entered the vocabulary explosion (Experiment 1), and for 16-month-old infants, most of whom have yet to commence the vocabulary explosion (Experiment 2), novel nouns focus attention on taxonomic relations among objects. This is important because it reveals a nascent appreciation of a linkage between words and object categories in infants who are at the very onset of language production. Results are interpreted within a developmental account of infants' emerging appreciation of a specific linkage between count nouns and object categories.     

导生关系的内在规定、对象范围及基本特征

导生关系是由研究生导师与研究生共同构成的,以立德树人为核心,以研究生教育、管理、指导与服务为内容,以导师为主导,以研究生为主体,二者双向互动形成的,贯穿于研究生教育全过程的经济、法律、哲学、伦理等多维关系并存的关系系统。其对象范围包含双层四维关系,即物质层面经济意义上的生产劳动关系、思想层面法律意义上的权利义务关系、哲学意义上的认识实践关系和伦理意义上的辈分次序关系。呈现出构成的多元性、联系的密切性和知识的创生性三个基本特征。     

成人商务英语学习中的特点与教学探讨

随着成人商务英语继续教育在中国继续教育中的升温,国际合作与交流的日益频繁,社会迫切需要懂外语、国际贸易、会文秘、会财会的复合型商务人才。如何有效快速地帮助成人学习者提高其急需的商务英语应用能力引起了众多一线商务英语教学工作者的关注。在分析了成人商务英语学习中的特点的基础上,探讨了几点成人商务英语教学方法,举例分析了一些具体策略在帮助提高成人商务英语教学上的作用以及成人商务英语教学方式和教学方法。     

Heart Rate and Behavioral measures of Attention in Six-, Nine-, and Twelve-Month-Old Infants during Object Exploration

In this study we examined the effect of heart rate and behavioral measures of attention on distractibility of 6-, 9-, and 12-month-old infants. The infants were presented with a toy, and a distractor was presented while they attended to the toy. The distractor was presented during heart rate changes indicating sustained attention or attention termination, or during periods of time when behavioral ratings indicated the infant was in focused or casual attention. There were longer distraction latencies during attentional engagement as defined by heart rate changes or behavioral ratings than for periods of inattention. Infants had the longest distraction latencies when heart rate and behavior measures were congruent with respect to attention engagement (heart rate deceleration and focused attention). Conversely, latencies were shortes for congruent values of inattention (heart rate acceleration and casual attention). Infant information processing may be greatest when a heart rate deceleration occurs simultaneously with an episode of focused attention.     

The Perception of Social Conventionality by Children and Adults

Numerous studies have found that by late childhood individuals recognize conventional norms as social contrivances that are arbitrary, relative, and changeable. However, this conclusion conflicts with other evidence that children and adults "reify" social formations by apprehending them as something other than social products. For example, it is difficult to reconcile the phenomenon of ethnocentrism with the image of people who perceive their social worlds as arbitrary and relative. Most of the studies have questioned respondents about comparatively "transparent" rules, that is, those whose arbitrary human origins are evident. Moreover, the customary questions used to measure perceived conventionality are often simplistic indicators of a complex phenomenon. The result is an exaggerated portrayal of children's and adults' awareness of the conventionality of the social world.     

The Categorization of Above and Below Spatial Relations by Young Infants

3 experiments using the familiarization-novelty preference procedure were conducted to investigate whether 3-month-old infants could form categorical representations of the spatial relations above and below. In Experiment 1, one group of infants familiarized with exemplars depicting a dot in different positions above a horizontal bar displayed a subsequent visual preference for a novel category exemplar (dot below bar) that was paired with a familiar category exemplar (dot in novel position above bar). A second group of infants presented with exemplars in which the dot appeared in variable locations below the bar also responded preferentially to a novel category exemplar (dot above bar) when it was paired with a familiar category exemplar (dot in new position below bar). These preferences did not result from the salience of vertical up-down changes in dot position or the encoding of dot positions relative to an internal horizontal midline (Experiment 3) or from an inability to discriminate the members of each category (Experiment 2), but rather would seem to be a consequence of the ability to represent categorically the spatial relations above and below. The data provide evidence for early categorical organization in human spatial memory.     

Infants Use Compression Information to Infer Objects’ Weights: Examining Cognition,Exploration, and Prospective Action in a Preferential‐Reaching Task

The present research used a preferential‐reaching task to examine whether 9‐ and 11‐month‐olds (n = 144) could infer the relative weights of two objects resting on a soft, compressible platform. Experiment 1 established that infants reached preferentially for the lighter of 2 boxes. In Experiments 2–4, infants saw 2 boxes identical except in weight resting on a cotton wool platform. Infants reached prospectively for the lighter box, but only when their initial exploratory activities provided critical information. At 11 months, infants succeeded as long as they first determined that the platform was compressible; at 9 months, infants succeeded only if they also explored the boxes and thus had advance knowledge that they differed in weight.     

Where Infants Go: Real-Time Dynamics of Locomotor Exploration in Crawling and Walking Infants

Where do infants go? A longstanding assumption is that infants primarily crawl or walk to reach destinations viewed while stationary. However, many bouts of spontaneous locomotion do not end at new people, places, or things. Study 1 showed that half of 10- and 13-month-old crawlers’ (N = 29) bouts end at destinations—more than previously found with walkers. Study 2 confirmed that, although infants do not commonly go to destinations, 12-month-old crawlers go to proportionally more destinations than age-matched walkers (N = 16). Head-mounted eye tracking revealed that crawlers and walkers mostly take steps in place while fixating something within reach. When infants do go to a destination, they take straight, short paths to a target fixated while stationary.     

The Structure of Temperamental Fear and Pleasure in Infants: A Psychometric Perspective

Despite the prominence of temperament constructs in the study of infant development, little evidence exists about the internal structure of temperament. We assessed temperament both via questionnaire and in repeated laboratory visits for 168 9-month-old twins and singletons. Mothers' and fathers' agreement on temperament questionnaire scales was low, except for scales tapping negative emotionality and activity level. The factor structure of mothers' and fathers' questionnaire scales also differed, with fathers tending to associate higher motoric activity with hedonically positive behaviors. We measured fearfulness during 2 visual cliff episodes and a stranger approach, and we measured joy/pleasure during a series of 4 games. For both fearfulness and pleasure we found moderate cross-situation generality, short-term stability, and convergence with specific temperament questionnaire scales. Parameters of response, such as latency, duration, and intensity, intercorrelated within--but not across--response types. Fearful distress and avoidance proved to be uncorrelated. The results suggest that the component behaviors of infant fearfulness and pleasure are structured in a fashion consistent with a temperamental interpretation.     

Cognitive Diversity in Middle-Aged and Elderly Adults: The Role of Education

This study examines cognitive diversity through performance of four attentional tasks and a vocabulary measure in relation to age and level of education. Tasks were performed by 168 participants (aged between 45 and 91 years) who were grouped according to age and level of education. Multivariate analyses of variance were applied to Z scores calculated from intersubject coefficients of variation. When the variance associated with education was discounted prior to analysis, a disproportionate increase in cognitive diversity was observed in participants over 75 years of age. When cognitive diversity was analyzed in relation to age and education in the three youngest age groups, participants with a low level of education displayed higher diversity in most attentional tasks from 66 years of age. In participants with a high level of education, diversity was lower for all attentional tasks considered from 56 years of age. Vocabulary knowledge was the most sensitive to education-related cognitive diversity. The diversifying effect of the relationship between education and diversity on fluid cognitive performance appeared to reverse and become a homogenizing effect with increasing age.     

间断特征和特征大小对汉字知觉干扰效应的影响

两个实验均采用2（大小条件：245×245像素和116×116像素）×2（测试条件：标准和递进）被试内设计（实验一为连续递进,实验二为间断间隔递进）,考察间断特征和特征大小对汉字知觉干扰效应的影响;结果发现两个实验中递进条件下的识别率均显著低于标准条件下的,即均存在知觉干扰效应,失匹配假说能比较好地解释这一结果;大小条件只影响识别率,不影响知觉干扰效应。     

The Educational Object Economy: Alternatives in Authoring and Aggregation of Educational Software

The Educational Object Economy (EOE) emerged from research on end-user authoring tools for multimedia software and, by 1997, developed into a library of over 2000 freely available interactive simulations for learning. The organization's original goals and its ongoing interest in alternative methods of software authoring led to continuing connections with component-based software development and collaborative development models. Subsequent focus on learning resource development in developing countries has led to contributions to projects in India, Turkey, Brazil, and other countries. Although the need for learning resources in these and other countries is great, component-based approaches have not yet been adopted.     

浅议《侵权责任法》的施行可能给幼儿园等低龄教育机构带来的影响

经过四次审议,历时七年终获通过的<中华人民共和国侵权责任法>(以下简称<侵权责任法>已施行,这部法律所涵盖的内容丰富,密切联系社会生活,将各种典型的侵权行为形态收录其中,是民法界的一件大事,当然也是中国迈向法治的重要一步.     

教学材料的意义——兼论教学认识活动中学生的直接客体

教学材料的意义维度是教学材料的"灵魂",只有着眼于它的意义维度,才能认清它真正的价值所在。教学材料作为教学认识活动中的直接客体,它的意义是由教师根据知识展开的,同时也是由作为活动主体的学生生成的,外部的控制力量与主体的内部力量共同构成了教学材料的意义维度。以意义为出发点来看待教学材料,打破了它原有形象上的局限性,给它带来了形象上新的延展,但同时也为它的形象的呈现划定了特定的场域,表明它绝非无处不在、多多益善。     

实施历史探究式教学,全面实现新课改目标

历史探究式教学是指教学活动以历史教材为基本内容,以问题解决为中心,在教师的指导下,通过形式多样的探究活动,以获得知识和发展技能、培养能力及情感体验为目的的教学模式。它是合乎高中历史新课程基本理念而又行之有效的教学方法。     

The Effect of Drag-and-Drop Item Features on Test-Taker Performance and Response Strategies

Computer-based educational assessments often include items that involve drag-and-drop responses. There are different ways that drag-and-drop items can be laid out and different choices that test developers can make when designing these items. Currently, these decisions are based on experts’ professional judgments and design constraints, rather than empirical research, which might threaten the validity of interpretations of test outcomes. To this end, we investigated the effect of drag-and-drop item features on test-taker performance and response strategies with a cognition-centered approach. Four hundred and seventy-six adult participants solved content-equivalent drag-and-drop mathematics items under five design variants. Results showed that: (a) test takers’ performance and response strategies were affected by the experimental manipulations, and (b) test takers mostly used cognitively efficient response strategies regardless of the manipulated item features. Implications of the findings are provided to support test developers’ design decisions.