Search

n/a

n/a

(1962). Conceptual Frameworks for Analysis of Social Interaction Comments on Four Papers. The Journal of Experimental Education: Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 323-324.

In their recent paper, Waddington & Robertson (1966) discuss the general importance of disruptive selection and make various points that call for comment.First, their statement that ‘It is most desirable that Thoday's results … should be repeated, with special attention to the strict virginity of the flies used, …’ appears to some readers as a scarcely veiled imputation that my experiments, especially that of Thoday & Gibson (1962), were executed without technical competence, though Waddington has informed me such imputation was not intended.

Mr. Meyer ought to have recognized that the whole sting of his criticism depends on a question of Definition. A circle, ellipse, or hyperbola has each its definition consecrated by time: a logarithmic curve, sine curve or the like has not. For the purpose of the paper under discussion we defined a 'logarithmic curve' [and the definition is obvious from the context] as one in which the " ordinates are in Geometrical Progression when the abscissae are in Arithmetical Progression" or vice versa : that is, the curve represented either by y=AeBx or by y=A log Bx. This curve is a direct expression of the Weber-Fechner law, it stands in a definite relation to the axes of co-ordinates-i. e., in our case to the lines of no-sensation and no-stimulus--it has

The object of this paper is to give a description of the labyrinth of certain animals, illustrating the organ when it is viewed as a whole in examples chosen from the reptiles, birds and mammals. The method of preparation employed was that devised by the writer and described in the “Labyrinth of animals,” vol. 1, p. 8. By the use of this method new facts have been brought to light, and these enable us to elucidate certain relationships in the anatomical structures which have hitherto been obscure and which anatomists are not agreed upon. The structures referred to are, the aqueduct of the perilymph, the perilymph recess and the round window. A special portion of the paper, therefore, has been directed to this aspect of the subject.

This paper describes an approach to the problem of how particular pre-existing systems of cognitive structures in individuals could be brought to bear on the design and evaluation of an instructional unit. The paper takes the understanding and active use of spatial prepositions as an example of a general instructional goal, and (1) analyzes cognitive systems involved in different uses of prepositions, introducing natural units called “components”; (2) discusses in detail how pre-existing sensorymotor and conceptual knowledge is related to the instructional situation in order to build the desired components naturally; and (3) cites existing psychological research illustrating how research can be used to discover the types of components to look for in individuals.

In § 3. of the first part of my “Contributions to the Physiology of Vision,” published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1838, speaking of the stereoscope, I stated, “The pictures will indeed coincide when the sliding pannels are in a variety of different positions, and consequently when viewed under different inclinations of the optic axes; but there is only one position in which the binocular image will be immediately seen single, of its proper magnitude, and without fatigue to the eyes, because in this position only the ordinary relations between the magnitude of the pictures on the retina, the inclination of the optic axes, and the adaptation of the eye to distinct vision at different distances, are preserved. The alteration in the apparent magnitude of the binocular images, when these usual relations are disturbed, will be discussed in another paper of this series, with a variety of remarkable phenomena depending thereon.” In 1833, five years before the publication of the memoir just mentioned, these yet unpublished investigations were announced in the third edition of Herbert Mayo’s “Outlines of Human Physiology” in the following words:—“ Mr. W heatstone has shown, in a paper he is about to publish, that if by artificial means the usual relations which subsist between the degree of inclination of the optic axes and the visual angle which the object subtends on the retina be disturbed, some extraordinary illusions may be produced. Thus, the magnitude of the image remaining constant on the retina, its apparent size may be made to vary with every alteration of the angular inclination of the optic axes.”

This is the first of two articles describing the nature and historical development of the author's work on “Epistemics.” The author originally conceived Epistemics as “the science of the structure and transmission of human knowledge,” but this conception was later elaborated to enable separate emphasis to be given to the human and instrumental aspects of knowledge transmission. Part I of the paper relates the concerns of Epistemics to Instructional Science. Part II of the paper relates Epistemics to insight deriving from the Brain Sciences.

One of the central problems in auditory theory is to reconcile (a) the acute perception of slight changes in pitch displayed by the human listener with (b) the broad tuning of his cochlear analyzing mechanism. This paper attempts to describe and to relate a number of theoretical solutions to that problem. The hypotheses involve mechanisms, both mechanical and neural, for sharpening the analysis inherent in the cochlear transformation from frequency of stimulation to locus of vibration. These mechanisms operate in the domain of place—they are place theories that supplement the classical place theory. In a future paper, we plan to describe and discuss other sharpening mechanisms that operate in the domain of time.

T HIS paper represents an attempt to discuss some aspects of the interrelationships between social structure, forms of speech, and the subsequent regulation of behavior. The practical context of the enquiry is the differential response to educational opportunity made by children from different social classes (Reissman 1963; Passow 1963). It has become abundantly clear that the determinants of this response are complex and that the response encapsulates the effects of socialization. The problem requires specification of the sociological processes which control the way the developing child relates himself to his environment. It requires an understanding of how certain areas of experience are differentiated, made specific and stabilized, so that which is relevant to the functioning of the social structure becomes relevant for the child. What seems to be needed is the development of a theory of social learning which would indicate what in the environment is available for learning, the conditions of learning, the constraints on subsequent learning, and the major reinforcing process. The behavioral implications of the physical and social environment are transmitted in some way to the child. What is the major channel for such transmissions? What are the principles which regulate such transmissions? What are the psychological consequences and how are these stabilized in the developing child? What factors are responsible for variations in the principles which regulate the transmissions? The socio-linguistic approach used here is a limited attempt to provide some kind of answer to these questions. The general framework of the argument will be given first. This will be followed by a detailed analysis of two general linguistic codes. Towards the end of the paper, some variants of the codes will be very crudely associated with social class.

In the second series of these researches, the author had traced certain changes in the mammiferous ovum consequent on fecundation. The object of his present communication is to describe their further appearances obtained by the application of higher magnifying powers; and to make known a remarkable process of development thus discovered. In order to obtain more exact results, his observations were still made on the same animal as before, namely, the rabbit, in the expectation that, if his labours were successful, it would be comparatively easy to trace the changes in other mammals. By pursuing the method of obtaining and preserving ova from the Fallopian tube which he recommended in his last paper, he has been enabled to find and examine 137 more of these delicate objects; and has thus had ample opportunity of confirming the principal facts therein stated. He has, now procured in all 230 ova from the Fallopian tube. But being aware that repeated observations alone do not suffice in researches of this nature, unless extended to the very earliest stages, he again specially directed his attention to the ovum while it is still within the ovary, with a view to discover its state at the moment of fecundation, as well as immediately before and after that event. The almost universal supposition, that the Purkinjian or germinal vesicle is the essential portion of the ovum, has been realized in these investigations; but in a manner not anticipated by any of the numerous conjectures which have been published. The germinal vesicle becomes filled with cells, and these again become filled with the foundations of other cells; so that the vesicle is thus rendered almost opake. The mode in which this change takes place is the following, and it is one which, if confirmed by future observation, must modify the views recently advanced on the mode of origin, the nature, the properties, and the destination of the nucleus in the physiology of cells. It is known that the germinal spot presents, in some instances, a dark point in its centre. The author finds that such a point is invariably present at a certain period; that it enlarges, and is then found to contain a cavity filled with fluid, which is exceedingly pellucid. The outer portion of the spot resolves itself into cells; and the foundations of other cells come into view in its interior, arranged in layers around the central cavity; the outer layers being pushed forth by the continual origin of new cells in the interior. The latter commence as dark globules in the pellucid fluid of the central cavity. Every other nucleus met with in these researches has seemed to be the seat of changes essentially the same. The appearance of the central portion of the nucleus is, from the above process, continually varying; and the author believes that the nature of the nucleolus of Schleiden is to be thus explained. The germinal vesicle, enlarged and flattened, becomes filled with the objects arising from the changes in its spot; and the interior of each of the objects filling it, into which the eye can penetrate, presents a repetition of the process above described. The central portion of the altered spot, with its pellucid cavity, remains at that part of the germinal vesicle which is directed towards the surface of the ovum, and towards the surface of the ovary. At the corresponding part, the thick transparent membrane of the ovum in some instances appears to have become attenuated, in others also cleft. Subsequently, the central portion of the altered spot passes to the centre of the germinal vesicle ; the germinal vesicle, regaining its spherical form, returns to the centre of the ovum, and a fissure in the thick transparent membrane is no longer seen. From these successive changes it may be inferred that fecundation has taken place; and this by the introduction of some substance into the germinal vesicle from the exterior of the ovary. It may also be inferred, that the central portion of the altered germinal spot is the point of fecundation. In further proof that such really is the case, there arise at this part two cells, which constitute the foundation of the new being. These two cells enlarge, and imbibe the fluid of those around them, which are at first pushed further out by the two central cells, and subsequently disappear by liquefaction. The contents of the germinal vesicle thus enter into the formation of two cells. The membrane of the germinal vesicle then disappears by liquefaction.

In the last paper which I had the honour to present to the Society, and which appeared in the Philosophical Transactions for 1831, I endeavoured, by comparing the various facts relating to the circulation of the blood, and by such additional experiments as seemed to be required, to free the subject from the confusion in which it had been involved by the various and contradictory experiments and statements of writers, and to ascertain the source and nature of the powers on which the motion of the blood depends. In the present paper I propose to consider in the same way, another subject of equal importance, intimately connected with the preceding, and which has, by the same means, been involved in equal, and, from its more complicated nature, apparently greater perplexity; namely, the relation which subsists between the nervous and muscular systems, and consequently, between the nervous system and organs of circulation; for I think it will be admitted, from the statement of facts made in the paper just referred to, that the power of the vessels, like that of the heart, is a muscular power, and that on the combined power of the heart and vessels, the motion of the blood, in the ordinary states of the circulation, wholly depends. Having considered this part of the subject, I shall endeavour to point out how far we can proceed in ascertaining the nature of the nervous influence, the means by which the relation between the nervous and muscular systems is maintained.

I feel greatly honoured by the invitation to give the Ferrier Lecture. I attended the first Ferrier Lecture, given by Sherrington in 1929, and I learned from Sherrington to value and admire the pioneer contributions of David Ferrier to neurology. In choosing the subject of inhibition for my lecture I was prompted by the peculiar challenge that inhibition has presented to physiologists ever since it was first demonstrated by the Weber brothers in 1846 that stimulation of the vagus nerve could stop the heart and by Setchenov in 1863 that stimulation of areas in the brain could slow or prevent reflex responses of frog limbs. It was Sherrington who greatly extended and organized knowledge of inhibition in the central nervous system; first, by a series of remarkable investigations, and finally by a theoretical paper published by the Royal Society in 1925, in which excitation and inhibition were given equivalent status in the synaptic mechanisms controlling neuronal discharge. His interest in central inhibition continued to the end of his scientific life, and was the subject of his Nobel Lecture in 1932. I might mention that both my first scientific paper and my D.Phil. thesis were concerned with inhibition, and that I have continued to be more interested in the problem of synaptic inhibition than in any other aspect of neurophysiology. In recent years progress has been so rapid that our understanding of the nature of central inhibition is in several respects more complete than that of central excitation. This illumination has followed rather rapidly upon a long period of ingenious theorizing which is now only of historical interest

In the first issue of this journal, Fred W. Householder discussed two papers of ours which he found defective in various respects. We feel that the issues involved are important and deserve the fullest clarification. We will therefore discuss Householder's objections and the underlying issues in some detail, reiterating points that have been made in the aforementioned papers and elsewhere and making no attempt to avoid redundancy if this can contribute to clarity.

My object in the following paper is to give, in a few leading problems, a general and somewhat elementary view of the Theory of Probabilities, exhibiting the immediate dependence of the doctrine of Life Contingencies on the laws of probability and combination, and showing how apparently complicated problems, involving two and three lives, can be deduced directly from their very simplest and most elementary forms of expression.From the nature of the subject-matter proposed to be treated, it will be at once perceived, that this paper is intended rather for the instruction of the student in this branch of mathematical analysis, than for the use of the proficient; and I claim for it no higher distinction.

Both terms in the title of this paper are probably suspect. The mathematician, versed in a subject with hundreds of years of noble tradition, tends to be suspicious of a paper on psychology; the teacher of mathematics, immersed daily in psychological relationships with ordinary children, tends to be suspicious of a paper on mathematical ability. The discussion promises to be unsatisfactory, to the one because psychology lacks mathematical precision, to the other because mathematical ability seems to present no urgent psychological problems. The teacher-mathematician may then be pardoned if he reacts sceptically to our title with the petition, “Psychology, if there be a science of psychology, help me to cope with mathematical disability.” But these suspicions are not well founded. Not only is psychology, as we shall see, becoming increasingly mathematical, but also, if we interpret our terms as mathematicians should, disability is seen to be merely the negative aspect of ability. As such, it will not be excluded from our discussion.

There is a large area of cellular interactions in biological systems which has not been thoroughly explored from a physical chemiCal point of view. One reason for this is the inherent difficulty of the systems (from both a biological and physical chemical point of view), but another reason is without question that in several vital areas of biological interest the colloid and surface chemist is not aware of the problems which in the author's opinion would be well served by a closer inspection by the colloid scientist (1). I t is the intention in this paper to point out both the biological and surface chemical problems involved in the "recognition" by the body of non-native particles, such as bacteria, which somehow enter the blood stream. Foreign particles entering the mammalian blood stream are usually removed in a matter of minutes. They are removed from the blood stream by cells located largely in the liver and spleen which are capable of recognizing these foreign particles and cause them to enter the cell by the process of phagocytosis. It is important to recognize that these are in fact two distinct processes (2): firstly, recognition, which in the present context may be regarded as a sticky collision, and secondly, the actual process of engulfment. The subsequent fate depends upon the balance of the powers of the enzyme system of the cell to destroy the particles and ultimately to initiate antibody formation, and the power of the bacteri~ to resist the enzymes, multiply, and attack the host. The powers of the "recognition" in the mammalian system are extremely acute; for example, native red blood cells have a lifetime in man of the order of 100 days. At the end of this time they are recognized as different and removed. Only recently (3) has this been attributed to a measurable change in the chemical composition of the red cell. It should further be remembered that any foreign particles will normally be diluted by other particles, i.e., red cells and white cells, by several orders of magnitude. This paper will consider only the first or recognition part of the problem, but since it is of considerable interest to surface chemists the second process will be here mentioned briefly. Tait (4), Ferm (5), and Ponder (6) discussed at length the process of engulfment in terms of interfacial tensions. Unfortunately their hypotheses were difficult to test and have largely been ignored, although it has been pointed out by Pethica (7) that it is questionable whether surface tension can be interpreted in the manner proposed by these workers. Some work on the effect of detergents on the process of phagocytosis has been reported (8, 9), but in view of the interactions of detergents with proteins and their lyric action, it is difficult to interpret. Further, it treats the process of phagocytosis as a whole and does not allow us to consider recognition and engulfment separately. This of course raises the point, which must always be kept in mind, that the processes are separated only for convenience and that we are deMing with a living system. The metabolic processes involved in phagocytosis have been studied by Karnovsky (10) and others and well illustrate the preceding point. The problem of "recognition" can be and

In a recent paper I criticized the pragmatist theory of truth from the frame of reference of modern logical positivism (scientific empiricism). By showing the similarity between Karl Mannheim's claims of epistemological relevance for sociology of knowledge and certain pragmatist notions concerning truth I made criticism of the latter with the former. The aim of this present paper is to extend and elaborate upon those critical remarks regarding pragmatism both in order to answer objections raised since and to clarify what was said there. Moreover, the evaluation of the pragmatist theory of truth may have been surprising to some since so much lately has been made of the points of agreement between pragmatism and modern positivism. It is thus also my intent to delimit agreements and disagreements and compare the respective emphases in pragmatist and positivist thought concerning the nature of truth.

There are in the Mathematical Gazette for October 1924, three communications on the above subject.It will make my remarks on these clearer if I refer to the contents of my paper on the Postulate of Parallels in the Gazette for December 1923, and make an addition thereto. In that paper the demonstrations of Euc. I. 27 and 29 are deduced from Wallis’s Postulate of Similarity, viz.: “To every figure there exists a similar figure of arbitrary magnitude” taken as a substitute for Euclid’s Postulate of Parallels. The demonstration of Euc. I. 27 in this manner was first given (I believe) by Professor Nunn in the Gazette of May 1922. He has not, however, published in full his demonstration of Euc. I. 29. He was so kind as to communicate it to me, but I hope he will some day publish it in full. It is entirely different from the demonstration of Euc. I. 29 which I published in the Gazette of December 1923, which involves three successive applications of the Postulate of Similarity and makes use of Euc. I. 27 as proved by Professor Nunn, but does not include the proof of any other proposition.

PERHAPS one of the most complex tasks in human learning is the problem of how to achieve fluency in a foreign language. To illustrate the extraordinary stress and intricacy of this task, an instructor in one of the more esoteric languages at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, remarked that *..n. after 12 months of intensive language training for 8 to 10 hours a day in small classes of six students, only one in twenty graduates was what one may describe as 'fluent'." What will be reported next may suggest a partial solution to this ancient learning problem. This paper will describe a learning approach called the strategy of the total physical response. The theory behind this learning strategy was described in an earlier paper.' Essentially, the notion developed in that theoretical article was that solutions for intricate human