Trial-and-error urbanism: addressing obduracy,uncertainty and complexity in urban planning and design

This article argues that sustainable and communal neighborhoods could be significantly more common in North America if development practices addressed the barriers posed by sociotechnical obduracy and the inevitable limitations of expertise through expanded opportunities for experimentation. In reconceptualizing the problems faced by alternative urbanisms through the lens of science and technology studies, I explore how the intelligent trial-and-error (ITE) framework for governing emerging technologies could be extended to partially address the barriers of obduracy, uncertainty and complexity when pursuing alternative urban designs. An examination of how Baugruppen (cooperative building groups) were integrated into the planning process of Quartier Vauban, Freiburg, is used to illustrate both the potentials and a concrete application of an ITE-like approach. I then discuss some of the barriers to an ITE model of urban planning in North America and recommend further research at the intersection of urban studies and science and technology studies.     

兴于诗立于礼成于乐--孔子的诗教礼教乐教思想及其当代意义

“兴于诗，立于礼，成于乐”是孔子教育思想的总纲领。诗教激励人的志向，启发人的情感。但诗教所兴起的情感必须加以理性的约束。礼教培养人遵守行为规范的理性精神。然而克制情感必然产生消极情绪，更严重的后果是，表面上以礼作文饰，暗地里追求欲望的满足。乐教可以救礼教之敝：在更高的层次上回到情感品质上去，达到情感与理性的和谐统一，塑造一个理性的情感本体。     

Iterative sound synthesis by means of cross-coupled digital oscillators

Abstract

Musicians have long been interested in using iterative processes to aid the composition of musical forms (macrostructure) and to synthesize sounds (microstructure). This paper introduces a new sound synthesis method exploring the non-linear behaviour of two iterative cross-coupled digital oscillators. It begins with a brief introduction to iterative systems followed by background information on previous attempts at using them for synthesizing sounds (e.g. feedback frequency and amplitude modulations). Next, it introduces our synthesis method and briefly explains how it has been implemented in a system for real-time composition and performance. The paper concludes with a discussion on how the system has been put into practice to compose and perform a number of works.     

The effect of individual and task characteristics on decision aid reliance

This research explores reliance behaviours of decision-makers using a decision aid. Objective and subjective task characteristics in the form of task complexity and task difficulty, respectively, are examined, along with the effect of the individual characteristic of expertise. A total of 130 subjects (65 novices and 65 experienced practitioners) completed a lab experiment using a decision aid (Insolve-DG) to help them make decisions for two insolvency tasks with differing levels of complexity. The research finds that the objective task characteristic (task complexity) and individual characteristic (expertise) both affect reliance behaviours; however, their effects are fully mediated by the subjective task characteristic (task difficulty). Expertise and task complexity are both associated with the degree of task difficulty experienced by an individual user: increasing task complexity increases task difficulty, and increasing expertise reduces task difficulty. Task difficulty and task complexity are established as different constructs; and importantly it is task difficulty, not task complexity, that ultimately affects reliance.     

Exposure influences expressive timing judgments in music.

This study is concerned with the question whether, and to what extent, listeners' previous exposure to music in everyday life, and expertise as a result of formal musical training, play a role in making expressive timing judgments in music. This was investigated by using a Web-based listening experiment in which listeners with a wide range of musical backgrounds were asked to compare 2 recordings of the same composition (15 pairs, grouped in 3 musical genres), 1 of which was tempo-transformed (manipulating the expressive timing). The results show that expressive timing judgments are not so much influenced by expertise levels, as is suggested by the expertise hypothesis, but by exposure to a certain musical idiom, as is suggested by the exposure hypothesis. As such, the current study provides evidence for the idea that some musical capabilities are acquired through mere exposure to music, and that these abilities are more likely enhanced by active listening (exposure) than by formal musical training (expertise). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

多媒体技术对民族民间音乐的推动与保护作用--以中国民族民间音乐为例

民间音乐是我国古老文化中的一颗璀璨夺目的明珠，文章从民族民间音乐的定义和地位出发，重点分析了民族音乐的具体特征。现代互联网技术，将这些特征进行更好的发扬，在保证了传统民间音乐的精华的同时，给民间音乐注入了更多新的活力，目前，多媒体技术，将民族音乐带入了课堂、带入了影视行业，为我们民族音乐的更好发展提供了更为宽广的途径。     

Musical expertise, bilingualism, and executive functioning.

The authors investigated whether intensive musical experience leads to enhancements in executive processing, as has been shown for bilingualism. Young adults who were bilinguals, musical performers (instrumentalists or vocalists), or neither completed 3 cognitive measures and 2 executive function tasks based on conflict. Both executive function tasks included control conditions that assessed performance in the absence of conflict. All participants performed equivalently for the cognitive measures and the control conditions of the executive function tasks, but performance diverged in the conflict conditions. In a version of the Simon task involving spatial conflict between a target cue and its position, bilinguals and musicians outperformed monolinguals, replicating earlier research with bilinguals. In a version of the Stroop task involving auditory and linguistic conflict between a word and its pitch, the musicians performed better than the other participants. Instrumentalists and vocalists did not differ on any measure. Results demonstrate that extended musical experience enhances executive control on a nonverbal spatial task, as previously shown for bilingualism, but also enhances control in a more specialized auditory task, although the effect of bilingualism did not extend to that domain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infants prefer the musical meter of their own culture: A cross-cultural comparison.

Infants prefer native structures such as familiar faces and languages. Music is a universal human activity containing structures that vary cross-culturally. For example, Western music has temporally regular metric structures, whereas music of the Balkans (e.g., Bulgaria, Macedonia, Turkey) can have both regular and irregular structures. We presented 4- to 8-month-old American and Turkish infants with contrasting melodies to determine whether cultural background would influence their preferences for musical meter. In Experiment 1, American infants preferred Western over Balkan meter, whereas Turkish infants, who were familiar with both Western and Balkan meters, exhibited no preference. Experiments 2 and 3 presented infants with either a Western or Balkan meter paired with an arbitrary rhythm with complex ratios not common to any musical culture. Both Turkish and American infants preferred Western and Balkan meter to an arbitrary meter. Infants’ musical preferences appear to be driven by culture-specific experience and a culture-general preference for simplicity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Playing chess unconsciously.

Expertise in a certain stimulus domain enhances perceptual capabilities. In the present article, the authors investigate whether expertise improves perceptual processing to an extent that allows complex visual stimuli to bias behavior unconsciously. Expert chess players judged whether a target chess configuration entailed a checking configuration. These displays were preceded by masked prime configurations that either represented a checking or a nonchecking configuration. Chess experts, but not novice chess players, revealed a subliminal response priming effect, that is, faster responding when prime and target displays were congruent (both checking or both nonchecking) rather than incongruent. Priming generalized to displays that were not used as targets, ruling out simple repetition priming effects. Thus, chess experts were able to judge unconsciously presented chess configurations as checking or nonchecking. A 2nd experiment demonstrated that experts' priming does not occur for simpler but uncommon chess configurations. The authors conclude that long-term practice prompts the acquisition of visual memories of chess configurations with integrated form-location conjunctions. These perceptual chunks enable complex visual processing outside of conscious awareness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)