《Psychology of Art》ch 5. (brief introduction)

Ancient time:

1. The fable belonged in the domain of philosophy, whence it was borrowed by the teachers of rhetoric.

2. In Aesop’ s time, fables were told in a simple way: the moral was always separated and placed at the end.

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781):

Definition of fable:

We apply a general moral statement to a specific story, narrated as if it were real－that is, not as a mere example or a comparison－and in such a way that the story explain the general moral statement, then this story is a fable.

1. The moral must be absolutely clear and obvious, not hidden behind the story, because the moral is the final aim of the fable’s action.

Vygotsky:
--> The stronger the similarity between words and moral, the more trite the fable
becomes.
--> The moral is used as a poetic techniques, as a jocular introduction, an intermezzo, a finale, or, most frequently, as what is called a “literary mask.”

• Oleksander (aleksandr) Potebnia (1835-1891):
  

Definition of fable:

The fable should be “a constant affirmation of different subjects taken from the domain of human life.”

• Both Lessing and Potebnia:
  

1. The fable is the most elementary literary form and base their explanation of all literature upon it.

2. They both reject the lyrical fable, the fable of the book of fables, which to them seems only a child’s toy. Instead they deal with apologues, and their analyses refer more to the psychology of logical thinking than to the psychology of art.

Vygotsky:
--> A fable can be used as a technique for expanding the thought of the speaker, but it can never explain complex relationships or deep thought and meanings.

• Vygotsky:

Q1: How can we explain that fables have endured fro millennia?
A1: The fable continues to find new applications.

Q2: Why uses animals in the fable?
A2:

1. Lessing:

a) Animals are steadier and more determined in their characters.

b) Animals prevent the fable from having any emotional effect upon the reader.

2. Potebnia:
a) Animals are used in fables because of their definitive characters.


3. Vygotsky:
a) Using animals in the fable is that they are suitable conventional
figures that provide the isolation from reality indispensable for ay aesthetic perception.

b) Animals are used in the lyrical fable not for their known specific character, but for a completely different reason. Each animal represents a specific, well-known pattern of activity.



圖片來源:

Lessing

Potebnia

節錄自《Psychology of Art》- Chapter 6. The Subtle Poison, A Synthesis

節錄自《Psychology of Art》- Chapter 6. The Subtle Poison, A Synthesis


He poured a subtle poison on his works. (p.118)

“Subtle poison” is most likely the very essence of Krylov’s poetry, that the fable contains the seeds of the lyric, the epic, and the drama and that it forces us, by the strength and inspiration of its poetry, to react emotionally to its story. (p. 143)


THE CROW AND THE FOX (p.119-120)

Vodovozov points out that children usually cannot agree with the moral of this fable:

How often has the World been told
That flattery is vile and evil!
To no avail.
The adulator always finds
A cozy corner in man’s heart.

Indeed, this moral, which comes to us from Aesop, Phaedrus, and La Fontaine does not fit the story in Krylov’s fable. Surprisingly enough, according to some sources Krylov likened himself to the fox in the fable because of his relationship with Count Khvostov. He is said to have listened patiently to the Count’s poems, praised them, and then asked the delighted Count to lend him some money. Whether this anecdote is true is not important, but it is important that it is possible. For it is unlikely that in the fable the fox’s action is vile and evil. If it were so, no one would expect Krylov to liken himself to the fox. Indeed that fox’s adulation is extremely light and witty while the derision and scorn of the crow could not be more frank or biting. The crow is depicted as an utter fool, so that the reader, contrary to the fable’s moral, is bound to believe that flattery is anything but vile. He is bound to feel that the crow fully deserves his punishment, and that the fox has taught it a very pertinent lesson. Such a change, of course, is a result of the lyrical narration. Our feelings would be completely different if the same story were told in prose, according to Lessing’s prescription, without the words, of adulation used by the fox, without the remark that the crow nearly choked from joy as he listened to the fox, and so on. The graphic description of the encounter, the characters of the participants, all that Lessing and Potebnia rejected in the fable－these are the mechanisms which induce us to perceive and feel the poetic atmosphere created by each word, verse, and rhyme. In Sumarokov’s Russian version of this famous fable, the slight change from the raven of ancient times to the crow has contributed to a complete change in the style of the fable, but it is unlikely that a change in gender brought about any substantial change in the individual animal’s character. Our feeling is polarized between the two contrasting directions in which the author develops the story. We are immediately influenced by the statement that flattery is vile and evil, and we expect to see in the fox the quintessence of an adulator. We know that adulation comes from those who are weak, those who are vanquished, or those who are begging. But our feeling is thrown in an opposite direction, because the fox is not adulating but scoffing, ridiculing, and deriding the crow. The fox is the master of the situation at all times, and each word he utters has for us a double meaning of adulation and mockery:

My dear, how beautiful you are!
And what a neck, what eyes!...
What feathers! What a beak!...

The story of the fable moves continually between these two extremes and keeps our interest alive. This duality makes the fable attractive, charming, and witty. All the other poetic devices, images, and choices of words, for example, are an essential part of the fable’s over-all effect. Thus, Sumarokov’s rewording of the fox’s speech misses the point:

A parrot is nothing compared to you, my dear;
Your feathers are a thousand times more beautiful than the
peacock’s….

The arrangement of the words, the description of the positions of the characters, their tone of voice, and so forth, emphasize this fundamental aim of the fable. With this aim in mind Krylov boldly eliminates the concluding part of the fable, when the fox says as he leaves, “Oh if you also had a mind, Crow.” With this statement the struggle between the reader’s two opposing feelings ends, and the fable loses its wittiness and becomes flat and trite. La Fontaine’s fable ends like this, with the fox running sway and at the same time deriding the crow, saying that he is a fool to believe adulators. The crow swears that he will never again listen to , or believe, any flattery. Here, again, one of the two feelings prevails, becomes too obvious, and causes the fable to miss its mark.

La Fontaine also described the fox’s flattery in a manner different from Krylov’s: “How pretty you are! How beautiful you seem to me!” And the fox’s speech is introduced by La Fontaine thus: “… lui tint à peu près ce langage” (he then held approximately the following speech.)

This deprives that fable of the “counterfeeling” effect, so that it is completely lost as a work of poetry.

心理學 & 哲學 ─ 學術名詞

Naturalism (自然主義)

自然主義通常是指繼承唯物主義和實用主義衣缽、不探究自然界中超自然因素的哲學立場。自然主義不一定認為超自然現象和假設不存在或就是荒謬，但是所有的現象和假設必須可以用相同的方法來研究，因此任何超自然事物或是不存在，或是不可知，或是與自然現象和假設沒有本質區別。任何限制于自然、物理、唯物方法和解釋範圍內的探索和調查手段，或者積累知識的過程，都可歸入自然主義。
許多科學哲學家用「方法自然主義」（又譯「方法論自然主義」，「自然方法論」）和「科學自然主義」來指科學方法中被長久廣為遵循的常規，即使用方法論假設可觀察的自然現象只能由自然原因來解釋，而不假設超自然能力是否存在，因此也不接受超自然的解釋。與「存在論自然主義」或「形上學自然主義」相對，這些思想認為：自然界（包括整個宇宙）就是存在的全部，因此超自然事物是不存在的。
這以哲學方法差異是由支持科學和進化論的哲學家提出，他們在「創造論對進化論的爭議」中反對創造論或智能設計論，把「方法論自然主義」稱為「科學唯物主義」或者「方法論唯物主義」，與「形上學自然主義」結合，進一步支持他們提出的「現代科學是無神論」的理念。與其相對的自然哲學手段則接受對自然現象的超自然解釋，從而被稱為「有神論科學」或偽科學。

Metalism (心靈主義)
Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, use mental acuity, cold reading, warm reading, hot reading, principles of stage magic, and/or suggestion to present the illusion of mind reading, psychokinesis, extra-sensory perception, precognition, clairvoyance or mind control. Hypnosis is also included in this category.

Dualism (二元並存理念)

二元並存的理念是由希臘哲學家柏拉圖所提出，認為人有兩個世界，一個是靈魂所處的理性世界，另一個是身體所處的現實世界，認為身體上的感官所接觸到的世界並非是真實的世界，唯有靈魂所處的世界才是真實的世界，因此感官的世界只是靈魂世界的影子。
這個觀念並非只是純粹的幻想，而是由當時所能運用的方法如內省法等，去驗証得到的結論，而近來的臨床研究，也發現腦中的感覺不同於感官所受到的刺激，因此二元論歷來的研討都有其意義與改變的理由，當中有錯誤的推論，也有正確的推論。例如就近來各種斷肢患者所產生的幻肢痛研究，都証實了腦中的感覺不一定要由感官而來，而感官的刺激也不一定會影響到腦，因此早期大量論述靈魂與身體的議題，都是有其依據與意義，不能全盤否定其價值。

Revisionism (修正主義)

Fictional revisionism, the retelling of a story with substantial alterations in character or environment, to "revise" the view shown in the original work
Marxist revisionism, a pejorative term used to describe ideas based on a revision of fundamental Marxist premises
Historical revisionism, the critical re-examination of historical facts
Historical revisionism (negationism), a particular form of historical revisionism concerned with the denial of facts accepted by mainstream historians
Revisionist Zionism, a nationalist faction within the Zionist movement
Territorial revisionism, a euphemism for revanchism or irredentism, the desire to recover the territory of a nation lost in war - used in particular for movements after the First World War which wanted to revise the Versailles Treaty (unfavorable to Germany) and the Trianon Treaty (unfavorable to Hungary)
Critical revisionism, the attempt to influence critical evaluation of the arts and the reputations of people associated with the arts - authors, composers, actors, musicians, etc. Using this method, artists who are generally considered great are debunked, and the not-so-famous tend to be treated as artists who were unfairly overlooked.

Schizophrenia (精神分裂症)

精神分裂症，是一種精神科疾病，是一種持續、通常慢性的重大精神疾病，是精神病裡最嚴重的一種。病因未明，多青壯年發病，隱匿起病，主要影響的心智功能包含思考及對現實世界的感知能力，並進而影響行為及情感。臨床上表現為思維、情感、行為等多方面障礙以及精神活動不協調。患者一般意識清楚，智能基本正常。
精神分裂症之主要徵兆被認為是基本的思考結構及認知發生碎裂。這種解離現象據信會造成思考形式障礙並導致無法分辨內在及外在的經驗。罹患精神分裂症的人可能會自己表示有幻覺，或者，旁人可以發現他們的表現受幻覺影響。患者也可能表達明顯妄想信念。社交或職業功能退化、一些次要的症狀、沒有器質性腦病，可以是確立診斷的條件。

Gestalt psychology (格式塔學派)


格式塔學派（德語：Gestalt theorie）是心理學重要流派之一，興起於20世紀初的德國，又稱為完形心理學。由馬科斯·韋特墨（1880~1943）、沃爾夫岡·苛勒（1887~1967）和科特·考夫卡（1886~1941）三位德國心理學家在研究似動現象的基礎上創立。格式塔是德文Gestalt的譯音，意即「模式、形狀、形式」」等，意思是指「能動的整體（dynamic wholes）。
格式塔學派主張人腦的運作原理是整體的，「整體不同於其部件的總和」。例如，我們對一朵花的感知，並非純粹單單從對花的形狀、顏色、大小等感官資訊而來，還包括我們對花過去的經驗和印象，加起來才是我們對一朵花的感知。格式塔體系的關鍵特徵是整體性、具體化、組織性和恆常性。




資料來源:
Naturalism
Mentalism
Dualism
Revisionism
Schizophrenia
Gestalt Psychology

Michael Cole (1938-)

Michael Cole (1938-)

Michael Cole：(1938- ) 美國人，60年代曾赴前蘇聯學術交流，為著名神經心理學家魯利亞Luria學生（前蘇聯有著名的維-列-魯學派，魯利亞是其中之一）。因此機緣，翻譯了大量維果斯基、魯利亞等人的著作，介紹到歐美。80年代，美國對維果斯基興趣日隆，其人功不可沒。著作《Cultural psychology: a once and future discipline》(1996)為當代文化心理學名著。2006年獲頒心理學國際促進傑出貢獻獎（the Award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology）。

小傳與獲獎致詞

資料來源: 心理人物

圖片來源: 心理人物

Alexander Romanovich Luria (1902-1977)

Alexander Romanovich Luria (1902-1977)

Alexander Romanovich Luria (Russian: Алекса́ндр Рома́нович Лу́рия; July 16, 1902 – August 14, 1977) was a famous Soviet neuropsychologist and developmental psychologist. He was one of the founders of cultural-historical psychology and psychological activity theory.

Biography:

Luria was born in Kazan, a regional center east of Moscow. He studied at Kazan State University (graduated in 1921), Kharkov Medical Institute and 1st Moscow Medical Institute (graduated in 1937). He was appointed Professor (1944), Doctor of Pedagogical (1937) and Medical Sciences (1943). Throughout his career Luria worked in a wide range of scientific fields at such institutions as the Academy of Communist Education (1920-30s), Experimental Defectological Institute (1920-30s, 1950-60s, both in Moscow), Ukrainian Psychoneurological Academy (Kharkov, early 1930s), All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine, Burdenko Institute of Neurosurgery (late 1930s), and other institutions. In the late 1930s, Luria went to medical school. Following the war, Luria continued his work in Moscow's Institute of Psychology. For a period of time, he was removed from the Institute of Psychology, mainly as a result of a flare-up of anti-Semitism and shifted to research on mentally retarded children at the Defectological Institute in the 1950s. Additionally, from 1945 on Luria worked at the Moscow State University and was instrumental in the foundation of the Faculty of Psychology at the Moscow State University, where he later headed the Departments of Patho- and Neuropsychology.

Scientific work:

While a student in Kazan, he established the Kazan Psychoanalytic Association and exchanged letters with Sigmund Freud.
In 1923, his work with reaction times related to thought processes earned him a position at the Institute of Psychology in Moscow. There, he developed the "combined motor method," which helped diagnose individuals' thought processes, creating the first ever lie-detector device. This research was published in the US in 1932 (published in Russian for the first time only in 2002).
In 1924, Luria met Lev Vygotsky, who would influence him greatly. Along with Alexei Nikolaevich Leont'ev, these three psychologists launched a project of developing a psychology of a radically new kind. This approach fused "cultural," "historical," and "instrumental" psychology and is most commonly referred to presently as cultural-historical psychology. It emphasizes the mediatory role of culture, particularly language, in the development of higher mental functions in ontogeny and phylogeny.
Luria's work continued in the 1930s with his psychological expeditions to Central Asia. Under the supervision of Vygotsky, Luria investigated various psychological changes (including perception, problem solving, and memory) that take place as a result of cultural development of undereducated minorities. In this regard he has been credited with a major contribution to the study of orality.[1] Later, he studied identical and fraternal twins in large residential schools to determine the interplay of various factors of cultural and genetic human development. In his early neuropsychological work in the end of 1930s as well as throughout his postwar academic life he focused on the study of aphasia, focusing on the relation between language, thought, and cortical functions, particularly on the development of compensatory functions for aphasia.
During World War II Luria led a research team at an army hospital looking for ways to compensate psychological dysfunctions in patients with brain lesions. His work resulted in creating the field of Neuropsychology. His two main case studies, both published a few years before his death, described S.V. Shereshevskii, a Russian journalist with a seemingly unlimited memory (1968), in part due to his fivefold synesthesia. This case was presented in a book The Mind of a Mnemonist. Luria's other most well-known book is The Man with a Shattered World, a penetrating account of Zasetsky, a man who suffered a traumatic brain injury (1972). These case studies illustrate Luria's main methods of combining classical and remediational approaches. Luria's work is frequently and favorably mentioned in the popular books written by Dr. Oliver Sacks on neurological disorders, which has led to greater recognition of Luria's accomplishments.

Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Test:

The Luria-Nebraska is a standardized test based on the theories of Luria regarding neuropsychological functioning. There are 14 scales: motor functions, rhythm, tactile functions, visual functions, receptive speech, expressive speech, writing, reading, arithmetic, memory, intellectual processes, pathognomic, left hemisphere and right hemisphere. It is used with people who are 15 years or older; however, it may be used with adolescents down to 12 years old. Part of A.R. Luria's legacy was the premium that he placed on the observation of a patient completing a task; intraindividual differences. The modern practice of standardized testing tends to neglect this aspect of psychology. The Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (now in its third iteration) attempts to create an alloy of standardized testing and idiosyncratic observation by allowing comparison to the normative sample, and at the same time giving the test administrator flexibility in the administration.

資料來源: Wikipedia

圖片來源: Wikipedia

Alexei Nicolaevich Leontiev (1903-1979)

Alexei Nicolaevich Leontiev (1903-1979)

Alexei Nikolaevich Leont'ev (Russian: Алексей Николаевич Леонтьев) (1903-1979), Soviet developmental psychologist, the founder of activity theory.

Biography:

A.N. Leont'ev worked with Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) and Alexander Luria (1902-1977) from 1924 to 1930, collaborating on the development of a Marxist psychology as a response to behaviourism and the focus on the stimulus-response mechanism as explanation for human behaviour. Leont'ev left Vygotsky's group in Moscow in 1931, to take up a position in Kharkov. He continued to work with Vygotsky for some time but, eventually, there was a split, although they continued to communicate with one another on scientific matters (Veer and Valsiner, 1991). Leont'ev returned to Moscow in 1950 as Head of the Psychology Department at the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. In 1966, Leont'ev became the first ever Dean of the newly established Faculty of Psychology at the Moscow State University, where he worked until his death in 1979. He died of a heart attack.

Scienctific Work:

Leont'ev's early scientific work was done in the framework of Vygotsky's cultural-historical research program and focused on the exploration of the phenomenon of cultural mediation. Representative of this period is Leontiev's study on mediated memory in children and adults The development of higher forms of memory, 1931.
Leont'ev's own research school is based on the thorough psychological analysis of the phenomenon of activity. Systematic development of the psychological foundations of activity theory was started in the 1930-s by Kharkov group of psychologists headed by Leont'ev and included such researchers as Zaporozhets, Gal'perin, Zinchenko, Bozhovich, Asnin, Lukov, etc. In its fullest form, activity theory was subsequently developed and institutionalized as the leading psychological doctrine in the Soviet Union in the post-war period after Leont'ev had moved to Moscow and took a position at the Moscow State University.
For Leont'ev, ‘activity’ consisted of those processes "that realise a person’s actual life in the objective world by which he is surrounded, his social being in all the richness and variety of its forms" (Leont’ev 1977). The core of the Leont'ev's work is the proposal that we can examine human processes from the perspective of three different levels of analysis. The highest, most general level is that of activity and motives that drive it. At the intermediate level are actions and their associated goals, and the lowest level is the analysis of operations that serve as means for the achievement of the higher-order goals.

Leontiev's Texts online:

In English
Problems of the Development of the Mind, 1959 (1st ed.), 1965 (2nd ed.), 1972 (3rd ed.), 1981 (4th ed.); translated in English in 1981:
The problem of the origin of sensation (pp. 7-53). In Problems of the Development of the Mind. (Trans. M. Kopylova) Moscow: Progress Publishers
An outline of the evolution of the psyche (pp. 156-326). Problems of the Development of the Mind. (Trans. M. Kopylova) Moscow: Progress Publishers.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/leontev/:
Activity and Consciousness, 1977
Activity, Consciousness, and Personality, 1978
The Development of Mind, 1981
In Russian
Леонтьев А.Н. (1947). Психологические вопросы сознательности учения
Леонтьев А.Н. (1977). Деятельность. Сознание. Личность (idem)
Леонтьев А.Н. (2000). Лекции по общей психологии
Леонтьев А. Н. (1978). Воля
Леонтьев А. Н. (1986). Проблема деятельности в истории советской психологии

資料來源: Wikipedia

圖片來源: LEONTIEV

The Vygotsky School

Talk by Andy Blunden 23/24th February 2001
The Vygotsky School“Spirit, Money and Modernity” Seminar

The Vygotsky School

Jacob Kasanin (1897~1946)

Jacob Kasanin (1897~1946)

Jacob Sergi Kasanin was born in Slavgorod, USSR, on May 11, 1897. He came to the United States in 1915, and received his M.D. from the University of Michigan in 1921 and his M.S. in Public Health in 1926. As Senior Research Associate at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital and as Director of the Department of Mental Hygiene of the Federated Jewish Charities in Boston, his interest centered around the study of blood sugar curves in epidemic encephalitis, in mental disease, in emotional states, etc. Then he turned to the study of psychoses in children, which became his favorite topic throughout the years from 1931, when he became Clinical Director of the Rhode Island State Hospital, and later as Director of the Department of Psychiatry at the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, from 1936 to 1939. His first papers on Personality Changes in Children Following Cerebral Trauma (Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 1929), and A Study of the Functional Psychoses in Children

資料來源: PEP Web

圖片來源: KASANIN

Eugenia Hanfmann (1905-1983)

Eugenia Hanfmann (1905-1983)

Marianne L. Simmel, Ph.D. *
Harvard University, College of Medicine, University of Illinois

Eugenia Hanfmann's life encompassed a childhood during the Russian revolution through studies in Germany to a distinguished career in the United States. She did research in Kurt Koffka's laboratory at Smith College, later at Worcester State Hospital, and then in Chicago where she developed, with Jacob Kasanin, the Hanfmann-Kasanin test. She taught at Mount Holyoke College before she joined the staff of the OSS Assessment Program in 1944. After the war she became a member of the Department of Social Relations at Harvard and also the Russian Research Institute there. In 1953 she went to Brandeis University as Professor of Psychology and Director of the Counseling Center, which she established and guided for many years. Hanf mann's interests ranged from investigations of cognitive functions to studies of personality and psychotherapeutic issues.


資料來源: Wiley InterScience

James-Lange Theory

James-Lange Theory

The James-Lange theory refers to a hypothesis on the origin and nature of emotions developed independently by two 19th-century scholars, William James and Carl Lange. The theory states that within human beings, as a response to experiences in the world, the autonomic nervous system creates physiological events such as muscular tension, a rise in heart rate, perspiration, and dryness of the mouth. Emotions, then, are feelings which come about as a result of these physiological changes, rather than being their cause. James and Lange arrived at the theory independently. Lange specifically stated that vasomotor changes are emotions. (Ex. A person rationalizes that because they are crying, they must be sad.)
James elucidated his concept as:

" My theory ... is that the bodily changes follow directly the perception of the exciting fact, and that our feeling of the same changes as they occur is the emotion. Common sense says, we lose our fortune, are sorry and weep; we meet a bear, are frightened and run; we are insulted by a rival, are angry and strike. The hypothesis here to be defended says that this order of sequence is incorrect ... and that the more rational statement is that we feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble ... Without the bodily states following on the perception, the latter would be purely cognitive in form, pale, colorless, destitute of emotional warmth. We might then see the bear, and judge it best to run, receive the insult and deem it right to strike, but we should not actually feel afraid or angry.”

The notion of causality is a difficult one. The theory has been largely disfavored in modern times. Some evidence to support it, however, may come from the fact that sufferers of various psychological challenges such as panic disorders often experience psychoemotional trauma after physiological responses arise in the body, responses which individuals are conditioned to associate with a particular emotional state but which can, via therapy, be dissociated.
This theory was challenged in the 1920s by psychologists such as Walter Cannon and Philip Bard, who theorized that physiological changes are caused by emotions (collectively known as the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion).
The third theory of emotion is called the Schachter & Singer's Two factor theory of emotion. This theory states that emotions are a direct result of an analysis of the surroundings.


資料來源: Wikipedia

Russian Formalism

Russian Formalism

1. Russian formalism was an influential school of literary criticism in Russia from the 1910s to the 1930s.

2. It includes the work of a number of highly influential Jewish Russian and Soviet scholars such as Viktor Shklovsky, Yuri Tynianov, Boris Eichenbaum, Roman Jakobson, Grigory Vinokur who revolutionised literary criticism between 1914 and the 1930s by establishing the specificity and autonomy of poetic language and literature.

3. Russian formalism exerted a major influence on thinkers like Mikhail Bakhtin and Juri Lotman, and on structuralism as a whole. The movement's members had a relevant influence on modern literary criticism, as it developed in the structuralist and post-structuralist periods. Under Stalin it became a pejorative term for elitist art.

4. "Russian Formalism" describes two distinct movements: the OPOJAZ Obscestvo Izucenija Poeticeskogo Jazyka - Society for the Study of Poetic Language in St. Petersburg and the Linguistic Circle in Moscow.

5. It is more precise to refer to the "Russian Formalists", rather than to use the more encompassing and abstract term of "Formalism". The term "formalism" was first used by the adversaries of the movement, and as such it conveys a meaning explicitly rejected by the Formalists themselves. In the words of one of the foremost Formalists, Boris Eichenbaum: "It is difficult to recall who coined this name, but it was not a very felicitous coinage. It might have been convenient as a simplified battle cry but it fails, as an objective term, to delimit the activities of the "Society for the Study of Poetic Language."

Related areas:

1. Mechanistic Formalism

2. Organic Formalism

3. Systemic Formalism

4. Linguistic Formalism

資料來源: Wikipedia

Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966)

Edward Gordon Craig

(1872-1966)

1. Edward Gordon Craig (16 January 1872 – 29 July 1966), sometimes known as Gordon Craig.

2. A English modernist theatre practitioner; he worked as an actor, producer, director and scenic designer, as well as developing an influential body of theoretical writings.

3. As a producter, director and senic disigner, Graig's style is to keep the designs simple so as to set off the movements of the actors and of light, and introduced the idea of a "unified stage picture" that covered all the elements of design.

3. Lev Vygotsky was fascinated by the innovative interpretation of Hamlet produced in Moscow by Gordon Graig.

資料來源: Wikipedia 圖片來源: Wikipedia

Vygotsky's Work (1930)

Vygotsky's Work (1930)

“The Biological Base of Affect.” I Want to Know Everything, 1930, nos. 15-16, pp. 480-481.

Foreword to materials collected by workers of the Institute of Scientific Education, April 13, 1930. Archives of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, USSR, fol. 4, vol. I, no. 103, pp. 81-82.

“Is It Possible to Simulate Extraordinary Memory?” I Want to Know Everything, 1930, no. 24, pp. 700-703.

“Imagination and Creativity in Childhood.” Private archives of L. S. Vygotsky. Manuscript.

Problems of Defectology, VI. L. S. Vygotsky, ed. 1930. (With D. I. Asbukhin and L. V. Zankov.)

Foreword to The Essay of Spiritual Development of the Child by K. Buhler. Moscow: The Worker of Education Publishing House, 1930.

“Extraordinary Memory.” I Want to Know Everything, 1930, no. 19, pp. 553-554.

“The Question of Speech Development and Education of the Deaf-Mute Child. Report to the Second National Conference of School Workers. Archives of the Institute of Defectology, Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, USSR. Manuscript, 2 pp.”

“The Problem of the Development of Interests in Adolescence.” Education of Workers, 1930, nos. 7-8, pp. 63-81.

“The Cultural Development of Abnormal and Retarded Children.” Report to the First Meeting for Investigation of Human Behavior, Moscow, Feb. 1, 1930. In Psychological Sciences in the USSR, pp. 195-196. Moscow-Leningrad: Medgiz, 1930.

“New Developments in Psychological Research.” Report to the Third National Meeting of Child Care, May 1930. The Internat, 1930, no. 7, pp. 22-27.

“Psychological Systems.” Report to the Neurology Clinic of the First Moscow State University, Oct. 9, 1930. Private archives of L. S. Vygotsky. Stenography.

“Tool and Sign.” Private archives of L. S. Vygotsky. Manuscript.

“The Behavior of Man and Animals.” Private archives of L. S. Vygotsky, 1929-1930. Manuscript.

“The Connection between Labor Activity and the Intellectual Development of the Child.” Pedology, 1930, nos. 5-6, pp. 588-596.

“The Behavior of Man and Animals.” Private archives of L. S. Vygotsky, 1929-1930. Manuscript.

Foreword to Teachers’ Guide to the Investigation of the Educational Process by B. R. Bekingem. Moscow: The Worker of Education Publishing House, 1930.

Foreword to Investigation of the Intellect of Anthropoids by W. Köhler. Moscow: Publishing House of the Communist Academy, 1930.

“The Problem of the Higher Intellectual Functions in the System of Psychological Investigation” Psychology and Psychophysiology of Labor, vol. 3 (1930), no. 5, pp. 374-384.

“The Mind, Consciousness, Unconsciousness.” In Elements of General Psychology, 4th ed., pp. 48-61. Moscow: Extension Division of the Second Moscow State University, 1930.

“The Development of the Highest Patterns of Behavior in Childhood.” Report to the First Meeting of Human Behavior, Jan. 28, 1930. In Psychoneurological Sciences in the USSR, pp. 138-139. Moscow-Leningrad: Medgiz, 1930.

“The Development of Consciousness in Childhood.” Private archives of L. S. Vygotsky. Stenography.

“Sleep and Dreams.” In Elements of General Psychology, pp. 62-75. Moscow: Extension Division of the Second Moscow State University, 1930.

“The Communist Reconstruction of Man.” Varnitso, 1930, nos. 9-10, pp. 36-44.

“Structural Psychology.”In Main Trends in Contemporary psychology by L. S. Vygotsky and S. Gellershtein, pp. 84-125. Moscow-Leningrad: Government Publishing House, 1930.

“Eidetics.” In Main Treads in Contemporary Psychology by L. S. Vygotsky and S. Gellershtein, pp. 178-205. Moscow-Leningrad: Government Publishing House, 1930.

“Experimental Investigation of the Highest Processes of Behavior.” Report to the First Meeting for Studying Human Behavior, Jan. 28, 1930. In Psychoneurological Sciences in the USSR. Moscow-Leningrad: Medgiz, 1930.

Preface of 《The Psychology of Art》 (My Notes)

Preface of 《The Psychology of Art》 (My Notes)

1. The Psychology of Art which presented Vygotsky’s results of his work in the years 1915~1922 was published in 1926.

2. Vygotsky’s main analyses in this book were base on Krylov, on Hamlet, and on the composition of the short story.

3. Vygotsky’s purpose of this book was to reexamine the traditional psychology of art and to try to delineate a new field of investigation for objective psychology. And his goal was to offer a program, not a system.

4.
a) Vygotsky agreed with Lipps that aesthetics can be defined as a discipline of applied psychology.

b) Socialogical view of art with in Marxist (Plekhanov)

c) Vygotsky also shared Utitz 's view that art goes beyond the limits of aesthetics and even has features that are fundamentally different from aesthetics values, but that it begins with the aesthetic element and remains with it to the end.

d) Hennequin said a work of art as a combination of aesthetic symbols aimed at arousing emotion in people.

e) Müller Freienfels said that the psychologist of art resembles the biologist who can make a complete analysis of living matter and break it down into its component parts but is unable to recreate the living whole out of these parts or to discover the laws that govern this whole.

f) Spinoza

5. The central idea of the psychology of art, Vygotsky believed, was the recognition of the dominance of material over artistic form, or what amounts to the same thing, the acknowledgement in art of the social techniques of emotions.

6. The essence of the problem was: the theoretical and applied psychology of art should bring to light all the mechanisms that operate through art and should also provide the basis for all disciplines concerned with art.

7. Vygotsky thought that we should never be able to reconstruct authors’ psychology, and the psychology of his readers, but we can, by analyzing the art work, discover the psychological law on which it is based, the mechanism through which it acts; this we may call the psychology of a certain art work.

[新聞] 美研究：大腦對美的反應 男女有別

美研究：大腦對美的反應 男女有別
更新日期:2009/02/24 10:35

研究發現，人類大腦在接收到美的事物時可能出現的反應，男女有別。男性使用右腦來處理美，女性則是用全腦來做這個工作。（夏明珠報導）

美其實是非常主觀的，大家不是常說，情人眼裏出西施，不過，大家也知道，兩性在美的認知上，確實存在某些差異，這種差異究竟從何而來，研究有新的發現。

加州大學的研究團隊使用磁振造影技術，記錄20個實驗對象在看到美麗的畫作，以及醜陋的城市相片時，腦部產生的變化，它們發現兩性對於美的反應，有很明顯的差異。

女性在接收到美的事物時，多半是用整個腦來反應，男性多數時間，只使用右腦。
研究人員說，這種差異可能和男性與女性腦部處理空間資訊的方法不同有關，而且這樣的差異可能是人類特有的。

腦部的認知功能，男女有別，這是早就知道的。在面對美的事物時，這樣的差異又如何陳現。研究發現，女性在接觸視覺目標的時候，腦部會把它和語言做連結，男性則比較專注在物體的空間樣貌上。研究人員解釋說，它有可能和人類進化過程中，兩性在社會角色上漸漸產生的分別有關。

人類是一種複雜的動物，還好拜科學日新月異之賜，我們才得以對許多知其然，不知其所以然的本性有更多了解。

資料來源: 中廣新聞網

Thought and Language (中英文版目錄對照)

Thought and Language

by Lev Semenovich Vygotsky

Introduction, Jerome S. Bruner

Translator's Preface (Eugenia Hanfmann)

Authour's Preface

俄文版原序

中文版譯序

英文版序言

英文版譯序

Chapter 1: The Problem and the Approach
第一章 : 問題與方法

Chapter 2: Piaget's Theory of Child Language and Thought
第二章 : 皮亞傑關於兒童語言和思維的理論

Chapter 3: Stern's Theory of Language Development
第三章 : 斯特恩的語言發展理論

Chapter 4: The Genetic Roots of Thought and Speech
第四章 : 思維和語言的發生之源

Chapter 5: An Experimental Study of Concept Formation
第五章 : 概念形成的實驗研究

Chapter 6: The Development of Scientific Concepts in Childhood
第六章 : 童年時期科學概念的發展

Chapter 7: Thought and Word
第七章 : 思維與語言

Bibilography
參考文獻

Index

利維·維谷斯基 Лев Семёнович Выготский, Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (1896-1934)

利維·維谷斯基 (1896-1934)

Лев Семёнович Выготский,

Lev Semenovich Vygotsky

1. 蘇聯心理學家。文化-歷史學說 ( culture-history theory) 的創始人。

2. 受到皮亞傑的啟發，從他的理論發展出一套更完善的發展理論體系。

3. 由於他的政見與史達林相左，以及其理論不為當時蘇聯的心理學家所認同，他的作品在蘇聯一直被人忽視，並不為外人所瞭解。直到八十年代前蘇聯文件被解封之後，他的理論才廣為西方所知，並迅即被翻譯成各國文字；而他的學生亦借此機會前往美國講學，並宣揚他的理念。

4. 維谷斯基認為語文是兒童心智發展佔有主導的地位。他提出了「Constructive Theory」來描述兒童認知的發展過程。相對於皮亞傑的四個階段，維谷斯基提出了思想發展的四個過程：
(1) 知識構架
(2) 從學習帶領發展
(3) 與社會不可分割的發展，及
(4) 語言在認知發展所佔的主導角色。

5. 著作:

(1) Psychology of Art (1925)

(2) Language and Thought (1934)

(3) Mind in Society

相關連結: Vygotsky's texts online

資料來源: Wikipedia Wikipedia-1

圖片來源: Vygotsky

LB 105-107 勝芬 T

LB 105-107 T

Actual X-ray studies of speech illustrate the importance of the articulatory preplanning. Figure 3.14 based on research by Öhman (1963), shows the position of the tongue at the moments marked by arrows on the accompanying spectrograms. The position and shape of the tongue at the time we hear the stop consonant d is different for various vocalic environments. The same is true of the palatal stop g.

實際利用X光來測試說話的樣子，顯示出發音前置動作的重要，圖表3.14根據Öhman (1963) 的研究，利用有箭頭標記的光譜圖，來展示每個時間點下舌頭的位置，當我們聽到塞音子音/d/的時候，發音者的舌頭位置和形狀與其他母音的發音環境有很大的不同，發出上顎塞音/g/的時候亦是如此。


The most important complication, not properly represented so far, arises from the hierarchical interdependence of all speech events on phrase ordering. The total time required for the activation of all muscles that enter into the production of a single speech sound may be as much as twice as long as the duration of the sound itself. This is represented in diagrammatic form in Fig. 3.15a. If we now consider a belonging to different phones again becomes apparent. Figure 3.15b is merely a simplification of Fig. 3.12. Such interdigitation of fragments of a higher unit is characteristic of all sequencing in speech and language. On the lowest level, muscular contractions belonging cannot be programmed without considering the order of the speech sounds to which they belong. But the choice and sequencing of speech sounds cannot take place without knowledge of the sequence of morphemes to which the sounds belong. This is not only evident from the material presented in Fig. 3.14 but also from rules of morphophonemics. The definite article the is pronounced with a /ə/ vowel if it is followed by a consonant but with /i/ if followed by a vowel. Examples of this type occur frequently in all languages. On the next higher level, the level of morphemes, we encounter again the phenomenon of intermingling of elements and an impossibility to plan the sequence without insight into the syntactic structure of higher constituents. Examples of discontinuous, intermingling morphemes are the is, -ing of the gerund, or the has, -ed of the past participle. (For more powerful arguments of this point see Chomsky’s appendix.) On a still higher level, the level of immediate constituent, we find a similar phenomenon which is best illustrated by turning our attention to our understanding of sentences. Consider the first two words of the sentences:

The floor is brown.
The floor is waxed.

These words are understood to be the subject of the sentences. However, in the sentence:

The floor is waxed once a week by charwomen.

the same words are at once understood as the object of the sentence. The mechanism of understanding is essentially no different from the mechanism of planning a sentence for production. This example illustrates also that the highest syntactic elements cannot be ordered without knowledge of the entire sentence.

最主要的複雜現象，還不適合在這裡呈現，這種現象起因於說話行為和詞組順序之間階層性的相互依賴。讓臉部肌肉活動並發出單音所需的時間，可能是個單音本身持續時間的兩倍長，我們可以參照圖表3.15a。若我們現在考慮不同聲音間緊密的關係，它們就會再次變得更為明顯，圖表3.15b僅是圖表3.12的簡化，這種在較高單位的片段交叉，是說話和語言順序性的特點。在最低階層中，若沒有考慮說話聲音所屬順序，則肌肉收縮的相互關係無法運作，不過若是聲音該屬於哪個語素序段的知識不足時，說話聲音的選擇和順序則無法產出，這樣的概念不只在圖表3.14中提出實質上的證據，並形成詞素音位學的原則。定冠詞the若出現在子音之前，則發母音/ ə /；出現在母音之前則發/i/，這種例子可以在所有的語言之中找到。再往上一個階層是為語素 (morpheme)，我們再次遇到一種混合的現象，混合的是部分要素和沒有深刻理解句法結構中更大的語段，則無法排定的順序的可能性，片段性的例子像是語素的混合，動名詞is, -ing，或是過去分詞has, -ed (更詳盡的論述請參閱喬姆斯基的附錄)。再更上一個階層是為直接成份 (immediate constituent)，我們也發現一個類似的現象，為了提供最好的解釋辦法，我們必須先把焦點在語句上，請注意下列語句的前面兩個字：

地板是褐色的。
地板有打過蠟。

前兩個相同的字都是語句的主詞，但是請看下一個句子：

女傭人每週打蠟地板一次。

但在個語句裡，相同的字「地板」馬上就變成了受詞。理解的機制本質上和組織一個語句的機制並沒有不同，這個例子也顯示了最高階層的句法要素，若無整個語句的知識，就無法排序。


In summary, we see that a sequential chain model fails to account for the facts in more than one way and that a sequential chain model with hierarchical dominance, such as shown in Fig. 3.16, is more satisfactory. The most interesting implication of this discussion is that formal aspects of purely physiological processes seem to be similar to certain formal aspects of grammatical processes: it appears, in fact, as if the two, physiology and syntax, were intimately related, one grading into the other, as it were.

總而言之，我們看到了順序鍊模型 (sequential chain model) 的不足，這歸咎於很多因素，中央組織模型 (sequential chain model) 的階層性支配香較之下較為充足，就像是圖表3.16所顯示。在這段討論當中最有趣莫過於生理過程的規範和文法過程的規範似乎有相似之處：實際上出現的方式，似乎是生理和句法兩者緊密的相連，一者畫分另一者。


Lashley has pointed out that the problems illustrated by the study of syntax are indeed universal problems of the sequencing of any patterned motor behavior. Thus the foreshadowed a fundamental theme of this book: the foundations of language are ultimately to be found in the physical nature of man－anatomy and physiology－and that language is best regarded as a peculiar adaptation of a very universal physiological process to a species-specific ethological function: communication among members of our species.

Lashley曾指出句法研究所提出組織語序行為的問題的確是普遍性的問題，剛好預示了本書的主旨：語言的基礎最終奠基於人類生理的本質－生理與構造－而且語言最好被視為一種獨特的適應能力，以普遍性的生理過程去適應種族特有的行為功能：與我們的種族成員溝通。

LB 023-025 勝芬 T

LB p.023-025

Chapter 1- V. Relationship between Form and Behavior

When the term learning theory is used, it is ordinarily applied to universal aspects of learning. Psychologists who concern themselves with such theories point out sometimes that there are some aspects of behavior to which the theories do not apply, as, for instance, the swallowing mechanisms in pigeons, the peculiarities of a buzzard’s flight, or the phonetic differences between meowing and barking. These phenomena are considered to be appropriate subjects for the biologist but not for the behaviorist. The distinction between biological and psychological aspects of behavior may be possible in certain instances, particularly in behavioral phenomena observed in laboratory experiments, but in many more instances there is no way of telling whether a given phenomenon ought to be explained (or investigated) in terms of psychological or biological mechanisms. We have criticized this distinction throughout this chapter, but we must add one more reason for abolishing the distinction.

當我們提及「學習理論」(Learning theory) ，通常講得是學習的世界觀。心理學家涉及這些理論時，有時候會指出這些理論不適用於一些動物行為當中，例如：鴿子吞嚥的機制；鷲鳥飛行的獨特性；或是貓叫和狗吠聲韻上的不同。這些現象恰如其分的被視為生物學家研究的課題，而非行為學家。動物行為在生理層面和心理層面的差別，或許在某些情況中能有所區別，但在大部分的狀況裡，我們無法單用生理結構或心理結構來解釋(或研究)某種現象。我們已經在整個章節中批評此種區別，但我們能必須再加上一項屏除此種區別的理由。


It is often thought that behavior which is executed by or is dependent upon a peculiar structure typical of a certain type of animal must therefore be biologically based. The grasping movements of an elephant are of no particular relevance to learning theory; they are said to be species-specific and biological! A corollary to this kind of reasoning is that the absence of a special structure or organ should be a criterion for the psychological nature of the behavior. Thus it has been pointed out time and again that man has evolved no special organ for speech, the implication being that we are simply making use of the organs for eating and breathing in our efforts to communicate. This is seriously offered as evidence for the arbitrary, learned, artifactual nature of language.

我們通常會認為某種特定的行為，是依賴某種特定生物的獨特構造所操控，因此和生物學脫不了干係。大象抓握的動作和學習理論沒有特別的關係，他們說這就是物種特性和生物本能。這種推論的必然結果，就是特殊構造或器官應該當作行為的自然心理標準。因此，人類物種屢次被指出，並沒有發展出特殊的器官來說話，這些器官只簡單被用來進食和呼吸進而努力嘗試來溝通。這種說法的證明了語言的任意性、可學性、人造性。


The reasoning here is poor, however. The relationship between the outer form of an animal to its species-specific behavior repertoire is not always clear. So many factors influence this relationship that no canonical truths about innateness may be inferred from it.

但是理由還是不夠充足，動物的外在形體和種族特有的行為表現之間的關聯總是不夠明確，有太多的因素會影響這層關係，因此所謂標準真正的天性無法從而推測得來。


Certainly, there are some instances of amazing degrees of adaptation streamlining of fishes, the physical characteristics of feathers ideally suited to conditions of flight, or the specialized mechanisms of claws in cats. The first of these is particularly interesting because it developed once more and independently in dolphins and whales. Convergences of this type occur with many different variations and certainly tell us that there must be mechanisms operating in evolution which optimize the functional relationship between form and behavior. The most flawless discussions of this topic are found in D’Arcy Thompson’s essay on Form and Mechanical Efficiency (1942). Here he applies the principles of engineering to skeletal structures and generally shows how mechanical principles and phenomena and their mathematical description give some objective insight into over-all morphology. It is D’ Arcy Thompson holds the belief that form is always the expression of greatest adaptation to the environment and therefore is of greatest “utility” to the organism, and consequently form and behavior should be demonstrably adapted one to the other. Actually, Thompson did not draw this latter inference. He was one of the greatest critics of Darwinian thought: he was not convinced that form is explained by utility to the animal. He believed that mathematics and the laws of natural science are applied to biology as descriptive tools but that they do no explain ontological problems of life. In his own unexcelled language:

動物外在形體適應自然環境的部分例子仍然存在，像是魚類的流線體型；覆有羽毛的軀體完美的適合飛行；貓爪的特殊功能等。這些例子第一次變得這麼有趣，因為動物特性再次且獨立發展於海豚與鯨類之中，這些特性以許多不同的變化形式出現，明確的告訴我們一定有某種用以進化的操作機制，將動物的形體和行為之間達到最好的效能關係。關於這個議題提出最完善討論的是D’Arcy Thompson在《Form and Mechanical Efficiency》(1942)一書中的論文，他提出如何以骨骼結構的工程學原則、機械原則和現象，以及數學的描述去客觀的觀察形態學的整體。D’Arcy Thompson也相信動物的形體所代表的就是適應環境的最大表現，也是生物體效能的極致，因此動物形體與行為表現應當相互適應。實際上，Thompson而後並沒有做出這種推斷，他是批判達爾文主義一位最重要的論者，他不認同能用效能來解釋動物形體構造，他相信的是數學和自然科學法則對生物學來說只是敘述的工具，但並不能用來闡釋生命本體論的問題，Thompson無懈可擊的論述如下：

“It is certain that the question of phylogeny, always difficult, becomes especially so in cases where a great change of physical or mechanical conditions has come about, and where accordingly the former physical and physiological constraints are altered or removed. The great depths of the sea differ from other habitations of the living, not least in their eternal quietude. The fishes which dwell therein are quaint and strange; their huge heads, prodigious jaws, and long tails and tentacles are, as it were, gross exaggerations of the common and conventional forms. We look in vain for any purposeful cause or physiological explanation of these enormities; and are left under a vague impression that life has been going on in the security of all but perfect equilibrium, and that the resulting forms, liberated from many ordinary constraints, have grown with unusual freedom.”

「種系發展史總是難懂的，尤其是生理和運作狀態的巨大改變，以及解除或改 變先前對身體與生理上的限制。深海與其他生物的棲息地有很大的不同，最 少不只是其永恆的寂靜。生活在深海的魚類長得很奇特有趣，牠們有巨大的頭，很大的嘴巴、很長的尾巴與觸角，長得就是一副標準的誇張模樣，我們無法給予這些奇特誇張任何果斷的原因或生理上的解釋，只能對於這些生命在幾近完美平衡的安全中持續，以及從一般限制中解放並獨特自由生長的形體，徒留一絲模糊的印象。」


Similar views are expressed by other biologists (Bertalanffy, 1952). Simpson (1949) gives a beautiful example paralleling the great variations of fishes living in the identical environment: the horns of antelopes living in the Belgian Congo. Discussing the variations in shape, he says:

其他的生物學家也有相似的看法(Bertalanffy, 1952)，Simpson (1949) 對應於在相同環境下魚類生長的差異，他給了我們這樣一個完美的例子：生長在比利時剛果的羚羊與其羊角，他討論了羊角形狀的變異：

「“… there must be some one type of horn that would be the most effective possible for antelopes, with some minor variations in proportions or shape in accordance with the sizes or detailed habits of the animals. Obviously, not all of these antelopes have the “best” type of horns, and probably none of them has.”

…一定有某種形式的羊角對羚羊來說最有效益，為了羚羊的體型大小或複雜的生活習性，其羊角可能某些部分或形狀會有輕微的變異。很明顯的，並不是全部的羚羊都長有最好的角，可能沒有任何一隻長有最好的角。」


Any serious search for correlation between outer form and animal behavior is limited not only by strictly logical considerations such as those of Thompson and Simpson but also by a heuristic problem. The human observer at times is forced to make predictions about what would be useful to a certain way of life, but the prediction may be purely the result of his anthropocentric outlook. For instance, utilitarian considerations would lead us to expect to find spiders with a given anatomy to build quite different webs from what is actually found. Duncan (1949) points out that ghost spiders weave webs out of very short strands, yet have tremendously long legs which, to the human observer, seem to get in the way both during weaving and moving around in the web. On the other hand, orb spiders have very short leg, but they spin very long cables and spokes which force them to make long journeys on which long legs would appear, from our point of view, to be an advantage.

任何關於外在形體與動物行為相互關係的嚴謹研究，不只被嚴格的邏輯思維所限制，就像是Thompson和Simpson提出的反駁，而且更受限於觀察上的難題。人類觀察者有時候不得不去揣測何種方式對某種生物是有益的，但這些揣測單純只是以人類為中心的觀點出發，舉例來說，功利主義者的想法會引導我們去預測因為蜘蛛的生理結構，會讓我們在真實世界找到牠們該結出的網。Duncan (1949)指出鬼蛛科的蜘蛛用很短的絲來結網，但牠們卻有很長的腳，這讓人類觀察者以為牠們結網與移動好像都被卡住了。另一方面，圓蛛科蜘蛛的腳很短，但牠們卻結出很長的網線和輪輻狀的網，這使得圓蛛科蜘蛛必須長距離移動來結網，在我們看來，結這種網對長腳的蜘蛛較占有優勢。


Behavioral traits that have been demonstrated experimentally to be based on genetic differences and that are inherited from generation to generation within a given strain are rarely correlated with morphological differences between such strains. Airedale terriers look different from German shepherds, but there is nothing in their structure that explains why the latter is more prone to assume a “passive defensive reaction” than the former. Nor could we have guessed that pointers can be trained much more easily to retrieve than spaniels from a mere study of their body-build (Krushinskii, 1962).

經過實驗驗證並奠基在基因不同的行為特徵，與世代遺傳而來的行為特徵，都和形態的不同沒有甚麼相互關係，愛爾得兒犬看起來和德國牧羊犬不一樣，但以牠們的生理結構並不能解釋為什麼後者更傾向於做出「被動防禦反應」；我們也無法從身體結構推測出指示獵犬比長毛垂耳獵犬更易於訓練找回獵物。