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AbstractPrevious research has revealed that infants can reason correctly about single‐event probabilities with small but not large set sizes (Bonatti, 2008; Teglas et al., 2007). The current study asks whether infants can make predictions regarding single‐event probability with large set sizes using a novel procedure. Infants completed two trials: A preference trial to determine whether they preferred pink or black lollipops and a test trial where infants saw two jars, one containing mostly pink lollipops and another containing mostly black lollipops. The experimenter removed one occluded lollipop from each jar and placed them in two separate opaque cups. Seventy‐eight percent of infants searched in the cup that contained a lollipop from the jar with a higher proportion of their preferred color object, significantly better than chance. Thus infants can reason about single‐event probabilities with large set sizes in a choice paradigm, and contrary to most findings in the infant literature, the prediction task used here appears a more sensitive measure than the standard looking‐time task.

Abstract We report a new study testing our proposal that word learning may be best explained as an approximate form of Bayesian inference (Xu & Tenenbaum, in press). Children are capable of learning word meanings across a wide range of communicative contexts. In different contexts, learners may encounter different sampling processes generating the examples of word–object pairings they observe. An ideal Bayesian word learner could take into account these differences in the sampling process and adjust his/her inferences about word meaning accordingly. We tested how children and adults learned words for novel object kinds in two sampling contexts, in which the objects to be labeled were sampled either by a knowledgeable teacher or by the learners themselves. Both adults and children generalized more conservatively in the former context; that is, they restricted the label to just those objects most similar to the labeled examples when the exemplars were chosen by a knowledgeable teacher, but not when chosen by the learners themselves. We discuss how this result follows naturally from a Bayesian analysis, but not from other statistical approaches such as associative word‐learning models.

In an attempt to overcome barriers to trade posed by numerous and often contradictory national-level enveironmental requirements, the International Orgnaization for Standardization (ISO) has created a voluntry set of uniform environmental management system guidelines for firms, formally known as ISO 14001. Firms may decide to implement an ISO 14001 environmental management system (EMS) and become third-party certified in order to improve their environmental management and to increase their marketability. This study examines the relative costs, benefits, and motivations for ISO 14001 certification for China compared to other economically developing and developed countries. These comparisons allow us to better understand the ways in which the unique economic and political conditions within China affect the incentives for Chinese firms to join in voluntary self-regulatory measures. Survey results indicate that ISO 14001 certified firms in China and experiencing benefits equal to or greater than their peers in other countries. Benefits to environmental management appear to be significant and they generally outweigh the costs of implementation and certification. However, as with most voluntary standards, the potential for abuse remains. Therefore regulators and policy makers are advised not to grant regulatroy relief or reduced inspections except on a case-by-case basis.

In an attempt to overcome barriers to trade posed by numerous and: often contradictory national-level environmetral requirements, the international Organization Tor Standardization (ISO) has created a voluntary set of uniform envirnmental management system guidelines for firms, formally known as ISO 14001. Firms may decide 10 implement an ISO environmental management system (EMS) and become third-party certified in order to improve their environmental management and to increase their marketability. This study examines the relative costs, benefits, and motivations for ISO certification for China compared to other economically developing and developed countries. These comparisons allow to better understand the ways in which the unique economic and potilical conditions within China affect the incentives for Chinese firms to join in vuluntary self-regulatory measures. Survey results indicate that ISO 14001 cerlified firms in China are experiencing benefits equal to or greater than their peers in other countries. Benefits to environmental management appear to be significant and they generally outweigh (he costs of implementation and certification. However, as with most voluntary, the potential for abuse remains. Therefore regulators and policy makers are advised not to grant regulatory relief or inspections except on a case-by-case basis.