Cognitive tuning sets: Anticipating the consequences of communication

This paper reviews the literature on cognitive tuning sets: the expectations of having to transmit or receive information. It is shown that having to transmit information leads to a unified and distorted summary being transmitted, a reluctance to receive additional information, a rejection of inconsistent information, and a shaping of the material to accommodate the anticipated audience. As well, the opinions of the transmitters become polarized. It is argued that the receiver condition is probably not the correct control group to use since the outcome depends on the uncontrolled perceived goals. It is suggested that future research should probably treat the multiple effects of cognitive tuning sets separately. An integrated explanation is given in terms of anticipating the consequences of communication. This work was supported by a grant from the Australian Research Grants Scheme.     

Cognitive tuning sets: Anticipating the consequences of communication

This paper reviews the literature on cognitive tuning sets: the expectations of having to transmit or receive information. It is shown that having to transmit information leads to a unified and distorted summary being transmitted, a reluctance to receive additional information, a rejection of inconsistent information, and a shaping of the material to accommodate the anticipated audience. As well, the opinions of the transmitters become polarized. It is argued that the receiver condition is probably not the correct control group to use since the outcome depends on the uncontrolled perceived goals. It is suggested that future research should probably treat the multiple effects of cognitive tuning sets separately. An integrated explanation is given in terms of anticipating the consequences of communication. This work was supported by a grant from the Australian Research Grants Scheme.     

Anticipating the consequences of social behavior

Some forms of psychological theory explain behavior in part by its consequences. The consequences are called reinforcing if the behavior is strengthened; punishing if the behavior is weakened. Through repetition, the consequences eventually become generalized or anticipated. While social psychology has used consequences extensively in its manipulations, this has been implicit rather than explicit. This paper reviews ten such manipulations over ten areas of social psychology for the first time and shows how implicit consequences can determine social behavior. The problems with executing and interpreting these manipulations are extensively discussed. It is concluded that the notion of “anticipating the consequences of social behavior” can bring unity to many areas of social psychology and provide a sound motivational basis.     

Anticipating the inevitable: When leader and member attribution styles clash

This article supported the hypothesis that leaders’ and members’ attribution styles have interactive effects on members’ perceptions of the quality of their leader–member relations. Across two samples, results revealed an interactive effect such that members’ perceptions of poor leader–member relations were most accentuated when they were biased toward external and unstable attributions (i.e. optimistic attributions) for their negative outcomes, while their leaders were biased toward attributing negative outcomes to the internal and stable characteristics of the members (i.e. pessimistic attribution styles). In Study 2, results indicated that the members’ perceptions of distributive and procedural justice mediated the interactive effects of leader pessimism and member optimism on relationship quality.     

Anticipating seizure: pre-reflective experience at the center of neuro-phenomenology

The purpose of this paper is to show through the concrete example of epileptic seizure anticipation how neuro-dynamic analysis (using new mathematical tools to detect the dynamic structure of the neuro-electric activity of the brain) and "pheno-dynamic" analysis (using new interview techniques to detect the pre-reflective dynamic micro-structure of the corresponding subjective experience) may guide and determine each other. We will show that this dynamic approach to epileptic seizure makes it possible to consolidate the foundations of a cognitive non pharmacological therapy of epilepsy. We will also show through this example how the neuro-phenomenological co-determination could shed new light on the difficult problem of the "gap" which separates subjective experience from neurophysiological activity.     

Anticipating the Societal Challenges of Nanotechnologies

“In this article we sketch out the landscape for this Special Issue on anticipating and embedding the societal challenge of nanotechnologies. Tools that actors may choose to employ for these processes are articulated, and further explored through the introduction of the seven articles which comprise this Issue. Taken together, these articles create a cogent narrative on the societal challenges posed by nanotechnologies. They are drawn together by three distinct themes, each of which is briefly considered within this context of this Introductory article”.     

Anticipating the Self: Toward a Personal Construct Model of Emotion

Previous accounts of the role of emotion in construct theory place insufficient emphasis on the constructive role of emotion as a “feeling toward.” Emotion is regarded either as an epiphenomenon of acts of construal or as an outcome of prior cognitive processes. It is argued in this paper that emotion performs an anticipatory role in pursuit of the current concerns of the self, a view that follows from a closer analysis of the function of anticipation. A revision of the control systems theory of Carver and Scheier (1981) is proposed, in which emotional anticipation at the level of the self is distinguished from schema-based anticipation at the level of behavior. Given the framework of personal construct theory as a method of analysis, this revised view of emotion enables a range of self-concept processes to be better understood.     

The Internet as Cultural Form: Technology and the Human Condition in China

Raymond Williams’ work on television as a cultural form offers a theoretical basis for overcoming technological determinism in the study of the Internet. The Internet in China exerts social and political influences through the cultural forms it enables and then only when these forms respond to the human condition. Chinese Internet culture consists of new cultural forms that emerge out of the interactions between Internet and society and that are the products of both cultural tradition and innovation.

Counselling effectiveness: A critical discussion

Studies of counselling effectiveness are examined critically with respect to the measures they use, their methodological weaknesses, and problems of interpretation. The deficiencies of various measuring devices — including unstructured accounts, structured questionnaires, pre- and post-counselling ratings, physiological indicators, experimental investigations, and social actions effects — are discussed. Many of the experiments are criticised for poor design and over-interpretation of findings. Fundamental methodological problems are also discussed, including the extent to which the effectiveness of counselling can appropriately be examined by existing scientific methods. More knowledge of counselling processes is required before there can be any satisfactory measurement of counselling effects.     

In pursuit of the shiftworker: A discussion of methodologies

Methodologies used in the study of shiftwork are discussed.     

Terrorism as technology: A discussion of the theoretical underpinnings

Conclusion This short article is intended as a brief discussion of the concept of terrorism as technology, and the impact of military thinking about new threat models on the theoretical analysis of terrorism. Many of the concepts developed in discussions of the RMA seem tailor-made to terrorism. Indeed, terrorism in its conventional, political form was one of the new threats that the RMA has been applied to. However, the thesis of this article is that the new form of terrorism that debuted so spectacularly on September 11 can also be theoretically analyzed within the prism of the RMA. Toby Blyth, BA (Japanese)/LLB (Western Australia), Solicitor - Supreme Court of England and Wales, Supreme Court of New South Wales, Federal and High Courts of Australia, ANZIIF (Fellow). The opinions and conclusions contained herein are solely those of the author and do not reflect policy, institutional opinion, or proprietary information of his employer. This paper is based in part on research carried out by the author for and on a paper published in 1999 by the Terrorism Research Centre, Inc.     

非政府组织:一种新的上层建筑形式

非政府组织是与政府组织不同的另一类社会治理组织,属一种新的上层建筑形式。非政府组织与联合国和各国政府部门既有密切联系又持有一定距离,既包括政治倾向较强的组织,也包括非盈利组织。非政府组织迅猛发展的根本原因在于它能有效地解决社会生活中存在着政府失灵和市场所带来的诸多问题,促进社会经济,政治和文化的协调发展,对社会的平衡和安定具有极大的作用。     

A discussion of the mind-brain problem

In this paper Popper formulates and discusses a new aspect of the theory of mind. This theory is partly based on his earlier developed interactionistic theory. It takes as its point of departure the observation that mind and physical forces have several properties in common, at least the following six: both are (i) located, (ii) unextended, (iii) incorporeal, (iv) capable of acting on bodies, (v) dependent upon body, (vi) capable of being influenced by bodies. Other properties such as intensity and extension in time may be added. It is argued that a fuller understanding of the nature of forces is essential for the analysis of the mind-brain problem. The relative autonomy and indeterministic nature of mind is stressed. Indeterminism is treated in relation to a theorem of Hadamard. The computer theory of mind and the Turing test are criticized. Finally the evolution of mind is discussed.     

Anticipating upcoming words in discourse: evidence from ERPs and reading times

The authors examined whether people can use their knowledge of the wider discourse rapidly enough to anticipate specific upcoming words as a sentence is unfolding. In an event-related brain potential (ERP) experiment, subjects heard Dutch stories that supported the prediction of a specific noun. To probe whether this noun was anticipated at a preceding indefinite article, stories were continued with a gender-marked adjective whose suffix mismatched the upcoming noun's syntactic gender. Prediction-inconsistent adjectives elicited a differential ERP effect, which disappeared in a no-discourse control experiment. Furthermore, in self-paced reading, prediction-inconsistent adjectives slowed readers down before the noun. These findings suggest that people can indeed predict upcoming words in fluent discourse and, moreover, that these predicted words can immediately begin to participate in incremental parsing operations.     

Cults and the law: A discussion of the legality of alleged cult activities

Recent news reports show that there is, yet again, increasing concern regarding cults and satanic cults. Among the concerns raised is the fear that cults may be engaging in illegal activity, including abducting and sacrificing humans. A survey was conducted in the United States and Canada to assess the attitudes of people regarding cults and satanic cults, and to identify those activities in which people believe cults engage. It is suggested that all religions began as “cults” and a brief review of the law concerning the free exercise of religion demonstrates that several religious groups have been treated with suspect, and have even been referred to as cults (e.g. Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons). Results from the survey are used to consider the extent to which the activities in which cults are thought to engage are legal. It is concluded that many of the activities in which cults are believed to engage are really mere beliefs that are protected by the first amendment. For those activities that are illegal, it is suggested that current laws are adequate to protect society from whatever harm people believe cults pose.