Bilateral language: Is the left hemisphere still dominant?

A 13-year-old left-handed boy with a left fronto-parietal vascular malformation evidenced bilateral symmetrical language representation at intracarotid amytal testing. Surgical resection of the parietal motor and frontal premotor area (sparing classical perisylvian language regions) for seizure control resulted in an acute aphasia. Language deficits were still apparent 3 months and to a lesser degree 1 year after surgery. This suggests that when language is bilateral and symmetrical, the left hemisphere may still be dominant or both hemispheres may be necessary to sustain full language competence. Explanations for atypical language localization within the left hemisphere are also discussed.     

Is thinking an action?

I argue that entertaining a proposition is not an action. Such events do not have intentional explanations and cannot be evaluated as rational or not. In these respects they contrast with assertions and compare well with perceptual events. One can control what one thinks by doing something, most familiarly by reciting a sentence. But even then the event of entertaining the proposition is not an action, though it is an event one has caused to happen, much as one might cause oneself to see a book by looking at it. I also discuss how this may support the view that thinking about the world is a source of information about it.     

Remembering the past and thinking about the future: Is it really about time?

In this paper we discuss some literature relating to episodic memory, future episodic thinking and mental time travel in humans and non-human animals. We discuss the concept of mental time travel and argue that the concept relies on subjective phenomena such as consciousness and on this basis is not useful when studying episodic memory and future episodic thinking, particularly in non-human animals. We discuss recent work which emphasizes views of both episodic memory and future thinking which do not rely on such mental time travel and, more importantly, give less prominence to the concept of time. The implications of such a view for research into future thinking in non-human animals are considered.     

Is talking to yourself thinking?

The question whether talking to yourself is thinking is considered from two viewpoints: radical behaviorism and teleological behaviorism. For radical behaviorism, following Skinner (1945), mental events such as ‘thinking’ may be explained in terms of private behavior occurring within the body, ordinarily unobservable by other people; thus, radical behaviorism may identify talking to yourself with thinking. However, to be consistent with its basic principles, radical behaviorism must hold that private behavior, hence thinking, is identical with covert muscular, speech movements (rather than proprioception of those movements). For teleological behaviorism, following Skinner (1938), all mental terms, including ‘thinking,’ stand for abstract, temporally extended patterns of overt behavior. Thus, for teleological behaviorism, talking to yourself, covert by definition, cannot be thinking.     

Is there still a cognitive cost of being a twin in the UK?

ObjectiveTo investigate whether twins still perform below singletons in cognitive ability tests and in national educational attainment examinations in a recent UK cohort of 11-year-olds.DesignPopulation-based cohort study, using a validated method of twin extraction.SettingEnglish state schools.Participants178,599 pupils (mean age 11 years) attending English state schools in 2004, representing 93% of local educational authorities.Main outcome measuresVerbal, quantitative and nonverbal reasoning measured by the Cognitive Abilities Test — Third Edition (CAT3), and educational attainment in English, maths and science from Key Stage 2 national curriculum tests.ResultsTwin-singleton differences in cognitive ability were of negligible effect size. Mean performance of twins was 1% of a SD below singletons on general cognitive ability, 3% lower on verbal reasoning, and less than 1% of a SD lower on quantitative and nonverbal reasoning, with and without adjustment for sex. Almost identical proportions of twins and singletons attained the expected standards of educational performance in English (80.4% versus 80.5%, respectively), maths (77.4% versus 77.3%), and science (90.1% versus 88.8%). There were no differences in rates of twins and singletons achieving higher or lower performance levels.ConclusionThe cognitive cost of being a twin reported in previous cohorts of UK children no longer exists in a large, contemporary and population-representative sample.     

Is induction produced by upcoming food-pellet reinforcement the outcome of an increase in overall activity or in operant responding?

Researchers have demonstrated that rats reliably increase their rates of pressing a lever for 1% liquid-sucrose reinforcement if they will soon have the opportunity to press a lever for food-pellet reinforcement. In the present experiments, the authors investigated if this increase in response rates occurred because the upcoming food pellets produced an increase in all behaviors (i.e., general arousal) or an increase in only the specific operant response (i.e., lever pressing). The results of Experiments 1 and 2 showed that the appearance of induction in rats' lever pressing for 1% sucrose reinforcement when food-pellet reinforcement was upcoming did not coincide with increases in the frequency of running in a wheel or making a nonreinforced nose-poke response. On the other hand, in Experiment 3, the authors found the appearance of induction coincided with increase nonreinforced lever presses on an adjacent lever. These results shed doubt on the idea that induction is a result of a general increase in all activity, and suggest instead that the increase in responding that occurs during induction is limited to the operant response.     

Is working memory still working?

The current state of A. D. Baddeley and G. J. Hitch's (1974) multicomponent working memory model is reviewed. The phonological and visuospatial subsystems have been extensively investigated, leading both to challenges over interpretation of individual phenomena and to more detailed attempts to model the processes underlying the subsystems. Analysis of the controlling central executive has proved more challenging, leading to a proposed clarification in which the executive is assumed to be a limited capacity attentional system, aided by a newly postulated fourth system, the episodic buffer. Current interest focuses most strongly on the link between working memory and long-term memory and on the processes allowing the integration of information from the component subsystems. The model has proved valuable in accounting for data from a wide range of participant groups under a rich array of task conditions. Working memory does still appear to be working.     

Religion and rights: Is there still room for Christianity at the table?

Drawing on recent discussions about issues relating to sexual and reproductive rights in the Jamaican print and broadcast media, this article highlights the interplay between Christianity, activism and rights talk. This interplay is being framed in the local print media as a debate between two dominating hegemonic forces: on the one hand, between more ‘conservative’ and ‘fundamentalist’ Christian theological beliefs and, on the other hand, those who subscribe to what may be characterised as more ‘liberal secular fundamentalist’ viewpoints. This polarisation ignores some conciliatory scenarios that exist within other segments of Caribbean societies, theology included, that provide beneficial approaches to rights talk and work. The endeavours of some Jamaican church folks have converged with those of progressive right defenders, or, where such endeavours predate contemporary rights activism or have no direct contact with it, they might at least be viewed as benign by those who espouse such activism.