Searching for the High-I

This paper questions the nature and existence of the ego and I from a Western and Eastern viewpoint, which has been a question for 2,500 years when the Buddha rejected the Brahman idea of ātman. The answer for an ego depends partly on the state of consciousness; the existence of the Western objectifying ego is undeniable in ordinary consciousness, but not in extraordinary consciousness with no objectifying. The subtle question remains about the existence of an I that is distinct from the ego and that is best represented by most meditative or contemplative states. Here a subjectified, witnessing, consciousness-maintaining I still seems to exist. This may be called the “High-I,” which appears to provide for all states of consciousness a constancy and awareness not provided by the ego. This finding has implications for psychology and religion as well as philosophy.     

Searching for threat

In a series of experiments, a visual search task was used to test the idea that biologically relevant threatening stimuli might be recognized very quickly or capture visuo-spatial attention. In Experiment 1, there was evidence for both faster detection and faster search rates for threatening animals than for plants. However, examination of the basis of this effect in Experiment 2 showed that it was not due to threat per se, as detection and search rate advantages were found for pleasant rather than threatening animals compared to plants. In Experiment 3, participants searched for the plants and pleasant and threatening animals used in Experiments 1 and 2, among a fixed heterogeneous selection of non-target items. There was no search rate or detection advantage for threatening animals compared to pleasant animals or plants. The same targets and non-targets as those used in Experiment 3 were also used in Experiment 4. In Experiment 4, participants searched for targets that were presented either close to or distant from an initial fixation point. There was no evidence for a "threat" detection advantage either close to or distant from the cross. Finally, an experiment was conducted in which target categories (fruit, flowers, and animals) were not pre-specified prior to each trial block. There were no differences in reaction times to detect pleasant animals, threatening animals, or fruit. We conclude that the visual search paradigm does not readily reveal any biases that might exist for threatening stimuli in the general population.     

用仪器找寻上帝

心理学和神经学研究人员通过对颞叶癫痫症病人的研究,发现大脑负责“自我感觉”、情感反应和自我记忆的颞叶区某些部位对宗教体验的产生有明显的影响。根据这一发现,设计出一台仪器,激发一种特定的磁场,诱发健康人脑部颞叶产生类似于癫痫发作的症状,被试者会体验到身体漂浮、变形,并出现宗教内容的幻觉。通过科技手段,上帝现身都可以模仿了,信徒们声称的亲眼见过上帝等宗教体验还可信吗？     

Searching for Projection in the Rorschach

The issue of assumptions concerning projection and the Rorschach is discussed in relation to the Rorschach response process and the process of projection. Some data suggest that some minus answers may evolve because of projection, but the limited nature of the findings indicate that these types of projected answers will be difficult to identify in most cases. Findings concerning passive and aggressive movement responses, morbid content responses, and movement answers, coded using a new special score for positive cooperative interaction (COP) in human and animal movement responses, suggest that most projections will manifest in responses that depart from and/or embellish the stimulus field. Caution is recommended about attempting to interpret single answers that appear to be projections, because most any might be the product of simple stimulus classification.     

Searching for projection in the Rorschach

The issue of assumptions concerning projection and the Rorschach is discussed in relation to the Rorschach response process and the process of projection. Some data suggest that some minus answers may evolve because of projection, but the limited nature of the findings indicate that these types of projected answers will be difficult to identify in most cases. Findings concerning passive and aggressive movement responses, morbid content responses, and movement answers, coded using a new special score for positive cooperative interaction (COP) in human and animal movement responses, suggest that most projections will manifest in responses that depart from and/or embellish the stimulus field. Caution is recommended about attempting to interpret single answers tht appear to be projections, because most any might be the product of simple stimulus classification.     

Searching for Memory Systems

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between the affordance effect (i.e., the advantage for responses corresponding spatially with the location of an object's graspable part) and the Simon effect (i.e., the advantage for responses corresponding spatially with stimulus location) and to assess whether they both occur at the response selection stage. In two experiments participants were required to respond according to the vertical orientation (upward or inverted) of photographs of graspable objects, located to the left or right of fixation, with their handles oriented to the right or left. In Experiment 1 the response was a buttonpress; in Experiment 2 was a reaching movement. Our results showed that both Simon and affordance effects emerged in response times but not in movement times. In Experiment 1, the two effects did not interact, whereas a clear interaction emerged in Experiment 2. These results seem to suggest that the interaction between Simon and affordance effects may depend on the type of required action.     

Searching for Conscientiousness on the MMPI-2

It has been argued that the revised Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) fails to measure the Big Five dimension of conscientiousness (C) an assertion supported by the research finding that none of the factors underlying the MMPI correlate substantially with the C factor of the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI)—a popular operationalization of the Big Five model. In this study we reconsidered the relationship between the MMPI-2 item pool and the C factor of the NEO-PI-R (Form S). Collections of MMPI-2 C markers did not correlate much higher than .5 with the NEO-PI-R factor scale in cross-validation hold-out samples. Most pervasive, however, was the finding that MMPI-2 item markers of C were also strongly (in many cases, more highly) related to the NEO-PI-R factor of neuroticism (N). Efforts to purify collections of MMPI-2 C markers, first by careful item selection and then by suppression of N variance, were met with limited success. Intercorrelations among NEO-PI-R scales suggest that the difficulty in finding markers that discriminate between N and C extends beyond any shortcomings of the MMPI-2 item pool.     

寻求神学语言的意义--麦奎利的语言哲学简论

约翰·麦奎利 (ＪｏｈｎＭａｃｑｕａｒｒｉｅ)是当代西方著名的神学家和哲学家。他在哲学上既表征着欧陆哲学的主流 ,也表征着英美哲学的主流。作为中庸的神学家和清明的哲学家 ,其思想因广博而简明、中正而公允在西方学术界而著称。他在语言学研究方面造诣颇深 ,其语言理论 ,尤其在神学语言与逻辑研究方面 ,对西方神学和哲学产生了深远的影响。如果把麦奎利的神学语言理论称为“神学语言学”的话 ,那么他的一般语言观则属于基本的“语言哲学”。他的语言哲学与其神学语言学紧密相连 ,是其神学语言学的理论基础。本文旨在论述麦奎利对语言…     

Searching for conscientiousness on the MMPI-2

It has been argued that the revised Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) fails to measure the Big Five dimension of conscientiousness (C) an assertion supported by the research finding that none of the factors underlying the MMPI correlate substantially with the C factor of the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI)-a popular operationalization of the Big Five model. In this study we reconsidered the relationship between the MMPI-2 item pool and the C factor of the NEO-PI-R (Form S). Collections of MMPI-2 C markers did not correlate much higher than .5 with the NEO-PI-R factor scale in cross-validation hold-out samples. Most pervasive, however, was the finding that MMPI-2 item markers of C were also strongly (in many cases, more highly) related to the NEO-PI-R factor of neuroticism (N). Efforts to purify collections of MMPI-2 C markers, first by careful item selection and then by suppression of N variance, were met with limited success. Intercorrelations among NEO-PI-R scales suggest that the difficulty in finding markers that discriminate between N and C extends beyond any shortcomings of the MMPI-2 item pool.     

Searching for conjunctively defined targets

It has recently been proposed that in searching for a target defined as a conjunction of two or more separable features, attention must be paid serially to each stimulus in a display. Support for this comes from studies in which subjects searched for a target that shared a single feature with each of two different kinds of distractor items (e.g., a red O in a field of black Os and red Ns). Reaction time increased linearly with display size. We argue that this design may obscure evidence of selectivity in search. In an experiment in which the numbers of the two distractors were unconfounded, we find evidence that subjects can search through specified subsets of stimuli. For example, subjects told to search through just the Os to find the red O target do so without searching through Ns. Implications of selective search are discussed.     

Searching for Protestantism in the Encyclopedia of Protestantism

This article uses Hans Hillerbrand's Encyclopedia of Protestantism ¹ to explore the protean character of Protestantism. In considering the question What is Protestantism? it assesses two characterisations of Protestantism: as a rejection of Catholicism and as a religious prelude to secularisation. The article discusses the history of the religion, the challenge of defining a 500-year-old religious family, the ambiguous boundary between Protestantism and Catholicism, and the thin line separating Protestants from their post-Protestant descendants. It concludes by reflecting on the implications of the Encyclopedia of Protestantism for the field of religious studies.     

Searching for a perceived stare in the crowd

Gaze direction can be represented in terms not only of local-feature information (ie the location of the pupil in the eye socket), but also of an emergent property---whether the perceived gaze direction is straight or averted. To examine whether this emergent property is preferentially accessed when searching for an oddly directed gaze, we experimentally manipulated the local-feature information and the emergent property independently, in order to investigate the influences of both types of information on visual searches for an oddly directed gaze. We found that the primary determinant of search efficiency was not the local-feature information of eye region, but the emergent property--the perceived direction of the gaze. This finding is consistent with the idea that important social signals are recognised primarily by their emergent properties.