Do customs compete with conditioning? Turf battles and division of labor in social explanation

We often face a bewildering array of different explanations for the same social facts (e.g. biological, psychological, economic, and historical accounts). But we have few guidelines for whether and when we should think of different accounts as competing or compatible. In this paper, I offer some guidelines for understanding when custom or norm accounts do and don’t compete with other types of accounts. I describe two families of non-competing accounts: (1) explanations of different (but similarly described) facts, and (2) accounts which seem to differ but are really different parts or versions of the same underlying explanation. I argue that, while many types of apparent competitors don’t really compete with customs, there are some that do. I also describe some of the central problems, which suggest that custom accounts will compete poorly with their rivals.     

The division of labor within the home: Have gender roles changed?

The purpose of this paper was to examine more recent time-use data regarding the division of labor in the home and compare those findings with that of previously reported data. A 1981 national sample of married Canadian men and women's time use was examined. Generalized least squares regression was employed to examine and predict time use by married men and women as a function of spouse's labor force status, number of children, age of youngest child, and day of the week data were collected. As compared to previous studies, results indicate that over time married women have reduced the amount of time spent in meal preparation while increasing time spent with children. Men increased the amount of time spent in food preparation and child care, although their participation appeared limited primarily to weekend days and invariant to wife's labor force participation.

     

Why does picture-plane inversion sometimes dissociate perception of features and spacing in faces, and sometimes not? Toward a new theory of holistic processing

Classically, it has been presumed that picture-plane inversion primarily reduces sensitivity to spacing/configural information in faces (distance between location of the major features) and has little effect on sensitivity to local feature information (e.g., eye shape or color). Here, we review 22 published studies relevant to this claim. Data show that the feature inversion effect varied substantially across studies as a function of the following factors: whether the feature change was shape only or included color/brightness, the number of faces in the stimulus set, and whether the feature was in facial context. For shape-only changes in facial context, feature inversion effects were as large as typical spacing inversion effects. Small feature inversion effects occurred only when a task could be efficiently solved by visual-processing areas outside whole-face coding. The results argue that holistic/configural processing for upright faces integrates exact feature shape and spacing between blobs. We describe two plausible approaches to this process.     

Emergence from brain architectures: a new cognitive science?

The way in which artificial intelligence has developed over the last 50 years has had a major role in shaping cognitive science as it is today. This has generated computational models of behaviour. The connectionist revival of the 1980s added a tinge of neurodynamics to this. Here I suggest that some post-connectionist work in artificial intelligence is turning towards an understanding and formalisation of the mechanisms of brain architectures which contribute to an emergence of cognition providing a closer link between brain mechanisms and experienced brain states. This even addresses the neurological basis of consciousness.     

Has cyber technology produced a new group of peer aggressors?

Cyber technology provides a new venue for the expression of aggression. However, whether cyber technology has produced a new group of peer aggressors or simply allowed aggressive peers new tools to victimize others is unclear. This study sampled 1,672 adolescents to assess their engagement in cyber aggression. Although "cyber," "overt," and "relational" represent distinct subtypes of aggressive behavior, our results indicate that adolescents' behaviors clustered according to their frequency-not type-of aggression. Thus cyber technology provides new tools for youth who already engage in aggressive behaviors in the physical world to victimize peers in cyberspace.     

Report on work in progress: “Towards a new science of the human”

A multidisciplinary and global study of the evolutionary process of the universe in general and mankind in particular is proposed, drawing from both modern science, approached by taking into consideration its various interdependent aspects; and the study of western and eastern ancient traditions, which prove to have a common foundation that is the comprehension and the control of the evolutionary process itself.

Such a study will lead to the compilation of a “Corpus Unus” of the new science of the human, a science which does not belong to a race, a culture or an age, but is specific to the human being as such.

Such a science will imply the exploration of mankind and of the evolutionary process, and applying the results in a pragmatic way to the betterment of human beings, society, and universe.     

Simplicity: a unifying principle in cognitive science?

Much of perception, learning and high-level cognition involves finding patterns in data. But there are always infinitely many patterns compatible with any finite amount of data. How does the cognitive system choose 'sensible' patterns? A long tradition in epistemology, philosophy of science, and mathematical and computational theories of learning argues that patterns 'should' be chosen according to how simply they explain the data. This article reviews research exploring the idea that simplicity drives a wide range of cognitive processes. We outline mathematical theory, computational results and empirical data that underpin this viewpoint.     

Environmentalism and Political Participation: Toward a New System of Social Beliefs and Values?

This study examines the social beliefs and values of the Spanish population with regard to environmentalism. A questionnaire on environmental beliefs was produced and administered to two sample groups. The first group, to be called "activists" (comprising 86 subjects), is characterized by belonging to one or other environmental organization. The other, termed "nonactivists" (comprising 410 subjects), is composed of people not belonging to any environmentalist organization. We conclude that, as in other Western countries, environmentalism has moved from being a set of beliefs held by a small group of people to becoming a central element in the system of beliefs characterizing our society. In other words, the beliefs of the environmentalist movement are being gradually built into a new ideology. However, we found differences between activists and nonactivists, which we interpret both in terms of Milbrath's theoretical model and as contradictions of postmodernist culture.     

Division of labor in conversations: Are Fishman's results replicable and generalizable?

Fishman's (1978a) conclusion that women do the bulk of the support work in their conversations with male partners has had widespread appeal. In this article, we present the results of two studies designed to assess the generalizability and replicability of her findings. In Study 1. the get-acquainted conversations of 20 mixed-sex, 10 male same-sex, and 10 female same-sex dyads were analyzed for the support strategies identified by Fishman. No support for a sexual division of labor was found. In Study 2, we analyzed the casual, at-home conversations of 17 intimate male-female couples. Again, we found no evidence that the women used more of the support strategies than their male partners. Rather, our findings suggest that the women may have helped to sustain the conversations with their male partners simply by talking more. The appeal of Fishman's conclusions in the absence of empirical evidence suggests that she has touched on a mythic truth.This article is based on a Master's thesis by the second author (Study 1) and an Honour's thesis by the third author (Study 2) under the supervision of the first author.     

Adults' representations of division facts: a consequence of learning history?

There has been a recent increase in the study of adults' performance on simple division problems. Researchers up to now have focused on the relationship between multiplication and division and have found that multiplication often has a mediating role in the solution of division problems (Campbell, 1997, 1999; LeFevre & Morris, 1999; Mauro, LeFevre, & Morris, 2002). In this study, division was exclusively examined to determine the strategies that are used to solve these problems and to identify factors relating to particular strategy use. Thirty-two participants were asked to solve two sets of 64 simple division problems (from 4 divided by 2 to 81 divided by 9) and error, latency, and strategy report data were collected. Fewer errors were made on easy problems, which were also solved more quickly than difficult problems. Participants used retrieval, multiplication, and other strategies to solve the problems and tended to use retrieval more on easy than difficult problems and used multiplication more on difficult problems than easy problems. Unexpected age differences in strategy use were also found. Older participants tended to rely more heavily on retrieval than younger participants. These results suggest that older participants may have stronger representations for simple division problems than younger participants.     

Private events: Do they belong in a science of human behavior?

The role of thinking, feeling, and other private events has received a great deal of attention in mainstream psychology but has been virtually ignored in behavior analysis until recently. This paper introduces a series of papers from a symposium that explored the roles of private events in a science of human behavior. We briefly explore the role private events are assigned in several behavioral orientations. Next, we discuss several positions on how private events might be conceptualized within a behavior-analytic framework. We conclude by noting that the dearth of research and conceptualizations about private events unnecessarily limits the theoretical or conceptual understanding on which applied behavior analysts base their work. With this paper and the papers that follow, we hope to spark research, discussion, and yes, thinking, about the roles of thinking and feeling.     

Discerning the spirit(s) in the natural world: Toward a typology of “spirit” in the religion and science conversation

Recent developments in Christian theological thinking on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit (pneumatology) have raised questions about the relationship between “spirit” and science. Cursory review of the religion and science literature, however, yields a wide array of uses and understandings of the concept of spirit. Current attempts to assess the relationship of pneumatology to science require an inventory or basic classification scheme of the various notions of spirit that have been in circulation over the past generation. This essay presents a preliminary typology of such uses in order to enable scholars and researchers to chart courses for future research in this area.     

Technical filmmaking and scientific narratives: Has science overtaken fiction in recent science fiction? An analysis of Gravity,Interstellar, and The Martian

One can view the recent science fiction films Gravity, Interstellar, and The Martian as a three-part dialogue concerning the existential relationship between humanity, technology, and the science employed to create said technologies. Pitched into the deep of space, each film’s protagonist must seek to find technological answers to save their own existence. Each film’s exploration of these themes essentially questions the importance of technology as a product of scientific-calculative thinking and the validity of this thinking as the primary mode of understanding the world. In this article, I explore the existential dialogue crafted between these films through Walter Benjamin and Martin Heidegger. Through Benjamin, we will see how the medium of film is completely dependent upon technology to present its art and how this transforms the stories it tells, while also transforming the audience and the audience’s reality. Consequently, understanding the popular reception of these films becomes just as important as the films themselves for our present study. Through Heidegger, we will see how technology provides a space where we can find a truth about ourselves and our reality. However, modern technology’s increasing scientific complexity, created by scientists who in turn employ modern technology to further science, also conceals just as much as it reveals. These films provide us with an opportunity to explore a truth about our dependence upon technology even though, as technologically dependent works of art, they may also conceal how dependent upon science we have become when constructing our reality.     

Sex differences in intrinsic aptitude for mathematics and science?: a critical review

This article considers 3 claims that cognitive sex differences account for the differential representation of men and women in high-level careers in mathematics and science: (a) males are more focused on objects from the beginning of life and therefore are predisposed to better learning about mechanical systems; (b) males have a profile of spatial and numerical abilities producing greater aptitude for mathematics; and (c) males are more variable in their cognitive abilities and therefore predominate at the upper reaches of mathematical talent. Research on cognitive development in human infants, preschool children, and students at all levels fails to support these claims. Instead, it provides evidence that mathematical and scientific reasoning develop from a set of biologically based cognitive capacities that males and females share. These capacities lead men and women to develop equal talent for mathematics and science.     

The Influence of Christian Conversion in Mapuche Traditional Medicine in Temuco, Chile: Toward a Cultural Syncretism or a form of Ideological Assimilation?

The Mapuche communities living in the urban areas of Chile have undergone radical cultural changes due to Christian conversion. This article analyzes the influence of these changes on the Mapuche ideas and practices of the traditional healers (machi) and patients in Temuco (IX Region), Chile, and the changes and adaptations in the perceptions of healing practices and rituals by the patients. The paper shows how, despite some evident challenges, the encounter with the religion of Christianity can create a process of cultural and spiritual syncretism and push traditional medicine toward an increased specialization in the therapeutic practices.     

Kierkegaard on Imitation and Ethics: Toward a Secular Project?

This essay demonstrates the prominence of imitation in Kierkegaard’s ethics. I move beyond his idea of authentic existence modeled on Christ and explore the secular dimension of Kierkegaard’s insights about human nature and imitation. I start with presenting imitation as key to understanding the ethical dimension of the relationship between the universal and individual aspects of the human self in Kierkegaard. I then show that Kierkegaard’s moral concepts of “primitivity” and “comparison” are a response to his sociological and psychological observations about imitation from an ethical point of view. In the final section of this paper, I briefly engage Friedrich Schleiermacher’s “ethics of individuality” and Gabriel Tarde’s “laws of imitation” to explore Kierkegaard’s consideration of ethics and imitation as situated within the context of a broader conversation on imitation.