Semantic Similarity and Immediate Serial Recall: Is There a Detrimental Effect on Order Information?

Four experiments investigated the disruptive effect of semantic similarity on short-term ordered recall. Experiments 1 and 2 contrasted immediate serial recall performance for lists of semantically similar items, drawn from the same semantic category, with performance for lists that contained items from different categories. Experiments 1 and 2 showed the usual similarity advantage for item information recall, but, contrary to expectations, there was no similarity disadvantage for the recall of order information, even when the level of item recall was controlled. Experiments 3 and 4 replicate and extend these findings by using an order reconstruction task or a limited word pool strategy, both of which yield alternate measures of order retention. These findings clearly contradict the widespread belief stating that semantic similarity hinders the short-term recall of order information. Results are discussed in the light of a retrieval-based account where the effects of semantic similarity reflect the processes called upon at recall: It is suggested that long-term knowledge is accessed to support the interpretation of degraded phonological traces.     

Where Is the Information for Affordances?

Two questions have priority for a perception psychologist: What is perceived, and what is the information for it? What we perceive are the affordances of the world. Because perception is prospective and goes on over time, the information for affordances is in events, both external and within the perceiver. Hence, we must study perception of events if we would understand how affordances are perceived.     

Is There a Philosophy of Information?

In 2002, Luciano Floridi published a paper called What is the Philosophy of Information?, where he argues for a new paradigm in philosophical research. To what extent should his proposal be accepted? Is the Philosophy of Information actually a new paradigm, in the Kuhninan sense, in Philosophy? Or is it only a new branch of Epistemology? In our discussion we will argue in defense of Floridi’s proposal. We believe that Philosophy of Information has the types of features had by other areas already acknowledge as authentic in Philosophy. By way of an analogical argument we will argue that since Philosophy of Information has its own topics, method and problems it would be counter-intuitive not to accept it as a new philosophical area. To strengthen our position we present and discuss main topics of Philosophy of Information.     

What Is Missing in Counseling Research? Reporting Missing Data

Missing data have long been problematic in quantitative research. Despite the statistical and methodological advances made over the past 3 decades, counseling researchers fail to provide adequate information on this phenomenon. Interpreting the complex statistical procedures and esoteric language seems to be a contributing factor. An overview of missing data and remediation procedures is provided. A systematic approach to addressing missing data along with reporting suggestions is presented.     

Can Only Human Lives Be Meaningful?

Duncan Purves and Nicolas Delon have argued that one’s life will be meaningful to the extent that one contributes to valuable states of affairs and this contribution is a result of one’s intentional actions. They then argue, contrary to some theorists’ intuitions, that non-human animals are capable of fulfilling these requirements, and that this finding might entail important things for the animal ethics movement. In this paper, I also argue that things besides human beings can have meaningful existences, but I disagree with Purves and Delon’s theory of meaning, and some of the practical implications they suggest arise from their conclusion. Specifically, I argue that Purves and Delon are wrong to suggest that intentional agency is necessary for one’s life to be meaningful; contributing to valuable states of affairs can be sufficient by itself. Purves and Delon’s objection to such a claim is that it would allow even inanimate objects’ existences to count as meaningful. However, while I accept this consequence, I argue that it only seems counterintuitive because of two false beliefs they appear to hold: that some X cannot have a meaningful existence without that meaning (a) making X better off or (b) giving X reasons for pride.     

Semantic processing of crowded stimuli?

Effects of semantic processing of crowded characters were investigated using numbers as stimuli. In an identification task, typical spacing effects in crowding were replicated. Using the same stimuli in a magnitude comparison task, a smaller effect of spacing was observed as well as an effect of response congruency. These effects were replicated in a second experiment with varying stimulus-onset asynchronies. In addition, decreasing performance with increasing onset-asynchrony (so-called type-B masking) for incongruent flankers indicates semantic processing of target and flankers. The data show that semantic processing takes place even in crowded stimuli. This argues strongly against common accounts of crowding in terms of early stimulus-driven impairments of processing.     

Semantic memory: Complexity or connectivity?

The complexity hypothesis predicts that concept-feature verification times should be directly related to the number of features associated with a concept (the fan effect). Conversely, the connectivity hypothesis predicts that for interconnected semantic relationships, this verification time should be inversely related to the number of closely associated features (the reversed fan effect). In the present experiments, although the time required for episodic recognition memory decisions tended to be directly related to the number of features associated with a concept, semantic verification times were inversely related to the complexity of the concept. In addition, the concept's complexity was at least as good a predictor of performance in semantic tasks as was the strength of association between the concept and feature. Both of these results are interpreted in terms of the connectivity hypothesis.     

Can Life Be Meaningful without Free Will?

Philosophia - If we lack deep free agency, like that supposed by metaphysical libertarianism, should we view life as meaningless, pointless, or not worth living? Here I present a new argument in...     

Is naming faces different from naming objects? Semantic interference in a face- and object-naming task

A current debate regarding face and object naming concerns whether they are equally vulnerable to semantic interference. Although some studies have shown similar patterns of interference, others have revealed different effects for faces and objects. In Experiment 1, we compared face naming to object naming when exemplars were presented in a semantically homogeneous context (grouped by their category) or in a semantically heterogeneous context (mixed) across four cycles. The data revealed significant slowing for both face and object naming in the homogeneous context. This semantic interference was explained as being due to lexical competition from the conceptual activation of category members. When focusing on the first cycle, a facilitation effect for objects but not for faces appeared. This result permits us to explain the previously observed discrepancies between face and object naming. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1, with the exception that half of the stimuli were presented as face/object names for reading. Semantic interference was present for both face and object naming, suggesting that faces and objects behave similarly during naming. Interestingly, during reading, semantic interference was observed for face names but not for object names. This pattern is consistent with previous assumptions proposing the activation of a person identity during face name reading.     

Ethical Issues in Cancer Genetics: 1) Whose Information Is It?

This article presents and discusses four clinical cases that exemplify the complexity of ethical dilemmas concerning the provider's obligation to disclose or withhold genetic information from patients. Case 1: What is the responsibility of the cancer genetics provider to ensure that a positive test results is shared with distant relatives? Case 2: To ensure that results go to at-risk relatives, do we have the right to ignore the wishes of the designated next-of-kin? Case 3: Do we have the right to reveal a familial BRCA1 mutation to a patient's relative, who is at 50% risk? Case 4: Do we have an obligation to reveal that a patient is not a blood relative and therefore, not at risk to have inherited a familial mutation? These cases form the basis for discussing the provider's dual obligations to keeping patient confidentiality and informing patients and families about risk (i.e. duty to warn). We also provide a summary of consensus points and additional discussion questions for each case.     

Is Literary Arabic a Second Language for Native Arab Speakers?: Evidence from Semantic Priming Study

The mother tongue of the absolute majority of native Arabic speakers is Spoken Arabic (SA), which is a local dialect that does not have a written form. For reading and writing, as well as for formal communication Literary Arabic (LA) is used. For the literate Arabs, these two languages are extensively inter-twined in every day life. Consequently, it is possible that, despite the difference between them, LA is not processed like a regular second language by the cognitive system of the native Arabic speakers but rather as an enhancement of the spoken lexicon. In the present study we examined this possibility comparing semantic priming effects in auditory lexical decision within SA (L1), with the effects found across languages with LA or in Hebrew (L2). Hebrew is doubtlessly a second language for native Arabic speakers. In this study we have manipulated semantic priming. In Experiment 1 the targets were in Spoken Arabic and the primes in any of the three languages. The semantic priming effect was twice as large within L1 as between languages and there was no difference between Hebrew and LA. In Experiment 2, all primes were in SA whereas the targets were in any of the three languages. The priming effects in that experiment were doubled relative to the previous experiment, but the inter-language relationships were the same. For both language pairings, the semantic priming was larger when the primes were presented in SA (and the targets in either Hebrew or LA) than when the primes were presented in one of the second languages and the targets in SA. The conclusion is that, despite the intensive daily use adult native Arabic speakers make of SA and LA, and despite their shared origin, the two languages retain their status as first and second languages in the cognitive system.     

Semantic priming: subliminal perception or context?

Briefly presented, masked priming stimuli that cannot be identified by themselves can affect the processing of subsequent targets. The effect, which is sometimes viewed as a demonstration of unconscious processing, has been linked to the subliminal perception literature. Experiments 1 and 2 indicated that the identification of primes in the context of semantically related targets is superior to the identification of primes presented alone, and that the identification of primes in the context of semantically unrelated targets is inferior to the identification of primes presented alone. Experiment 3 indicated parallel findings in a recognition task. Consequently, an explanation of semantic priming in terms of the interactive nature of stimuli that are near to one another in time seems preferable to one based upon concepts of unconscious processing and subliminal perception.     

Semantic processing in dichotic listening? A replication

This experiment explores semantic processing of one message while another is attended to and shadowed. It was an attempt to replicate and clarify an earlier finding by Lewis (1970). Like Lewis, we found that mean shadowing latency was increased when a synonym of the shadowed word coincided with it on the unattended channel. However, this occurred only with synonyms in an early list position and appeared to affect only a small proportion of trials. The implications of this and other recent findings for theories of selective listening are discussed.