When moderation is mediated and mediation is moderated

Procedures for examining whether treatment effects on an outcome are mediated and/or moderated have been well developed and are routinely applied. The mediation question focuses on the intervening mechanism that produces the treatment effect. The moderation question focuses on factors that affect the magnitude of the treatment effect. It is important to note that these two processes may be combined in informative ways, such that moderation is mediated or mediation is moderated. Although some prior literature has discussed these possibilities, their exact definitions and analytic procedures have not been completely articulated. The purpose of this article is to define precisely both mediated moderation and moderated mediation and provide analytic strategies for assessing each.     

行义的人都为主所悦纳

基督不是以色列人私有的财产,更不是西方教会的“专利品”,基督来为要拯救全世界那些愿意真诚悔改的人——以色列人是亚伯拉罕的后裔,是神从列邦中所拣选出来的,他们是“独居的民,不列在万民中”(民23:9),圣经因此称他们为“选民”(太24:22),“那儿子的名分、荣耀、诸约、律法、礼仪、应许都是他们的”,“按肉体说,基督也是从他们出来的”(罗9:4,5)。然而,因为他们弃绝了神的儿子耶稣,不承认他是基督,并且将神的儿子耶稣基督钉死在十字架上,“救恩便临到外邦人”(罗11: 11),“惟有本国的子民,竟被赶到外边黑暗里去,在那里必要哀哭切齿了”(太8:12)。以色列人迫切盼望基督来,甚至“百姓指望基督来的时候,人都心里猜疑,或者约翰是基督”(路3:15)。既然     

“吾生也有涯，而知也无涯”

中国传统四大学派即道、儒、墨和法家的思想不仅直接影响推动中国文化,而且流转到世界各国各地使异国学者也悟到中国传统哲学思想的深奥。其中,道家学派代表性著作《庄子》有很大的实际作用。有的人认为庄子的思想只是很复杂的哲学概念而已,它的实际作用并不是很大,读《庄子》的最大的作用是锻炼古文而内容方面对现代的人没有可以学到东西了。还有些人把《庄子》这一部著作当作有浓厚的文学色彩的中国浪漫主义杰作。但是,从《庄子》这一部著作的内容来考察现存的一切问题或者从这位先秦的思想家的哲学观念来切入、分析并揭开现代世界任何一…     

A Logic is Referential iff it is Selfextensional

The title of this paper is a theorem, which I am going to state and prove. The theorem extends from prepositional to predicate languages the result I presented in [5].     

A pound is a pound is a pound

According to the relevant alternatives theory of knowledge (RA), I know that p only if my evidence eliminates all relevant alternatives to p. Jonathan Schaffer has recently argued that David Lewis's version of RA, which is perhaps the most detailed version yet provided, cannot account for our failure to know in cases involving missed clues, that is, cases in which we see but fail to appreciate decisive evidence. I argue, however, that Lewis's version of RA survives exposure to missed clue cases. Moreover, even though Schaffer maintains that Lewis's Rule of Belief provides no protection against missed clue cases, I argue that we should credit the Rule of Belief with ensuring the survival of Lewis's version of RA.     

Belief bias is stronger when reasoning is more difficult

Three studies examine the influence of varying the difficulty of reasoning on the extent of belief bias, while minimising the possibility that the manipulation would influence the way participants approach the task. Specifically, reasoning difficulty was manipulated by making variations in problem content, while maintaining all other aspects of the problems constant. In Study 1, 191 participants were presented with consistent and conflict problems varying in two levels of difficulty. The results showed a significant influence of problem difficulty on the extent of the belief bias, such that the effect of belief was more pronounced for difficult problems. This effect was stronger in Study 2 (73 participants) where the difference in the difficulty of the problems was purposely accentuated. The results of both studies stress the importance of controlling for problem difficulty when studying belief bias. Study 3 examined one consequence of this, i.e., the classic belief vs. logic interaction could be eliminated by manipulating problem difficulty. Theoretical implications for dual-process accounts of belief bias are also discussed.     

Religion is natural, atheism is not: On why everybody is both right and wrong

After discussing evidence of irreligion and the rise of the so called “New Atheism”, the authors refute the claim that this poses a problem for the cognitive science of religion and its hypothesis that religion is natural. The “naturalness hypothesis” is not deterministic but probabilistic and thus leaves room for atheism. This, the authors maintain, is true of both the by-product and adaptationist stances within the cognitive science of religion. In this context the authors also discuss the memetic or “unnaturalness” hypothesis, i.e. that religion is a “virus of the mind”. The authors criticize accounts of atheism offered by cognitive scientists of religion as being based on unfounded assumptions about the psychology of atheists, and object to the notion that the natural aspects of religion by corollary make atheism unnatural. By considering human cognition in a semiotic framework and emphasizing its natural ability to take part in semiotic systems of signs, atheism emerges as a natural, cognitive strategy. The authors argue that to reach a fuller account of religion, the cognitive (naturalness) and memetic (unnaturalness) hypotheses of religion must be merged. Finally, a preliminary analysis of the “New Atheism” is offered in terms of semiotic and cognitive dynamics.     

Religion is natural,atheism is not: On why everybody is both right and wrong

After discussing evidence of irreligion and the rise of the so called “New Atheism”, the authors refute the claim that this poses a problem for the cognitive science of religion and its hypothesis that religion is natural. The “naturalness hypothesis” is not deterministic but probabilistic and thus leaves room for atheism. This, the authors maintain, is true of both the by‐product and adaptationist stances within the cognitive science of religion. In this context the authors also discuss the memetic or “unnaturalness” hypothesis, i.e. that religion is a “virus of the mind”. The authors criticize accounts of atheism offered by cognitive scientists of religion as being based on unfounded assumptions about the psychology of atheists, and object to the notion that the natural aspects of religion by corollary make atheism unnatural. By considering human cognition in a semiotic framework and emphasizing its natural ability to take part in semiotic systems of signs, atheism emerges as a natural, cognitive strategy. The authors argue that to reach a fuller account of religion, the cognitive (naturalness) and memetic (unnaturalness) hypotheses of religion must be merged. Finally, a preliminary analysis of the “New Atheism” is offered in terms of semiotic and cognitive dynamics     

Dog is a dog is a dog: infant rule learning is not specific to language

Human infants possess powerful learning mechanisms used for the acquisition of language. To what extent are these mechanisms domain specific? One well-known infant language learning mechanism is the ability to detect and generalize rule-like similarity patterns, such as ABA or ABB [Marcus, G. F., Vijayan, S., Rao, S. B., & Vishton, P. M. (1999). Rule learning by seven-month-old infants. Science, 283, 77-80.]. The results of three experiments demonstrate that 7-month-old infants can detect and generalize these same patterns when the elements consist of pictures of animals (dogs and cats). These findings indicate that rule learning of this type is not specific to language acquisition.     

Visual search is slowed when visuospatial working memory is occupied

Visual working memory plays a central role in most models of visual search. However, a recent study showed that search efficiency was not impaired when working memory was filled to capacity by a concurrent object memory task (Woodman, Vogel, & Luck, 2001). Objects and locations may be stored in separate working memory subsystems, and it is plausible that visual search relies on the spatial subsystem, but not on the object subsystem. In the present study, we sought to determine whether maintaining spatial information in visual working memory impairs the efficiency of a concurrent visual search task. Visual search efficiency and spatial memory accuracy were both impaired when the search and the memory tasks were performed concurrently, as compared with when the tasks were performed separately. These findings suggest that common mechanisms are used to process information during difficult visual search tasks and to maintain spatial information in working memory.