Special Sciences: still a flawed argument after all these years

Jerry Fodor has argued that the multiple realizability argument, as discussed in his original “Special Sciences” article, “refutes psychophysical reductionism once and for all.” I argue that his argument in “Special Sciences” does no such thing. Furthermore, if one endorses the physicalism that most supporters of the “Special Sciences” view endorse, special science laws must be reducible, in principle. The compatibility of MR with reduction, however, need not threaten the autonomy of the special sciences.     

The meaning of “significance” for different types of research [translated and annotated by Eric-Jan Wagenmakers,Denny Borsboom,Josine Verhagen,Rogier Kievit,Marjan Bakker,Angelique Cramer,Dora Matzke,Don Mellenbergh,and Han L. J. van der Maas]

Adrianus Dingeman de Groot (1914–2006) was one of the most influential Dutch psychologists. He became famous for his work “Thought and Choice in Chess”, but his main contribution was methodological — De Groot co-founded the Department of Psychological Methods at the University of Amsterdam (together with R. F. van Naerssen), founded one of the leading testing and assessment companies (CITO), and wrote the monograph “Methodology” that centers on the empirical-scientific cycle: observation–induction–deduction–testing–evaluation. Here we translate one of De Groot's early articles, published in 1956 in the Dutch journal Nederlands Tijdschrift voor de Psychologie en Haar Grensgebieden. This article is more topical now than it was almost 60 years ago. De Groot stresses the difference between exploratory and confirmatory (“hypothesis testing”) research and argues that statistical inference is only sensible for the latter: “One ‘is allowed’ to apply statistical tests in exploratory research, just as long as one realizes that they do not have evidential impact”. De Groot may have also been one of the first psychologists to argue explicitly for preregistration of experiments and the associated plan of statistical analysis. The appendix provides annotations that connect De Groot's arguments to the current-day debate on transparency and reproducibility in psychological science.     

Audiovisual semantic interference and attention: Evidence from the attentional blink paradigm

In the present study we investigate the role of attention in audiovisual semantic interference, by using an attentional blink paradigm. Participants were asked to make an unspeeded response to the identity of a visual target letter. This target letter was preceded at various SOAs by a synchronized audiovisual letter-pair, which was either congruent (e.g. hearing an “F” and viewing an “F”) or incongruent (e.g. hearing an “F” and viewing a “Z”). In Experiment 1, participants were asked to match the members of the audiovisual letter-pair. In Experiment 2, participants were asked to ignore the synchronized audiovisual letter-pairs altogether and only report the visual target. In Experiment 3, participants were asked to identify only one of the audiovisual letters (identify the auditory letter, and ignore the synchronized visual letter, or vice versa). An attentional blink was found in all three experiments indicating that the audiovisual letter-pairs were processed. However, a congruency effect on subsequent target detection was observed in Experiments 1 and 3, but not in Experiment 2. The results indicate that attention to the semantic contents of at least one modality is necessary to establish audiovisual semantic interference.     

Reason

ReasonJean Piaget wrote three short papers shortly before his death in 1980

Paper I: Scientific Report on Work during 1978-1979.Paper II: Reason as Objective of the Understanding.Paper III: Reason: Introduction.Each is probably incomplete, Papers II and III definitely so. These papers were intended as a contribution to his 1979-1980 research project “Reason,” here translated into English for the first time. Their central argument is distinctive. It amounts to Piaget's final statement of his empirical model of normative reason as a mechanism intrinsic to the construction of knowledge during children's cognitive development.     

The “New Big Five” from a personalistic point of view

McAdams and Pals (2006) “New Big Five” principles are contrasted with William Stern's conception of the person. It is criticized that the intra-individual organization of the person is not adequately addressed in the “New Big Five” approach: McAdams and Pals are shifting the issue of the idiosyncratic organization of the person to the level of a more or less coherent life narrative. The person tells or constructs a narrative, the person, however, is not the narrative.It is therefore suggested to complement and enrich the “New Big Five” with the three primary characteristics of the person as proposed by William Stern: unitas multiplex, purposefulness and individuality. In addition, Stern's concept of introception is suggested as a more integrated view of how the external world is internalized within the person. In concluding, the significance of Stern's critical personalism for an integrative science of personality in the 21^st century is highlighted.     

Perspective et actualité de Pierre Janet sur les possessions et les extases mystiques

Pierre Janet (1859–1947), a professor of psychology at the collège de France (1901–1934) and the founder of the French Psychological Society in 1901, took interest in the psychology of religion very young and then all along his career. At age 15, a painful crisis of doubts changes him: he becomes atheistic and above all, gains a passion for the psychology of belief (Prévost, 1973). After his “aggregation” degree, he starts examining and curing people with mental diseases at the hospital in Le Havre. Within six years, his works would build the reference synthesis on the “dissociation of the personality”. But the dissociation process is tightly bounded to the properties of belief (L’automatisme psychologique, 1889). The presentation of his famous case “Achille” (1891–1898) possessed “by the devil” will stand for Janet as a textbook case about religious dissociation, and he will consider his successful treatment of this patient as a “modern exorcism” (Névroses et idées fixes, 1898). The famous mystic “Madeleine” who suffered from psychasthenia provided him the opportunity to precise the links between religious phenomena and the properties of belief. Madeleine's oscillations between torture, void and ecstasy, pertain to “tension” variations that directly impact her belief according to their stage – asseritive or reflected – on the Janetian hierarchy ( Janet, 1926–1928). In the second part of his life and career, where Janet takes time to think about his models and practice, he paints a large picture of the evolution of the “self” (L’Évolution psychologique de la personnalité, Janet, 1929) and extends his analysis to traditional cultures where the bounds of the self is more variable, the personality being able to include spirits within itself. The inclusion in the DSM III, of “dissociative troubles” in 1980, for its first atheoretic release, is visibly drawn upon Janet's English writings ( 0175, 0215 and 0070). Following this introduction, a great body of international studies took Janet's modelization and results into consideration (except in France). In 1994, the DSM-IV also adds the dissociative transe disorder category (DTD), which includes religious possession by demons or spirits: this leads to the development of international studies on the psychology of religion within a transcultural frame. After being forgotten for years, the experimental results of Pierre Janet currently undergo an important excavation thanks to recent psychological research, and prove their relevance to contribute to contemporary debates.     

Contribution of NIRS to the study of prefrontal cortex for verbal fluency in aging

Healthy aging is characterized by a number of changes on brain structure and function. Several neuroimaging studies have shown an age-related reduction in hemispheric asymmetry on various cognitive tasks, a phenomenon captured by Cabeza (2002) in the Hemispheric Asymmetry Reduction in Older Adults (HAROLD) model. Although this phenomenon is supported by a range of neuroimaging data on memory and inhibitory processes, there is little evidence concerning changes in hemispheric asymmetry for language processing, and particularly word retrieval, which is assessed with verbal fluency task (VFT). This study aimed to investigate the age-related changes in cerebral oxygenation in the prefrontal cortex for both letter and category VFT, varying the complexity of the criteria (i.e., degree of productivity) and using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Sixteen younger and 16 older adults participated in this study. For both VF conditions, participants were instructed to pronounce as many nouns as possible as a function of high-productivity (e.g., “animals” or “L”) or low-productivity (e.g., “flowers” or “V”) criteria. Behavioral data (i.e., accuracy responses) showed comparable performance in younger and older adults for both VF conditions. However, NIRS data showed more reduced activation (i.e., significantly reduced increase in [O₂Hb] and reduced decrease in [HHb]) in older than younger adults for both VFT. In addition, a bilateral effect was found for both groups, suggesting that VFT requires both executive and language functions. The results are discussed in the context of the current theories of aging.     

Personalistic concepts in action: The case of Adolf Hitler

Grounded in his personalistic worldview, William Stern regarded persons as inherently valuable beings who use values to conduct their lives. One might wonder if such a value-laden and idealistic approach can be applied to the case of Adolf Hitler, who clearly was a very destructive and disharmonious figure. In order to deal with this challenging question we will refer to three personalistic principles, namely convergence, introception, and unitas multiplex. As our analysis shows, all three principles can be exemplified in the case of Hitler if a neutralized version of each principle is used. By the demonstration of “iron will” he strived for coherence and unity, and was tremendously successful in managing that his followers introcepted the Nazi ideals. The convergence principle also applies to Hitler since there was unique conjunction of his traits with influences of his era.     

When what you say about others says something about you: Language abstraction and inferences about describers’ attitudes and goals

According to the linguistic category model ( [Semin and Fiedler, 1988] and [Semin and Fiedler, 1991]), a person’s behavior can be described at varying levels of abstraction from concrete (e.g., “Lisa slaps Ann”) to abstract (e.g., “Lisa is aggressive”). Research has shown that language abstraction conveys information about the person whose behavior is described (Wigboldus, Semin, & Spears, 2000). However to date, little research has examined the information that language abstraction may convey about describers themselves. In this paper, we report three experiments demonstrating that describers who use relatively abstract language to describe others’ behaviors are perceived to have biased attitudes and motives compared with those describers who use more concrete language.     

Counterfactual structure and learning from experience in negotiations

Reflecting on the past is often a critical ingredient for successful learning. The current research investigated how counterfactual thinking, reflecting on how prior experiences might have been different, motivates effective learning from these previous experiences. Specifically, we explored how the structure of counterfactual reflection - their additive (“If only I had”) versus subtractive (“If only I had not”) nature - influences performance in dyadic-level strategic interactions. Building on the functionalist account of counterfactuals, we found across two experiments that generating additive counterfactuals about a previous negotiation produced an advantage for negotiators over their previous performance compared to subtractive counterfactuals, both in terms of obtaining value for oneself and conceiving creative agreements. Additive counterfactuals enabled negotiators to more effectively extract lessons from past experiences to improve their current negotiation performance.     

What counts as “good” quantitative research and what can we say about when to use quantitative and/or qualitative methods?

In response to points raised by Dawson, Fischer, and Stein; Stam; and Stiles, the author delineates what counts as “good” quantitative research according to his proposal for explicitly interpretive quantitative methods. The key points concern how to employ these methods, not which quantitative methods we should use—“strong” rather than “soft” or vice versa. The author discusses ways in which what others would consider “strong” quantitative procedures can be extremely useful, although he argues that these procedures are interpretive. The reconceptualization of quantitative research offered here also suggests that the distinction between quantitative and qualitative research is much less fundamental than most researchers think. In a consideration of what we can say in general about when to employ quantitative and/or qualitative methods, the author returns to the theme of the limits of possible understanding in psychology.     

Get an Apprenticeship before School Is Out: How German Adolescents Adjust Vocational Aspirations When Getting Close to a Developmental Deadline

Opportunities to attain important life goals are sequenced in age-graded trajectories that wax and wane throughout life. A prime example of such age-graded opportunity structures is the transition from school to work. The institutions of vocational training in Germany closely scaffold this transition and provide developmental deadlines for attaining the critical transition, namely finding an apprenticeship position. Adjustments of vocational aspirations are investigated with regard to the social prestige of three indicators of aspirations, “dream job,” “vocation I am interested in,” and apprenticeships applied for. Findings indicate that adolescents progressively adjusted their “dream job” to “job I am interested in” as the deadline approaches. Moreover, overall adolescents matched their school performance to the social prestige of apprenticeships for which they applied. Boys and girls whose motivational orientation did not match their gender prototype attained particularly high levels of achievement and aspiration.     

Neuropsychology, neuroscience, volitional impairment and sexually violent predators: A review of the literature and the law and their application to civil commitment proceedings

The U.S. Supreme Court held in Kansas v. Crane, the person's mental abnormality or personality disorder must cause the individual to have “serious difficulty in controlling his sexual behavior,” rather than “total or complete lack of control.” While most state civil commitment statutes do not mandate this volitional impairment language relevant to loss of control, they instead incorporate the requirement of findings of “likely” or “likelihood” to reoffend. Yet in some of these state SVP hearings, the forensic mental health expert witnesses testify as to the offender's ability to control his sex offending behaviors. Occasionally, some of these experts are neuropsychologists and neurologists who testify about a sex offender's neurological and cognitive impairment resulting in sexually deviant behavior, volitional impairment, and likelihood of reoffending. This article's focus is to assess deviant sexual offending behaviors and volitional impairment through a neuropsychological and neurological lens. The author will provide an analysis of the literature as to the structural and functional neurocognitive processes of sex offending pertaining to neuropathology, neuropsychology, and neuroimaging data. The author will attempt to apply these findings to the legal requirements outlined in Crane necessitating commitment of sex offenders who experience some volitional impairment in their behaviors that lead them to be likely to sexually reoffend. The author will review state case law addressing neuroscience in SVP proceedings.     

Developing the therapeutic relationship: from 'expert' professional to 'expert' person who stutters

This article looks back over the years and identifies some of the most influential thinkers, writers, and researchers who have had a profound effect on the way the therapy at the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children in London has evolved. It tracks the changes that have occurred in theoretical perspective, treatments offered, and the delivery of therapy. In particular this author is interested in the changing nature of the therapeutic relationship between professionals and people who stutter (PWS), and describes the way it has developed from the “expert professional” towards a more collaborative relationship that recognises the “expert patient”. It was inspired by a book written in 1902 by Mr Beasley, a person who stammered. After several unsuccessful attempts to find a ‘cure’ he found his own solution to his stuttering and then used what he had learned to help many others. Much of what he wrote was well ahead of his time and reminds us, the professionals, of the importance of listening to and taking account of the views of PWS in therapy and designing treatment that meets the needs of the individual. This article also looks briefly at evidence based practice (EBP) and the issues involved in measuring outcomes that reflect the complex and individual nature of the problem. Finally the importance of the research in developing the knowledge and skill base of clinicians as well as PWS is acknowledged and discussed and the way ahead signposted.Educational objectives: The reader will learn about (1) the early history and development of stuttering therapy, (2) the influence of a variety of psychotherapeutic approaches, (3) the relevance of designing therapy to meet the needs of the PWS, and (4) discuss the role of ‘common’ factors in EBP.     

Stereotypes and implicit social comparison: Shifts in comparison-group focus

Stereotypes affect how people understand implicit comparisons. In two studies, people judged the comparison implied by a statement (e.g., “Math is easy for me,” “I’m really aggressive”) made by an African-American, White, or Asian-American male. Counter-stereotypic comments, such as the African-American saying he was “bad” at basketball, caused participants to think the target was comparing himself to his narrow ingroup; stereotypic statements caused people to infer that the comparison group was broader. When compared to a fixed standard (all people in USA), evidence that people used stereotypes consistently emerged. Whether motivated or not, by narrowing the comparison standard when presented with a counter-stereotypic case, participants constructed an understanding of the target that protected the stereotype from challenge.     

A general method for computing hierarchical component structures by Goldberg’s Bass-Ackwards method

Goldberg [Goldberg, L. R.(in press) Doing it all Bass-Ackwards: The development of hierarchical factor structures from the top down. Journal of Research in Personality] has recently described a novel method for computing hierarchical component structures via a “top down” design. He calls his method the “Bass Ackwards” approach to distinguish it from more common “bottom up” methods for obtaining hierarchical solutions. Using simple matrix equations, in this commentary I demonstrate that the end result of a Bass Ackwards analysis—that is, the correlations between component scores from different levels of a hierarchy—can be calculated without calculating the actual component scores. By avoiding component-score calculation, Goldberg’s method (a) can be applied to any data set in which a correlation matrix is available, and (b) can be applied to factor scores rather than estimated factor scores. Goldberg suggests that the Bass Ackwards method represents a useful tool for elucidating the underlying dimensionality and latent structure (rotation in hyperspace) of a data set. Computer code is reported in the Appendix A of this article to help personality researchers more fully evaluate this claim in empirical and simulated data.     

The embodied cognition theory and the motor component of “yes” and “no” verbal responses

Most of the experiments which give theories of embodied cognition their empirical anchorage only take into consideration the motor responses induced by the task or the motor component of the visual stimulus. And yet, these motor responses are often associated with a linguistic answer. Our hypothesis is that “YES” and “NO” verbal responses have a motor component. In a first experiment we showed that producing a verbal response (YES vs. NO) involves motor planning (pushing vs. pulling): participants push a lever more quickly when they have to answer “yes” than “no”, and conversely, they pull a lever more quickly when they have to answer “no” than “yes”. Moreover, in a second experiment, we showed that perceiving the words “YES” and “NO”, on its own, leads to the same motor planning than when “yes” and “no” answers actually have to be produced. Participants detect the word “YES” faster when they have to push a lever than when they have to pull it and conversely they detect the word “NO” faster when they have to pull the lever than when they have to push it down. These results are discussed in reference to “online” and “offline embodiment” concepts and to the cognitive linguistic theories.     

‘An unpublished letter by Sigmund Freud on the Shakespeare authorship question’

This article provides the text of the English translation of Sigmund Freud’s previously unpublished 1935 letter to Percy Allen, the only known letter in which Freud expresses his unqualified support for the theory that ‘William Shakespeare’ was the pen name of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford (1550–1604). The article summarizes the literature on Freud’s authorship views, showing that scholars who disagree with Freud on this matter have minimized his opinion by pathologizing it, or emphasizing Freud’s reservations about the matter. The prevailing theory as to who wrote Shakespeare, on close examination, turns out to be based primarily on circular thinking, confirmation bias, tradition, authority, groupthink, and enforcement of a taboo against the presentation or objective consideration of conflicting evidence. In addition, it originated before we had a better understanding of the high frequency of anonymous, pseudonymous, and allonymous literature in Elizabethan England. The reputations enjoyed by leading Shakespeare scholars lead nonspecialists to assume that these experts can be trusted to tell us who wrote Shakespeare. Unfortunately, Shakespeare scholars falsely claim absolute certainty that they know that ‘Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare.’ Freud’s dissenting opinion has been supported by increasing evidence since 1935.