Consciousness,self-consciousness,and meditation

Many spiritual traditions employ certain mental techniques (meditation) which consist in inhibiting mental activity whilst nonetheless remaining fully conscious, which is supposed to lead to a realisation of one’s own true nature prior to habitual self-substantialisation. In this paper I propose that this practice can be understood as a special means of becoming aware of consciousness itself as such. To explain this claim I conduct some phenomenologically oriented considerations about the nature of consciousness qua presence and the problem of self-presence of this presence.

论儿童心理发展的模块性问题

模块理论是当代认知心理学中影响很大的一种关于人类认知结构性质及其组成的观点,它对儿童心理发展特别是认知发展领域的研究产生了重要影响。本文从儿童心理发展的视角,探讨了模块理论对于我们理解人类心理发展的意义。     

Agency,Consciousness, and Executive Control

On the Causal Theory of Action (CTA), internal proper parts of an agent such as desires and intentions are causally responsible for actions. CTA has increasingly come under attack for its alleged failure to account for agency. A recent version of this criticism due to François Schroeter proposes that CTA cannot provide an adequate account of either the executive control or the autonomous control involved in full-fledged agency. Schroeter offers as an alternative a revised understanding of the proper role of consciousness in agency. In this paper we criticize Schroeter’s analysis of the type of consciousness involved in executive control and examine the way in which the conscious self allegedly intervenes in action. We argue that Schroeter’s proposal should not be preferred over recent versions of CTA.     

试析内隐学习的意识-无意识兼容性

内隐学习研究初期,其无意识特点揭示了区别于外显学习的独特本质。但随着研究的深入,内隐学习逐渐昭显出与意识的丝丝联系。本文从此出发,探讨内隐学习的意识-无意识的兼容特点,具体从理论和实证两方面探讨内隐学习和无意识的联系,从次要任务研究、内隐学习的理解性以及内隐知识的发展三方面阐述内隐学习和意识的联系。     

Meditation and the scope of mental action

While philosophers of mind have devoted abundant time and attention to questions of content and consciousness, philosophical questions about the nature and scope of mental action have been relatively neglected. Galen Strawson’s account of mental action, the most well developed extant account, holds that cognitive mental action consists in triggering the delivery of content to one’s field of consciousness. However, Strawson fails to recognize several distinct types of mental action that might not reduce to triggering content delivery. In this article, we argue that meditation provides a useful model for understanding a wider range of types of mental action than heretofore recognized. Conclusions yielded by two distinct bodies of current psychological research on meditation and cognition, and meditation and introspection, buttress meditation’s suitability for this role.     

牟宗三"实践的智慧学"探求诠论

对哲学作为“实践的智慧学”的探求是牟宗三后期哲学思考的核心。这一探索,开启了牟宗三中国哲学与康德哲学双向诠释的基本视域,也拓出了道德形而上学体系建构的理论地平。“实践的智慧学”诠释具有独特的理论内涵,也隐含了牟氏道德形上学自我批判与超越的思想线索。     

Emergence of Joint Attention: Relationships Between Gaze Following,Social Referencing,Imitation, and Naming in Infancy

The authors investigated the extent to which the joint-attention behaviors of gaze following, social referencing, and object-directed imitation were related to each other and to infants' vocabulary development in a sample of 60 infants between the ages of 8 and 14 months. Joint-attention skills and vocabulary development were assessed in a laboratory setting. Split-half reliability analyses on the joint-attention measures indicated that the tasks reliably assessed infants' capabilities. In the main analysis, no significant correlations were found among the joint-attention behaviors except for a significant relationship between gaze following and the number of names in infants' productive vocabularies. The overall pattern of results did not replicate results of previous studies (e.g., M. Carpenter, K. Nagell, & M. Tomasello, 1998) that found relationships between various emerging joint-attention behaviors.     

Consciousness about own and others' affects: a study of the validity of a revised version of the Affect Consciousness Interview

This study presents a modified version of the affect consciousness interview ( Monsen, Eilertsen, Melgård & Ödegård, 1996 ), intended to capture the individual's affective consciousness. The aim of the modified version – The Affect Consciousness Interview – Revised (ACI‐R) – is to measure consciousness about own and others’ affects. Three groups of patients (with eating disorder, relational and social problems or stress‐related problems), and one non‐clinical group were included in the study (N= 95). The results indicated that it was possible to achieve adequate interrater reliability, that the scores correlated meaningfully with other measures of mental functioning, and that the interview discriminated between different clinical groups and non‐clinical participants. In conclusion, the results of this study suggest that the ACI‐R is a promising instrument and that it should be explored further in order to study the organization of self‐experiences and the ability to be emotionally present in interactions with others.     

The Death of a Child and the Birth of Practical Wisdom

This paper explores the notion of practical wisdom asan alternative to current formulations of criticalthinking. The practical realm is that ofill-structured problems that emerge from life aslived; it is a realm of legitimate uncertainty andambiguity that requires an ethical responsiveness orpractical wisdom. The death of a child is a case inpoint. The author identifies and examines threeaspects of practical wisdom – the ethical claims ofpartiality, a yielding responsiveness and the play ofthought – and juxtaposes them with aspects of criticalthinking. The work of Martha Nussbaum and RichardPaul are interwoven throughout the discussion. Theauthor concludes that the discourse of criticalthinking is in danger of lapsing into a form of moralescapism wherein all we are rationally responsible foris thinking correctly. Practical wisdom, on theother hand, recognizes that thinking is not simply anintellectual cognitive act of an individual but adance between the life of a child and the love of anelder, a conversation between what is and what couldbe, an openness to passionate sorrow and surprise, aplay between understanding and perception. As such,practical wisdom provides a more likely account ofliving in good faith with oneself and others.     

Pursuing Wisdom: An Investigation of the Relationship Between Some Ancient Religious Concepts of Wisdom and Current Notions of Critical Thinking Within Information Literacy

In a recent research project, I asked first year college students if they felt they used wisdom when doing research on the Internet. Coming from faith-based contexts, they did not consider the question an unusual one. However, in my discussions of information literacy at the library school, the concept of wisdom was not as common. Following the work of Maxwell and Targowski, this article will investigate connections between current discussion on critical thinking and some ancient ideals of wisdom from the Book of Proverbs and the Analects of Confucius with the hope that such insight will inform and improve our perspective and practice of information literacy.     

Neuropsychological Assessment of Mental Capacity

The assessment of mental capacity to assist legal determinations of competency is potentially a growth area for neuropsychology, although to date neuropsychologists have published relatively little in this area. In this paper a systematic review of methods used to assess capacity is presented, including coverage of specialized tests and interviews used for this purpose. A neuropsychological model for conducting capacity assessments is proposed. This model involves comprehensive assessment of a wide range of cognitive abilities as well as assessment of specific skills and knowledge related to the type of capacity being assessed. The purpose of proposing this model is to stimulate further discussion and debate about the contribution neuropsychologists might make in this area.     

心理账户的非替代性及其运算规则

心理账户理论(Mental accounting Theory)由萨勒(Thaler)教授提出,他认为：小到个体、家庭,大到企业集团,都有或明确或潜在的心理账户系统。心理账户有两个最本质的特征：一是非替代性;二是具有不同于经济学的特定运算规则。本文分析了心理帐户非替代性的三种表现,从值函数,得与失的编码规则和参照点效应探讨了心理帐户的特定运算规则。这对解释人的非理性经济行为有重要价值。     

Infant Attention Grows Up: The Emergence of a Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective

Visual attention has long been regarded as a tool for studying the development of basic cognitive skills in infancy and early childhood. However, over the past decade, the development of attention in early life has emerged as an important topic of research in its own right. This essay describes recent changes in the methods used to study attention in infancy, and in the nature of inferences about the early development of attention, as both research and theory in the area have become progressively integrated with models of attention from cognitive science and neuroscience.     

内隐学习的意识性研究述评

在内隐学习的研究中,尽管目前已经默认了内隐学习的存在,但是,内隐学习与意识的关系,一直有着不断的争论.文章从内隐学习足否是无意识的、次级任务对内隐学习的影响和内隐学习的关系等三个方面对内隐学习的意识性研究主要的矛盾焦点进行了述评.     

Women,Mental Health,and Managed Care

Abstract

Managed care has changed the way that mental health care is provided. These insurers manage such factors as length and type of therapy made available, access to therapy, and level of payment for therapy. Women, as the majority of those insured by managed care and as consumers of mental healthcare, are differentially affected by these changes.     

WISDOM, PESSIMISM, AND MIRTHReflections on the Contribution of Biblical Wisdom Literature to Business Ethics

Ancient Israel's wisdom literature dealt explicitly with moral education. Applying this literature to modern challenges of business ethics requires reading the texts in the light of existential structures that bond the ancient with the modern world. Such structures could include the temporal categories of present and future along with the challenging angst of managing the future. By providing conflicting positions the ancient wisdom literature provides an attitude of heart for the modern person, especially the modern business person, whose all‐absorbing attention to the future may well be based on an underlying existential situation behind much unethical behavior in modern business.     

Breath Versus Emotions: The Impact of Different Foci of Attention During Mindfulness Meditation on the Experience of Negative and Positive Emotions

Mindfulness meditation yields beneficial effects on the processing of emotions. However, it is still unclear whether the focus of attention during meditation influences these effects. In the present study we aimed at comparing the effects of breathing meditation and emotion-focused meditation on the immediate and delayed processing of negative and positive emotions. The study included 65 adult novice meditators who were exposed to positively and negatively valenced film clips. Participants were randomly assigned to three conditions. While watching the films at t1, they were asked to mindfully focus on their breath (condition 1), on emotions (condition 2), or on nothing in particular (condition 3). Ten minutes later at t2, comparable film clips were shown but all participants watched them without taking up a mindful attitude. Dependent measures were emotional states at t1 and t2. Participants of both meditation conditions particularly showed a more preferable delayed emotional reaction to negative stimuli than participants of the control condition. Breathing meditation and emotion-focused meditation may constitute effective emotion regulation strategies to deal with negatively valenced emotional states.     

Consciousness as a Process: From the Loneliness of William James to the Buzzing and Booming Voices of Contemporary Science

This Special Issue of IPBS brings the old metaphor of William James—consciousness as a “stream of thought”—to a contemporary critical inspection. It is demonstrated—based on materials of language (Panksepp 2008; Shanahan 2008), perception (Engelmann 2008) and dialogical self (Bertau 2008) that the classic river metaphor is an inadequate depiction of the multi-level psychological processes that are regulated by the affective systems of the brain and hierarchically integrated through dialogical and semiotic mechanisms.