When cognitive scientists become religious, science is in trouble: On neurotheology from a philosophy of science perspective

Since the 1990s medical technology has afforded exciting possibilities for studying the brain. Together with knowledge accrued through psychology and psychiatry, it has set the stage for pioneering research and stimulated disciplines such as Social Neuroscience, the Cognitive Science of Religion, Cognitive Anthropology, and Cognitive Archaeology. Another discipline has arisen, Neurotheology, which is interested in the brain and religious experience. Early proponents such as d'Aquili and Newberg had a religious agenda in their work. Others, such as members of Transcendental Meditation, have used experimental and brain studies to legitimate religious agendas. Experiential shamanists have embarked on a similar legitimation process. The differences between science and therapy and spirituality have been blurred or denied. Neurotheological attempts to discover areas of the brain responsible for religious experiences have led to untenable results. The fact that such research has passed the peer review process of leading psychological, psychiatric, and neurological journals is perhaps more indicative of the pervasiveness of religiosity throughout American society than of objective brain science. This essay argues that neurotheology is an example of the struggle between confessional and critical approaches to the study of religion. The main difference is that the battlefield of this struggle is the brain.     

When meaning is useless

The aim of this study is to disentangle the relative contribution of semantic and phonological representation in immediate serial recall. Indeed, short-term memory (STM) performance could be enhanced by familiarity with the phonological form of the word only or together with semantic information. Participants learned two sets of words in an unknown language: for one set they acquired both phonology and semantics, while for the other only phonology. After that, they performed two immediate serial recall tasks involving either “phonology and semantics” or “only phonology” words and one with untrained words. The analyses showed that the trained lists did not differ from each other, while they did from the untrained one. These data confirm that familiarity with the phonological form is sufficient for immediate serial recall. Therefore, we argue that semantics is not required for verbal STM, but knowledge of the phonological form is what matters.     

When propriety is improper

Philosophical Studies - We argue that philosophers ought to distinguish epistemic decision theory and epistemology, in just the way ordinary decision theory is distinguished from ethics. Once one...     

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.     

When is Topic Avoidance Unsatisfying?

Despite theoretical arguments that avoiding certain topics can be functional, there is consistent evidence that avoiding topics tends to be associated with dissatisfying relationships. This disparity between theory and empirical findings suggests a need to understand better the connection between topic avoidance and relational dissatisfaction. The current study, which is grounded in communication privacy management theory (Petronio, 2002), examines this issue by investigating moderators of the connection between avoidance and dissatisfaction. Data were gathered from 114 parent–child dyads and 100 heterosexual dating couples. Results suggested that the associations between topic avoidance and relational dissatisfaction were moderated by individuals’ motivations for avoidance and by personal and relational characteristics that are conceptually linked to such motivations. These findings are consistent with theoretical arguments that topic avoidance can be benign—and even helpful—in some relational circumstances.     

When negation is easier than affirmation

An experiment is reported which establishes that affirmative sentences are not always easier to grasp than negative sentences. The subjects had to make inferences from pairs of premises such as: “Either John is intelligent or he is rich. John is not rich”. The task was reliably easier when the second premise was explicitly negative (as in the example) than when it was an affirmative (“John is poor”). It was most difficult when the negative occurred in the disjunctive premise and was denied by an affirmative (e.g. “John is intelligent or he is not rich. John is rich”). It is argued that it is simpler to establish that two statements are mutually inconsistent when one is the explicit negation of the other, but that the natural function of the negative is to deny.     

When 'knowing how' is not enough

Two cases are described of students with a common presenting problem — an inability to concentrate while studying. The factors contributing to poor concentration are explored. Some conclusions are drawn about the types of counsellor interventions which might be useful when working with such students.     

When organizational climate is unambiguous, it is also strong

Several recent studies have addressed the topic of climate strength--the degree to which there is agreement among an organization's members regarding the practices and policies as well as the shared values that characterize the organization. To further investigate antecedents of climate strength, the authors used data from the GLOBE Project, totaling 3,783 individuals from 123 organizations. The authors hypothesized that they would find greater climate strength in organizations with climates reflecting mechanistic as opposed to organic organizational forms. Although the authors did in fact find such a trend, they also unexpectedly uncovered significant and strong nonlinear effects, such that climates that are clearly mechanistic or clearly organic have strong climates, with weaker climates emerging for organizations with more ambiguous climates. These findings provide interesting new avenues to pursue in understanding the origins of climate strength.     

When statistical evidence is not specific enough

Synthese - Many philosophers have pointed out that statistical evidence, or at least some forms of it, lack desirable epistemic or non-epistemic properties, and that this should make us wary of...     

When facial attractiveness is only skin deep

Whilst the relationship between aspects of facial shape and attractiveness has been extensively studied, few studies have investigated which characteristics of the surface of faces positively influence attractiveness judgments. As many researchers have proposed a link between attractiveness and traits that appear healthy, apparent health of facial skin might be a property of the surface of faces that positively influences attractiveness judgments. In experiment 1 we tested for a positive correlation between ratings of the apparent health of small skin patches (extracted from the left and right cheeks of digital face images) and ratings of the attractiveness of male faces. By using computer-graphics faces, in experiment 2 we aimed to establish if apparent health of skin influences male facial attractiveness independently of shape information. Results suggest that apparent health of facial skin is correlated both with ratings of male facial attractiveness (experiment 1) and with being a visual cue for judgments of the attractiveness of male faces (experiment 2). These findings underline the importance of controlling for the influence of visible skin condition in studies of facial attractiveness and are consistent with the proposal that attractive physical traits are those that positively influence others' perceptions of an individual's health.