HIV, Cognition and Women

Although the incidence of HIV in the United States is higher among men compared to women, the global proportion of women versus men who are infected has been approximately 50% since the late 1990s. Women have been under-represented in neuropsychological studies of HIV. A small number of studies have reported a significantly higher prevalence of neurocognitive impairment among HIV+ women compared to HIV− controls regardless of symptom status and with or without an AIDS diagnosis. Impairment was most evident on psychomotor tasks. The risk of neuropsychological impairment was increased among HIV+ women not on antiretroviral therapy. Age and depressive symptoms also increase neurocognitive risk. New neurocognitive studies of ovarian steroid hormones, PTSD and other psychiatric conditions are critical for addressing potential female-specific aspects of HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder. Such studies will also address questions regarding involvement of the hippocampus and verbal memory, which may be of particular significance among HIV+ women.

Aristotle,the Intellect,and Cognition

It is argued in this paper that the famous ＂Active Intellect＂ of De Anima 3.5 is not God, as Alexander of Aphrodisias held, but rather an unchanging, eternally cognizing Intellect which serves as the indispensable condition for the operation of human intellect. It is ＂at the door＂ for each individual, ready to flow in as a stream of light--a light which renders potential objects of cognition knowable, just as visible light makes potentially visible objects visible--from outside that door （thyrathen） any time it is opened. Its existence cannot serve, however, as a proof of the immortality of human intellect, since, being unchanging, it can never possess a feature of human intellect which is characterized by nothing if not change, and that is memory.     

Cognition, action, and object manipulation

Although psychology is the science of mental life and behavior, little attention has been paid to the means by which mental life is translated into behavior. One domain in which links between cognition and action have been explored is the manipulation of objects. This article reviews psychological research on this topic, with special emphasis on the tendency to grasp objects differently depending on what one plans to do with the objects. Such differential grasping has been demonstrated in a wide range of object manipulation tasks, including grasping an object in a way that reveals anticipation of the object's future orientation, height, and required placement precision. Differential grasping has also been demonstrated in a wide range of behaviors, including 1-hand grasps, 2-hand grasps, walking, and transferring objects from place to place as well as from person to person. The populations in which the tendency has been shown are also diverse, including nonhuman primates as well as human adults, children, and babies. The tendency is compromised in a variety of clinical populations and in children of a surprisingly advanced age. Verbal working memory is compromised as well if words are memorized while object manipulation tasks are performed; the recency portion of the serial position curve is reduced in this circumstance. In general, the research reviewed here points to rich connections between cognition and action as revealed through the study of object manipulation. Other implications concern affordances, Donders' law, naturalistic observation, and the teaching of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Social Cognition,Accuracy, and Physiology

Existing norms for scientific communication are rooted in anachronistic practices of bygone eras making them needlessly inefficient. We outline a path that moves away from the existing model of scientific communication to improve the efficiency in meeting the purpose of public science—knowledge accumulation. We call for six changes: (a) full embrace of digital communication; (b) open access to all published research; (c) disentangling publication from evaluation; (d) breaking the “one article, one journal” model with a grading system for evaluation and diversified dissemination outlets; (e) publishing peer review; and (f) allowing open, continuous peer review. We address conceptual and practical barriers to change and provide examples showing how the suggested practices are being used already. The critical barriers to change are not technical or financial; they are social. Although scientists guard the status quo, they also have the power to change it.     

Intuitionism,Meaning Theory and Cognition

Michael Dummett has interpreted and expounded upon intuitionism under the influence of Wittgensteinian views on language, meaning and cognition. I argue against the application of some of these views to intuitionism and point to shortcomings in Dummett's approach. The alternative I propose makes use of recent, post-Wittgensteinian views in the philosophy of mind, meaning and language. These views are associated with the claim that human cognition exhibits intentionality and with related ideas in philosophical psychology. Intuitionism holds that mathematical constructions are mental processes or objects. Constructions are, in the first instance, forms of consciousness or possible experience of a particular type. As such, they must be understood in terms of the concept of intentionality. This view has a historical basis in the literature on intuitionism. In a famous 1931 lecture Heyting in fact identifies constructions with fulfilled or fulfillable mathematical intentions. I consider some of the consequences of this identification and contrast them with Dummett's views on intuitionism.     

Attention, Joint Attention, and Social Cognition

ABSTRACT— Before social cognition there is joint processing of information about the attention of self and others. This joint attention requires the integrated activation of a distributed cortical network involving the anterior and posterior attention systems. In infancy, practice with the integrated activation of this distributed attention network is a major contributor to the development of social cognition. Thus, the functional neuroanatomies of social cognition and the anterior–posterior attention systems have much in common. These propositions have implications for understanding joint attention, social cognition, and autism.     

Cognition,construction of knowledge,and teaching

The existence of objective knowledge and the possibility of communicating it by means of language have traditionally been taken for granted by educators. Recent developments in the philosophy of science and the historical study of scientific accomplishments have deprived these presuppositions of their former plausibility. Sooner or later, this must have an effect on the teaching of science. In this paper I am presenting a brief outline of an alternative theory of knowing that takes into account the thinking organism's cognitive isolation from reality. This orientation was proposed by Vico at the beginning of the 18th century, disregarded for two hundred years, and then propounded independently by Piaget as a developmentally grounded constructivist epistemology. The paper focuses specifically on the adaptive function of cognition, Piaget's scheme theory, the process of communication, and the subjective perspective on social interaction. In the concluding section it then suggests some of the consequences the shift of epistemological presuppositions might have for the practice of teaching.The only truly ubiquitous factor in cognitive developments — be it in the history of science or in the ontogeny of mind — are of a functional, not a structural kind.Piaget and Garcia, 1983, p. 38I am indebted to Jack Lochhead and John Clement for their helpful critical comments on the draft of this paper. The work that led to it was supported in part by NSF Grants to IBR. University of Georgia, and SRRI, University of Massachusetts.     

On Cognition,Need, and Action: How Working Memory and Need for Cognition Influence Leisure Activities

The present study examined the relationships among college students' need for cognition (NFC), their working memory capacity, and their preferred leisure activities. Results indicated that scoring higher on the NFC scale was related to participants engaging in cognitively higher load leisure activities (e.g., writing) than lower load leisure activities (e.g., watching TV). We did not find a relationship between participants' cognitive ability (as measured by an attentional capacity task) and their choice of leisure activities. In sum, personal dispositions contributed to the choice and complexity of people's leisure activities, whereas cognitive ability did not. These findings provide a theoretical framework for further exploring the relationships between disposition, cognition, and action. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Embodied Cognition,affects and language comprehension

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences - Our main considerations take as a starting point the educational policy demand for a model of competence of text comprehension, which should make it...     

Psychological Mindedness,Personality and Creative Cognition

Research into psychological mindedness (PM) has focuses on its beneficial role in improving physical and mental well-being. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of two PM measures and personality in predicting creative cognition performance. Following the completion of a battery of questionnaires, 176 participants from the general population (age ranged from 16 to 68 years old) completed 3 creative cognition tasks. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed independent effects for both the PM interest and insight variables in performance on 2 of the 3 creative cognition measures. Critically, these showed that the PM variables positively predicted performance on both the Creative Visualization Task and the Remote Associates Test. Conversely, the association between performance on the Alternate Uses Task and the PM variables was explained by the openness to new experience variable. These findings are discussed in the context of the inclusion of further mediating variables that may explain the causal relationship between PM and creative cognition.     

Radical Behaviorism,Stimulus Equivalence,and Human Cognition

The current paper represents an attempt to clarify the nature of the radical behaviorist’s perspective on human cognition. This attempt will involve an examination of recent behavioral research into the relationship between stimulus equivalence phenomena and symbolic behavior, and language more generally. This form of behavior analysis is offered as an alternative to, but not a replacement for, other methodological and conceptual approaches to psychology.

     

历史认识的客观性、真理性与合理性

历史认识是否具有客观真理性 ,这是决定历史学科性质的根本问题。西方学术界一百多年来形成了实证主义与相对主义史学两大对立派别 ,国内关于此也久讼不决。其焦点在于 :(1)历史研究少不了历史学家的积极参与和认识主体的介入 ,能否实现认识过程的客观性 ;(2 )在不可避免认识主