Unconscious Insights

From early in the history of psychology, theorists have argued about whether insights are initially unconscious or whether they are conscious from the start. Empirically identifying unconscious insights has proven difficult, however: How can we tell if people have had an insight if they do not tell us they have had one? Fortunately, although obtaining evidence of unconscious insights is difficult, it is not impossible. The present article describes an experiment in which evidence of unconscious insights was obtained. Almost 90% of second graders generated an arithmetic insight at an unconscious level before they were able to report it. Within five trials of the unconscious discovery, 80% of the children made the discovery consciously, as indicated by their verbal reports. Thus, the initial failure to report the insight could not be attributed to the children lacking the verbal facility to describe it. The results indicate that at least in some cases, insights arise first at an unconscious level, and only later become conscious. Rising activation of the new strategy may be the mechanism that leads children to become conscious of using it.     

Insights into blindsight

Toward a science of consciousness (Tucson III): 27 April-2 May 1998, Tucson, Arizona, USA.     

Documentary Visions,Theological Insights

In an attempt to engage students' higher‐order thinking skills, we developed a documentary filmmaking project for our introduction to theology course. By documenting certain aspects of the theology of John Wesley and John Henry Newman (God, creation, revelation, Jesus, the church), students were able to delve deeply into these themes, better understanding them and their interrelationships. The project helped the students to actively practice historical theology, rather than passively learn about it through lectures. In addition, the project emphasized research skills, quality of writing and creative production, and a professional presentation at a screening.     

Asian Insights on Violence and Peace

This paper challenges the view that justice leads to or generates peace. Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian, Daoist and Chinese military philosophical perspectives on violence and peace are reviewed. Based on insights derived from these Asian traditions concerning the relationship between violence and peace, the author argues that the quest for world peace is not attainable. The author proposes that people need to direct their attention, energy and action to support personal and community peace, and to support justice, which entails legitimate and sanctioned acts of violence, and just war.     

Socialization: Insights from Social Cognition

Socialization is the process by which individuals are assisted to become members of their social groups. Findings from social cognition and cross-cultural psychology offer two major insights into the socialization process. First, basic social cognitive principles imply that the immediate environment functions as a socialization agent by activating and inhibiting knowledge structures and thereby shaping cognition and behavior. Second, because the immediate environment factors into cognition and behavior, socialization efforts should involve the modification of the environment for optimal effect. We discuss various examples of socialization through the configuration of the immediate environment, such as rituals and use of physical artifacts. Our review links basic social cognitive mechanisms to socialization processes, which are customarily treated at higher levels of analysis.     

舍勒的爱的秩序:洞见与失察

在这篇论文里我试图论证:舍勒的爱的秩序的思想--一种不依赖于理性和逻辑之秩序的帕斯卡尔式的思想--有效地防御了思想史上各种各样的还原论倾向,但这一思想的某些成分还没有得到充分的展开从而未能要么根据对价值理解(各种感受状态,功能和行为)的主体能力①的分析,要么根据对各种价值客观方面的相互联系的分析达到足够的清晰性.     

On regulatory authority: Insights from durkheim

Émile Durkheim is recognized for his analysis of horizontal division of labor (that is, task specialization differentiating de jure equals). Vertical differences can also develop with structural differentiation, often taking the form of authority vested in regulatory agencies. But according to Durkheim, the conditions sufficient to produce specialized division of labor are not sufficient in themselves to produce regulatory structures. New regulatory agencies tend to emerge in environments characterized by directly attributable cost interdependence among a plethora of otherwise independent units.     

Cross-modal attentional entrainment: Insights from magicians

Recently, performance magic has become a source of insight into the processes underlying awareness. Magicians have highlighted a set of variables that can create moments of visual attentional suppression, which they call “off-beats.” One of these variables is akin to the phenomenon psychologists know as attentional entrainment. The current experiments, inspired by performance magic, explore the extent to which entrainment can occur across sensory modalities. Across two experiments using a difficult dot probe detection task, we find that the mere presence of an auditory rhythm can bias when visual attention is deployed, speeding responses to stimuli appearing in phase with the rhythm. However, the extent of this cross-modal influence is moderated by factors such as the speed of the entrainers and whether their frequency is increasing or decreasing. In Experiment 1, entrainment occurred for rhythms presented at .67 Hz, but not at 1.5 Hz. In Experiment 2, entrainment only occurred for rhythms that were slowing from 1.5 Hz to .67 Hz, not speeding. The results of these experiments challenge current models of temporal attention.     

审美愉悦与加工流畅性

在审美过程中,如果人们很容易地获得了有关一个对象的信息,对其进行流畅的加工,那么人们就会产生愉悦感,而这种积极的审美回应会使人们对审美对象产生更多的喜爱之情。本文在对审美愉悦以及流畅性理论分析的基础上,阐述了二者在审美中的重要作用,同时指出流畅性理论与审美愉悦作用的深层机制还有待未来的研究和探索,二者的相互作用也需要更多的实证支持。     

Corvid caching: Insights from a cognitive model

Caching and recovery of food by corvids is well-studied, but some ambiguous results remain. To help clarify these, we built a computational cognitive model. It is inspired by similar models built for humans, and it assumes that memory strength depends on frequency and recency of use. We compared our model's behavior to that of real birds in previously published experiments. Our model successfully replicated the outcomes of two experiments on recovery behavior and two experiments on cache site choice. Our "virtual birds" reproduced declines in recovery accuracy across sessions, revisits to previously emptied cache sites, a lack of correlation between caching and recovery order, and a preference for caching in safe locations. The model also produced two new explanations. First, that Clark's nutcrackers may become less accurate as recovery progresses not because of differential memory for different cache sites, as was once assumed, but because of chance effects. And second, that Western scrub jays may choose their cache sites not on the basis of negative recovery experiences only, as was previously thought, but on the basis of positive recovery experiences instead. Alternatively, both "punishment" and "reward" may be playing a role. We conclude with a set of new insights, a testable prediction, and directions for future work.