A catalog of Boolean concepts

Boolean concepts are concepts whose membership is determined by a Boolean function, such as that expressed by a formula of propositional logic. Certain Boolean concepts have been much studied in the psychological literature, in particular with regard to their ease of learning. But research attention has been somewhat uneven, with a great deal of attention paid to certain concepts and little to others, in part because of the unavailability of a comprehensive catalog. This paper gives a complete classification of Boolean concepts up to congruence (isomorphism of logical form). Tables give complete details of all concepts determined by up to four Boolean variables. For each concept type, the tables give a canonic logical expression, an approximately minimal logical expression, the Boolean complexity (length of the minimal expression), the number of distinct Boolean concepts of that type, and a pictorial depiction of the concept as a set of vertices in Boolean D-space. Some psychological properties of Boolean concepts are also discussed.     

The long-term effect of relational information in classification learning

This study examines the long-term effect of mutual information in the learning of Shepardian classifications. Mutual information is a measure of the complexity of the relationship between features because it quantifies how the features relate to each other. For instance, in various categorisation models, Type VI concepts—originally studied by Shepard, Hovland, and Jenkins (1961)—are unanimously judged to be the most complex kind of 3-D Boolean concepts. This has been largely confirmed by empirical data. Yet, it is apparently inconsistent with the fact that this concept entails the greatest amount of mutual information of all the 3-D Boolean concepts. The present study was aimed at verifying whether individuals can use relational information, in the long run, to devise easier strategies for category learning. Subject performance was measured repeatedly for 1 hour on either successive Type VI concepts (using different features between problems) or successive Type IV concepts. The results showed that shortly after the second problem, Type VI concepts became easier to learn than Type IV ones. The gap between the mean per-problem error rates of the two concepts continued to increase as the number of problems increased. Two other experiments tended to confirm this trend. The discussion brings up the idea of combining different metrics in categorisation models in order to include every possible way for subjects to simplify the categorisation process.     

Evading conceptual self-annihilation: Some implications of Albert Bandura's theory of the self-system for the status of psychology

There are two cognitive revolutions occuring in psychology. The first in the fields of perception, memory, language and thought uses information processing and computer models of cognition. The second in learning theory and behavioral therapy uses folk psychological concepts of cognition. To test the philosophical compatibility of these cognitive revolutions I examine the implications of Albert Bandura's theory of the self-system for the disputed question of the status of folk psychology. I argue that if the theory of the self-system is correct, then strong eliminative materialist claims about the falsity of folk psychology are disconfirmed, functionalist homunculi hypotheses need modification, and certain constraints are imposed on neurophysiological accounts of the self. Thus I conclude that the cognitive revolution in learning theory and behavior therapy is making its own distinctive contribution to the new philosophical psychology emerging from the cognitive revolution in psychology as a whole.     

Liberal Feminism,from Law to Art: The Impact of Feminist Jurisprudence on Feminist Aesthetics

This essay explores how early approaches in feminist aesthetics drew on concepts honed in the field of feminist legal theory, especially conceptions of oppression and equality. I argue that by importing these feminist legal concepts, many early feminist accounts of how art is political depended largely on a distinctly liberal version of politics. I offer a critique of liberal feminist aesthetics, indicating ways recent work in the field also turns toward critical feminist aesthetics as an alternative.     

Countably-categorical Boolean algebras with distinguished ideals

In the paper all countable Boolean algebras with m distinguished. ideals having countably-categorical elementary theory are described and constructed. From the obtained characterization it follows that all countably-categorical elementary theories of Boolean algebras with distinguished ideals are finite-axiomatizable, decidable and, consequently, their countable models are strongly constructivizable.     

Numerical methods for polynomial models in nonlinear factor analysis

The basic concepts of nonlinear factor analysis are introduced and some extensions of the general theory are developed. An elementary account of the class of multiple-factor polynomial models is presented, using more elementary algebraic methods than have been employed in earlier accounts of this theory. Working formulas are developed for the multiple-factor polynomial model without product terms.Some empirical results are presented.This work was carried out while the author was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Educational Testing Service, Princeton, N. J. It made use of computer facilities at Princeton University that are supported in part by National Science Foundation Grant NSF-Gp579.     

The representation of abstract words: why emotion matters

Although much is known about the representation and processing of concrete concepts, knowledge of what abstract semantics might be is severely limited. In this article we first address the adequacy of the 2 dominant accounts (dual coding theory and the context availability model) put forward in order to explain representation and processing differences between concrete and abstract words. We find that neither proposal can account for experimental findings and that this is, at least partly, because abstract words are considered to be unrelated to experiential information in both of these accounts. We then address a particular type of experiential information, emotional content, and demonstrate that it plays a crucial role in the processing and representation of abstract concepts: Statistically, abstract words are more emotionally valenced than are concrete words, and this accounts for a residual latency advantage for abstract words, when variables such as imageability (a construct derived from dual coding theory) and rated context availability are held constant. We conclude with a discussion of our novel hypothesis for embodied abstract semantics.     

Existentialism and postmodernism. Continuities,breaks, and some consequences for medical theory

Since existentialism lost its influence in philosophy in the 1960s, postmodern theory has taken over criticizing basic concepts of western thought. From a postmodern point of view, the main shortcomings of existentialism is that it criticizes traditional unitarian concepts, while re-inventing new unitarian models. Against these unitarian approaches postmodernism holds that the world can only be described in terms of difference. In this article the postmodern program and its differences from existentialism are explained in reference to three concepts of western philosophy: subject, truth, and ethics. Applying these concepts, the relevance of postmodernism for medical theory is illustrated.     

Ordinary language semantics: the contribution of Brentano and Marty

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the account of ordinary language semantics developed by Franz Brentano and his pupil Anton Marty. Long before the interest in ordinary language in the analytic tradition, Brentanian philosophers were exploring our everyday use of words, as opposed to the scientific use of language. Brentano and Marty were especially interested in the semantics of (common) names in ordinary language. They claimed that these names are vague, and that this is due to the structure of the concepts that constitute their meaning: concepts expressed by such names are themselves vague, based on typicality, and have more or less similar items within their extension. After presenting the views of Brentano and Marty, this paper compares them to later accounts of meaning and concepts, notably Wittgenstein’s theory of family resemblances and the prototype theory of concepts, and emphasizes the originality of the Brentanian position.     

Brain hemispheric organization, anxiety, and psychoses

Abnormalities of brain hemispheric organization have been found in a variety of psychiatric disorders. Despite the great amount of data collected and the number of theoretical models elaborated, the role of these abnormalities in the pathogenesis of these disorders remains controversial. This article briefly reviews current concepts of hemispheric functioning, discusses the role of abnormalities of brain hemispheric organization in schizophrenia and in two anxiety disorders (panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder), and outlines a developmental perspective that accounts for the observed abnormalities.     

Probabilistic argumentation systems: A new way to combine logic with probability

Probability is usually closely related to Boolean structures, i.e., Boolean algebras or propositional logic. Here we show, how probability can be combined with non-Boolean structures, and in particular non-Boolean logics. The basic idea is to describe uncertainty by (Boolean) assumptions, which may or may not be valid. The uncertain information depends then on these uncertain assumptions, scenarios or interpretations. We propose to describe information in information systems, as introduced by Scott into domain theory. This captures a wide range of systems of practical importance such as many propositional logics, first order logic, systems of linear equations, inequalities, etc. It covers thus both symbolic as well as numerical systems. Assumption-based reasoning allows then to deduce supporting arguments for hypotheses. A probability structure imposed on the assumptions permits to quantify the reliability of these supporting arguments and thus to introduce degrees of support for hypotheses. Information systems and related information algebras are formally introduced and studied in this paper as the basic structures for assumption-based reasoning. The probability structure is then formally represented by random variables with values in information algebras. Since these are in general non-Boolean structures some care must be exercised in order to introduce these random variables. It is shown that this theory leads to an extension of Dempster–Shafer theory of evidence and that information algebras provide in fact a natural frame for this theory.     

A Comprehensive Picture of the Decidability of Mereological Theories

The signature of the formal language of mereology contains only one binary predicate which stands for the relation “being a part of” and it has been strongly suggested that such a predicate must at least define a partial ordering. Mereological theories owe their origin to Le?niewski. However, some more recent authors, such as Simons as well as Casati and Varzi, have reformulated mereology in a way most logicians today are familiar with. It turns out that any theory which can be formed by using the reformulated mereological axioms or axiom schemas is in a sense a subtheory of the elementary theory of Boolean algebras or of the theory of infinite atomic Boolean algebras. It is known that the theory of partial orderings is undecidable while the elementary theory of Boolean algebras and the theory of infinite atomic Boolean algebras are decidable. In this paper, I will look into the behaviors in terms of decidability of those mereological theories located in between. More precisely, I will give a comprehensive picture of the said issue by offering solutions to the open problems which I have raised in some of my papers published previously.     

Metaphor: Bridging embodiment to abstraction

Embodied cognition accounts posit that concepts are grounded in our sensory and motor systems. An important challenge for these accounts is explaining how abstract concepts, which do not directly call upon sensory or motor information, can be informed by experience. We propose that metaphor is one important vehicle guiding the development and use of abstract concepts. Metaphors allow us to draw on concrete, familiar domains to acquire and reason about abstract concepts. Additionally, repeated metaphoric use drawing on particular aspects of concrete experience can result in the development of new abstract representations. These abstractions, which are derived from embodied experience but lack much of the sensorimotor information associated with it, can then be flexibly applied to understand new situations.     

The allocation of valenced concepts onto 3D space

The valence–space metaphor research area investigates the metaphorical mapping of valenced concepts onto space. Research findings from this area indicate that positive, neutral, and negative concepts are associated with upward, midward, and downward locations, respectively, in the vertical plane. The same research area has also indicated that such concepts seem to have no preferential location on the horizontal plane. The approach–avoidance effect consists in decreasing the distance between positive stimuli and the body (i.e. approach) and increasing the distance between negative stimuli and the body (i.e. avoid). Thus, the valence–space metaphor accounts for the mapping of valenced concepts onto the vertical and horizontal planes, and the approach–avoidance effect accounts for the mapping of valenced concepts onto the “depth” plane. By using a cube conceived for the study of allocation of valenced concepts onto 3D space, we show in three studies that positive concepts are placed in upward locations and near the participants’ body, negative concepts are placed in downward locations and far from the participants’ body, and neutral concepts are placed in between these concepts in both planes.