Procrastination,consideration of future consequences,and episodic future thinking

Despite the intrinsic temporal nature of procrastination, little research has examined the link between this form of self-regulatory failure and the consideration of future consequences, and no study has addressed the link between procrastination and episodic future thinking. The aim of the present study was to explore these relationships. Participants were asked to project themselves into possible future events and to rate the amount of sensory-perceptual details and autonoetic consciousness associated with their representations. They were also asked to complete questionnaires that assessed procrastination, the consideration of future consequences, and negative affect. Results showed that both the consideration of future consequences and episodic future thinking were associated with procrastination, and in particular with procrastination-related decision making abilities and procrastination-related motivational dispositions, respectively.     

开端、裂缝与未来——海德格尔与德里达对"阿那克西曼德之箴言"的双重解读

该文考察了海德格尔与德里达对阿那克西曼德的一条箴言的两种不同解读。海氏从其存在论视野出发,认为该箴言所传达的是古希腊人对于在场与在场者的基本经验。海氏的解读赋予了“聚集”、“嵌合”、“一”以优先性,认为开端处的“裂缝”是消极的、派生的,必须要被克服。但德里达认为海氏的解读错失了另一种本源意义上的“裂缝”。这种“裂缝”不仅不应当被克服,反而应当在开端处就予以保持,如此才能给他者、未来和正义的到来保有一线机会。这两种不同的解读实质上反映了关于开端、历史与未来的两种不同思想。     

Gesturing towards the future: cognition,big data,and the future of comparative gesture research

Animal Cognition - The field of ape gesture research has grown significantly in the past two decades, but progress on the question of gesture development has been limited by methodological and...     

Transdisciplinarity,neuro-techno-philosophy,and the future of philosophy

Philosophy and science have always striven to make sense of the world, continuously influencing each other in the process. Their interplay paved the way for neurophilosophy, which harnesses neuroscientific insights to address traditionally philosophical questions. Given the rapid neuroscientific and technological advances in recent years, this paper argues that philosophers who wish to tackle intractable philosophical problems and influence public discourse and policies should engage in neuro-techno-philosophy. This novel type of inquiry describes the transdisciplinary endeavor of philosophers, (neuro)scientists, and others to anticipate the societal implications of the impending transformations of subjects and theorizers. While human enhancement is likely to irreversibly change what it means to be human, disruptive technologies might lead to the emergence of artificial intelligent agents and human-machine hybrids. The paper predicts that neuro-techno-philosophy will be indispensable to understanding and engaging with these game-changing innovations and thus play a pivotal role in the future of philosophy.     

Chance, choice, and the future of reproduction

The evolution of reproduction has been characterized by the development of complex biological and behavioral mechanisms that serve to regulate chance events. Human reproduction has been characterized by the increasing importance of individual choice. Some contemporary manifestations of this broad trend are the high incidence of contraceptive and "proceptive" behavior among couples in Western, industrialized nations. The former behavior willingly attempts to prevent conception while the latter actively attempts to induce conception (such as concentrating intercourse around the time of ovulation). Both patterns of behavior indicate that a choice is being made. A 3-year study of 1000 women revealed proceptive behavior as the most important factor predicting occurance of conception among married couples in the United States. The general strategeis people follow while making childbearing decisions: termination, sequencing, and pre-planning form a continuum following the historical trend toward greater reproductive control. In the terminating strategy, a couple makes no decision about child bearing until the number of children they have become enough or too much. In the sequencing strategy, decisions to have children are made 1 child at a time until a satisfactory limit is reached. In the pre-planning strategy, a plan is worked out ahead of time and is subsequently carried out. As new reproductive technology is introduced and as progressive change is made in society's reproductive related values and beliefs, choice will continue to dominate chance as the highly likely trend for the future of reproduction. Surrogate maternity is just 1 example of this trend. However, these new options, which culminate in the theory and practice of "progensis," (still in its infancy), as well as offering a rich opportunity, can also incur psychological burdens on a couple. Thus, as with any kind of freedom, these developments will require care, caution and responsibility.     

Psychoneuroimmunology: past, present, and future

Provides a brief overview of the history and current status of behavioral immunology research, as well as speculation on likely future directions, and suggests that the field may have broad implications for basic biological sciences and medicine. In addition, the field has clear relevance for health psychology; its relevance to actual health outcomes, however, is not yet known.     

JEAB: Past,present, and future

The effects of response force on microstructure were evaluated. A strain-gauge operandum permitted the manipulation of the force required to produce reinforcers (criterion responses) independently from the force defining response threshold. Thus, we could detect subcriterion forces that fell short of the force criterion. Eight rats earned food according to variable-interval (VI) 30- and 120-s schedules. The force requirements were set to 5.6 or 32.0 g; the response threshold was fixed at 5.6 g. Interresponse times were computed when subcriterion responses were both included and omitted from the analysis. Log-survivor functions of interresponse times showed that increasing force requirements elevated the mean between-bout interval of the VI 120-s schedule, but only if subcriterion behavior was excluded. Omitting subcriterion responses thus leads to overestimation of intervals separating response bouts. Increasing force requirements also increased the skewness of the between-bout distribution. A subsequent analysis found that subcriterion responses are most plentiful following reinforcer delivery, which helps to explain why their omission might inflate between-bout intervals, as this period is an important transition from reinforcer consumption to engagement in operant activity. The data suggest caution interpreting the effects of force on microstructure when subcriterion behavior is not or cannot be measured.     

Hippocampal sequences link past, present, and future

Disrupting the reactivation of hippocampal neurons during sleep impairs memory consolidation in rats. However, the functional importance of reactivation during awake states is unknown. An experiment in which awake reactivation was disrupted suggests that this phenomenon could adaptively guide behavior by linking previous learning with the current state of the world.     

Inspection time: Past, present, and future

This paper is a commentary on the other papers in this special issue. A speculative account of inspection time is presented. Inspection time is viewed as an index of a core information-processing ability which has a causal influence on the development of complex intellectual skills.     

Body image: past, present, and future

This brief editorial article introduces the new scientific journal, Body Image: An International Journal of Research, and describes its rationale and mission in relation to the history and future of the study of body image and human appearance.     

Change blindness: past, present, and future

Change blindness is the striking failure to see large changes that normally would be noticed easily. Over the past decade this phenomenon has greatly contributed to our understanding of attention, perception, and even consciousness. The surprising extent of change blindness explains its broad appeal, but its counterintuitive nature has also engendered confusions about the kinds of inferences that legitimately follow from it. Here we discuss the legitimate and the erroneous inferences that have been drawn, and offer a set of requirements to help separate them. In doing so, we clarify the genuine contributions of change blindness research to our understanding of visual perception and awareness, and provide a glimpse of some ways in which change blindness might shape future research.     

Non-identity, self-defeat, and attitudes to future children

Although most people believe that it is morally wrong to intentionally create children who have an impairment, it is widely held that we cannot criticize such procreative choices unless we find a solution to Parfit’s non-identity problem. I argue that we can. Jonathan Glover has recently argued that, in certain circumstances, such choices would be self-defeating even if morally permissible. I argue that although the scope of Glover’s argument is too limited, it nevertheless directs attention to a moral defect in the attitudes that could motivate such procreative choices, attitudes that, properly characterized, turn out to be person-affecting in character. I conclude by arguing that prospective parents who want to create a child with an impairment face a dilemma. If they want to avoid the charge that their aim is morally defective, they must deny that the desired impairment is harmful. But this would commit them to endorsing the controversial claim that it is morally permissible or even required to turn normal children into impaired ones.