Notes on Leitgeb’s What Truth Depends on

Studia Logica - In Hannes Leitgeb’s article What truth depends on (Leitgeb in J Philos Logic 34:155–192, 2005) the author provides a formally correct and materially adequate truth...     

Creativity on tap? Effects of alcohol intoxication on creative cognition

Anecdotal reports link alcohol intoxication to creativity, while cognitive research highlights the crucial role of cognitive control for creative thought. This study examined the effects of mild alcohol intoxication on creative cognition in a placebo-controlled design. Participants completed executive and creative cognition tasks before and after consuming either alcoholic beer (BAC of 0.03) or non-alcoholic beer (placebo). Alcohol impaired executive control, but improved performance in the Remote Associates Test, and did not affect divergent thinking ability. The findings indicate that certain aspects of creative cognition benefit from mild attenuations of cognitive control, and contribute to the growing evidence that higher cognitive control is not always associated with better cognitive performance.     

A note on “pattern variants on a square field”

It is shown how results of Prokhovnik on the number of pattern variants that may be formed byk markers on a square network ofm ² positions may be derived more simply by means of a combinatorial theorem of Pólya's, which may also be used to solve systematically many other problems of this type.     

Pavlov’s position on the effects of decortication on conditional reflexes

This paper examined D. Joravsky’s (1989) hypothesis that I.P. Pavlov dogmatically refused to acknowledge that classical conditioning can be mediated by subcortical regions of the large cerebral hemispheres. Decortication literature from 1901 to 1936 was reviewed. The early studies available to Pavlov, who died in 1936, showed that decortication does not allow the establishment of new or retaining of old conditional reflexes (CRs). G.P. Zelenyi’s later experiments(1930) suggested that the establishment of primitive CRs in decorticated dogs was possible. Pavlov never denied this possibility but cautioned that Zelenyi’s experiments could have been methodologically flawed. Although Joravsky’s original hypothesis on Pavlov’s position on the relation between decortication and the establishment of CRs is by and large accepted, it must be stressed that Pavlov’s theory of higher nervous activity was primarily concerned with the function of the brain in the higher organism’s struggle for existence. Within this context the cortical, rather than subcortical, processes play the decisive role in the organism’s adaptation to the changing external environment.     

Expressing embarrassment (or not): Which effects on produced impression on others and on attributed social value?

IntroductionEmbarrassment is a negative but prosocial emotion, which often arises from the transgression of a social norm. Its expression thus plays a crucial role in the social perception.ObjectiveThe aim of this paper is to document this role during both ordinary and extra-ordinary situations (i.e., with stakes).MethodUsing scenarios’ method, 27 participants and 100 recruiters evaluated persons expressing embarrassment or not.ResultsStudy 1 showed that during ordinary situations, nonverbal expression of embarrassment led to make a good impression by signalling desire of appeasement and prosociality. In contrast, Study 2 revealed that during a job interview, verbal expression of embarrassment through defensive tactics was rather negatively perceived.ConclusionThe manipulation of emotions as emotive communication tools will be discussed.     

Do Mothers Spend More on Daughters While Fathers Spend More on Sons?

Do parents favor some children over others? The overwhelming majority of parents state that they treat their children equally, but parents rarely track their spending on each child. We investigate in four studies whether mothers and fathers favor specific children depending on the biological sex of the child. Evidence from the field, laboratory, and community (online panel) showed that parents exhibit systematic biases when forced to choose between spending on sons and daughters. Mothers consistently favored daughters, whereas fathers consistently favored sons. For example, parents were more likely to choose a real prize and give a real U.S. Treasury bond to the child of the same sex as themselves. These parenting biases were found in two different cultures and appear to be driven by parents identifying more strongly with children of the same sex as the parent.     

Constraints on word learning?

Recent studies that propose constraints on word learning are reviewed. Theoretical implications of constraints hypotheses are examined in the light of data from other prior and current studies of children's word learning at different developmental points. It is concluded that there is no evidence for strong internal constraints on the acquisition of words by young children of the kind proposed. process are suggested as more adequate explanations, based on the full research record.     

Cohen on ‘Epistemic’

Stewart Cohen offers a critique of much contemporary epistemology. Epistemologies use the term ‘epistemic’ in order to specify the issues they investigate and about which they disagree. Cohen sees widespread confusion about these issues. The problem, he argues, is that ‘epistemic’ is functioning as an inadequately defined technical term. I will argue, rather, that the troubles come more from non-technical vocabulary, in particular with ‘justification’ and ‘ought’, and generally from the difficulty of explaining normativity. Overall, the message of this paper is that normativity is what’s hard to understand, not the term ‘epistemic.’     

Phenomenological research on supervision: Supervisors reflect on ‘being a supervisor’

A study using a phenomenological research method was performed to reveal the meanings of the concept ‘supervision’, from the supervisor's perspective. Eleven supervisors of counselling and psychotherapy from a humanistic/existential framework answered the open question: “What does being a supervisor mean?”. Content analysis and frequency measuring were performed, revealing six groups of statements; six facets describing the experience of supervision: ‘structuring’, ‘teaching’, ‘nurturing’, the ‘supervisor as person’, ‘supervisor as colleague’, and the ‘triangle, client-therapist-supervisor’. Structuring was the largest category, and the first three categories together represented more than 75% of the statements. The results showed that ‘teaching’ and ‘nurturing’ were very similar in their importance, as represented by the number of statements in each. Further research should address the possible relation between supervisors' perception and experience of their role and the theoretical framework of counselling and psychotherapy in which they are based, The phenomenological research method in this study has shown the possibility of doing research on processes without ‘betraying’ the subjective perspective.     

Bocheński on authority

Józef Maria Bocheński introduced an important distinction between deontic and epistemic authority. A typical example of epistemic authority is the relation of a teacher to his students; a typical example of deontic authority is the relation between an employer and his employee. The difference between the two lies in domains of authority: declarative sentences make up the domain in the case of epistemic authority, orders—in the domain of deontic authority. In the article, I analyze in detail the concepts of the two kinds of authority and propose some new explications. The concept of epistemic authority is distinguished from the concept of infallibility and expertise; and the concept of deontic authority is distinguished from the concept of sovereign. I interpret various kinds of deontic authority in the light of the theory of imperative sentences. The concepts of gradation and de-gradation of authority are introduced and explicated.     

Stern on “Self”

ABSTRACT

Self is a notion of common-sense psychology that several schools of psychoanalysis have built into their theories. Stern explores and expands its meaning, tracing its development back to birth and even earlier, and outlining how the psychological development of the preverbal infant contributes to its evolution. In the process, Stern discusses two perspectives on preverbal infant psychology—that of the observational empiricist developmental psychologist, and that of the reconstructing psychoanalytic clinician working from the subjective experience of adult patients, and what each might contribute to the other. His thinking suggests the importance of nonverbal models of infant (and, eventually, adult) subjective experience.     

Interpersonal choice: The advantage on the left or on the right?

This study explored whether body specificity unconsciously influenced preferences for certain people. Participants were presented pictures of the heads of 2 persons who were described as having the similar personality, profession and family background. They were instructed to choose 1 in each pair as the preferred date, preferred friend, more charismatic boss or as the better national leader. The results showed body specificity had an influence on the selection preference on first impression. Participants tended to choose the character on their dominant‐hand side. This study not only provided the first social psychological evidence for the body‐specificity hypothesis, but also first demonstrated a role for body specificity in impression formation and selection preference.     

Gödel on Concepts

This article is an attempt to present Gödel's discussion on concepts, from 1944 to the late 1970s, in particular relation to the thought of Frege and Russell. The discussion takes its point of departure from Gödel's claim in notes on Bernay's review of ‘Russell's mathematical logic’. It then retraces the historical background of the notion of intension which both Russell and Gödel use, and offers some grounds for claiming that Gödel consistently considered logic as a free-type theory of concepts, called intensions, considered as the denotations of predicate names.