Model checking hybrid logics (with an application to semistructured data)

We investigate the complexity of the model checking problem for hybrid logics. We provide model checking algorithms for various hybrid fragments and we prove PSPACE-completeness for hybrid fragments including binders. We complement and motivate our complexity results with an application of model checking in hybrid logic to the problems of query and constraint evaluation for semistructured data.     

A powers theory of modality: or,how I learned to stop worrying and reject possible worlds

Possible worlds, concrete or abstract as you like, are irrelevant to the truthmakers for modality—or so I shall argue in this paper. First, I present the neo-Humean picture of modality, and explain why those who accept it deny a common sense view of modality. Second, I present what I take to be the most pressing objection to the neo-Humean account, one that, I argue, applies equally well to any theory that grounds modality in possible worlds. Third, I present an alternative, properties-based theory of modality and explore several specific ways to flesh the general proposal out, including my favored version, the powers theory. And, fourth, I offer a powers semantics for counterfactuals that each version of the properties-based theory of modality can accept, mutatis mutandis. Together with a definition of possibility and necessity in terms of counterfactuals, the powers semantics of counterfactuals generates a semantics for modality that appeals to causal powers and not possible worlds.     

Some strangeness in the proportion,or how to stop worrying and learn to love the mechanistic forces of darkness

Understanding humans requires viewing them as mechanisms of some sort, since understanding anything requires seeing it as a mechanism. It is science’s job to reveal mechanisms. But science reveals much more than that: it also reveals enduring mystery—strangeness in the proportion. Concentrating just on the scientific side of Selinger’s and Engström’s call for a moratorium on cyborg discourse, I argue that this strangeness prevents cyborg discourse from diminishing us.     

Compulsive "helpfulness": or, how I learned to stop working so hard and love the group

Compulsive helpfulness, an anxiety-laden need by the therapist to feel helpful, akin to the notion of rescuing others, is a potential pitfall in developing an effective psychotherapy group. It can be regarded variously: (1) as a reaction formation against feelings of boredom and frustration stimulated by such phenomena as group resistance or the enactment of inauthentic relationships in the group; (2) as a therapist style driven by a transferential reaction to be regarded as competent and worthy; (3) as an induced countertransference enactment tied to group members' frustration and passivity about their own interpersonal inadequacies; (4) and as a manic defense against despair over the feeling that one's loving has not done any good. In this essay, the author explores his struggle to identify and come to terms with compulsive helpfulness as a dominant theme in the early stages of his tenure as leader of a psychotherapy group.     

When feeling right leads to being right in the reporting of implicitly-formed attitudes,or how I learned to stop worrying and trust my gut

Previous research indicates that attitudes can form via the implicit (unconscious) detection of covariations between attitude objects and other valenced stimuli (Olson & Fazio, 2001, 2002). We posit that due to the lack of awareness of their origins, attitudes resulting from implicit evaluative conditioning are more affective in nature and resemble gut intuitions more than rational beliefs. This suggests that circumstances exist when individuals will be more likely to express implicitly-formed attitudes, and across a correlational study and 2 experiments, the present research demonstrates factors that increase conditioning-consistent decision-making. Specifically, we demonstrate that feelings of intuitiveness and expertise, both of which can foster a sense that one can “trust one's gut,” lead one to express attitudes recently formed through an implicit evaluative conditioning procedure. We conclude that while implicit attitude formation may be a pervasive phenomenon, implicitly formed attitudes may be expressed only under certain conditions.     

A review of domestic dogs' (Canis familiaris) human-like behaviors: or why behavior analysts should stop worrying and love their dogs

Dogs likely were the first animals to be domesticated and as such have shared a common environment with humans for over ten thousand years. Only recently, however, has this species' behavior been subject to scientific scrutiny. Most of this work has been inspired by research in human cognitive psychology and suggests that in many ways dogs are more human-like than any other species, including nonhuman primates. Behavior analysts should add their expertise to the study of dog behavior, both to add objective behavioral analyses of experimental data and to effectively integrate this new knowledge into applied work with dogs.