Expressive completeness in modal language

Conclusion The logics of the modal operators and of the quantifiers show striking analogies. The analogies are so extensive that, when a special class of entities (possible worlds) is postulated, natural and non-arbitrary translation procedures can be defined from the language with the modal operators into a purely quantificational one, under which the necessity and possibility operators translate into universal and existential quantifiers. In view of this I would be willing to classify the modal operators as disguised quantifiers, and I think that wholehearted acceptance of modal language should be considered to carry ontological commitment to something like possible worldsConsidered as two languages for describing the same subject matter, modal and purely quantificational languages show interesting differences. The operator variables of the purely quantificational languages give them more power than the modal languages, but at least some of the functions performed by the apparatus of operator variables are also performed, in a more primitive and less versatile way, by actuality operators in modal languages.A final note. Quine has written much on the inter-relations of quantifiers, identity, and the concept of existence. These, he holds, form a tightly knit conceptual system which has been evolved to a high point of perfection, but which might conceivably change yet further.²⁹ He has also dropped hints about the possibility of a simpler, primitive or defective version of the system, in which the quantifiers are not backed up in their accustomed way by the concept of identity. He has dubbed the resulting concept a pre-individuative concept of existence, or a concept of entity without identity. What would a pre-individuative concept of existence be like? Quine has sometimes suggested that one might be embodied in the use of mass nouns, but the identity concept is used in connection with stuff as well as with things: is that the same coffee that was in the cup last night? I would submit that modality provides a better case. In view of the comparative weakness of modal languages, compared to the explicitly quantificational ones Quine takes as canonical, there is surely a sense in which the concept of existence embodied in that disguised existential quantifier, the possibility operator, is a defective one. And as we have seen, one of the differences between modal operators and explicit quantifiers is that modal operators cannot be joined with the identity predicate in the way quantifiers with operator variables can. Surely, then, there is a sense in which ordinary speech, as opposed to the metaphysical theorizing of a Leibniz or a David Lewis, conceives of possible worlds as entities without identity.As should become obvious on reading it, this paper is inspired by the work of David Lewis, particularly his classic Counterpart Theory and Quantified Modal Logic, Journal of Philosophy 7, March 1968. I would like to thank Lewis and the referee for this journal for encouragement and advice. An earlier version of the paper was formulated in terms of Lewis's counterpart theory rather than in terms of individuals being in more than one world, but, since I considered only the case in which the counterpart relation was an equivalence, I Felt that the added complexity was not justified. Doing things in a counterpart-theoretic framework does produce two new classes of sentences of the non-modal language which lack translations in the modal: speaking of the properties individuals have simpliciter rather than of those they have at a world allows us to discuss relations obtaining between individuals in different worlds (e.g. the longer than relation obtaining between actual yachts and their counterparts), and the assumption that no individual is in more than one world allows a tricky way of asserting that there are at most n worlds without using the identity predicate between terms for worlds. Otherwise, given the assumption that the counterpart relation was an equivalence with at most one member of each equivalence class being in each world, the transition from the counterpart theoretic framework to the current one was perfectly straightforward.     

Independent contexts for category ratings: A range-frequency analysis

Subjects were instructed to rate with a single set of categories an intermingled series of smaller squares and larger circles, establishing a separate scale of size for each domain. The major finding was that the scale established for one domain was independent of the skewing of sizes in the other domain. However, subjects were also able to combine the two domains into a single context when instructed to do so, particularly when the smallest circle was only slightly larger than the largest square. A range-frequency analysis of the rating suggests that under certain conditions the endpoints defining the subjective range depend upon the stimulus frequencies: the subjective endpoint is more extreme when the closest stimuli are presented with greater relative frequency.     

Type A behavior pattern, parental history of hypertension, and cardiovascular reactivity in college males

Two risk factors for cardiovascular disorders, parental history of hypertension and the Type A behavior pattern, were investigated concurrently with respect to cardiovascular reactivity to challenging situations. Sixty-four college males were given both the Structured Interview (SI) and Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS) for the Type A behavior pattern and a family health questionnaire to determine parental history of hypertension. The students were monitored for blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), and pulse transit time (PTT) response to four tasks: cold pressor, isometric handgrip exercise, a reading comprehension task, and backwards digit span. Type As based on SI classification had significantly higher HR levels across all tasks than did Type Bs, as well as higher diastolic BP levels in the cold pressor task. No main effects for Type A-B using JAS classification were found. Positive parental history students had higher HR and shorter PTT levels across all the tasks. Type A and parental history did interact in a limited way on some tasks, but the interactions were also dependent on the Type A classification used.     

Positive thought disorder in a hypothetically psychosis-prone population

Proverb interpretations of subjects who scored high on the Perceptual Aberration-Magical Ideation Scale (Chapman & Chapman, 1985) were compared with those of low-scoring controls. Responses to 10 familiar and 3 unfamiliar proverbs were scored for Bizarre-idiosyncratic thinking (Marengo, Harrow, Lanin-Kettering, & Wilson, 1986) and literalness (Hertler, Chapman, & Chapman, 1978). A Group by Type of Proverb (familiar versus unfamiliar) interaction was found for bizarre-idiosyncratic scores; (Per-Mags) scored higher than controls on unfamiliar, but not familiar proverbs. The Group X Familiarity interaction for bizarre-idiosyncratic scores indicates that the Per-Mag group displayed a subclinical, positive-thought disorder that is affected by the familiarity of the proverbs.     

Amount and duration of attentional demands during visual search

Previous research has suggested that, in visual-search tasks, the comparison between target and display items does not require attentional capacity. In the present experiment we used a secondary-task paradigm to distinguish the amount and duration of the attentional demands of visual search. The subjects performed visual search (the primary task) and tone detection (the secondary task) concurrently over the course of five experimental sessions (1,440 trials). For each subject, target-response mapping was either consistent or varied for Days 1-5. The results indicate that the amount of attentional demand, as reflected in secondary-task performance, increased as a function of display size in the search task. Switching from consistent to varied mapping in a sixth experimental session increased both the amount and the duration of the attentional demands of the search. The present results support models of visual-search performance in which the comparison of target and display items requires attentional capacity.     

Nocebo: The psychologic induction of pain

More than two-thirds of an unselected sample of 34 college students reported mild headaches when told that a (nonexistent) electric current was passing through their heads. These reports appeared independent of whether the instructions emphasized the headache-producing effect of the current or whether the emphasis was on a perceptual task, with headache as only a possible side effect. The results are consistent with a view of pain as localized stress. They provide additional grounds for the suspicion that clinical focusing on pain may itself be a cause of pain.