Gert on Subjective Practical Rationality

The purpose of this paper is to consider Joshua Gert’s novel view of subjective practical rationality in his book Brute Rationality. After briefly outlining the account, I present two objections to his view and then consider his own objections to a rival approach to understanding subjective rationality which I take to be much more plausible.

The turban effect: The influence of Muslim headgear and induced affect on aggressive responses in the shooter bias paradigm

Does Islamic appearance increase aggressive tendencies, and what role does affect play in such responses? In a computer game, participants made rapid decisions to shoot at armed people, some of whom wore Islamic head dress. We predicted and found a significant bias for participants to shoot more at Muslim targets. We also predicted and found that positive mood selectively increased aggressive tendencies towards Muslims, consistent with affect-cognition theories that predict a more top-down, stereotypical processing style in positive mood. In contrast, induced anger increased the propensity to shoot at all targets. The relevance of these results for our understanding of real-life negative reactions towards Muslims is discussed, and the influence of affective states on rapid aggressive responses is considered.     

Aesthetic appreciation of poetry correlates with ease of processing in event-related potentials

Rhetorical theory suggests that rhythmic and metrical features of language substantially contribute to persuading, moving, and pleasing an audience. A potential explanation of these effects is offered by “cognitive fluency theory,” which stipulates that recurring patterns (e.g., meter) enhance perceptual fluency and can lead to greater aesthetic appreciation. In this article, we explore these two assertions by investigating the effects of meter and rhyme in the reception of poetry by means of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Participants listened to four versions of lyrical stanzas that varied in terms of meter and rhyme, and rated the stanzas for rhythmicity and aesthetic liking. The behavioral and ERP results were in accord with enhanced liking and rhythmicity ratings for metered and rhyming stanzas. The metered and rhyming stanzas elicited smaller N400/P600 ERP responses than their nonmetered, nonrhyming, or nonmetered and nonrhyming counterparts. In addition, the N400 and P600 effects for the lyrical stanzas correlated with aesthetic liking effects (metered–nonmetered), implying that modulation of the N400 and P600 has a direct bearing on the aesthetic appreciation of lyrical stanzas. We suggest that these effects are indicative of perceptual-fluency-enhanced aesthetic liking, as postulated by cognitive fluency theory.     

An exploration of health-seeking behaviours among Nigerian Christians in the UK: towards enhanced health services utilisation

Migration from different cultures carries with it some acclimatisation challenges. This study explored various health-seeking behaviours and potential barriers to healthcare utilisation among Nigerian Christians in the UK. This qualitative study involved 10 adult male and female participants, with both interviews and focus group discussion (FG) for data collection (Interviews: n?=?4, FG: n?=?6). Thematic analysis revealed that religious and cultural beliefs were barriers to healthcare utilisation. The implication is that further research on cultural matching between care providers and service users is needed; where religious leaders and health providers from Nigeria can influence health decisions among this migrant community. Limitations of the current study are discussed, with directions for further research identified.     

Primal emotional-affective expressive foundations of human facial expression

Emotional facial expressions provide important insights into various valenced feelings of humans. Recent cross-species neuroscientific advances offer insights into molecular foundations of mammalian affects and hence, by inference, the related emotional/affective facial expressions in humans. This is premised on deep homologies based on affective neuroscience studies of valenced primary emotional systems across species. Thus, emerging theoretical perspectives suggest that ancient cross-species emotional systems are intimately linked not only to emotional action patterns evident in all mammals, but also, by inference, distinct emotional facial expressions studied intensively in humans. Thus, the goal of the present theoretical work was to relate categories of human emotional facial expressions—e.g. especially of anger fear, joy and sadness—to respective underlying primary cross-mammalian emotional circuits. This can potentially provide coherent theoretical frameworks for the eventual molecular study of emotional facial expressions in humans.     

A Note on the Nonlinearity of the Age-Job-Satisfaction Relationship

Research assessing the relationship between age and job satisfaction has typically provided mixed results. Inherent problems including limited samples and a failure to control for tenure and affective disposition have potentially contributed to these conflicting results. Moreover, a significant concern has been researchers' focus on detecting linear effects alone. In the current study, we statistically controlled for gender, supervisor and position tenure, quadratic tenure terms, and affective disposition (NA and PA) based on previous research regarding the relationship between these variables and job satisfaction. Finally, we used hierarchical polynomial regression to assess the form of the age-satisfaction relationship. Results confirmed that a U shape best characterized the relationship between age and job satisfaction. Implications of these findings as well as directions for future research are discussed.     

Nonsymbolic numerical magnitude comparison: reliability and validity of different task variants and outcome measures, and their relationship to arithmetic achievement in adults

The numerical ratio effect (NRE) and the Weber fraction (w) are common metrics of the precision of the approximate numbers sense (ANS), a cognitive mechanism suggested to play a role in the development of numerical and arithmetic skills. The task most commonly used to measure the precision of the ANS is the numerical comparison task. Multiple variants of this task have been employed yet it is currently unclear how these affect metrics of ANS acuity, and how these relate to arithmetic achievement. The present study investigates the reliability, validity and relationship to standardized measures of arithmetic fluency of the NRE and w elicited by three variants of the nonsymbolic number comparison task. Results reveal that the strengths of the NRE and w differ between task variants. Moreover, the reliability and validity of the reaction time NRE and the w were generally significant across task variants, although reliability was stronger for w. None of the task variants revealed a correlation between ANS metrics and arithmetic fluency in adults. These results reveal important consistencies across nonsymbolic number comparison tasks, indicating a shared cognitive foundation. However, the relationship between ANS acuity and arithmetic performance remains unclear.     

Stress regulation and incision in borderline personality disorder-a pilot study modeling cutting behavior

Emotion dysregulation in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is characterized by high baseline negative intensity, high reactivity, and slow return to baseline. Patients with BPD often engage in self-injurious behavior because it leads to immediate relief of stress levels. We aimed to assess stress regulation as well as the influence of tissue damage on subjective (aversive tension) and objective (heart rate) stress correlates in BPD. In 14 unmedicated patients with BPD and 18 healthy controls, a stress induction was followed by an incision into the forearm conducted by an investigator. For aversive tension, we found elevated baseline levels as well as slower return to baseline in BPD. In controls, incision resulted in a short-term increase of aversive tension, whereas tension and heart rate decreased in the BPD group. Our preliminary results support the hypothesis that tissue damage may play a role in disturbed stress regulation in BPD.