Feature inference and the causal structure of categories

The purpose of this article was to establish how theoretical category knowledge-specifically, knowledge of the causal relations that link the features of categories-supports the ability to infer the presence of unobserved features. Our experiments were designed to test proposals that causal knowledge is represented psychologically as Bayesian networks. In five experiments we found that Bayes' nets generally predicted participants' feature inferences quite well. However, we also observed a pervasive violation of one of the defining principles of Bayes' nets-the causal Markov condition-because the presence of characteristic features invariably led participants to infer yet another characteristic feature. We argue that this effect arises from a domain-general bias to assume the presence of underlying mechanisms associated with the category. Specifically, people take an exemplar to be a "well functioning" category member when it has most or all of the category's characteristic features, and thus are likely to infer a characteristic value on an unobserved dimension.     

Fusions and Ordinary Physical Objects

In “Tropes and Ordinary Physical Objects”, Kris McDaniel argues that ordinary physical objects are fusions of monadic and polyadic tropes. McDaniel calls his view “TOPO”—for “Theory of Ordinary Physical Objects”. He argues that we should accept TOPO because of the philosophical work that it allows us to do. Among other things, TOPO is supposed to allow endurantists to reply to Mark Heller’s argument for perdurantism. But, we argue in this paper, TOPO does not help endurantists do that; indeed, we argue that anyone who accepts TOPO should reject endurantism.     

Thirty-something categorization results explained: selective attention, eyetracking, and models of category learning

An eyetracking study testing D. L. Medin and M. M. Schaffer's (1978) 5-4 category structure was conducted. Over 30 studies have shown that the exemplar-based generalized context model (GCM) usually provides a better quantitative account of 5-4 learning data as compared with the prototype model. However, J. D. Smith and J. P. Minda (2000) argued that the GCM is a psychologically implausible account of 5-4 learning because it implies suboptimal attention weights. To test this claim, the authors recorded undergraduates' eye movements while the students learned the 5-4 category structure. Eye fixations matched the attention weights estimated by the GCM but not those of the prototype model. This result confirms that the GCM is a realistic model of the processes involved in learning the 5-4 structure and that learners do not always optimize attention, as commonly supposed. The conditions under which learners are likely to optimize attention during category learning are discussed.     

Disjunctive Quantum Logic in Dynamic Perspective

In Coecke (2002) we proposed the intuitionistic or disjunctive representation of quantum logic, i.e., a representation of the property lattice of physical systems as a complete Heyting algebra of logical propositions on these properties, where this complete Heyting algebra goes equipped with an additional operation, the operational resolution, which identifies the properties within the logic of propositions. This representation has an important application towards dynamic quantum logic, namely in describing the temporal indeterministic propagation of actual properties of physical systems. This paper can as such by conceived as an addendum to Quantum Logic in Intuitionistic Perspective that discusses spin-off and thus provides an additional motivation. We derive a quantaloidal semantics for dynamic disjunctive quantum logic and illustrate it for the particular case of a perfect (quantum) measurement.     

Instructions for Authors

Instructions for Authors

Instructions for Authors     

Visual implicit memory in the left hemisphere: evidence from patients with callosotomies and right occipital lobe lesions

Identification of visually presented objects and words is facilitated by implicit memory for past visual experiences with those items. Several behavioral and neuroimaging studies suggest that this form of memory is dependent on perceptual processes localized in the right occipital lobe. We tested this claim by examining implicit memory in patients with extensive right occipital lobe lesions, using lexical-decision, mirror-reading, picture-fragment, and word-fragment-completion tests, and found that these patients exhibited normal levels of priming. We also examined implicit memory in patients with complete callosotomies, using standard and divided-visual-field word-fragment-completion procedures, and found that the isolated left hemisphere exhibited normal priming effects. The results indicate that the right occipital lobe does not play a necessary role in visual implicit memory, and that the isolated left hemisphere can support normal levels of visual priming in a variety of tasks.     

Perceptual organization in schizophrenia: the processing of symmetrical configurations

The hypothesis that the perceptual organization dysfunction of patients with poor premorbid schizophrenia is due to a deficit in global visual sensory store processing was tested by assessing their ability to process symmetrical configurations that develop early and have strong prepotent structures. Two same-different judgment tasks in which performance varies as a function of the symmetrical organization and task demands were administered to participants with good and poor premorbid schizophrenia, those with mood disorders, and normal controls. Like the other groups, poor premorbid schizophrenics' latency and error response patterns closely paralled the a priori model of adequate processing. The results support their competence in perceptually processing symmetrical configurations and disconfirm the hypothesis that their input deficiencies represent a general deficiency in all forms of perceptual organization. The implications for specifying their early input dysfunction are discussed.     

The Clown's Use of Empathy: An Interview with Bob Berky

Excerpts from an interview with Bob Berky reveal the clown's keen understanding of empathic attunement, what psychotherapists, pastoral counselors, and persons in pastoral care maintain is a vital correspondence toward authentic interpersonal presence. Berky discusses the use of silence and movement to free the individual with whom he invites to his stage from rigid personas and limiting preconceptions. He underscores the life-giving possibilities of the laugh of recognition—the realization that we share a kindred experience of being human, and can release our unique potentials toward creative connection and difference.     

Footballs Versus Barbies: Childhood Play Activities as Predictors of Sport Participation by Women

The present study examined the extent to which childhood play activities predict future sport participation by women. Eighty-four college women (40 Division III varsity athletes and 44 nonathletes) at a predominantly White liberal arts school in the Southwest completed a questionnaire that measured their adult experiences with sports as well as their childhood play activities. The results revealed that playing with masculine (rather than feminine) toys and games, playing in predominantly male or mixed-gender groups, and being considered a tomboy distinguished between women who later became college athletes and those who did not. These findings suggest that childhood play activities should be considered, along with other agents of socialization (i.e., family, peers, coaches), as important factors in predicting future sport participation by females.