Design and its discontents

The design argument was rebutted by David Hume. He argued that the world and its contents (such as organisms) were not analogous to human artifacts. Hume further suggested that there were equally plausible alternatives to design to explain the organized complexity of the cosmos, such as random processes in multiple universes, or that matter could have inherent properties to self-organize, absent any external crafting. William Paley, writing after Hume, argued that the functional complexity of living beings, however, defied naturalistic explanations. In effect he dared anyone to come up with an alternative to his inference to design, and hence a designer, outside of nature. Charles Darwin explained the apparent design of functional complexity by his theory of natural selection. Asa Gray, however, in essays as well as in correspondence with Darwin argued that natural selection allowed for a type of ‘evolutionary teleology’ in which design at most could be considered the result of universal principles. F.E. Hicks updated Hume by specifically objecting to the use of design arguments by Paley. Hicks argued that the apparent design seen in nature reflected order at a deep level in nature. The design argument was briefly revived by Lawrence Henderson early in the twentieth century but he ultimately concluded that design and teleology were not necessarily mutually entailing and he retracted his design argument in favor of one that he termed ‘natural teleology’. The current claims of ‘intelligent design’ have the same logical problems that have beset previous design arguments. If design is divorced from teleology and its discontents put behind us, then there is a possibility that the latter can have a place in the development of theories to explain the phenomena of emergent complexity.     

Modulation of N400 in chronic non-fluent aphasia using low frequency Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)

Low frequency Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) has previously been applied to language homologues in non-fluent populations of persons with aphasia yielding significant improvements in behavioral language function up to 43 months post stimulation. The present study aimed to investigate the electrophysiological correlates associated with the application of rTMS through measurement of the semantic based N400 Event-related brain potentials (ERP) component. Low frequency (1 Hz) rTMS was applied to the anterior portion of the homologue to Broca’s area (pars triangularis), for 20 min per day for 10 days, using a stereotactic neuronavigational system. Twelve non-fluent persons with aphasia, 2-6 years post stroke were stimulated. Six participants were randomly assigned to receive real stimulation and six participants were randomly assigned to receive a blind sham control condition. ERP measures were recorded at baseline, 1 week and 2 months subsequent to stimulation. The findings demonstrate treatment related changes observed in the stimulation group when compared to the placebo control group at 2 months post stimulation indicating neuromodulation of N400 as a result of rTMS. No treatment related changes were identified in the stimulation group, when compared to the sham group from baseline to 1 week post stimulation. The electrophysiological results represent the capacity of rTMS to modulate neural language networks and measures of lexical-semantic function in participants with non-fluent aphasia and suggest that time may be an important factor in brain reorganization subsequent to rTMS.     

Developmental Risk and Young Children’s Regulatory Strategies: Predicting Behavior Problems at Age Five

Children with early developmental delays are at heightened risk for behavior problems and comorbid psychopathology. This study examined the trajectories of regulatory capabilities and their potentially mediating role in the development of behavior problems for children with and without early developmental delays. A sample of 231 children comprised of 137 typically developing children and 94 children with developmental delays were examined during mildly frustrating laboratory tasks across the preschool period (ages 3–5). Results indicated that children with delays had greater use of maladaptive strategies (distraction, distress venting) and lower use of adaptive strategies (constructive coping) than typically developing children. For both groups, strategies had similar rates of growth across time; maladaptive strategies decreased and adaptive strategies increased. The intercept of strategy use, but not the slope, was found to mediate the relation between developmental risk and externalizing behaviors. Findings support that dysregulation, rather than the developmental risk, may be responsible for the high levels of comorbid psychopathology.     

Potential underlying mechanisms for greater weight gain in massaged preterm infants

In this paper, potential underlying mechanisms for massage therapy effects on preterm infant weight gain are reviewed. Path analyses are presented suggesting that: (1) increased vagal activity was associated with (2) increased gastric motility, which, in turn, was related to (3) greater weight gain; and (4) increased IGF-1 was related to greater weight gain. The change in vagal activity during the massage explained 49% of the variance in the change in gastric activity. And, the change in vagal activity during the massage explained 62% of the variance in the change in insulin. That the change in gastric activity was not related to the change in insulin suggests two parallel pathways via which massage therapy leads to increased weight gain: (1) insulin release via the celiac branch of the vagus; and (2) increased gastric activity via the gastric branch of the vagus.     

Personality predicts innovation and social learning in children: Implications for cultural evolution

Innovation and social learning are the pillars of cultural evolution, allowing cultural behaviours to cumulatively advance over generations. Yet, little is known about individual differences in the use of social and asocial information. We examined whether personality influenced 7-11-year-old children's (N = 282) propensity to elect to observe others first or independently generate solutions to novel problems. Conscientiousness was associated with electing for no demonstrations, while agreeableness was associated with opting for demonstrations. For children receiving demonstrations, openness to experience consistently predicted deviation from observed methods. Children who opted for no demonstrations were also more likely than those opting for demonstrations to exhibit tool manufacture on an innovation challenge and displayed higher creativity, as measured by an alternate uses task. These results highlight how new cultural traditions emerge, establish and advance by identifying which individuals generate new cultural variants in populations and which are influential in the diffusion of these variants, and help reduce the apparent tension within the ‘ratchet’ of cumulative culture.     

The Mating Sociometer and Attractive Others: A Double-Edged Sword in Romantic Relationships

Eighty-one participants were recruited to test the sensitivity of the mating sociometer to mate-value feedback in the context of ongoing intimate relationships. Experiences of social rejection/acceptance by attractive opposite-sex confederates were manipulated. The effects of this manipulation on self-esteem, relationship satisfaction and commitment, perceptions of dating alternatives, and friendship-dedication were assessed. Social rejection/acceptance by members of the opposite sex altered relationship satisfaction and commitment; this causal link was amplified by changes in state self-esteem; and these effects were specific to intimate relationships and did not generalize to friendship-dedication. This research supports a domain-specific conceptualization of sociometer theory, extending the theory in important directions.     

Measuring religious affiliation in Great Britain: the 2011 census in historical and methodological context

Abstract

The British religious census of 2011 is located in its broader historical and methodological context. The principal developments in the measurement of religious affiliation (proxy-assigned or self-assigned) in Britain are traced from the Reformation to the present day, charting the relative contribution of the Churches, the State and empirical social science. The key statistics which have emerged from their respective efforts are summarised, with nominal religious affiliation universal until the time of the French Revolution and preponderant until as late as the 1980s. For recent decades, when the profession of faith has been rejected by large numbers of Britons, particular attention is paid to the variant results from different question-wording. Depending upon what is asked, the proportion of the population currently making sense of their lives without asserting a confessional religious identity ranges from one-quarter to one-half. The difficulties of trying to construct a religious barometer through a single, unitary indicator are thus illuminated.     

Not by Labor Alone: Considerations for Value Influence Use of the Labor Rule in Ownership Transfers

People often assign ownership to the person who has invested labor into making an object (labor rule). However, labor usually improves objects and increases their value, and it has not been investigated whether these considerations underlie people's use of the labor rule. We presented participants with third‐party ownership conflicts between an owner of materials and an artist who used the materials for some artwork. Experiment 1 revealed that participants were more likely to transfer ownership to the artist for low‐value materials than for high‐value materials, and Experiment 2 showed that this effect was further moderated by the amount of effort the artist had invested. A third experiment confirmed that participants transferred ownership more often if the artist's labor had increased the value of the materials than when it had added no value. These findings suggest that considerations for value underlie ownership transfers following the investment of labor.     

Attachment and Mother-Child Communication in Adjustment to the Death of a Father Among Cambodian Adolescents

This study examined quality of attachment to the mother and child-mother communication in adolescents' adjustment to the death of a father. Forty-eight Cambodian adolescents whose father had died within the previous 3 years completed a set of measures that included attachment, communication, grief, and self-esteem. Results showed that quality of attachment to the mother and whether the adolescent communicated with the mother about the father and found this to be helpful were positively related to adaptive grief and self-esteem. Moreover, support was shown for an indirect effect of quality of attachment to the mother on adaptive grief as mediated by communication. Implications of the findings for quality of attachment in adjustment to bereavement in a non-Western cultural context are discussed.