Searle on rediscovering the mind

John R. Searle,The Rediscovery of the Mind (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1992), 270 pp. $22.50. I would like to thank my colleagues Bernard Dauenhauer and Beth Preston for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this essay.     

Asymmetry of perception in free viewing of chimeric faces

We have devised a new free-vision task to index functional cerebral asymmetry for processing facial characteristics. Confirming its sensitivity to properties of lateralized hemispheric functions, left- and right-handers were clearly differentiated on this task with respect to several aspects of performance that conform with known differences between handedness groups in hemispheric asymmetry. Additionally, there were highly reliable and stable individual differences in perceptual asymmetries within handedness. Analyses of items in the task revealed that most of the differences between items in the asymmetries they elicited were random.     

Some aspects of the interpersonal phenomenology of heterosexual dyads with respect to sex-role stereotypes

A technique based upon recently developed Boolean calculi for interpersonal phenomenology was used to study sex-role attributions within 59 heterosexual dyads. The interpersonal and intrapersonal variables studied include perceived similarity, validation of self-concept, expectations of agreement, feelings of being understood, predictions that the partner expects agreement, understanding, accurate perception of understanding/misunderstanding, and accurate perception of expectations on agreement/disagreement. All variables were studied in relation to each member of the dyad and in relation to male and female sex-role stereotypes. Analyses of all variables are consistent with two conclusions: (1) Phenomenal disparity in a relationship is more likely to be generated around male sex-role stereotypes than around female sex-role stereotypes; (2) phenomenal disparity in a relationship is most likely to occur in connection with counter-sex-role attributions to the female. Increased uncertainty regarding counter-sex-role attributions about women and lowered validation of self-concept for women who adopt counter-sex-role attributes are shown to contribute to these effects. These conclusions are seen as a reflection of an asymmetry which seems to be consistent in the literature: Counter-sex-role choices and attitudes seem to be less discordant for males than for females in this culture. Evidence of this asymmetry is discussed.     

Perceiving extents of rods by wielding: haptic diagonalization and decomposition of the inertia tensor

We report two experiments on the length-perception capabilities of the hand-related haptic subsystem. On each trial, a visually occluded rod was wielded by the subject at a position intermediate between its two ends. The position was either 1/2 or 3/4 of the rod's length. On two-thirds of the trials, a weight was attached to the rod at a point either above or below its center of gravity and not coincident with the hand's position. In Experiment 1, the subject's task was to perceive the distance reachable with the portion of the rod extending beyond the position of the grasp. In the second experiment, the subject's task was to perceive the distance reachable with the entire rod if it were held at its proximal end. In Experiment 1, perceived reaching distance was a function of the moment of inertia of the amount of rod forward of the grasp about an axis through the proximal end of the rod segment. In Experiment 2, perceived reaching distance was a function of the moment of inertia of the entire rod about the given axis of rotation intermediate between the rod's ends. The results are discussed in terms of (a) the notion of smart perceptual instruments capitalizing on invariant properties of the inertia tensor and (b) how the haptic decomposition of moments of inertia follows the principle of equivalence of forces.