Is heaven a possible world?

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

Neuropsychological performance of emotionally disturbed students on the LNNB and LNNB-C

A number of researchers have reported an association between neuropsychological impairment and psychiatric disorders. However, there has been relatively little research on the neuropsychological functioning of emotionally disturbed students served in public schools. The purpose of this study was to determine the neuropsychological performance of 65 emotionally disturbed students 8–18 years old on the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery: Form I (LNNB) and the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery: Children's Revision (LNNB-C). The results indicated that approximately 42% of the younger group (99–154 months) and 38% of the older group (156– 226 months) demonstrated neuropsychological impairment as defined by criterion values for the various scales of the two batteries. On average, the emotionally disturbed students appeared to demonstrate more difficulty on more complex cognitive tasks, such as writing, arithmetic, and intellectual processes, than for less complex tasks, such as motor functions.     

Assessing the cross-cultural content validity of the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension scale (PRCA-24)

Despite its popularity in the USA, the most common communication apprehension (CA) measurement scale, the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension scale (PRCA-24), has been used in just three studies in Japan. Further, validity analyses have not been reported for Japanese samples. This article attempts to analyze the content validity of the PRCA-24 on Japanese college students. Results indicate that the PRCA-24 may be of use in determining some, but not all, types of CA among Japanese students. Suggestions for future CA research in Japan are offered.     

Six Studies of Out-of-Body Experiences

Because of confusion between science and scientism, many people react negatively to the idea of scientific investigation of near-death experiences (NDEs), but genuine science can contribute a great deal to understanding NDEs and helping experiencers integrate their experiences with everyday life. After noting how scientific investigation of certain parapsychological phenomena has established a wider world view that must take NDEs seriously, I review six studies of a basic component of the NDE, the out-of-body experience (OBE). Three of these studies found distinctive physiological correlates of OBEs in the two talented persons investigated, and one found strong evidence for veridical, paranormal perception of the OBE location. The studies using hypnosis to try to produce OBEs demonstrated the complexity of a simple model that a person's mind is actually at an out-of-body location versus merely hallucinating being out, and require us to look at how even our perception of being in our bodies is actually a complex simulation, a biopsychological virtual reality.     

Response times and eye movements in feature and conjunction search as a function of target eccentricity

In four experiments, saccadic eye movements, reaction times (RTs), and accuracy were measured as observers searched for feature or conjunction targets presented at several eccentricities. A conjunction search deficit, evidenced by a large eccentricity effect on RTs, accuracy, and number of saccades, was seen in Experiments 1A and 1B. Experiment 2 indicated that, when saccades were precluded, there was an even larger eccentricity effect for conjunction search targets. In Experiment 3, practice in a conjunction search task allowed both RT and number of saccades to become independent of eccentricity. Additionally, there was evidence of feature-based selectivity in that observers were more likely to fixate distractors that had the same contrast as the target. Results are consistent with the view that the oculomotor and attentional systems are functionally linked and provide constraints for models of visual attention and search.     

Quantifying over the reals

Peter Geach proposed a substitutional construal of quantification over thirty years ago. It is not standardly substitutional since it is not tied to those substitution instances currently available to us; rather, it is pegged to possible substitution instances. We argue that (i) quantification over the real numbers can be construed substitutionally following Geach's idea; (ii) a price to be paid, if it is that, is intuitionism; (iii) quantification, thus conceived, does not in itself relieve us of ontological commitment to real numbers.