Understanding a Desireless Action as a Benevolent Action

Scholars have questioned the doctrine of desireless action in the Bhagavadgita and questioned whether Krishna’s advice is to be taken literally on the basis that the Humean account of motivation is more plausible (or not) than the anti-Humean account. In this paper, I will avoid the Humean principle debate by proposing a new way of examining the term ‘desireless action’. I aim to show that Krishna’s advice can be rendered coherent on the basis that we understand a desireless action as an action motivated by a benevolent desire. I will be referring to the notion of benevolence as constructed by Francis Hutcheson because there is a parallel between the Hutchesonian experience of benevolence and purusha, or pure consciousness. Benevolent desire results in a desireless action since to act benevolently is to act ‘disinterestedly’ and thereby accepting purusha as one’s true nature.     

Different types of exercise induce differential effects on neuronal adaptations and memory performance

Different exercise paradigms show differential effects on various forms of memory. We hypothesize that the differential effects of exercises on memory performance are caused by different neuroplasticity changes in relevant brain regions in response to different exercise trainings. We examined the effects of treadmill running (TR) and wheel running (WR) on the Pavlovian fear conditioning task that assesses learning and memory performance associated with the amygdala (cued conditioning) and both the amygdala and hippocampus (contextual conditioning). The skeletal muscle citrate synthase activity, an indicator of aerobic capacity, was elevated in rats received 4 w of TR, but not WR. While both TR and WR elevated the contextual conditional response, only TR facilitated the cued conditional response. Using a single-neuron labeling technique, we found that while both TR and MR enlarged the dendritic field and increased the spine density in hippocampal CA3 neurons, only TR showed these effects in basolateral amygdalar neurons. Moreover, both types of exercise upregulated synaptic proteins (i.e., TrkB and SNAP-25) in the hippocampus; however only TR showed similar effects in the amygdala. Injection of K252a, a TrkB kinase inhibitor, in the dorsal hippocampus or basolateral amygdala abolished the exercise-facilitated contextual or cued fear learning and memory performance, respectively, regardless of the types of exercise. In summary, our results supported that different types of exercise affect the performance of learning and memory via BDNF-TrkB signaling and neuroplasticity in specific brain regions. The brain region-specific neuronal adaptations are possibly induced by various levels of intensity/stress elicited by different types of exercise.     

An Analytic Creativity Assessment Scale for Digital Game Story Design: Construct Validity,Internal Consistency and Interrater Reliability

Mobile technology has rapidly made digital games a popular entertainment to this digital generation, and thus digital game design received considerable attention in both the game industry and design education. Digital game design involves diverse dimensions in which digital game story design (DGSD) particularly attracts our interest, as the literature needs more information, especially the creativity assessment of DGSD. Existing measuring tools do not adequately address the characteristics of game-story duality. Thus, an analytic creativity assessment scale of DGSD (CAS-DGSD) based on literature and original ideas was developed in our previous work. This study aims to statistically examine its construct validity, internal consistency reliability, and interrater reliability to verify its effectiveness. Three commercial games of 3 different game genres (action, puzzle, and role-play) were rated by 32 student raters and 4 expert raters. Statistical results show acceptable construct validity, internal consistency reliability, and interrater reliability of the CAS-DGSD. The CAS-DGSD not only helps evaluators like teachers identify which aspects of DGSD are short of creativity, but also serves as a guideline for digital game story designers like design students and product developers to tailor creative and entertaining game stories.     

Time pressure and the endowment effect

This research examines how time pressure influences bidding behavior in experiment auctions. The studies reported herein investigate how time pressure systematically impacts individual trading of an endowed object by looking at the disparity between buying and selling prices for that object. Study 1 tests whether the effect of time pressure eliminates the disparity between selling and buying prices. In Study 2, transaction demand is employed to see whether sellers and buyers are more sensitive to changes in the item (amount of work). In Study 3, sellers and buyers access information of differing valence in the task. In Study 4, the framing of the reference price is manipulated to moderate the endowment effect. These studies indicate that under time pressure, endowment bias is reduced and, more generally, elucidate the role of trading behavior in decision making.     

The Influence of Task Difficulty on Context Effect - Compromise and Attraction Effects

Research in psychology finds strong context effects in consumer behavior and help consumer make up their mind from choice set when none of each option better than the others in all aspects. Context effect signifies that when evaluating a focal option, individuals take into consideration characteristics of other comparative alternatives rather than only the features of that focal alternative, complicating the decision-making process. The compromise effect and attraction effect (known together as context effect) explain the underlying motivations that cause consumers to choose the middle option and introduce an inferior option to make the originally dominated option more preferable. But past research on this domain has predominantly used an easy-to-count choice scenario (refers to the ease of using individual’s math skill on comparative attributes in the choice task) which is not ideally existed in real world situation. In real world purchasing situations, most of the time consumers become confused by a variety of products presented with irregular pricing, packaging or attributes which are apparently difficult to compare by math skill. This paper aim to examine “When the level of difficulty changed while processing the comparative task on the context of a choice set, how does this influence the resultant occurrence of context effect?” Results from four experiments demonstrate that both compromise and attraction effects decreased when the choice task become more difficult.     

The Presence of Self-Stigma,Perceived Stress,and Suicidal Ideation among Selected LGBT Filipinos

Minority group members experience what is known as “minority stress,” by which individuals suffer stress because of their membership in stigmatized social categories. In turn, minority stress may lead to self-stigmatization. This occurs when minority group members experience a sense of shame created by the view of the majority culture and then incorporate the majority opinion into their self-image. Because it is cumulative with the stress an individual is already experiencing, self-stigmatization may become a significant stressor itself, possibly contributing to the development of suicidal ideation. A total of 609 self-identified LGBT individuals were asked to answer a battery of psychological tests to assess the interrelationships between self-stigma, perceived stress, and suicidal ideation. As expected, perceived stress predicted suicidal ideation, whereas self-stigmatization predicted both perceived stress and suicidal ideation. Structural equation modeling confirms the predictive value of self-stigma together with perceived stress in determining the suicidal ideation present among LGBT Filipinos. Self-stigma exerted a direct effect upon suicidal ideation not accounted for by perceived stress.     

关于VC-E之间信任的构念维度研究

创业投资家(VC)与创业企业家(E)之间信任已经成为创业研究的热点,但是这一构念的维度尚未得到充分的讨论和研究。本文基于中国VC和E的数据用验证性因子分析和Cronbachα系数验证了信任构念的有效性和可靠性,结果表明:VC-E之间的信任包括谋算性信任、了解性信任和认同性信任三个维度。这一构念符合VC-E之间关系的多维度特点。     

身份交换对多身份追踪表现的影响

本研究探讨了身份交换对多身份追踪表现的影响。实验1和实验2分别考察了全部报告法和部分报告法下身份交换对多身份追踪表现的具体影响。结果均发现, 身份交换对身份−位置绑定干扰程度越大, 位置追踪和身份识别容量也均越低, 但位置容量始终高于身份容量, 并且这些特性在不同追踪负荷上相同。此外, 部分报告法比全部报告法更具有容量测量优势。实验3则进一步从听觉通道上控制了语音复述对当前任务的干扰, 所得结果仍支持实验1和实验2。这表明, 身份交换对多身份追踪的干扰机制是身份−位置绑定机制受到损害, 而非语音复述的作用。     

Approximations, Idealizations, and Models in Statistical Mechanics

In this paper, a criticism of the traditional theories of approximation and idealization is given as a summary of previous works. After identifying the real purpose and measure of idealization in the practice of science, it is argued that the best way to characterize idealization is not to formulate a logical model – something analogous to Hempel's D-N model for explanation – but to study its different guises in the praxis of science. A case study of it is then made in thermostatistical physics. After a brief sketch of the theories for phase transitions and critical phenomena, I examine the various idealizations that go into the making of models at three difference levels. The intended result is to induce a deeper appreciation of the complexity and fruitfulness of idealization in the praxis of model-building, not to give an abstract theory of it.