The Importance of Philosophy: Reflections on John Rawls

This paper tackles the question whet her we should punish a remorseful offender. Traditional retributive and consequentialist theories on punishment are struggling with the question of the justification of punishment, but I think a more basic question needs to be solved first; namely, how can we interpret the practice of punishment. I state that a theory of symbolic restoration can help us to understand the meaning of this practice. A theory of symbolic restoration depends on an expressivist account of punishment, like Joel Feinberg's. Expressivism gives us an insight into the importance of the feeling of moral condemnation and it is this feeling that gives rise to the longing for punishment and remorse. Because of moral condemnation after a crime we ask for punishment and expect some kind of remorse. The question is whether punishment can be exchanged for remorse and I argue that in certain cases it cannot. The punishment of a remorseful offender is, I argue, – in certain cases – justified.     

An Essay In The Aid Of Writing History: Fictions Of Historiography

In what follows I explore the question of fictionality in history writing. First, I venture into the unfamiliar genre of ego-histoire and make my own professional training in the tenets of positivist or realist historiography an object of theoretical reflection and critical analysis. Then as a way of dealing with the literary dimension of written history, I make a canonical work in history of education an object of rhetorical analysis. Finally, as another way of coming to terms with the fictions of historiography, I revisit one of my own productions and make it an object of metacritical consideration. My central theme is that historiographical realism alone will not suffice , that historians are as dependant upon literary invention as upon documents, that history cannot be written without the aid of the fictions of historiography, and that the difference between the historian and the novelist is narrower than we may have been accustomed to think. I further argue that attention to the literary or rhetorical dimension of history is long overdue in history of education, where it flourishes unacknowledged. I conclude that historical writing is not just a literary pastime and the issue remains: how to come to grips with fictionalizing and the truth claims of historiography.     

The neural basis of error detection: conflict monitoring and the error-related negativity

According to a recent theory, anterior cingulate cortex is sensitive to response conflict, the coactivation of mutually incompatible responses. The present research develops this theory to provide a new account of the error-related negativity (ERN), a scalp potential observed following errors. Connectionist simulations of response conflict in an attentional task demonstrated that the ERN--its timing and sensitivity to task parameters--can be explained in terms of the conflict theory. A new experiment confirmed predictions of this theory regarding the ERN and a second scalp potential, the N2, that is proposed to reflect conflict monitoring on correct response trials. Further analysis of the simulation data indicated that errors can be detected reliably on the basis of post-error conflict. It is concluded that the ERN can be explained in terms of response conflict and that monitoring for conflict may provide a simple mechanism for detecting errors.     

The relationship between perisylvian morphology and verbal short-term memory functioning in children with neurodevelopmental disorders

Although children with neurodevelopmental disorders frequently present with reduced short-term memory functioning, the relationship between perisylvian morphology and verbal short-term memory functioning has received limited attention. Thus, examining this relationship in children with neurodevelopmental disorders was the focus of this exploratory study. Results suggested leftward asymmetry in the temporal bank of the planum temporale is related to better coding and storage of semantic material. In contrast, parietal bank morphology is related to coding and storage of phonological material, and presence of an extra gyrus in the parietal region is associated with reduced phonological working memory. Data also supported a relationship between pars triangularis morphology and verbal short-term memory functioning, but this is not material-specific.     

Errors without conflict: implications for performance monitoring theories of anterior cingulate cortex

Recent theories of the neural basis of performance monitoring have emphasized a central role for the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Replicating an earlier event-related potential (ERP) study, which showed an error feedback negativity that was modeled as having an ACC generator, we used event-related fMRI to investigate whether the ACC would differentiate between correct and incorrect feedback stimuli in a time estimation task. The design controlled for response conflict and frequency and expectancy effects. Although participants in the current study adjusted their performance following error feedback, we did not observe error feedback-evoked ACC activity. In contrast, we did observe ACC activity while the same subjects performed the Stroop task, in which an area of the ACC activated during both conflict and error trials. These findings are inconsistent with previous dipole models of the error feedback negativity, and suggest the ACC may not be involved in the generation of this ERP component. These results question involvement of the ACC in the detection of errors per se when controlling for conflict.     

Adolescent personality disorders and conflict with romantic partners during the transition to adulthood

Longitudinal data were used to investigate the association of adolescent personality disorders with conflict between romantic partners during the transition to adulthood (i.e., age 17 to 27). Findings indicated that adolescent personality disorders (PDs) assessed at mean age 16 were associated with subsequent elevated partner conflict. Cluster B PD was associated with sustained elevations in partner conflict throughout the transition to adulthood. Cluster A and C PDs were associated with elevated partner conflict before age 23. Paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal, borderline, narcissistic, and obsessive-compulsive PD symptoms were independently associated with sustained elevations in partner conflict.     

The physics of optimal decision making: a formal analysis of models of performance in two-alternative forced-choice tasks

In this article, the authors consider optimal decision making in two-alternative forced-choice (TAFC) tasks. They begin by analyzing 6 models of TAFC decision making and show that all but one can be reduced to the drift diffusion model, implementing the statistically optimal algorithm (most accurate for a given speed or fastest for a given accuracy). They prove further that there is always an optimal trade-off between speed and accuracy that maximizes various reward functions, including reward rate (percentage of correct responses per unit time), as well as several other objective functions, including ones weighted for accuracy. They use these findings to address empirical data and make novel predictions about performance under optimality.     

Contextual knowledge reduces demands on working memory during reading

An experiment is reported in which young, middle-aged, and older adults read and recalled ambiguous texts either with or without the topic title that supplied contextual knowledge. Within each of the age groups, the participants were divided into those with high or low working memory (WM) spans, with available WM capacity further manipulated by the presence or absence of an auditory target detection task concurrent with the reading task. Differences in reading efficiency (reading time per proposition recalled) between low WM span and high WM span groups were greater among readers who had access to contextual knowledge relative to those who did not, suggesting that contextual knowledge reduces demands on WM capacity. This position was further supported by the finding that increased age and attentional demands, two factors associated with reduced WM capacity, exaggerated the benefits of contextual knowledge on reading efficiency. The relative strengths of additional potential predictors of reading efficiency (e.g., interest, effort, and memory beliefs), along with knowledge, WM span, and age, are reported. Findings showed that contextual knowledge was the strongest predictor of reading efficiency even after controlling for the effects of all of the other predictors.     

Cross-language lexical connections in the mental lexicon: evidence from a case of trilingual aphasia

Despite anecdotal data on lexical interference among the languages of multilingual speakers, little research evidence about the lexical connections among multilinguals' languages exists to date. In the present paper, two experiments with a multilingual speaker who had suffered aphasia are reported. The first experiment provides data about inter-language activation during natural conversations; the second experiment examines performance on a word-translation task. Asymmetric patterns of inter-language interference and translation are evident. These patterns are influenced by age of language learning, degree of language recovery and use, and prevalence of shared lexical items. We conclude that whereas age of language learning plays a role in language recovery following aphasia, the degrees of language use prior to the aphasia onset and of shared vocabulary determine the ease with which words are accessed. The findings emphasize the importance of patterns of language use and the relations between the language pair under investigation in understanding lexical connections among languages in bilinguals and multilinguals.     

The role of perceived similarity in supportive responses to victims of negative life events

The authors examined whether participants' perceived similarity to an ostensible victim of a negative life event influenced their supportiveness during a live interaction. Two competing models were considered: (a) increased similarity would be associated with increased supportiveness through attraction to the target and (b) increased similarity would be associated with decreased supportiveness through anxiety (due to heightened vulnerability). Participants (N = 241) met individually with a confederate posing as a cancer patient. Reactions were assessed, including verbal and nonverbal behaviors, both before and after the interaction, by participants themselves and by observers of the interaction. Results supported a model based on the classic similarity/attraction paradigm: Perceived similarity indirectly predicted participant-reported supportiveness/warmth and smiling through its relationship to attraction. Results extend the literature on similarity and attraction to the stress and coping arena and suggest that emphasizing perceived similarities to victims would be beneficial.