Explicating Truth: Minimalism and Primitivism

This paper pursues two goals. The first is to show that Horwich's anti-primitivist version of minimalism must be rejected because, already for formal reasons, the truth-schema does not achieve a positive explication of any property of propositions. The second goal is to develop a more moderate primitivist version of minimalism according to which the truth-schema is admittedly powerless to underpin truth with something more basic but it still succeeds in giving a complete account of the necessary and sufficient conditions for a proposition to be true. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Zur Bedeutung der Psychoendokrinologie in der Psychosomatik

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Linear phase correction models for synchronization: parameter identification and estimation of parameters.

Linear phase correction models for synchronized tapping and their stochastic properties are presented. In the most general form they include a central timer, a motor execution, and a phase correction mechanism that acts on the physical or the perceived asynchrony. A central issue of the article is how to identify and estimate the model parameters from the data. Monte Carlo simulations show serious problems of parameter interdependency.     

Calculus as method or calculus as rules? Boole and Frege on the aims of a logical calculus

Synthese - By way of a close reading of Boole and Frege’s solutions to the same logical problem, we highlight an underappreciated aspect of Boole’s work—and of its difference with...     

Reduction in Memory Specificity Following an Approach/Avoidance Scrambled Sentences Task Relates to Cognitive Avoidant Coping

Overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM) refers to the tendency to retrieve less specific personal memories. According to the functional avoidance hypothesis, OGM might act as a cognitive strategy to avoid emotionally distressing details of negative memories. In the present study, we investigated the effect of an experimentally induced avoidant state on memory specificity. We primed an avoidant state in half of the participants and an approaching state in the other half by means of a Scrambled Sentences Task (SST). Memory specificity was measured before and after priming. Trait cognitive avoidant coping was assessed prior to the experiment. Analyses indicated that higher trait avoidance was significantly associated with lower memory specificity after the SST and stronger reductions in memory specificity from pre- to post-SST, irrespective of the priming condition. The latter suggests that the SST triggered high avoiders’ avoidance schema in both conditions, possibly because it was experienced as a stressor.

     

Acceptance,well-being and goals in adolescents with chronic illness: a daily process analysis

Objective: The main aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between acceptance and well-being in adolescents with chronic illness from a daily process perspective. Furthermore, we explored the role of daily experienced interference and facilitation of life goals by treatment goals as mediating mechanisms.

Methods: Thirty-eight adolescents with cystic fibrosis (CF) or diabetes completed questionnaires assessing acceptance, negative life events and goal-related self-efficacy. Furthermore, an online diary assessing daily mood, daily experienced interference and facilitation of life goals by treatment goals was completed during three consecutive weeks.

Results: Acceptance of illness was positively related to daily well-being, but unrelated to daily goal interference and facilitation. Furthermore, daily goal interference and facilitation were unrelated to same-day and next-day well-being.

Conclusion: This study suggests that acceptance of illness plays an important role in the daily mood of adolescents with CF and diabetes. This relationship, however, was not mediated by daily experienced interference and facilitation of life goals by treatment goals. Further research is needed to determine whether interventions promoting acceptance are beneficial for adolescents with CF and diabetes.     

Effects of relevant and irrelevant color singletons on inhibition of return and attentional capture

We tested whether color singletons lead to saccadic and manual inhibition of return (IOR; i.e., slower responses at cued locations) and whether IOR depended on the relevance of the color singletons. The target display was preceded by a nonpredictive cue display. In three experiments, half of the cues were response-relevant, because participants had to perform a discrimination task at the cued location. With the exception of Experiment 2, none of the cue colors matched the target color. We observed saccadic IOR after color singletons, which was greater for slow than for fast responses. Furthermore, when the relevant cue color matched the target color, we observed attentional capture (i.e., faster responses at cued locations) with rapid responses, but IOR with slower responses, which provides evidence for attentional deallocation. When the cue display was completely response-irrelevant in two additional experiments, we did not find evidence for IOR. Instead, we found attentional capture when the cue color matched the target color. Also, attentional capture was greater for rapid responses and with short cue–target intervals. Thus, IOR emerges when cues are relevant and do not match the target color, whereas attentional capture emerges with relevant and irrelevant cues that match the target color.     

Movement-based compatibility in simple response tasks

Previous studies reported that movement observation affected movement execution. Using one and the same set of responses (i.e., lifting or tapping the finger), correspondence effects were observed for simple responses when the go-signals were similar to the responses (i.e., movies of finger movements) but not when they were dissimilar (i.e., moving squares). The difference was attributed to a higher degree of ideomotor compatibility with visible limb movements. We tried to provide further evidence for ideomotor theory by manipulating the degree to which different responses matched one and the same set of stimuli (drifting sine-wave gratings). To this end, we measured simple reaction time of dynamic (hand movements) or static (key presses) movements in response to the onset of object motion. Object motion and dynamic responses showed ideomotor compatibility without looking alike; however, both stimulus and response involved continuous displacements. Correspondence effects were observed for dynamic responses, but not for static responses.     

A time course analysis of the affective priming effect

The argument that automatic processes are responsible for affective/evaluative priming effects has been primarily based on studies that have manipulated the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA; i.e., the interval between the onset of the prime and the onset of the target). Moreover, these SOA studies provide an insight in the time course of the activation processes underlying automatic affect/attitude activation. Based on a fine-grained manipulation of the SOA employing either the evaluative decision task (Experiment 1) and the pronunciation task (Experiment 2) we concluded that affective priming, and hence automatic affect activation, is based on fast-acting automatic processes. The results of Experiment 3 provide a valid explanation for an apparent discrepancy between the results of Experiments 1 and 2 and previous findings. Finally, the results of Experiment 3 support the prediction of Jarvis and Petty (1996) that affective priming effects should be stronger for participants who are more chronically engaged in conscious evaluations.     

Response-bound primes diminish affective priming in the naming task

We found affective priming in the naming task (i.e., faster naming of a target picture that follows a valence-congruent prime picture compared to an incongruent prime) significantly reduced if prime stimuli were strongly bound to a naming response compared to when primes did not elicit a naming response. This result indicates that affective priming in the naming task originates from encoding facilitation processes, which are usually overshadowed by response conflict due to primes that also trigger a naming response.