How brand names are special: brands,words, and hemispheres

Previous research has consistently shown differences between the processing of proper names and of common nouns, leading to the belief that proper names possess a special neuropsychological status. We investigate the category of brand names and suggest that brand names also have a special neuropsychological status, but one which is different from proper names. The findings suggest that the hemispheric lexical status of the brand names is mixed--they behave like words in some respects and like nonwords in others. Our study used familiar upper case brand names, common nouns, and two different types of nonwords ("weird" and "normal") differing in length, as stimuli in a lateralized lexical decision task (LDT). Common nouns, brand names, weird nonwords, and normal nonwords were recognized in that decreasing order of speed and accuracy. A right visual field (RVF) advantage was found for all four lexical types. Interestingly, brand names, similar to nonwords, were found to be less lateralized than common nouns, consistent with theories of category-specific lexical processing. Further, brand names were the only type of lexical items to show a capitalization effect: brand names were recognized faster when they were presented in upper case than in lower case. In addition, while string length affected the recognition of common nouns only in the left visual field (LVF) and the recognition of nonwords only in the RVF, brand names behaved like common nouns in exhibiting length effects only in the LVF.     

Effects of Right- and Left-Hemisphere Damage on Understanding Conversational Implicatures

Processing of implicatures was examined in 27 right-brain-damaged (RBD) and 31 left-brain-damaged (LBD) stroke patients with focal lesions using a new implicatures battery (IB) as part of an exploration of the neural basis and modularity of natural language pragmatics. Following Grice, we sampled implicatures of Quantity, Quality, Relation, and Manner. Verbal implicatures consisted of two-sentence conversational vignettes which are literally problematic. Nonverbal implicatures consisted mostly of famous paintings that are literally problematic (e.g., Magritte's "Le Domain d'Arnheim"). The patient has to identify and solve the problem. To compare with performance on the IB, patients also received a Hebrew adaptation of Gardner and Brownell's Right Hemisphere Communication Battery, a new test of basic speech acts (verbal and nonverbal assertions, questions, requests, and commands), a Hebrew version of the Western Aphasia Battery, and standardized neuropsychological tests. Both LBD and RBD patients were significantly impaired in implicature processing relative to age-matched normal controls. In general, both patient groups showed weak correlations of implicatures with extents of lesions in left perisylvian language area or its right-hemisphere (RH) homolog. However, performance of LBD and RBD patients on the IB revealed different patterns of correlations with other pragmatic, language, and nonlanguage tests. In LBD patients, there was a greater association between performance on verbal and nonverbal implicatures and between performance on implicatures and basic speech acts than in RBD patients. Given the different modes in which right-and left-hemisphere (LH) damage affect the processing of conversational implicatures, it remains to be discovered how the two hemispheres interact to process natural language pragmatics in the normal brain in real time.     

Nominal and physical decision criteria insame-different judgments

We propose a model in which the physical and nominal dimensions of letter pairs are compared independently of whether subjects use physical (shape task) or nominal (name task) identity as the decision criterion. We attempt to explain the fast-same effect, the preponderance of false-different errors, and thenominal-physical disparity as results of congruent and incongruent outputs of physical and nominal comparison devices that function in both tasks. Subjects performed both tasks with and without response deadlines. The stimuli were presented foveally or unilaterally to one or the other hemisphere. With foveal presentations, thenominal-physical disparity disappeared when congruent and incongruent cells were compared, the fast-same effect occurred only in the shape task, and there was a preponderance offalse-different errors only in the name task. Response times and error patterns from centrally presented trials conformed to the predictions of the model. Performance patterns from the lateralized trials conformed only partially. The implications of the data are discussed in the context of several theoretical models ofsame/ different judgments.     

The acquisition of homonymy

The growth in children's ability to perform the task of separating the sounds of words from their meanings was investigated by asking children between 3;3 and 6;3 to select homonyms from pictures. The results show a growth in ability with age, with a jump at 4;4. An investigation of the developmental changes in the strategies employed shows that the task is cognitively complex. Performance in the younger children is more hampered by a resource-limited inability to cope with many cognitive factors all at once than by lack of ability to do the linguistic aspects of the task. These cognitive factors include access to vocabulary, rehearsal of intermediate results, and implementation of a search strategy.     

Are spatial and dimensional attention separate? Evidence from Posner,Stroop, and Eriksen tasks

Do various operational definitions of visual attention tap the same underlying process? To address this question, we probed visual selective attention using orientation of attention, flanker, and Stroop tasks. These were embedded in combined designs that enabled assessment of each effect, as well as their interaction. For the orientation task, performance was poorer at unexpected than at expected locations. The flanker effects also differed across the two locations. In contrast, the Stroop effects were comparable at expected and unexpected locations. We conclude that spatial attention (tapped by the orientation and the flanker tasks) and dimensional attention (tapped by the Stroop task) engage separate processes of visual selection, both of which are needed in normal attention processing.     

Beyond Intentionality: On the Non-dual Contemplative Practices of the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition ‘The Great Perfection’

The Buddhist vision of liberation is intimately related with an experiential state that transcends intentionality, temporality and causality, owing to its non-directed, unchanging and unconditioned nature. As such, this vision reveals a novel mode of non-dual awareness, which is not divided into perceiving subject and perceived objects. In order to directly recognise this mode, several Buddhist traditions utilised diverse contemplative instructions that were meant to dissolve the intending tendencies of consciousness. This paper discusses one of these traditions – ‘The Great Perfection’ (Tib. rDzogs pa chen po) – which affirms an inherent experiential state that is open, luminous and all-encompassing. For the sake of realising such a state, this tradition advocates a contemplative approach which emphasises relaxation, spaciousness and non-intending. Through its view and practices, ‘The Great Perfection’ introduces a vision of lived experience that goes beyond the structures of intentional consciousness and entails a reassessment of our basic assumptions about human awareness.     

Intergroup emotions and gateway groups: Introducing multiple social identities into the study of emotions in conflict

After 2 decades of extensive empirical studies on affective intergroup processes, it is now clear that emotional processes play a critical role in the dynamics of intergroup conflict. However, it seems that much of the research in this domain views intergroup relations in a dichotomous manner of pure in‐groups and out‐groups despite the developments in the realm of social identity that suggest otherwise. We here suggest that the incorporation of more complex social identity models into the study of affective social science can not only help to better understand intergroup conflict dynamics but can also offer new possible venues for conflict resolution. Specifically, we claim that the presence of groups with multiple identities, which include both the in‐group's and the out‐group's identity (e.g., biracial groups that encompass both a White and a Black social identity) can impact intergroup emotional processes between the different groups comprising those multiple identities (e.g., between Whites and Blacks). Accordingly, we review recent developments in the literatures of emotion in intergroup conflict and multiple social identity and offer a conceptual integration of the two. Thus, we attempt to enrich the theory in both fields, better explain intergroup conflict, and possibly pave the way for the development of novel conflict resolution methods.     

Individuating quantities

Philosophical Studies - When discrepancies are discovered between the outcomes of different measurement procedures, two sorts of explanation are open to scientists. Either (i) some of the outcomes...     

“Poor is pious”: Distinctiveness threat increases glorification of poverty among the poor

The current study examines whether a threat to group distinctiveness motivates the poor to glorify poverty as an identity management strategy. Research shows that threat to ingroup distinctiveness can motivate people to positively differentiate their group from similar outgroups on relevant dimensions of comparison. Little is known however about whether such processes would occur also with respect to devalued group characteristics that are not reflective of explicit group norms. This question is of high theoretical and practical importance because it can illustrate that people internalize and glorify even adverse traits as means of managing their social identity when faced with threat. We therefore tested whether among a poor community, individuals would glorify poverty when faced with distinctiveness threat. We collected data from Haredim (ultra‐Orthodox Jews), a poor and highly religious population in Israel. Across two experiments, we manipulated distinctiveness threat via inducing similarity between Haredim and seculars in Israel. We found that poverty was reconstrued as positive and desirable following distinctiveness threat, but only among Haredim who have a high commitment to group norms (Study 1) and who strongly justify their own social system (Study 2). Theoretical and applied implications of the findings are discussed.