Towards refinement of abductive or inductive hypotheses through propagation

In this paper we address the problem of distributed sources of information, or agents, that observe the environment locally and have to communicate in order to refine their hypothesis regarding the actual state of this environment. One way to address the problem would be to centralize all the collected observations and knowledge, and to centrally compute the resulting theory. In many situations however, it would not be possible to adopt this centralized approach (e.g. for practical reasons, or privacy concerns). In this paper, we assume that agents individually face abductive or inductive tasks in a globally coherent environment, and we show that general mechanisms can be designed that abstractly regard both cases as special instances of a problem of hypothesis refinement through propagation. Assuming that agents are equipped with some individual revision machinery, our concern will be to investigate how (under what conditions) convergence to a consistent state can be guaranteed at more global levels: (i) between two agents; (ii) in a clique of agents; and (iii) in general in a connected society of agents.     

Deliberate commission of category mistake. Crombie vs. Ryle

Crombie's acceptance of the deliberate commission of a category mistake in his defense of the meaningfulness of theological statements raises a pointed challenge to the philosophy of Ryle which seems not to have been specifically addressed in subsequent literature. We review the analysis which leads Crombie into it, including concepts of anomaly, deficiency, affinity, and inadequate notion, noting basic differences in method and attitude from Ryle. We express our own agreements and disagreements in keeping with an overall concern for the preservation of rationality in this sphere of language, finding acceptable distinct contributions to that end from both.     

Contemporary religious thought in South Africa and the emergence of Qur'anic hermeneutical notions

The struggle by non‐clerics for the right to understand the Qur'an within a context of oppression and a liberation struggle and theological developments connected to it are discussed in this article. The theological developments from traditionalism to modernism to resurgent Islam and the role of the Qur'an in this trajectory have their roots in the South African crucible as much as in normative Islam. From this engagement between Islam and oppression/liberation some key hermeneutical notions have emerged. The Qur'an thus becomes a tool and a source of inspiration for liberative praxis in South Africa.     

Effect of facial stimuli exposure time on evaluation of facial attractiveness

Facial attractiveness has advantages both socially and sexually, and the human brain has evolved to perceive specific facial characteristics as attractive. The current research examined the effect of facial stimuli exposure time on facial attractiveness evaluations. In Experiment 1, 86 students observed 44 facial stimuli in short and long amounts of time. To eliminate any influence of repeated stimuli on the second observations, Experiment 2 was performed on 84 participants who observed the facial stimuli in either short or long durations. Differences in both experiments were significant. These studies showed that exposure time has an influence on the evaluation of facial attractiveness. Participants who were exposed to facial stimuli for a short amount of time perceived greater facial attractiveness than when they were exposed for a longer time to the same stimuli. In other words, faces were more beautiful when they were observed in a short amount of time, and this effect occurred regardless of gender.     

Persuasion Knowledge in the Marketplace: A Meta-Analysis

Since the introduction of the persuasion knowledge model more than 25 years ago, many research studies have investigated how consumers’ persuasion knowledge affects their reactions to persuasion attempts. While most results have shown that persuasion knowledge increases coping responses and leads to less favorable evaluations of marketer actions, the findings vary considerably, leaving researchers with a limited understanding of the substance and structure of persuasion knowledge effects and the conditions that explain their variability. To develop a better understanding of persuasion knowledge effects in the marketplace, this study builds on the concept of persuasion to predict responses to marketers’ attempts to persuade consumers with different levels of persuasion knowledge. The study presents a meta-analysis of the findings in 148 papers and 171 distinct data sets. Persuasion knowledge effects can be viewed as substantial compared with persuasion attempts, but persuasion knowledge cannot suppress or eliminate persuasion effects in the marketplace, as it only reaches around 50% of the explanatory power of persuasion. Persuasion knowledge effects on evaluations and coping depend on the characteristics of the persuasion process. All persuasion elements that help consumers identify and better understand benefits not just for themselves, but also for marketers and how marketers realize their benefits—such as the use of personal communication, communication about unfamiliar products or products with experience attributes, and receiver experience—lead to less favorable effects for marketers. This paper’s insights provide a new framework for persuasion knowledge effects in the marketplace, ideas for future research, and implications for researchers, consumers, policymakers, and marketers.     

Disgust-specific modulation of early attention processes

Although threatening images are known to attract and keep our attention, little is known about the existence of emotion-specific attention effects. In this study (N = 46), characteristics of an anticipated, disgust-specific effect were investigated by means of a covert orienting paradigm incorporating pictures that were either disgust-evoking, fear-evoking, happiness-evoking or neutral. Attention adhesion to these pictures was measured by the time necessary to identify a peripheral target, presented 100, 200, 500, or 800 ms after picture onset. Main results showed that reaction times were delayed for targets following the disgust-evoking pictures by 100 and 200 ms, suggesting that only these pictures temporarily grabbed hold of participants' attention. These delays were similar for ignore- and attend-instructions, and they were not affected by the participants' anxiety levels or disgust sensitivity. The disgust-specific influence on early attention processes thus appeared very robust, occurring in the majority of participants and without contribution of voluntary- and strategic-attention processes. In contrast, a smaller and less reliable effect of all emotional (arousing) pictures was present in the form of delayed responding in the 100 ms cue-target interval. This effect was more transitory and apparent only in participants with relatively high state-anxiety scores. Practical and theoretical consequences of these findings are discussed.     

Hope as a Psychological Factor Affecting Quality of Life in Patients With Psoriasis

Clinical observations and medical reports indicate that psoriasis has a tremendous impact on patients’ lives, lowering their quality in many important areas. However, the vast majority of research deals only with health-related issues. This study aimed to compare the general quality of life of psoriasis patients and healthy volunteers by examining psychological variables thought to modify the quality of life. 42 patients with psoriasis and 42 healthy volunteers matched for gender, age and education level were tested. Flanagan Quality of Life Scale was used to evaluate general quality of life. Basic hope level was assessed with Basic Hope Inventory. Trait hope was estimated using Trait Hope Scale. Psoriasis Area Severity Index was used to assess the severity of the disease. Psoriasis patients have a significantly lower overall quality of life (p?=?0.05), modified by Physical and Material Well-being (p?=?0.01), Personal Development and Fulfillment (p?=?0.03), and Recreation (p?=?0.04). They also have lower levels of trait hope (p?=?0.04) and its agency component (p?=?0.01). There were moderate, negative significant correlations with basic hope and such components of quality of life as Physical and Material Well-being (p?=?0.03, r?=?? 0.34) and Relations with other People (p?=?0.02, r?=?? 0.35). These results support the hypothesis of a reduced general quality of life and trait hope in psoriatics. Thus, psychological help for people suffering from dermatological disorders might be as important as medical intervention. Basic hope can be treated as a resource in coping with these disorders and trait hope as a resource conducive to well-being.     

Directed forgetting of autobiographical memory in mild Alzheimer's disease

Using the autobiographical directed forgetting method (Barnier et al., 2007), the present paper addressed the intentional inhibitory processes of episodic and semantic autobiographical memory in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Mild AD patients and healthy elderly people were instructed to either forget or to continue remembering previously generated autobiographical events. In a later recall test they were asked to reconstruct the early-generated memories regardless of the forget/remember instruction. Autobiographical reconstruction was further distributed into episodic and semantic memories. Results showed no forget instruction effect on episodic or semantic autobiographical recall with AD patients, whereas healthy elderly people were able to inhibit only episodic autobiographical memories. The findings suggest an impairment of the intentional inhibitory processes in autobiographical memory with AD and a relative preservation of these mechanisms with normal ageing. They also demonstrate an earlier decline in the intentional inhibitory processes compared to the autobiographical deterioration in AD.