Omissions and semantic errors in aphasic naming: is there a link?

Within a discrete two-stage model of lexicalization, semantic errors and errors of omission are assumed to be independent events. In contrast, cascading and interactive models allow for an influence of word form on lexical selection and thus for an inherent relationship in accounting for both error types. A group of 17 aphasic patients was assessed with a naming test controlling for semantic competition of the target items. Semantic errors were more frequent for targets with many competitors than for targets with few competitors while omissions were more frequent when few competitors were available. However, the overall sums of errors in both item groups were comparable. These results imply a common source of both error types and thus speak against a strictly serial model of naming.     

Temporal generalization under time pressure in humans

In two experiments, participants performed a temporal generalization task in which they were asked to decide whether or not the durations of comparison stimuli were different from those of standard stimuli (750 ms, 1,000 ms, or 1,250 ms). One half of the participants was instructed to respond as quickly as possible, while the other half received no instruction concerning the speed of response. The relationship between stimulus duration and the time of response and the effect of time pressure on duration discrimination were examined. Response time increased as a linear function of the duration of the to-be-judged stimuli until a certain instant, which was defined as T₂ = s/(1 - b), where s refers to the internal representation of the standard duration and b to the decision threshold. Moreover, the participants systematically overestimated the presented intervals if they were asked to respond as fast as possible when the standard duration was either 1,000 ms or 1,250 ms, but not when the standard duration was 750 ms.     

Ecological Behavior's Dependency on Different Forms of Knowledge

Cet article présente trois raisons pour lesquelles l'influence de la connaissance sur le comportement écologique est systématiquement sous-estimé. Tout d'abord, ce n'est pas la simple masse de connaissances disponibles que détermine le comportement: différentes formes de connaissances doivent converger pour favoriser le comportement écologique. Ensuite, l'impact de la connaissance n'est pas détecté parce que certaines procédures statistiques ne contrôlent pas les erreurs de mesure ni ne révèlent avec précision les influences interférentes. Enfin, les facteurs psychologiques tels que la connaissance ont apparemment une influence limitée sur le comportement écologique en présence de fortes pressions relevant de la situation. Mais quand une évaluation du comportement écologique fait systématiquement appel aux contraintes des situations (application d'un test), on peut s'apercevoir que la connaissance a un impact significatif sur le comportement écologique.
The present paper argues for three reasons why knowledge's influence on ecological behavior is underestimated systematically. First, it is not the mere amount of knowledge available that determines behavior. Different forms of knowledge must work together in a convergent manner if they are to foster ecological behavior. Second, knowledge's effect remains undetected also, because some statistical procedures neither correct for measurement error attenuation nor uncover mediated influences accurately. Third, psychological factors such as knowledge apparently have a limited influence on ecological behavior when strong situational constraints are effective. When an ecological behavior measure makes—as a performance test—systematic use of situational influences though, knowledge can be revealed as affecting ecological behavior significantly.     

Development and validation of the predrinking motives questionnaire

Elaborating on instruments for U.S. university students, we developed and validated the predrinking (drinking before going out) motives questionnaire (PMQ) for general populations of young adults. In popular nightlife areas in Switzerland, 316 predrinkers aged 16–25 (48% women) were recruited. Focus group interviews and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses yielded a three‐factor measure, with a structure that was invariant across linguistic regions, gender, age, and student status. “Fun/intoxication” motives were associated with predrinking but “conviviality” and “facilitation” motives were not. Men scored higher on “facilitation” than women and those from the French‐speaking region scored higher on “conviviality” than German‐speaking participants. Although yet to be replicated in other countries, the PMQ appears to be an appropriate general measure of predrinking motives.     

Movement Integration and the One-Target Advantage

The 1-target advantage (OTA) has been found to occur in many circumstances and the current best explanation for this phenomenon is that of the movement integration hypothesis. The author's purpose is twofold: (a) to model the conditions under which there is integration of the movement components in a 2-component movement and (b) to study the factors that determine the magnitude of the OTA for both the first and second component of a 2-component movement. Results indicate that integration of movement components, where times for one component are affected by the geometry of the other component, occurs when 1 of the movement components is made ballistically. Movement components that require ongoing visual control show only weak interaction with the second component, whereas components made ballistically always show movement time dependence on first and second component amplitude, independent of location within the sequence. The OTA is present on both the first and second components of the movement, with a magnitude that is dependent on whether the components are performed ballistically or with ongoing visual control and also on the amplitudes and indexes of difficulty of the component movements.     

Balancing Effort and Information Transmission During Language Acquisition: Evidence From Word Order and Case Marking

Across languages of the world, some grammatical patterns have been argued to be more common than expected by chance. These are sometimes referred to as (statistical) language universals. One such universal is the correlation between constituent order freedom and the presence of a case system in a language. Here, we explore whether this correlation can be explained by a bias to balance production effort and informativity of cues to grammatical function. Two groups of learners were presented with miniature artificial languages containing optional case marking and either flexible or fixed constituent order. Learners of the flexible order language used case marking significantly more often. This result parallels the typological correlation between constituent order flexibility and the presence of case marking in a language and provides a possible explanation for the historical development of Old English to Modern English, from flexible constituent order with case marking to relatively fixed order without case marking. In addition, learners of the flexible order language conditioned case marking on constituent order, using more case marking with the cross‐linguistically less frequent order, again mirroring typological data. These results suggest that some cross‐linguistic generalizations originate in functionally motivated biases operating during language learning.     

What Happened to the Trolley Problem?

Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research - In this paper, I provide a general introduction to the trolley problem. I describe its birth as a philosophical thought experiment, then its...     

Intentional action and the frame-of-mind argument: new experimental challenges to Hindriks

Based on a puzzling pattern in our judgements about intentional action, Knobe [(2003). “Intentional Action and Side-Effects in Ordinary Language.” Analysis 63: 190–194] has claimed that these judgements are shaped by our moral judgements and evaluations. However, this claim goes directly against a key conceptual intuition about intentional action – the “frame-of-mind condition”, according to which judgements about intentional action are about the agent’s frame-of-mind and not about the moral value of his action. To preserve this intuition Hindriks [(2008). “Intentional Action and the Praise-Blame Asymmetry.” The Philosophical Quarterly 58: 630–641; (2014). “Normativity in Action: How to Explain the Knobe Effect and its Relatives.” Mind & Language 29: 51–72] has proposed an alternate account of the Knobe Effect. According to his “Normative Reason account of Intentional Action”, a side-effect counts as intentional only when the agent thought it constituted a normative reason not to act but did not care. In this paper, I put Hindriks’ account to test through two new studies, the results of which suggest that Hindriks’ account should be rejected. However, I argue that the key conceptual insight behind Hindriks’ account can still be saved and integrated in future accounts of Knobe’s results.     

Post-training intrahippocampal inhibition of class I histone deacetylases enhances long-term object-location memory

Long-term memory formation involves covalent modification of the histone proteins that package DNA. Reducing histone acetylation by mutating histone acetyltransferases impairs long-term memory, and enhancing histone acetylation by inhibiting histone deacetylases (HDACs) improves long-term memory. Previous studies using HDAC inhibitors to enhance long-term memory have focused on the fear-conditioning task using broad-spectrum HDAC inhibitors. We have found that post-training intrahippocampal administration of the broad-spectrum HDAC inhibitor trichostatin A (TSA) or the class I HDAC-selective inhibitor MS275 enhances long-term object-location memory, supporting a role for class I HDACs in the enhancement of hippocampus-dependent memory induced by HDAC inhibition.