The road to Experience and Prediction from within: Hans Reichenbach��s scientific correspondence from Berlin to Istanbul

Ever since the first meeting of the proponents of the emerging Logical Empiricism in 1923, there existed philosophical differences as well as personal rivalries between the groups in Berlin and Vienna, headed by Hans Reichenbach and Moritz Schlick, respectively. Early theoretical tensions between Schlick and Reichenbach were caused by Reichenbach??s (neo)Kantian roots (esp. his version of the relativized a priori), who himself regarded the Vienna Circle as a sort of anti-realist ??positivist school????as he described it in his Experience and Prediction (1938). One result of this divergence was Schlick??s preference of Carnap over Reichenbach for a position at the University of Vienna (in 1926), and his decision not to serve as a co-editor with Reichenbach for the journal Erkenntnis that they jointly established in 1930 (which was then co-edited by Carnap and Reichenbach from 1930 to 1938). A second split rooted in different views on induction and probability, which culminated in the Hans Reichenbach??s refusal to serve as an invited author on probability within the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science series ed. by Rudolf Carnap, Charles Morris and Otto Neurath from 1938 onwards. In this regard it is remarkable that also Richard von Mises, who was the second leading figure of Logical Empiricism in Turkish exile, criticized the theory of probability put forward by his former Berlin colleague. In this paper I analyse this controversial exchange, drawing on the relevant correspondence and asking whether these (meta)philosophical differences were a typical feature of the pluralism inherent in Logical Empiricism in general.     

We all live in Germany but … Ingroup projection,group‐based emotions and prejudice against immigrants

Immigration, cultural diversity and integration are among the most central challenges for modern societies. Integration is often impeded by negative emotions and prejudices held by the majority members towards immigrants in a common society. Based on the ingroup projection model (Mummendey & Wenzel, 1999), we examined the impact of perceived relative ingroup prototypicality on intergroup emotions and prejudice. Additionally, we examined whether this impact is causal and explored the issue of causality in more detail contrasting a linear causal model with bi‐directional or reciprocal causality. Hypotheses were tested in a study with a two‐wave panel of majority members (N=1085) in Germany. We examined the proposed relations between relative ingroup prototypicality, intergroup emotions and prejudice and determined the causal direction of these relationships. Results support the predictive power of relative ingroup prototypicality on intergroup emotions and prejudice. Moreover, most causal relations between our measures are reciprocally causal. We discuss the implications of these findings for the general conception of prejudice and intergroup emotions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Trait anxiety and dynamic adjustments in conflict processing

Recently, it has been assumed that high- and low-trait-anxious subjects differ in the way they use fundamental cognitive control mechanisms. The present study was designed to further elucidate this topic by focusing on trial-to-trial adjustments in neuronal correlates of conflict processing. An electroencephalogram was recorded while subjects (N=71) performed a gender discrimination version of the Stroop task. The conflict-related N400 of the ERP was influenced by an interaction between trait anxiety and previous trial context: An additional negative-going deflection in the N400 range was observed when the target—distractor pairing of the directly preceding trial was incongruent, but only in highly anxious subjects. Thus, highly anxious subjects appear to more strongly engage neuronal modules involved in conflict monitoring when previously exposed to a high stimulus-response conflict. These results indicate that trait anxiety is crucially linked to the way the cognitive system dynamically adapts to recent demands.     

Subjective Well-Being of Brazilian Children from Different Family Settings

Subjective well-being concerns an evaluation of one’s life, considering cognitive and affective aspects. Contextual factors, such as family, may influence this process. One of the main development contexts of children is family and aspects of these relationships, such as different settings, might contribute to children’s subjective well-being. The aim of this study was to compare the well-being of children from different family settings (intact, single-parent, stepfamilies, multigenerational). Participants were 2,135 boys and girls, from 9 to 13 years old (M = 10.97, SD = 0.99), students of public and private schools from a Brazilian southern State. Children answered a questionnaire with sociodemographic variables and three well-being scales (PWI-SC, BMSLSS, GDSI). Children were divided in four groups according to whom they live with (intact, single-parent, stepfamilies, multigenerational families). To evaluate differences between groups a Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) were performed, considering well-being scales as dependent variables and family setting as independent variable. Results indicated significant differences in the well-being of children in relation to their family setting and age. Children from intact families showed significant positive differences on the well-being from children of other settings (the lowest means were from the children of stepfamilies). It is argued that transitions and instability that children are being subjected to may affect their well-being.

     

The Neural Architecture of General Knowledge

Cognitive performance varies widely between individuals and is highly influenced by structural and functional properties of the brain. In the past, neuroscientific research was principally concerned with fluid intelligence, while neglecting its equally important counterpart crystallized intelligence. Crystallized intelligence is defined as the depth and breadth of knowledge and skills that are valued by one's culture. The accumulation of crystallized intelligence is guided by information storage capacities and is likely to be reflected in an individual's level of general knowledge. In spite of the significant role general knowledge plays for everyday life, its neural foundation largely remains unknown. In a large sample of 324 healthy individuals, we used standard magnetic resonance imaging along with functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging to examine different estimates of brain volume and brain network connectivity and assessed their predictive power with regard to both general knowledge and fluid intelligence. Our results demonstrate that an individual's level of general knowledge is associated with structural brain network connectivity beyond any confounding effects exerted by age or sex. Moreover, we found fluid intelligence to be best predicted by cortex volume in male subjects and functional network connectivity in female subjects. Combined, these findings potentially indicate different neural architectures for information storage and information processing. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Broad versus narrow personality measures and the prediction of behaviour across cultures

Measures of several personality variables, from both within and beyond the domain of the Big Five personality factors, were used to predict a variety of complex behaviour outcomes of some social and cultural significance (e.g. alcohol consumption and grade point average). Analyses focused on replicated predictions across participants in four countries (Canada, England, Germany, and Finland) and on the relative predictive accuracies of narrow trait predictors versus broad factor predictors. The results indicated substantial consistency in those predictions across cultures for several of the criteria. Furthermore, the narrow traits were able to account for more criterion variance than were the broad factors underlying those traits. Our data contraindicate the increasingly common practice of using only a few personality factor measures to predict complex human behaviours. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How Many Casualties Are Too Many? Proportional Reasoning in the Valuation of Military and Civilian Lives1

People frequently judge saved lives as less valuable and deaths more acceptable when they are characterized as small fractions of larger “at‐risk” groups. Two studies with U.S. college students demonstrated this effect in judgments concerning acceptable numbers of U.S. military and Middle Eastern civilian casualties. At the beginning of the current U.S.–Iraq conflict ( Study 1 ), priming cost–benefit reasoning produced greater proportional devaluation for Iraqi civilian than for U.S. military lives. In a hypothetical armed intervention in Iran to halt weapons development ( Study 2 ), women but not men showed greater proportional devaluation for U.S. military than for Iranian civilian lives. In both studies, proportional reasoners were willing to accept more casualties. Implications for public perceptions and attitudes are discussed.     

Interruption of phonological coding in conduction aphasia

A case study of conduction aphasia, investigating single word repetition, phonological coding, and short-term memory, is reported. Evidence from intact adults suggests that repetition can occur through either a lexical route or a direct auditory-articulatory link. For this conduction aphasic, E.A., the direct link was impaired, although the lexical route could be used to produce accurate single word repetition. Several experiments demonstrated a significant impairment in the generation and maintenance of an abstract phonological code. The consequences of a disruption of phonological coding on speech perception and on verbal short-term memory are discussed.     

Rhétorique

Sans résuméCours prononcé par Nietzsche à Bâle en 1872. Ces notes de Nietzsche font partie desPhilologica des éditions Kröner 1912–1913 (vol. XVIII) et Musarion 1922 (Vorlesungen 1872–1876).