Modelling relative motion to facilitate intra-limb coordination

The importance of relative motion information when modelling a novel motor skill was examined. Participants were assigned to one of four groups. Groups 1 and 2 viewed demonstrations of a skilled cricket bowler presented in either 'video' or 'point light' format. Group 3 observed a single point of light pertaining to the 'wrist' of the skilled bowler only. Participants in Group 4 did not receive a demonstration and acted as controls. During 60 acquisition trials, participants in the demonstration groups viewed a model five times before each 10-trial block. Retention was examined the following day. Intra-limb coordination was assessed for the right elbow relative to the wrist in comparison to the model. The demonstration groups showed greater concordance with the model than the control group. However, the 'wrist' group performed less like the model than the 'point light' and 'video' groups, who did not differ from each other. These effects were maintained in retention. Relative motion information aided the acquisition of intra-limb coordination, while making this information more salient (through point lights) provided no additional benefit. The motion of the model's bowling arm was replicated more closely than the non-bowling arm, suggesting that information from the end-effector is prioritized during observation for later reproduction.     

Objects are individuals but stuff doesn't count: perceived rigidity and cohesiveness influence infants' representations of small groups of discrete entities

Young infants construct models of the world composed of objects tracked through time and occlusion. To date little is known about the degree to which these models are sensitive to the material make-up of the represented individuals. Two experiments probed 8-month-olds' ability to represent different kinds of entities: rigid, cohesive objects, flexible, cohesive objects, and non-rigid, non-cohesive portions of sand. In Experiment 1, infants represented an array of two rigid, cohesive objects hidden behind a single screen, but failed to represent hidden arrays of two flexible objects or two portions of sand. In Experiment 2, entities were hidden behind two screens instead of one, thereby reducing the information processing demands of the task. In that case, infants succeeded in representing arrays of both types of object stimuli, but again failed to represent the portions of sand. It is argued that (1) the processes by which infants individuate and track entities are sensitive to material kind, (2) rigid cohesive objects occupy a privileged status in this system, and (3) early knowledge about objects and substances has a quantificational aspect.     

Young infants' perception of unity and form in occlusion displays

Young infants have been reported to perceive the unity of a center-occluded object when the visible ends of the object are aligned and undergo common motion but not when the edges of the object are misaligned (Johnson & Aslin, 1996). Using a recognition-based paradigm, the authors investigated the possibility that past research failed to provide sufficiently sensitive assessments of infants' perception of the unity of misaligned edges in partial occlusion displays. Positive evidence was obtained in 4-month-olds for veridical perception of the motion and location of a hidden region but not its orientation, whereas 7-month-olds, in contrast to the younger infants, appeared to respond to the orientation of the hidden region. Overall, the results suggest that habituation designs tapping recognition processes may be particularly efficacious in revealing infants' perceptual organization. In addition, the findings provide corroborative evidence for the importance of both motion and orientation in young infants' object segregation and for the difficulty in achieving percepts of the global form of a partly occluded object.     

The NSSI Paradox: Discussing and Displaying NSSI in an Online Environment

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is commonly shared online. In the offline world, secrecy is a sign of “real” or authentic self-injury; therefore, openly sharing NSSI in the online context could be considered a paradoxical behavior. We explored how users of an online NSSI site negotiated this apparent paradox. Contrary to our expectations, contributing text and photographs to an online site did not appear to compromise authentic identity. We suggest this was because they were presented in the form of an anonymous public display, which meant that posters could maintain their (secret) identity as individuals who genuinely engage in NSSI.     

Divine Simplicity in Historical Perspective: Resourcing a Contemporary Discussion

This article seeks to resource contemporary discussions about divine simplicity by exploring how this doctrine was understood throughout patristic and medieval church history, especially with respect to the relation of divine simplicity to the doctrine of the Trinity. It argues, first, that there have been different versions of divine simplicity throughout church history, though most current treatments focus on the Thomist version. Second, it suggests that divine simplicity had a greater role in the witness and worship of the church than is generally recognized today. Third, it argues that many of the differences between contemporary and ancient treatments of divine simplicity boil down to more basic ontological differences. Finally, it draws attention to the close connection between divine simplicity and the Trinity throughout church history, and suggests that the doctrine of divine simplicity provides a more reliable means of grounding the Trinity as monotheistic than the doctrine of perichoresis.     

Inferiority and bereavement: Implicit psychological commitments in the cultural history of Scottish psychotherapy

Abstract

The author has argued that psychoanalytic psychotherapy was seen in Scotland as a way to purify Christianity of supernaturalism and moralism, and to propel the faith in a scientifically rational and socially progressive direction. In making this historiographic claim, certain disciplinary protocols are followed, such as the symmetry postulate and a deprecation of reductive psychohistorical explanation. Nonetheless, the contemporary historian of psychotherapy is a psychologized subject whose historical practice rests upon a complex, prereflective background of psychological presuppositions.     

Malcolm Schofield: Cicero: Political Philosophy

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice -