Representation and cognitive science

‘Representation’ is a concept which occurs both in cognitive science and philosophy. It has common features in both settings in that it concerns the explanation of behaviour in terms of the way the subject categorizes and systematizes responses to its environment. The prevailing model sees representations as causally structured entities correlated on the one hand with elements in a natural language and on the other with clearly identifiable items in the world. This leads to an analysis of representation and cognition in terms of formal symbols and their relations. But human perception and cognition use multiple informational constraints and deal with unsystematic and messy input in a way best explained by Parallel Distributed Processing models. This undermines the claim that a formal representational theory of mind is ‘the only game in town’. In particular it suggests a radically different model of brain function and its relation to epistemology from that found in current representational theories.     

The Stereotypes of Black and White Women in Fashion Magazine Photographs: The Pose of the Model and the Impression She Creates

We examined the portrayal of women in magazine advertisements and fashion spreads. In Study 1, photographs were selected from Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Vogue (N = 226), and a content analysis showed that the incidence of stereotyping is still prevalent. However, counter to our hypothesis, Black models were portrayed significantly less often in explicitly sexual poses, but significantly more often in submissive poses, than White models were. In Study 2, 64 students gave their impressions of eight models from either advertisements or fashion spreads whose race, immigration status, and stereotypic pose varied. The results showed that the impression of Black models in advertisements was counter to the stereotype of Black women. Within fashion photographs, Black or immigrant models in a submissive pose and White or non-immigrant models in an explicitly sexual pose were judged to be particularly intelligent and achievement-oriented. The implications of these results are discussed.     

All symptoms are not created equal: the prominent role of hyperarousal in the natural course of posttraumatic psychological distress

This 3-wave longitudinal study examined the natural course of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms using data collected from young adult survivors of community violence. Three key findings emerged. 1. Mean levels of distress for each symptom cluster decreased over time, with reexperiencing decreasing most rapidly. 2. Cross-lagged panel analysis revealed that hyperarousal strongly influences, but is not generally influenced by, other symptoms clusters. 3. Trajectory analysis demonstrated that respondents for whom hyperarousal was the most pronounced baseline symptom showed lower overall symptom improvement relative to trauma exposed counterparts for whom hyperarousal was a less prominent early symptom. Implications for theory, research, and clinical practice are discussed.     

Women with low activity are at increased risk for depression

This study assessed if there are sex differences in the relationship between amount of physical activity and depression in primary care outpatients. Participants (N= 111), referred by their family physicians, wore a heart-rate monitor for 24 hr. The two-lead monitor collected the number of beats per minute and minute-averaged horizontal movement data, e.g., from walking or moving about. All participants underwent structured clinical interviewing using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV and completed the Beck Depression Inventory-II and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised. For the total sample, patients with low activity were more likely to be depressed (p<.006). Adults under the age of 45 (n=85) with low activity were 7.4 times more likely to be depressed than young adults who showed normal activity. However, in adults 45 or older, there was no relationship between activity and depression. In a subsample of women under the age of 55 (n=70), 91% of the low activity group and 39% of the normal activity group were diagnosed with depression (p<.003). Women in the low activity group were 15.7 times more likely to be depressed than women in the normal activity group. In contrast, there was no relationship between activity and depression in men. Additional research is needed to assess whether low activity is a potent predictor of depression in women.     

A multisite comparison of actuarial risk instruments for sex offenders

Four actuarial instruments for the prediction of violent and sexual reoffending (the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide [VRAG], Sex Offender Risk Appraisal Guide [SORAG], Rapid Risk Assessment for Sex Offender Recidivism [RRASOR] and Static-99) were evaluated in 4 samples of sex offenders (N = 396). Although all 4 instruments predicted violent (including sexual) recidivism and recidivism known to be sexually motivated, areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) were consistently higher for the VRAG and the SORAG. The instruments performed better when there were fewer missing items and follow-up time was fixed, with an ROC area up to .84 for the VRAG, for example, under such favorable conditions. Predictive accuracy was higher for child molesters than for rapists, especially for the Static-99 and the RRASOR. Consistent with past research, survival analyses revealed that those offenders high in both psychopathy and sexual deviance were an especially high-risk group.     

Stressors and child and adolescent psychopathology: moving from markers to mechanisms of risk

In the first half of this review, the authors critically evaluate existing research on the association between stressors and symptoms of psychopathology in children and adolescents. This analysis reveals (a) problems with conceptualizations of stress, (b) variability in measurement of stressors, and (c) lack of theory-driven research. To address these problems, the authors propose a general conceptual model of the relation between stressors and child and adolescent psychopathology. The authors examine basic tenets of this general model in the second half of this article by testing a specific model in which negative parenting mediates the relation between economic stressors and psychological symptoms in young people. Results generally provide support for the specific model as well as for the broader model.     

The bioethical structure of a human being

Bioethical debates such as those surrounding the manipulation of human embryos are often based on metaphysical assumptions that lack a foundation in the natural sciences. In this paper we support a gradualist position whereby the embryo progressively takes on the form and associated ethical significance of a human being. We support this position by introducing a concept of biological structure or form to show how the gradualist position has its metaphysical foundations in modern biology. The conceptual basis for form and structure are outlined and their compatibility with and basis in current empirical biology is demonstrated by some recent advances in our understanding of the processes of development from single cell to organism. We then briefly explore the ethical significance of accepting a form or structure based conception of biology for the status of the early embryo.