The relation of discrete stimuli can be integrated despite the failure of conscious identification

ABSTRACT

The integration of the sameness or difference of two unconscious stimuli occurs and affects behaviour without subjective visual consciousness. Yet, intermittent stimulus awareness or a process simpler than integration could also account for these results. In a masked go/no-go task, participants provided or withheld a response based on the same/different relation of two stimuli. Post-trial performance on a discrimination task was used to classify invisible stimuli, providing an objective criterion of awareness. Stimulus pairs with a No-go-associated relation showed reduced and slower responding even when those stimuli were incorrectly discriminated and presumably unconscious. Due to the large set of stimuli, this effect is unlikely to be due to response mapping or action triggers. The integration of the relation of discrete stimuli is a cognitive function that is not dependent upon visual awareness, in the form of conscious identification, to occur.     

Belief revision and uncertain reasoning

When a new piece of information contradicts a currently held belief, one has to modify the set of beliefs in order to restore its consistency. In the case where it is necessary to give up a belief, some of them are less likely to be abandoned than others. The concept of epistemic entrenchment is used by some AI approaches to explain this fact based on formal properties of the belief set (e.g., transitivity). Two experiments were designed to test the hypothesis that contrary to such views, (i) belief is naturally represented by degrees rather than in an all-or-nothing manner, (ii) entrenchment is primarily a matter of content and not only a matter of form, and (iii) consequently prior degree of belief is a powerful factor of change. The two experiments used Elio and Pelletier's (1997) paradigm in which participants were presented with full simple deductive arguments whose conclusion was denied, following which they were asked to decide which premise to revise.     

Solving categorical syllogisms with singular premises

We elaborate on the approach to syllogistic reasoning based on “case identification” (Stenning & Oberlander, 1995 Stenning, K. and Oberlander, J. 1995. A cognitive theory of graphical and linguistic reasoning: Logic and implementation. Cognitive Science, 19: 97–140. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Stenning & Yule, 1997 Stenning, K. and Yule, P. 1997. Image and language in human reasoning: A syllogistic illustration. Cognitive Psychology, 34: 109–159. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). It is shown that this can be viewed as the formalisation of a method of proof that dates back to Aristotle, namely proof by exposition (ecthesis), and that there are traces of this method in the strategies described by a number of psychologists, from Störring (1908 Störring, G. 1908. Experimentelle Untersuchungen über einfache Schlussprozesse [Experimental research on simple inferential processes]. Archiv für die Gesamte Psychologie, 11: 1–127.  [Google Scholar]) to the present day. We hypothesised that by rendering individual cases explicit in the premises, the chance that reasoners would engage in a proof by exposition would be enhanced, and thus performance improved. To do so, we used syllogisms with singular premises (e.g., this X is Y). This resulted in a uniform increase in performance as compared to performance on the associated standard syllogisms. These results cannot be explained by the main theories of syllogistic reasoning in their current state.     

Betting on conditionals

A study is reported testing two hypotheses about a close parallel relation between indicative conditionals, if A then B, and conditional bets, I bet you that if A then B. The first is that both the indicative conditional and the conditional bet are related to the conditional probability, P(B|A). The second is that de Finetti's three-valued truth table has psychological reality for both types of conditional—true, false, or void for indicative conditionals and win, lose, or void for conditional bets. The participants were presented with an array of chips in two different colours and two different shapes, and an indicative conditional or a conditional bet about a random chip. They had to make judgements in two conditions: either about the chances of making the indicative conditional true or false or about the chances of winning or losing the conditional bet. The observed distributions of responses in the two conditions were generally related to the conditional probability, supporting the first hypothesis. In addition, a majority of participants in further conditions chose the third option, “void”, when the antecedent of the conditional was false, supporting the second hypothesis.     

A review of young people's vulnerabilities to online grooming

This review explores risk factors that may make a young person vulnerable to being groomed online. Even though research in this area is extremely limited, adolescents appear to be the age group most vulnerable to online grooming. Other vulnerabilities appear to be consistent with those associated with offline sexual abuse. The review suggests that behaviors specific to online grooming include: engaging in risk taking behavior online, high levels of internet access, and lack of parental involvement in the young person's internet use. Vulnerabilities to carry out these types of behavior and be more exposed to the risk of online grooming, are set within the context of the Ecological Model of child protection, consisting of: individual, family, community, and cultural risk factors. Patterns of vulnerability regarding living environment, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and personality are tentative, but are often interconnected. The more risk taking behaviors the young person carries out, plus greater levels of vulnerability factors, the less resilient they are likely to be towards protecting themselves against online grooming. A protective factor appears to be parental involvement in their child's use of the internet. Therefore, this, in combination with internet safety education at school, is encouraged.     

The way of authenticity and the quest for personal integrity1,2

The author reviews the respective conceptions of authenticity proposed by the existentialist philosophers, Fredrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger, each of whom situate it in the inherent difficulty of resisting the herd instinct in one's interpersonal relationships, then sets out to show how, despite the absence of authenticity as a technical term in the psychoanalytic lexicon, the technical principles of psychoanalysis enumerated by Freud are compatible with the views of both Nietzsche and Heidegger. The author then gives examples of other psychoanalytic authors who similarly embrace the spirit of authentic relating in their conception of the clinical situation, including the work of D. W. Winnicott, Wilfred Bion, and Jacques Lacan. The author concludes that in the psychoanalytic context the imposition and experience of suffering are invaluable components of authenticity and therapeutic change.     

Situated Behavior and the Place of Measurement in Psychological Theory

Measured values of human behavior may entail contradictory attributes of wave and particle by analogy with the wave/particle attributes of the electron. 1/f scaling is the wave attribute in this analogy and punctate data points are the particle attribute. One consequence of the wave/particle duality in physics was to elevate measurement to a primary place in physical theory, and one purpose of the present analogy is to likewise elevate measurement to a primary place in psychological theory. Another purpose is to emulate Robert Shaw's creative use of analogies, consistent with the brief quotation that begins this article.     

Race,Religion, and Virtues

Many faith traditions emphasize the importance of adopting a range of virtues. Yet relatively few studies examine more than one virtue at a time. Moreover, researchers know relatively little about variations in the adoption of virtues, especially variations by race. The purpose of this study is to see if race differences emerge in 9 virtues: gratitude to God, humility, compassion for family and friends, compassion for strangers, providing emotional support to family and friends, providing tangible support to family and friends, providing emotional support to strangers, providing tangible support to strangers, and forgiving others. The data for this study come from a recent nationwide survey. Race differences were present in seven of the nine virtues, and in each instance the findings indicate that Blacks have higher virtue scores than Whites. The results further reveal that Blacks are likely to have higher virtue scores than Whites because they are more committed to their faith than Whites.     

Assessing Whether Trust in God Offsets the Effects of Financial Strain on Health and Well-Being

Having trust in God is widely viewed as an essential component of many faith traditions (e.g., Christianity). Even so, researchers have paid relatively little attention to this core facet of religious life. The purpose of this study was to see if trust in God helps offset the effects of chronic economic problems on self-rated health, depressed affect, and life satisfaction. Data from a nationwide survey of middle-aged and older adults (N = 1,535) indicated that the effect of ongoing financial hardship on self-rated health, depressed affect scores, and life satisfaction was reduced for individuals who have greater trust in God.