Objectivity and the supernormal: the limitations of bracketing approaches in providing neutral accounts of supernormal claims

This paper contends that bracketing approaches to the sociological study of supernatural, paranormal, and occult proponents do not truly ‘bracket’ the reality-claims made by those being studied, but instead impose ontological limits on what can be considered ‘supernormal’. It is argued that such boundaries and definitions tend to rule out alternative ontological perspectives of the kind that researchers typically encounter among religious, paranormal, and occult proponents. It is also argued that, unlike earlier reductionist approaches to the supernormal, the bias of bracketing approaches is not necessarily based on an underlying sceptical outlook of researchers, but rather reflects an inherent ontological limitation within the sociological enterprise itself. It is recommended that bracketing should be replaced by a reflexive, dialogical approach that emphasises the ontological positioning of social analyses with respect to supernormal claims.     

Terrorism and the Uses of Terror

“Terrorism”' is sometimes defined as a “form ofcoercion.” But there are important differences between ordinary coercion and terrorist intimidation. This paper explores some of those differences, particularly the relation between coercion, on the one hand, and terror and terrorization, on the other hand. The paper argues that while terrorism is not necessarily associated with terror in the literal sense, it does often seek to instill a mental state like terror in the populations that it targets. However, the point of instilling this mental state is not necessarily coercive or intimidatory: one can try to instill terror as an act of punishment, or as an expressive or therapeutic act, or because one values the political consequences that might follow, or because one thinks terror is preferable, from an ethical point of view, to the inauthentic complacency that characterizes the targeted population at present. Though this paper asks questions about the definition of “terrorism,” these questions are not asked for their own sake. The quest for a canonical definition of “terrorism” is probably a waste of time. But asking questions which sound like questions of definition is sometimes a fruitful way of focusing our reflections on terrorism and organizing our response. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

False feedback increases detection of low-prevalence targets in visual search

Many critical search tasks, such as airport and medical screening, involve searching for targets that are rarely present. These low-prevalence targets are associated with extremely high miss rates Wolfe, Horowitz, & Kenner (Nature, 435, 439?C440, 2005). The inflated miss rates are caused by a criterion shift, likely due to observers attempting to equate the numbers of misses and false alarms. This equalizing strategy results in a neutral criterion at 50?% target prevalence, but leads to a higher proportion of misses for low-prevalence targets. In the present study, we manipulated participants?? perceived number of misses through explicit false feedback. As predicted, the participants in the false-feedback condition committed a higher number of false alarms due to a shifted criterion. Importantly, the participants in this condition were also more successful in detecting targets. These results highlight the importance of perceived prevalence in target search tasks.     

Prevalence of DSM-IV borderline personality disorder in two community samples: 6,330 English 11-year-olds and 34,653 American adults

This study had two main objectives. The first was to assess the prevalence of DSM-IV borderline personality disorder and its constituent symptoms in a community sample of late-latency children. The second was to compare these rates to those found in a community sample of American adults. A birth cohort of 6,330 11-year-old children in Bristol, England, was interviewed concerning borderline psychopathology in 2002-2004. A community sample of 34,653 American adults was interviewed about borderline psychopathology in 2004-2005. Rates of chronic emptiness, physically self-damaging acts, and stormy relationships were very similar in both samples (<2% difference). However, a significantly higher percentage of children than adults reported being angry and moody. In contrast, a significantly higher percentage of adults than children reported being paranoid/dissociated, having a serious identity disturbance, being impulsive, and making frantic efforts to avoid abandonment. In addition, a significantly higher percentage of adults than children met DSM-IV criteria for BPD (5.9% vs. 3.2%). Statistically significant but clinically minor gender differences were also found between girls and boys as well as men and women. Taken together, the results of this study suggest that late-latency children are about half as likely as adults to meet DSM-IV criteria for BPD. They also suggest that gender does not play a defining role in symptom expression.     

编者导言(英文)

This special issue of the journal‘Studies in Logic’ results from an international workshopon‘TheHistory of Logic in China’held in Amsterdam,The Netherlands,on November 24-26, 2010 (http://www.sciencehistory.asia/history-logic-china).This event brought together,     

The Role of the Cerebellum in Cognition and Emotion: Personal Reflections Since 1982 on the Dysmetria of Thought Hypothesis,and Its Historical Evolution from Theory to Therapy

The cognitive neuroscience of the cerebellum is now an established multidisciplinary field of investigation. This essay traces the historical evolution of this line of inquiry from an emerging field to its current status, with personal reflections over almost three decades on this journey of discovery. It pays tribute to early investigators who recognized the wider role of the cerebellum beyond motor control, traces the origins of new terms and concepts including the dysmetria of thought theory, the universal cerebellar transform, and the cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome, and places these developments within the broader context of the scientific efforts of a growing community of cerebellar cognitive neuroscientists. This account considers the converging evidence from theoretical, anatomical, physiological, clinical, and functional neuroimaging approaches that have resulted in the transition from recognizing the cerebellar incorporation into the distributed neural circuits subserving cognition and emotion, to a hopeful new era of treatment of neurocognitive and neuropsychiatric manifestations of cerebellar diseases, and to cerebellar-based interventions for psychiatric disorders.     

The modification of attentional bias to emotional information: A review of the techniques,mechanisms, and relevance to emotional disorders

A negative bias in the deployment of attention to emotional stimuli is commonly found in both anxiety and depression. Recent work has highlighted that such biases are causally related to emotional vulnerability, suggesting that interventions that ameliorate them may be therapeutic. Here, we review the evidence that attentional bias can be modified using both pharmacological and psychological interventions. We highlight the behavioral and neuroimaging studies that suggest that these interventions impact upon attention via alteration of distinct neural mechanisms. Specifically, pharmacological interventions appear to influence the initial deployment of attention via an effect on the amygdala-based stimulus appraisal system, whereas psychological interventions influence attention at later time points and may alter activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex. Finally, we suggest a conceptual framework that embraces both pharmacological and psychological approaches and consider the possible implications of this work for future research and treatment development.     

A neuroscientific review of imagery and observation use in sport

Imagery and observation are multicomponential, involving individual difference characteristics that modify the processes. The authors propose that both imagery and observation function by offering effective routes to access and reinforce neural networks for skilled performance. The neural isomorphism with overt behaviors offers a tempting mechanism to explain the beneficial outcomes of the 2 processes. However, several limitations related to imagery indicate the possibility that imagery may not be as efficacious as the literature would indicate. The authors propose observation-based approaches to offer more valid and effective techniques in sport psychology and motor control.     

Bilateral associations of low-level unilateral performance: an unremarked aspect of limb control

The experimenters examine upper limb movement discrimination performance in an arm-raising task for bilateral associations of low-level unilateral performance. On a cue from the experimenter, young adults (n = 23) with no history of shoulder injury raised either their left arm, right arm, or both together in a forward flexion movement until their hand or hands contacted an unseen, adjustable, overhead stop. The participant then judged which of the 5 possible stop positions, in the 12-20 degrees range forward of true vertical, the participant had contacted on the particular trial. Results showed that for the 16 participants whose best performance was in 1 of the unimanual conditions discrimination scores in the bilateral condition were equivalent to those of their worse-performing limb. For the 7 participants whose best discrimination performance was obtained on bimanual arm-raising, scores for the 2 unimanual conditions were equivalently low. Therefore, when a single limb that can perform well operates in conjunction with a limb performing at a lower level, the consequence is lowering the bimanual movement discrimination performance.