New foundations for counterfactuals

Philosophers typically rely on intuitions when providing a semantics for counterfactual conditionals. However, intuitions regarding counterfactual conditionals are notoriously shaky. The aim of this paper is to provide a principled account of the semantics of counterfactual conditionals. This principled account is provided by what I dub the Royal Rule, a deterministic analogue of the Principal Principle relating chance and credence. The Royal Rule says that an ideal doxastic agent’s initial grade of disbelief in a proposition \(A\) , given that the counterfactual distance in a given context to the closest \(A\) -worlds equals \(n\) , and no further information that is not admissible in this context, should equal \(n\) . Under the two assumptions that the presuppositions of a given context are admissible in this context, and that the theory of deterministic alethic or metaphysical modality is admissible in any context, it follows that the counterfactual distance distribution in a given context has the structure of a ranking function. The basic conditional logic V is shown to be sound and complete with respect to the resulting rank-theoretic semantics of counterfactuals.     

Embodied numerosity: Implicit hand-based representations influence symbolic number processing across cultures

In recent years, a strong functional relationship between finger counting and number processing has been suggested. Developmental studies have shown specific effects of the structure of the individual finger counting system on arithmetic abilities. Moreover, the orientation of the mental quantity representation (“number line”) seems to be influenced by finger counting habits. However, it is unclear whether the structure of finger counting systems still influences symbolic number processing in educated adults.In the present transcultural study, we pursued this question by examining finger-based sub-base-five effects in an Arabic number comparison task with three different groups of participants (German deaf signers, German and Chinese hearing adults). We observed sub-base-five effects in all groups, but particularly so for both German groups who use an explicit sub-base-five system in their finger counting habits. It is concluded that bodily experiences – namely finger counting – influence the structure of the abstract mental number representations even in adults. Thus, the present findings support the general idea that even seemingly abstract cognition may at least partially be rooted in our bodily experiences.     

Gaze following in the red-footed tortoise (Geochelone carbonaria)

Gaze following refers to the ability of an animal to orient its gaze direction to that of another organism. Such a behavior may be adaptive as it alerts the observer to important objects in the environment such as food or predators. This behavior has been shown in mammals and birds, but the evolutionary history and the distribution of this behavior throughout the animal kingdom remain unclear. Here, we show that a reptile, the red-footed tortoise (Geochelone carbonaria), is able to follow the gaze of a conspecific in a lookup task. Controls revealed that neither the mere presence of a conspecific nor the presentation of a light stimulus (without a demonstrator present) controlled the tortoises’ behavior. The findings indicate that the ability to follow gaze may be found in mammals, birds and reptiles and could have evolved before the amniotic line diverged, or may result from a general ability to learn.     

Female Juvenile Offending: A Review of Characteristics and Contexts

We reviewed current literature on female juvenile offending including the scope and nature of offending by female adolescents and the risk and protective factors across ecological contexts. We suggested that female juvenile offending is best viewed within a multidimensional framework in which female adolescent developmental characteristics as well as the ecological contexts must be considered for effective preventions and interventions. An ecological framework may assist professionals to target adolescent female offenders who are most likely to be chronic offenders. We offered both an intervention and research frame for addressing the issue of offending among our female youth and concluded that, as the incidence of female juvenile offending increases, researchers and practitioners are well advised to consider both the contexts surrounding the potential female adolescent offender as well as the contexts that contribute to her resiliency against offending.     

Application of signature strengths at work: A dual-level analysis

ABSTRACT

Each individual possesses character strengths, the most significant of which are classified as signature strengths. With a sample of 164 individuals who were employed at least part-time in a variety of industries, we examined application of signature strengths and well-being both between-persons (global) and within-persons (daily). Global application of signature strengths was associated with global job satisfaction and strain; however, no significant mediation effects on intent to turnover were found. We also found that daily variations in application of signature strengths were related to daily job satisfaction and strain. Common method bias associated with trait positive and negative affect differed by level of analysis: At the between-person (global) level, trait affect produced substantial inflation of estimates, but at the within-person (daily) level, inflation was negligible. The results suggest the importance of daily opportunities to apply signature strengths and of accounting for variance attributable to trait affect in between-person analyses.