Equivalences Among Polarity Algorithms

The concept of polarity is pervasive in natural language. It relates syntax, semantics and pragmatics narrowly (Giannakidou, in: Maienborn, von Heusinger, Portner (eds.), Semantics: an international handbook of natural language meaning, De Gruyter Mouton, Berlin, 2011; Israel in The grammar of polarity: pragmatics, sensitivity, and the logic of scales, Cambridge studies in linguistics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2014), it refers to items of many syntactic categories such as nouns, verbs and adverbs. Neutral polarity items appear in affirmative and negative sentences, negative polarity items cannot appear in affirmative sentences, and positive polarity items cannot appear in negative sentences. A way of reasoning in Natural Language is through Natural Logic (van Benthem in Essays in logical semantics, vol. 29 of Studies in linguistics and philosophy, Reidel, Dordrecht, 1986; Language in action: categories, lambdas, and dynamic logic, vol. 130 of Studies in logic, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1991). This logic is based on the concept of polarity in order to make the meaning of a sentence weaker o stronger without changing its truth value. There exist many proposals to compute polarity in the Natural Logic context, the most widely known are the ones by: van Benthem (1986, 1991), Sánchez-Valencia (Studies on natural logic and categorial grammar, Ph.D. thesis, Universiteit van Amsterdam, 1991), Dowty (Proceedings of the 4th conference on semantics and theoretical linguistics, Cornel University, CLC Publications, Rochester, 1994), and van Eijck (in: ten Cate, Zeevat (eds.), 6th international Tbilisi symposium on logic, language, and computation, Batumi, Georgia, Springer, 2007). If Natural Logic is going to be used, as an inferential mechanism between text fragments, in Natural Language Processing applications such as text summarization, question answering, and information extraction, it is a priority to know what the existing relationship among the aforementioned algorithms is; for example, to implement the most general. We show in this paper the equivalence among the analyzed algorithms, filling a gap in Natural Logic research, particularly in computing polarity, and the soundness of their algorithms.     

Conspirationism,Synarchism and the long shadow of Perón in Argentina

This article analyses the dissemination of conspiracy theories in late 20th-century Argentina, particularly those connected with the idea of Synarchy, a supposed underground global network working against the country’s interests. It reconstructs the projection and impact of those theories among Peronist right-wing and left-wing followers as well as among anti-Peronist intellectuals. While not necessarily anti-Semitic, the suspicion of such a network plotting in the shadows affected the public imaginary of society, spilling at certain points into explicit anti-Semitism. The text also addresses the long-term effect of a connected myth, the Plan Andinia, a plot supposedly articulated by Jews and/or young Israelis who, while touring Patagonia, were thought to be undercover agents preparing a territorial takeover of the southern region to create a second Jewish state. Analysis reveals that even in the early twenty-first century such conspirationist logic continued to pervade some of Argentina’s high echelons of power.     

Anxiety sensitivity moderates the painful effects of feeling burdensome to others

Perceived burdensomeness (PB), the perception of being a burden to others, is associated with pain and physical symptoms. Anxiety sensitivity (AS), the fear of arousal-related sensations, arising from beliefs that the sensations may have adverse personal consequences (physical, cognitive, and social), may increase risk for pain responding, particularly in anxiety-provoking (e.g. socially threatening) contexts. Accordingly, individuals high in AS may have a stronger pain response when experiencing PB than those low in AS. Undergraduate participants (n = 262) completed the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI-3), and then were randomly assigned to re-live an experience when they were either burdensome to others (burdensome condition) or contributed equally to a group (control condition). Both social and physical self-reported pain were assessed post-manipulation. Those high in AS reported significantly higher pain ratings in the burdensome condition than the control condition; for those low in AS, pain did not change across conditions. In particular, being fearful of the physical repercussions of anxiety (AS physical concerns) while also feeling burdensome to others was associated with greater physical pain. AS may exacerbate the already painful effects of feeling burdensome to others, and may have important implications for the development of future suicide- and pain-related interventions.     

Anticipated emotions and personal experience for predicting behavioral intentions and behavioral expectations

We tested how anticipated emotions interact with personal experience in risk behavior to improve predictions from TPB on behavioral intention (BI) and behavioral expectation (BE) for sex without condom (Study 1) and excessive drinking (Study 2). In the moderate-high experience group, anticipated emotional profiles (AEPs) improve TPB prediction from 28% to 45% in the case of BI and from 19% to 40% in that of BE in relation to sexual risk behavior (Study 1), and from 23% to 36% in the case of BI and from 17% to 31% in that of BE in relation to binge drinking (Study 2). However, in the low-experience group (Study 2) AEPs improve TPB predictions for BI (12% to 34%) but not for BE, showing that in less experienced people BI and BE are not equivalent: anticipated emotions have different relevance in their prediction. These results were replicated using a general negative anticipated emotion index (averaging emotional categories).     

Assessing the impact of dispositional resistance to change on organizational attraction

In recent years there has been an increasing interest among researchers and practitioners to analyze what makes a firm attractive in the eyes of university students, and if individual differences such as personality traits have an impact on this general affect towards a particular organization. The main goal of the present research is to demonstrate that a recently conceptualized narrow trait of personality named dispositional resistance to change (RTC), that is, the inherent tendency of individuals to avoid and oppose changes (Oreg, 2003), can predict organizational attraction of university students to firms that are perceived as innovative or conservative. Three complementary studies were carried out using a total sample of 443 college students from Mexico. In addition to validating the hypotheses, our findings suggest that as the formation of the images of organizations in students' minds is done through social cognitions, simple stimuli such as physical artifacts, when used in an isolated manner, do not have a significant impact on organizational attraction.     

Emergence of Third-Order Conditional Discriminations from Learning Discriminations with Unrelated Stimuli

The Psychological Record - This study explored learning and generalization of a third-order conditional discrimination. Two 8-year-old children learned two auditory–visual conditional...     

Autonomy and interdependence: beliefs of Brazilian mothers from state capitals and small towns

This study aimed to investigate characteristics of Brazilian mothers' beliefs system, in the dimensions of autonomy and interdependence. A group of 600 women, half from state capitals and half from small towns, participated in the study. They were individually interviewed with Scales of Allocentrism, Beliefs about Parental Practices and Socialization Goals. Paired and Independent samples t tests and Multivariate GLM were performed. The results indicate that although mothers from both contexts value autonomy, mothers inhabiting small towns considered the relational dimension as the most important; whereas mothers inhabiting capitals valued equally both dimensions, either in their beliefs about practices or in the socialization goals for their children. Mothers from small towns have a higher mean score for allocentrism than mothers living in capitals. Thus, place of residence proved to be a relevant variable in the modulation of maternal beliefs. Educational level was not a significant factor in the variables considered and with this group of mothers. The study results are discussed in terms of their contribution to the understanding of the complex relationship between dimensions of autonomy and interdependence in mothers' beliefs system.     

Conditioned taste aversion modifies persistently the subsequent induction of neocortical long-term potentiation in vivo

The ability of neurons to modify their synaptic strength in an activity-dependent manner has a crucial role in learning and memory processes. It has been proposed that homeostatic forms of plasticity might provide the global regulation necessary to maintain synaptic strength and plasticity within a functional dynamic range. Similarly, it is considered that the capacity of synapses to express plastic changes is itself subject to variation dependent on previous experience. In particular, training in several behavioral tasks modifies the possibility to induce long-term potentiation (LTP). Our previous studies in the insular cortex (IC) have shown that induction of LTP in the basolateral amygdaloid nucleus (Bla)-IC projection previous to conditioned taste aversion (CTA) training enhances the retention of this task. The aim of the present study was to analyze whether CTA training modifies the ability to induce subsequent LTP in the Bla-IC projection in vivo. Thus, CTA trained rats received high frequency stimulation in the Bla-IC projection in order to induce LTP 48, 72, 96 and 120 h after the aversion test. Our results show that CTA training prevents the subsequent induction of LTP in the Bla-IC projection, for at least 120 h after CTA training. We also showed that pharmacological inhibition of CTA consolidation with anisomycin (1 μl/side; 100 μg/μl) prevents the CTA effect on IC-LTP. These findings reveal that CTA training produces a persistent change in the ability to induce subsequent LTP in the Bla-IC projection in a protein-synthesis dependent manner, suggesting that changes in the ability to induce subsequent synaptic plasticity contribute to the formation and persistence of aversive memories.     

Masculinity,status, and subordination: Why working for a gender stereotype violator causes men to lose status

Occupying gender stereotype-incongruent roles can lead individuals to lose status and earn a lower salary. The present research examined whether merely working for a supervisor in a gender-atypical occupational role leads a subordinate to lose status. Two studies found that male subordinates of gender deviants (i.e., a female supervisor in a masculine domain or a male supervisor in a feminine domain) were accorded lower status and were paid less than male subordinates of supervisors in gender-congruent roles (i.e., a female supervisor in a feminine domain or a male supervisor in a masculine domain). However, the status of female subordinates was unaffected by working for a gender atypical supervisor. Moreover, the status loss for male subordinates was mediated by a perceived lack of masculinity. Thus, establishing the male subordinate's masculine credentials eliminated the bias.