Foreshortened tiles in paths converging on an observer viewing a picture: Elevation and visual angle ratio determine perceived size

Observers were shown wide-angle pictures of tiles on a ground plane and were asked about the aspect ratios of the tiles. The observers viewed the pictures from a fixed center of projection. Some of the tiles were in a path coming straight toward the observer. In one picture, the path came from the center of the picture, and in two others the path came from the left side of the picture (one from 30° and one from 45° to the left of the center, from the observer’s point of view). The apparent aspect ratios were a function of the elevations of the tiles and the ratios of visual angles of the sides of the tiles. Judgments were identical for all three paths. The local slant of the picture surface was not a significant factor.     

Autonomous Self-Expression and Meritocratic Dignity

While “dignity” plays an increasingly important role in contemporary moral and political debates, there is profound dispute over its definition, meaning, and normative function. Instead of concluding that dignity’s elusiveness renders it useless, or that it signals its fundamental character, this paper focuses on illuminating one particular strand of meritocratic dignity. It introduces a number of examples and conceptual distinctions and argues that there is a specific strand of “expressive” meritocratic dignity that is not connected to holding a special office or rank, but that is ascribed to individuals who are able to engage in autonomous self-expression.     

Demarcating the Realm of Cognition

The Extended Mind Hypothesis has given rise to stimulating philosophical debates about the boundaries of the realm of the cognitive. This paper first investigates the usefulness of a “mark of the cognitive,” and then focuses on two accounts that aim to provide such a mark, put forward by Fred Adams and Rebecca Garrison on one side and Mark Rowlands on the other. The paper provides a critical assessment of these accounts and uses empirical work on emotion regulation in infants to unearth some crucial challenges that any attempt at offering a mark of the cognitive should address.     

Semantic Elaboration through Integration: Hints Both Facilitate and Inform the Process

Semantic knowledge can be extended in a variety of ways, including self-generation of new facts through integration of separate yet related episodes. We sought to promote integration and self-generation by providing “hints” to help 6-year-olds (Experiment 1) and 4-year-olds (Experiment 2) see the relevance of separate episodes to one another. Varying the timing of presentation of the hints—whether provided between episodes or before test—afforded insights into the processes responsible for self-generation of new semantic knowledge through integration. In both experiments, hints provided immediately before testing facilitated performance relative to a control condition. In contrast, hints provided between episodes did not. The findings imply that integration of distinct experiences is not an automatic process set into motion based on shared elements. Even when integration is primed through a hint that a prior episode is relevant to a forthcoming experience, shared elements apparently are not sufficient to promote self-generation of new semantic knowledge. Instead, the process seems to occur upon demand, such as in response to a question. These findings can be used to guide interventions designed to promote enrichment of semantic memory and also further our understanding of the basic cognitive processes involved in extension of knowledge.