Overtaking the Creases: Introduction to Francis Mechner’s “A Behavioral and Biological Analysis of Aesthetics”

The Psychological Record -     

Effects of item concreteness on temporal coding

Recently several authors have suggested that coding of serial position in a word list is an automatic process. This contention is questioned in the present paper: two experiments explore the concrete-abstract distinction and show that temporal order retention is higher with concrete than with abstract lists. An alternative view that temporal coding is influenced by either selective attention and/or the selective strategies used by the subjects to meet the requirements set by the memory task is put forward.     

The Creative Tripod: The Stitching and the Unstitching Revisited

The Psychological Record - There are no undebated definitions of “creativity,” and any definition will reflect how this rich topic is treated. Nearly 20 years ago I discussed how...     

The role of the cingulate cortex in the generation of motor tics and the experience of the premonitory urge-to-tic in Tourette syndrome

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurological disorder of childhood onset that is characterized by the occurrence of motor and vocal tics. TS is associated with cortical-striatal-thalamic-cortical circuit [CSTC] dysfunction and hyper-excitability of cortical limbic and motor regions that are thought to lead to the occurrence of tics. Individuals with TS often report that their tics are preceded by ‘premonitory sensory/urge phenomena’ (PU) that are described as uncomfortable bodily sensations that precede the execution of a tic and are experienced as a strong urge for motor discharge. While the precise role played by PU in the occurrence of tics is largely unknown, they are nonetheless of considerable theoretical and clinical importance as they form a core component of many behavioural therapies used in the treatment of tic disorders. Recent evidence indicates that the cingulate cortex may play an important role in the generation of PU in TS, and in ‘urges-for-action’ more generally. In the current study, we utilized voxel-based morphometry (VBM) techniques, together with ‘seed-to-voxel’ structural covariance network (SCN) mapping, to investigate the putative role played by the cingulate cortex in the generation of motor tics and the experience of PU in a relatively large group of young people with TS. Whole-brain VBM analysis revealed that TS was associated with clusters of significantly reduced grey matter volumes bilaterally within: the orbito-frontal cortex; the cerebellum; and the anterior and mid-cingulate cortex. Similarly, analysis of SCNs associated with bilateral mid- and anterior cingulate ‘seed’ regions demonstrated that TS is associated with increased structural covariance primarily with the bilateral motor cerebellum; the inferior frontal cortex; and the posterior cingulate cortex.     

Now You See Them,Now You Do Not: The Influence of Indicator–Factor Ratio on Support for Assessment Center Dimensions

The inability of assessment center (AC) researchers to find admissible solutions for confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) models that include dimensions has led some to conclude that ACs do not measure dimensions at all. This study investigated whether increasing the indicator–factor ratio facilitates the achievement of convergent and admissible CFA solutions in 2 independent ACs. Results revealed that, when models specify multiple behavioral checklist items as manifest indicators of each latent dimension, all of the AC CFA models tested were identified and returned proper solutions. When armed with the ability to undertake a full set of model comparisons using model fit rather than solution convergence and admissibility as comparative criteria, we found clear evidence for modest dimension effects. These results suggest that the frequent failure to find dimensions in models of the internal structure of ACs is a methodological artifact and that one approach to increase the likelihood for reaching a proper solution is to increase the number of manifest indicators for each dimension factor. In addition, across exercise dimension ratings and the overall assessment rating were both strongly correlated with dimension and exercise factors, indicating that regardless of how an AC is scored, exercise variance will continue to play a key role in the scoring of ACs.     

Reasoning as a source of justification

In this essay we argue that reasoning can sometimes generate epistemic justification, rather than merely transmitting justification that the subject already possesses to new beliefs. We also suggest a way to account for it in terms of the relationship between epistemic normative requirements, justification and cognitive capacities.