The Phenomenology of Face‐to‐Face Mindreading

I defend a perceptual account of face‐to‐face mindreading. I begin by proposing a phenomenological constraint on our visual awareness of others' emotional expressions. I argue that to meet this constraint we require a distinction between the basic and non‐basic ways people, and other things, look. I offer and defend just such an account.     

Rituals of Madness in the Practices of Place

While completing a PhD in literature with a focus on the practices of physical and linguistic spaces, I was also working and sleeping (on call) at a dilapidated house in a poorer part of Bristol in case I was needed by one of five paranoid or clinically psychotic residents. I gave out medication in the morning, then went home to study in a small rented room. I began to see ritual everywhere - in my professors' routines; my own habits; the behaviours of the mentally ill patients. This paper is the story of a number of madnesses and the problems with reading ritual performance in everything we do.     

Ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) exploit information about what others can see but not what they can hear

Studies suggest that haplorhine primates are sensitive to what others can see and hear. Using two experimental designs, we tested the hypothesis that ring-tailed lemurs (N = 16) are also sensitive to the visual and auditory perception of others. In the first task, we used a go/no–go design that required lemurs to exploit only auditory information. In the second task, we used a forced-choice design where lemurs competed against a human who would prevent them from obtaining food if their approaches were detected. Subjects were given the choice of obtaining food silently or noisily when the competitor’s back was turned. They were also given the choice to obtain food when the competitor could either see them or not. Here, we replicate the findings of previous studies indicating that ring-tailed lemurs are sensitive to whether they can be seen; however, we found no evidence that subjects are sensitive to whether others can hear them. Our findings suggest that ring-tailed lemurs converge with haplorhine primates only in their sensitivity to the visual information of others. The results emphasize the importance of investigating social cognition across sensory domains in order to elucidate the cognitive mechanisms that underlie apparently complex social behavior. These findings also suggest that the social dynamics of haplorhine groups impose greater cognitive demands than lemur groups, despite similarities in total group size.     

An Idiographic Approach to Estimating Models of Dyadic Interactions with Differential Equations

We present an idiographic approach to modeling dyadic interactions using differential equations. Using data representing daily affect ratings from romantic relationships, we examined several models conceptualizing different types of dyadic interactions. We fitted each model to each of the dyads and the resulting AICc values were used to classify the most likely configuration of interaction for each dyad. Additionally, the AICc from the different models were used in parameter averaging across models. Averaged parameters were used in models involving predictors of relationship dynamics, as indexed by these parameters, as well as models wherein the parameters predicted distal outcomes of the dyads such as relationship satisfaction and status. Results indicated that, within our sample, the most likely interaction style was that of independence, without evidence of emotional interrelations between the two individuals in the couple. Attachment-related avoidance and anxiety showed significant relations with model parameters, such that ideal levels of affect for males were negatively influenced by higher levels of avoidance from their partner while their own levels of anxiety had positive effects on their levels of dyadic coregulation. For females coregulation was negatively influenced by both time in the relationship and their partner’s level of avoidance. Analysis involving distal outcomes showed modest influences from the individual’s level of ideal affect.     

Learning More About and With the Face–Name Mnemonic Strategy

With the face–name mnemonic strategy, choosing and using ‘prominent’ facial features in interactive images can be difficult. The temptation is to stray from less‐than‐distinctive facial features and instead to associate an individual's name clue with an additional concrete detail (e.g., a headband). To examine this issue, undergraduates viewed face photographs with or without additional details under one of three conditions: own best method, fully imposed mnemonic, and partially imposed mnemonic. Experiment 2 examined a somewhat parallel situation that occurs when applying the strategy to abstract artwork (paintings with less familiar, less concrete elements) versus applying it to representational artwork (paintings with more familiar concrete elements). Our findings suggest that some pictorial stimuli (e.g., facial photos with details; representational paintings) are easier to work with mnemonically than are others (e.g., facial photos by themselves; abstract art). Moreover, in both experiments, mnemonic students displayed performance advantages on both immediate and delayed tests. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Justice as a Family Value: How a Commitment to Fairness is Compatible with Love

Many discussions of love and the family treat issues of justice as something alien. On this view, concerns about whether one's family is internally just are in tension with the modes of interaction that are characteristic of loving families. In this essay, we challenge this widespread view. We argue that once justice becomes a shared family concern, its pursuit is compatible with loving familial relations. We examine four arguments for the thesis that a concern with justice is not at home within a loving family, and we explain why these arguments fail. We develop and defend an alternative conception of the justice‐oriented loving family, arguing that justice can—and, for the sake of justice, should—be seen as a family value.     

Neurodynamics inside therapeutic interaction: a case study with simultaneous EEG recording / La neurodinámica en el contexto de la interacción terapéutica: un estudio de caso con una grabación simultánea de EEG

Recent research on processes of psychotherapy has focused on the study of patient-therapist regulation. Evidence concerning verbal and nonverbal coordination as predictors of therapeutic alliance and outcome in psychotherapy has been cumulating. These, along with others results in the field of social neuroscience, suggest that behavioural coordination may have neurophysiological correlates, which play a role in the regulatory process in psychotherapy. Here we introduce an observational paradigm and analytic method to assess the joint neurodynamic activity of patient and therapist. Additionally we report results from ongoing psychotherapy sessions. Our work highlights the involvement of brain activity in the psychotherapeutic process and provides novel insights on how psychotherapy works, in order to further the understanding of the embodied characteristic of the therapeutic interaction.     

Effects of response preference on resistance to change

Treatments based on differential reinforcement of alternative behavior, such as functional communication training, are widely used. Research regarding the maintenance of related treatment effects is limited. Nevin and Wacker (2013) provided a conceptual framework, rooted in behavioral momentum theory, for the study of treatment maintenance that addressed two components: (a) reemergence of problem behavior, and (b) continued expression of appropriate behavior. In the few studies on this topic, focus has been on variables impacting the reemergence of problem behavior, with fewer studies evaluating the persistence of appropriate behavior. Given the findings from applied research related to functional communication training, variables related to response topography, such as response preference, may impact this aspect of maintenance. In the current study, the impact of response preference on persistence was evaluated in the context of functional communication training for individuals who did not exhibit problem behavior (Experiment 1) and for individuals with a history of reinforcement for problem behavior (Experiment 2). High‐preferred mands were more persistent than low‐preferred mands. These findings suggest that response related variables, such as response preference, impact response persistence and further suggest that response related variables should be considered when developing interventions such as functional communication training.     

Grounding and the luck objection to agent-causal libertarianism

Philosophical Studies - Many philosophers think there is a luck problem confronting libertarian models of free will. If free actions are undetermined, then it seems to be a matter of chance or luck...