From Nature to Culture? Diogenes and Philosophical Anthropology

This essay is concerned with the central issue of philosophical anthropology: the relation between nature and culture. Although Rousseau was the first thinker to introduce this topic within the modern discourse of philosophy and the cultural sciences, it has its origin in Diogenes the Cynic, who was a disciple of Socrates. In my essay I (1) historically introduce a few aspects of philosophical anthropology, (2) deal with the nature–culture exchange, as introduced in Kant, then I (3) relate this topic to the Ancient Cynic Diogenes. Surprisingly, although we usually identify Critical Theory and Freudian psychoanalysis as theories that have shown that cultural progress should not be comprehended as a development from nature to culture, and that instead it should be conceived as a development from culture against (external as well as internal) nature, I show that Cynicism can be conceived as a vivid example within the history of our culture that reveals a double sense of repression and alienation, which is part of human civilization and mankind.     

Repeated masked category primes interfere with related exemplars: new evidence for negative semantic priming

In 4 experiments, the authors found evidence for negatively signed masked semantic priming effects (with category names as primes and exemplars as targets) using a new technique of presenting the masked primes. By rapidly interchanging prime and mask during the stimulus onset asynchrony, they increased the total prime exposure to a level comparable with that of a typical visible prime condition without increasing the number of participants having an awareness of the prime. The negative effect was observed for only low-dominance exemplars and not for high-dominance exemplars. The authors found it using lexical decision (Experiments 1 and 2), lexical decision with a response-window procedure (Experiment 3), and the pronunciation task (Experiment 4). The results are discussed with regard to different theories on semantic priming.     

Selection and consolidation of objects and actions

Response selection bottleneck models attribute performance costs under dual-task conditions to the human inability to select more than one response at a time. Consistent with this claim Pashler (1991) found that carrying out a speeded manual choice reaction time (RT) task does not impair the unspeeded report of a cued visual target from a masked display. In contrast, Jolicoeur and DellAcqua (1999, Experiment 2) observed pronounced interference between a speeded manual choice RT task and the unspeeded report of a small number of visually presented letters, a finding they attributed to resource sharing between response selection and stimulus consolidation. We demonstrate that comparable costs are obtained with the same task combination used by Pashler (1991) if only task order is reversed—a manipulation that is likely to increase the necessity of consolidating the target stimulus into working memory. We also found that these costs are not diminished if the location of the target to be reported is cued in advance (reducing demands on spatial focusing) and that they do not vary with the number of target features to be reported. These findings support a consolidation account of costs in dual-task performance.     

Remembering a location makes the eyes curve away

Working memory is a system that keeps limited information on-line for immediate access by cognitive processes. This type of active maintenance is important for everyday life activities. The present study shows that maintaining a location in spatial working memory affects the trajectories of saccadic eye movements toward visual targets, as the eyes deviate away from the remembered location. This finding provides direct evidence for a strong overlap between spatial working memory and the eye movement system. We argue that curvature is the result of the need to inhibit memory-based eye movement activity in the superior colliculus, in order to allow an accurate saccade to the visual target. Whereas previous research has shown that the eyes may deviate away from visually presented stimuli that need to be ignored, we show that the eyes also curve away from remembered stimuli.     

A study of religion, ministry, and meaning in caregiving among health professionals in an institutional setting in New York City

The clinical staff of a large metropolitan nursing home was surveyed about their religious practices, the degree to which they saw their work as a ministry, and the meaning they obtain from being caregivers. Age, race, gender, education, and various other measures were also taken. As hypothesized, religiosity made a significant positive contribution to participants' belief their work was a ministry to those in need. Multiple regression revealed that African American and older staff scored significantly higher on both dependent variables, whereas Caucasians were significantly less likely to view their work as ministry. Staff who worked with long-term patients derived significantly more meaning from their work, but they were no more likely to see it as ministry. Religiosity appears to enhance the meaning caregivers get from their work, and this may be beneficial to patients. Further research may identify other factors that enhance the meaning caregivers get from their work.     

Belief,attitude and critical understanding. A systematic review of social justice in Service-Learning experiences

This systematic review examined the role of Service-Learning experiences promoted by higher education institutions to strengthen the achievement of social justice outcomes among youth. We screened and coded studies following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). Of the 555 articles found in the database search, 47 peer-reviewed studies were included in the final sample. Social justice construct, together with research location, participants, target community and outcomes, were coded. Results show effects of Service-Learning experiences on (a) fostering significant improvement of students' social justice beliefs, (b) stimulating significant changes in students' attitudes with respect to the development of altruistic behaviours and their commitment to social justice, and (c) increasing students' critical understanding by sparking questioning processes related to personal assumptions of inequalities. This systematic review provides insights into the strengths and challenges of implementing social justice-oriented Service-Learning experiences.     

The role of dark pattern stimuli and personality in online impulse shopping: An application of S-O-R theory

Online impulse shopping is a growing industry. This paper uses the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework to model online impulse purchase behavior using a novel combination of stimuli and organism characteristics. The stimuli: social proof, limited-quantity scarcity, and high-demand, are three commonly used website features known as dark patterns. The organism characteristic personality is measured by the big 5 personality traits and persona generated through latent profile analysis. Using the machine learning algorithm XGBoost, impulse purchasing response was predicted separately for each dark pattern stimuli. Results show personality characteristics are important features when predicting consumer impulse purchasing in response to dark pattern messages. Moreover, the personality traits (and personas) most predictive of impulse shopping behavior varied by type of dark pattern. Findings suggest personality influences susceptibility to different dark patterns, indicating a need for tailored interventions to mitigate individual consumer vulnerabilities to impulse shopping.