"Binaural rivalry": dichotic listening as a tool for the investigation of the neural correlate of consciousness

Since about two decades neuroscientists have systematically faced the problem of consciousness: the aim is to discover the neural activity specifically related to conscious perceptions, i.e. the biological properties of what philosophers call qualia. In this view, a neural correlate of consciousness (NCC) is a precise pattern of brain activity that specifically accompanies a particular conscious experience. Almost all studies aimed at investigating the NCC have been carried out in the visual system. One of the most promising paradigms is based on sensory stimuli which elicit bistable percepts, as they allow to decouple subjective perception from the characteristics of the physical stimulation. Such kind of perception can be produced in the visual modality by using particular images (e.g. Rubin's vase/face figure) or by presenting two dissimilar stimuli separately to the two eyes (binocular rivalry). The stimuli compete for perceptual dominance and each image is visible in turn for a few seconds, while the other is suppressed. The use of this methodology has led to important findings concerning visual consciousness, which are briefly discussed. For the investigation of auditory consciousness, a similar stimulation paradigm can be achieved by using dichotic listening, consisting in two different stimuli presented each to one ear, which compete for perception (binaural rivalry). The principal aim of the present mini-review is to discuss the few contributes facing the issue of auditory consciousness and to advance the use of dichotic listening and binaural rivalry as valid tools for its investigation.     

How to be a minimalist about sets

According to the iterative conception of set, sets can be arranged in a cumulative hierarchy divided into levels. But why should we think this to be the case? The standard answer in the philosophical literature is that sets are somehow constituted by their members. In the first part of the paper, I present a number of problems for this answer, paying special attention to the view that sets are metaphysically dependent upon their members. In the second part of the paper, I outline a different approach, which circumvents these problems by dispensing with the priority or dependence relation altogether. Along the way, I show how this approach enables the mathematical structuralist to defuse an objection recently raised against her view.     

Reducing Competitive Victimhood in Kosovo: The Role of Extended Contact and Common Ingroup Identity

During intractable conflicts, “competitive victimhood” refers to the subjective belief that one's own ingroup has suffered more than the outgroup. Although competitive victimhood is considered an important inhibitor of reconciliation processes, no research has attempted to examine ways of reducing it. The present study aims to fill this gap. Kosovar Albanians students (N = 170) were asked to report their perception of ingroup and outgroup victimhood during the protracted violence between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo. Our findings revealed that frequent and high‐quality extended contact with outgroup members and identification with a common ingroup reduced competitive victimhood. The effects of extended contact and common ingroup identification were fully mediated by increased perspective taking and trust toward the outgroup, and by decreased outgroup infrahumanization. The implications of these results for restoring fractured intergroup relations are discussed.     

Neuroaesthetics and beyond: new horizons in applying the science of the brain to the art of dance

Throughout history, dance has maintained a critical presence across all human cultures, defying barriers of class, race, and status. How dance has synergistically co-evolved with humans has fueled a rich debate on the function of art and the essence of aesthetic experience, engaging numerous artists, historians, philosophers, and scientists. While dance shares many features with other art forms, one attribute unique to dance is that it is most commonly expressed with the human body. Because of this, social scientists and neuroscientists are turning to dance and dancers to help answer questions of how the brain coordinates the body to perform complex, precise, and beautiful movements. In the present paper, we discuss how recent advances in neuroscientific methods provide the tools to advance our understanding of not only the cerebral phenomena associated with dance learning and observation but also the neural underpinnings of aesthetic appreciation associated with watching dance. We suggest that future work within the fields of dance neuroscience and neuroaesthetics have the potential to provide mutual benefits to both the scientific and artistic communities.     

Assessing the local identifiability of probabilistic knowledge structures

Given a collection Q of problems, in knowledge space theory Doignon & Falmagne, (International Journal of Man–Machine Studies 23:175–196, 1985) the knowledge state of a student is the collection K ? Q of all problems that this student is capable of solving. A knowledge structure is a pair (Q, ), where is a collection of knowledge states that contains at least the empty set and Q. A probabilistic knowledge structure (PKS) is a knowledge structure (Q, , π), where π is a probability distribution on the knowledge states. The PKS that has received the most attention is the basic local independence model BLIM; Falmagne & Doignon, (British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology 41:1–23, 1988a, Journal of Mathematical Psychology 32:232–258, 1988b). To the best of our knowledge, systematic investigations in the literature concerning the identifiability of the BLIM are totally missing. Based on the theoretical work of Bamber and van Santen (Journal of Mathematical Psychology 29:443–473, 1985), the present article is aimed to present a method and a corresponding computerized procedure for assessing the local identifiability of the BLIM, which is applicable to any finite knowledge structure of moderate size.     

Defending psychopathy: an argument from values and moral responsibility

How psychopaths and their capacity for moral action are viewed is not only philosophically interesting but is also important and relevant for policy. The philosophical discussion of psychopathy has focussed upon the psychological faculties that are prerequisites for moral responsibility and empirical findings regarding psychopathy that are relevant to philosophical accounts of moral understanding and motivation. However, there are legitimate worries about whether psychopathy is a robust scientific construct, and there are risks attached to reifying psychopathy or other psychiatric constructs. We defend the concept of psychopathy by pointing out the relevance of empirical studies about it for our ordinary practices of ascribing moral responsibility and folk psychological accounts of moral understanding and motivation.     

The Dialogical Dance: Self,Identity Construction,Positioning and Embodiment in Tango Dancers

Argentine tango is a complex phenomenon, involving music, dancing and lifestyle, today practiced by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. This is already a good reason for psychology to make it an object of study. Besides, studying tango could also help to develop a dialogical way of theorizing and a dialogical methodology, taking into account both the genetic historical and eso-systemic dimensions and the individual experiencing. As any other product of human psyche, tango creates an universal and abstract representation of life starting from very situated and individual acts. Such institutionalized representation, which is at the same time epistemological, ethical and aesthetical, becomes a tradition -that is the framework distanced from the individual immediate experience- within which the meaning of the experiences to be make sense in return. To illustrate this epistemological and methodological stance, a history of the development of tango as dialogical social object first is sketched. Then, an ethnographic study about the Self actuation in a community of Italian tango dancers is presented. Results show how participants construct and actuate their identities in a dialogue between their I-positions inside and outside tango community.     

An Analysis of Item Response Theory and Rasch Models Based on the Most Probable Distribution Method

The most probable distribution method is applied to derive the logistic model as the distribution accounting for the maximum number of possible outcomes in a dichotomous test while introducing latent traits and item characteristics as constraints to the system. The item response theory logistic models, with a particular focus on the one-parameter logistic model, or Rasch model, and their properties and assumptions, are discussed for both infinite and finite populations.     

The Contribution of Job Happiness and Job Meaning to the Well-Being of Workers from Thriving and Failing Companies

In a time of global economic crisis, workers’ well-being is of paramount concern for both organizations and society at large. Conceptualizations within positive psychology distinguish between hedonic and eudaimonic well-being components, and call for the need to include them in an integrated perspective. Within this framework, the present study aimed at investigating the impact of situational uncertainty on eudaimonic and hedonic well-being, and the spillover effects of work into individuals’ lives. Data were collected from 85 Italian employees at a thriving insurance company and at a failing one. Participants were administered Job Content Questionnaire, Eudaimonic and Hedonic Happiness Investigation, Satisfaction with Life Scale, and Psychological Wellbeing Scales. Data were analyzed through hierarchical regression analyses. Concerning well-being at work, employees at the failing company reported higher job insecurity and lower job happiness compared to employees at the thriving company, while job meaning scores did not differ between groups. Concerning general well-being, an unexpected positive association was found between positive relations and situational uncertainty. A spillover effect of job happiness and meaning on life satisfaction, environmental mastery, and autonomy was also detected. In particular, a moderating effect of job meaning was identified, showing that attributing high importance to one’s job had wide affective consequences, spilling over to global life evaluations. Findings bring forward practical suggestions for well-being promotion, in terms of shifting domain importance (Wu Journal of Happiness Studies 10:37–47, 2009), and investing in multiple life areas (Sirgy and Wu Journal of Happiness Studies 10:183–196, 2009) for the promotion of a balanced life.     

The semantic specificity of gestures when verbal communication is not possible: The case of emergency evacuation

The aim of the present study was to examine the comprehension of gesture in a situation in which the communicator cannot (or can only with difficulty) use verbal communication. Based on theoretical considerations, we expected to obtain higher semantic comprehension for emblems (gestures with a direct verbal definition or translation that is well known by all members of a group, or culture) compared to illustrators (gestures regarded as spontaneous and idiosyncratic and that do not have a conventional definition). Based on the extant literature, we predicted higher semantic specificity associated with arbitrarily coded and iconically coded emblems compared to intrinsically coded illustrators. Using a scenario of emergency evacuation, we tested the difference in semantic specificity between different categories of gestures. 138 participants saw 10 videos each illustrating a gesture performed by a firefighter. They were requested to imagine themselves in a dangerous situation and to report the meaning associated with each gesture. The results showed that intrinsically coded illustrators were more successfully understood than arbitrarily coded emblems, probably because the meaning of intrinsically coded illustrators is immediately comprehensible without recourse to symbolic interpretation. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between the comprehension of iconically coded emblems and that of both arbitrarily coded emblems and intrinsically coded illustrators. It seems that the difference between the latter two types of gestures was supported by their difference in semantic specificity, although in a direction opposite to that predicted. These results are in line with those of Hadar and Pinchas‐Zamir (2004), which showed that iconic gestures have higher semantic specificity than conventional gestures.