Above Analysis and Amazement: Some Contemporary Muslim Characterizations of ‘Miracle’ and Their Interpretation

This article aims at contributing to the study of miracles on multiple levels. First, it provides an update on current scholarship in contemporary Muslim interpretations of miracles by summarizing and comparing some positions that, despite their originality and/or potential influence on the wider Muslim readership, are not normally taken into account in a number of recent reconstructions of the concept within Islam. Second, it proposes some complementary philosophical interpretations of those positions, interpretations that involve identifying similarities and commonalities among the positions, despite deep differences and explicit mutual oppositions. As well, this article argues that these interpretations have far-reaching consequences for the philosophical debate on miracles within other traditions and cultures; at stake will be the very meaningfulness of engaging in a univocal, overarching, rationalized interpretation of miracles.     

Happy but unhealthy: The relationship between social ties and health in an emerging network

Social connections are essential to health and well‐being. However, when pursing social acceptance, people may sometimes engage in behavior that is detrimental to their health. Using a multi‐time‐point design, we examined whether the structure of an emerging network of students in an academic summer school program correlated with their physical health and mental well‐being. Participants who were more central in the network typically experienced greater symptoms of illness (e.g., cold/flu symptoms), engaged in riskier health behaviors (e.g., binge drinking), and had higher physiological reactivity to a stressor. At the same time, they were happier, felt more efficacious, and perceived less stress in response to a strenuous math task. These outcomes suggest that social ties in an emerging network are associated with better mental well‐being, but also with poorer physical health and health behaviors. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Goal-completion processes affect the attentional blink

People are notably limited in processing information from the outside world. For instance, they frequently fail to identify the second of two targets presented in close succession (attentional blink, AB). Theories of the AB have mostly focused upon early stimuli processing. However, here we show that late, goal-completion processes play an important role. We report findings from a rapid serial visual presentation task with three targets (T1, T2, and T3). Participants set to achieve one single goal for T1 and T2 (reporting the sum of the two), and to detect T3, showed an AB effect upon T3 but not upon T2, while participants set to achieve separate goals for the three targets showed an AB effect upon both T2 and T3. This finding raises questions about the nature of AB, suggesting that theories of the AB must take into account processes involved in goal switching.     

Mirror symmetry opposes splitting of chromatically homogeneous surfaces

Chromatically homogeneous surfaces can be seen as single figures but also as two or more overlapping figures. Local factors such as relatability have been proposed in order to explain perception of two or more figures (Kellman and Shipley, 1991 Cognitive Psychology 23 141-221). However, even when these factors are at work, there are conditions favouring the perception of a single figure, which have not been explored so far. Here we propose that one such factor is the mirror symmetry of the surface. Three experiments were designed to test: (a) the main hypothesis, that mirror symmetry enhances perception of a single figure; (b) the role of orientation; (c) the effect of the number of axes of symmetry. The results show that (i) there is a good general correlation between mirror symmetry and perception of a single figure; (ii) vertical and horizontal axes of symmetry are the most effective; and (iii) the more axes of symmetry a surface has, the more likely is the perception of a single figure. These results suggest that mirror symmetry is an important factor in the perception of chromatically homogeneous displays. Some explanations are discussed, particularly one based on the rejection-of-coincidence principle [Rock, 1983 The Logic of Perception (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press)], and a version of the minimum principle in which the strength of the global solution depends on symmetry, whereas the strength of the splitting solution depends on the strength of local factors. In brief, global and local factors compete in determining the perceptual outcome in chromatically homogeneous surfaces.     

Generating animal and tool names: an fMRI study of effective connectivity

The present fMRI study of semantic fluency for animal and tool names provides further evidence for category-specific brain activations, and reports task-related changes in effective connectivity among defined cerebral regions. Two partially segregated systems of functional integration were highlighted: the tool condition was associated with an enhancement of connectivity within left hemispheric regions, including the inferior prefrontal and premotor cortex, the inferior parietal lobule and the temporo-occipital junction; the animal condition was associated with greater coupling among left visual associative regions. These category-specific functional differences extend the evidence for anatomical specialization to lexical search tasks, and provide for the first time evidence of category-specific patterns of functional integration in word-retrieval.     

Relationships among Eysenck's extraversion, Rorschach's Erlebnistypus, and tolerance of experimental tonic pain (Cold Water Pressor Test)

In a group of 42 healthy volunteers the correlations between the concept of Extraversion-Introversion as defined by Eysenck and Erlebnistypus as defined by Rorschach were analysed to relate these with the tolerance of an experimentally induced tonic pain. We conducted an experimental procedure comprising a test and retest. At test the subjects were administered the Rorschach, the Eysenck Personality Inventory, the Cold Water Pressor Test, a nongraduated Visual Analogue Scale, and the Italian version of the McGill Pain Questionnaire. At retest the experimental induction of pain was measured again. At test subjects who scored higher on the EPI Extraversion scale tolerated pain longer and did not modify their performance at retest. Also, the concepts of Extroversion defined by the Rorschach test and by the Extraversion scale of the Eysenck Personality Inventory shared some psychophysiological features of higher tolerance to pain. These personality features did not influence how subjects qualitatively describe the immediate painful experience.     

Organizational identification as a trigger for personal well-being: Associations with happiness and stress through job outcomes

Recent literature highlights that well-being, happiness, as well as personal stress, has become important for guiding public policy in areas that might involve suboptimal behaviour. Positive life outcomes can extend from one field of life (family, work, sport, children, hobbies, etc.) to another, multiplying success, performance, and health. In the present study, we aimed to verify whether the positive relation between organizational identification and employees' experiences then extends also into a positive association with more general well-being that is unrelated to the work context. For this purpose, we considered two proxies of organizational well-being: job satisfaction (on the positive side) and turnover intention (on the negative side) as well as the distal associations with happiness. The study involved 305 workers who completed a questionnaire made up of five scales: organization identification, job satisfaction, turnover intention, happiness, and personal stress. We found that organizational identification is positively related to employees' job satisfaction and negatively related to their intention to leave. Afterwards, job satisfaction and turnover intention were related to personal stress and happiness, suggesting a positive effect of organizational identification above and beyond the work context.