THREE THEORIES OF HUMAN NATURE

In The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, Steven Pinker maintains that at present there are three competing views of human nature—a Christian theory, a “blank slate” theory (what I call a social constructivist theory), and a Darwinian theory—and that the last of these will triumph in the end. I argue that neither the outcome of such competition nor the particular content of these theories is as clear as Pinker believes. In this essay I take a critical as well as a constructive look at the challenge presented by a Darwinian theory of human nature—a challenge to the social sciences and the humanities and also to theology and more specifically to a Christian understanding of human nature.     

Assessment of self-conscious emotions: a Swedish psychometric and structure evaluation of the Test of Self-Conscious Affect (TOSCA)

The Test of Self-Conscious Affect (TOSCA) is a well-established scenario-based questionnaire assessing self-conscious emotions, such as shame and guilt, which have been shown to be differentially associated with a variety of functional, motivational, behavioral and health outcomes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties and internal structure of a Swedish version of TOSCA in a sample of 361 healthy adults. The psychometric properties and internal consistency of the Swedish version were at level with the original US TOSCA version for shame, guilt and detachment. The internal structure of the Swedish version was acceptable for shame, guilt and detachment but contained shortcomings in assessment of externalization.     

An Unfinished Debate: What Are the Aims of Religion and Science?

I discuss the kinds of fundamental questions that must be addressed by people who develop theories about how religion and science are (or should be) related. After categorizing these questions as axiological, epistemological, ontological, or semantic, I focus on those that concern the goals of religion and science (the axiological issues). By distinguishing between epistemic and practical goals, individual and collective goals, and manifest and latent goals, I identify seven axiological questions. The various answers that religion/science theorists give or presuppose to these axiological questions help to explain why such deep, ongoing differences continue among them.     

Infant recall memory and communication predicts later cognitive development

This longitudinal study investigates the relation between recall memory and communication in infancy and later cognitive development. Twenty-six typically developing Swedish children were tested during infancy for deferred imitation (memory), joint attention (JA), and requesting (nonverbal communication); they also were tested during childhood for language and cognitive competence. Results showed that infants with low performance on both deferred imitation at 9 months and joint attention at 14 months obtained a significantly lower score on a test of cognitive abilities at 4 years of age. This long-term prediction from preverbal infancy to childhood cognition is of interest both to developmental theory and to practice.     

Conceptual and perceptual memory: retrieval orientations reflected in event-related potentials

In memory retrieval, search can be guided by mental sets towards different subsets of the available evidence. Such retrieval orientations have been suggested to leave an imprint on event-related potentials (ERPs). The present study aimed at characterizing orientations towards perceptual and conceptual evidence in a recognition task, where pictures and words were studied. In the recognition test, items were presented in either the same format as at study or in the opposite format. A between-subjects manipulation modified the task, instructing an Exclusion group to endorse only items that preserved their format from study, and an Inclusion group to endorse both formats of a studied item. It was hypothesized that exclusion instructions would instill a perceptual and inclusion instructions a conceptual orientation. As a corollary, instructions were expected to dissociate the high end from the low end of the picture-word mirror effect. This expectation was confirmed in a behavioural experiment. In an ERP experiment, retrieval orientations were examined in their effects on correct rejections of new pictures and words. Confirming earlier findings [Hornberger, M., Morcom, A. M., & Rugg, M. D. (2004). Neural correlates of retrieval orientation: effects of study-test similarity. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16(7), 1196-1210], a perceptual orientation was accompanied by more positive-going amplitudes over widespread areas. The difference was larger for pictures than for words, supporting behavioural evidence that new pictures are more easily rejected on perceptual grounds than are new words. The Exclusion group showed no ERP evidence of cross-format old-new effects, despite reaction times indicative of involuntary conceptual recognition. The results indicate that perceptual and conceptual retrieval orientations imprint distinct signatures on ERPs. They further suggest that the examined old-new effects in ERPs are mainly linked to voluntary aspects of memory, even in a task where involuntary memory exerts effects on reaction times.     

THE MYSTERIANISM OF OWEN FLANAGAN'S NORMATIVE MIND SCIENCE

This article critically analyzes Owen Flanagan's physicalism and attempt at deriving ethical normativity from current neuroscience. It is argued that neurophysicalism, despite Flanagan's harsh critique of “the new mysterians,” entails a form of mysterianism and that it fails to appropriately ground human mentality within physicalism. Flanagan seeks to bring spirituality and a physicalist ontology together by showing how it is possible to derive an account of the good life from science. This attempt is critiqued and it is shown that Flanagan fails to establish the consistency between ethical normativity and physicalism. Hence, another form of mysterianism seems to emerge within this normative mind science.     

Where Can I Find Consolation? A Theoretical Analysis of the Meaning of Consolation as Experienced by Job in the Book of Job in the Hebrew Bible

The aim of the study was to explore the meaning of consolation as experienced by Job in the Book of Job and as presented in literature and how consolation relates to suffering and care. The study’s theoretical design applied Ricoeur’s view on phenomenology and hermeneutics. The resulting themes were as follows: consolation that is present, that originates in confrontation, that keeps suffering at a distance, that does not alleviate suffering, that originates in experience from giving comfort, and that facilitates a change of perspective. The authentic and caring consolation accepts the sufferer’s incomprehensible “otherness” but however provides no answers about how to console.     

Trait anxiety, working memory capacity, and the effectiveness of memory suppression

We aimed at replicating the finding that humans are able to suppress unwanted memories, and tested whether this ability varies with individual differences in working memory capacity, trait anxiety and defensiveness. In a think/no-think experiment, participants either recalled or suppressed previously learned words for 0, 8 or 16 times. Suppression did not have an overall detrimental effect on later recall performance. However, higher recall rates after repeated suppression were exclusively predicted by higher trait anxiety. These results are discussed in relation to current theories on anxiety and executive control.