Church and Culture: Protestant and CatholicModernities

This article reviews the church and culture relationship developed in Gaudium et Spes and Lumen Gentium and proposes a Catholic account of modernity as a way in which the contemporary mission of the church in today's culture can be creatively and faithfully carried forward. After an initial outlining of the definitions of church and culture proposed by the Vatican documents, I then go on to position my proposal of a Catholic modernity in relation to some important current accounts of the church and culture relationship that tend towards a rejection of secular culture. I argue that Protestant accounts of modernity have dominated in philosophical and sociological theories and draw on my previous work on Max Weber to illustrate the significance of this for developing a Catholic account of modernity. I conclude by sketching some of the important issues which would need to be addressed in formulating a systematic account of a Catholic modernity.     

Sequential or parallel decomposed processing of two-digit numbers? Evidence from eye-tracking

While reaction time data have shown that decomposed processing of two-digit numbers occurs, there is little evidence about how decomposed processing functions. Poltrock and Schwartz (1984) argued that multi-digit numbers are compared in a sequential digit-by-digit fashion starting at the leftmost digit pair. In contrast, Nuerk and Willmes (2005) favoured parallel processing of the digits constituting a number. These models (i.e., sequential decomposition, parallel decomposition) make different predictions regarding the fixation pattern in a two-digit number magnitude comparison task and can therefore be differentiated by eye fixation data. We tested these models by evaluating participants' eye fixation behaviour while selecting the larger of two numbers. The stimulus set consisted of within-decade comparisons (e.g., 53_57) and between-decade comparisons (e.g., 42_57). The between-decade comparisons were further divided into compatible and incompatible trials (cf. Nuerk, Weger, & Willmes, 2001) and trials with different decade and unit distances. The observed fixation pattern implies that the comparison of two-digit numbers is not executed by sequentially comparing decade and unit digits as proposed by Poltrock and Schwartz (1984) but rather in a decomposed but parallel fashion. Moreover, the present fixation data provide first evidence that digit processing in multi-digit numbers is not a pure bottom-up effect, but is also influenced by top-down factors. Finally, implications for multi-digit number processing beyond the range of two-digit numbers are discussed.     

Multi-digit number processing beyond the two-digit number range: a combination of sequential and parallel processes

Investigations of multi-digit number processing typically focus on two-digit numbers. Here, we aim to investigate the generality of results from two-digit numbers for four- and six-digit numbers. Previous studies on two-digit numbers mostly suggested a parallel processing of tens and units. In contrast, the few studies examining the processing of larger numbers suggest sequential processing of the individual constituting digits. In this study, we combined the methodological approaches of studies implying either parallel or sequential processing. Participants completed a number magnitude comparison task on two-, four-, and six-digit numbers including unit-decade compatible and incompatible differing digit pairs (e.g., 32_47, 3<4 and 2<7 vs. 37_52, 3<5 but 7>2, respectively) at all possible digit positions. Response latencies and fixation behavior indicated that sequential and parallel decomposition is not exclusive in multi-digit number processing. Instead, our results clearly suggested that sequential and parallel processing strategies seem to be combined when processing multi-digit numbers beyond the two-digit number range. To account for the results, we propose a chunking hypothesis claiming that multi-digit numbers are separated into chunks of shorter digit strings. While the different chunks are processed sequentially digits within these chunks are processed in parallel.     

Cognitive control in number magnitude processing: evidence from eye-tracking

The unit-decade compatibility effect describes longer response times and higher error rates for incompatible (e.g., 37_52) than compatible (e.g., 42_57) number comparisons. Recent research indicated that the effect depends on the percentage of same-decade filler items. In the present study, we further examined this relationship by recording participants’ eye-fixation behaviour. In four conditions, participants had to compare item sets with different filler item types (i.e., same-decade and same-unit filler items) and different numbers of same-decade filler items (i.e., 25, 50, and 75 %). We found a weaker unit-decade compatibility effect with most fixations on tens in the condition with same-unit filler items. Moreover, the compatibility effect increased with the percentage of same-decade filler items which was accompanied by less fixations on tens and more fixations on units. Thus, our study provides first eye-tracking evidence for the influence of cognitive control in number processing.     

Extraversion and reward-related processing: probing incentive motivation in affective priming tasks

Based on an incentive motivation theory of extraversion (Depue & Collins, 1999), it was hypothesized that extraverts (relative to introverts) would exhibit stronger positive priming effects in affective priming tasks, whether involving words or pictures. This hypothesis was systematically supported in four studies involving 229 undergraduates. In each of the four studies, and in a subsequent combined analysis, extraversion was positively predictive of positive affective priming effects, but was not predictive of negative affective priming effects. The results bridge an important gap in the literature between biological and trait models of incentive motivation and do so in a way that should be informative to subsequent efforts to understand the processing basis of extraversion as well as incentive motivation.     

Retrieval of event files can be conceptually mediated

Distractor-based retrieval of event files was assessed with a sequential priming experiment using a four-choice identification task. Pictures or sounds of four different animals (frog, chicken, lamb, singing bird) had to be categorized by pressing one of four keys. On each trial, a target and a distractor stimulus were presented simultaneously in different modalities. The relevant modality switched randomly between trials. Distractor repetition effects were modulated by the response relation between the prime and probe: Repeating the prime distractor in the probe produced facilitation if the response repeated, but not if a different response had to be given in the prime and probe. Repeating the prime distractor in the probe led to an automatic retrieval of the prime response. Importantly, this distractor-based response retrieval effect also emerged for those sequences in which the modality of the repeated distractor was switched between the prime and probe. This cross-modal priming effect indicates that distractors were integrated into event files on a conceptual level and that response retrieval processes were mediated by conceptual codes of the distractor stimuli.     

Cognitive sources of evidence for neuroticism's link to punishment-reactivity processes

Theories of neuroticism emphasise its close potential link to punishment-reactivity processes, yet cognitive sources of evidence for this proposed processing basis are surprisingly scarce. The present two studies (N = 123) sought to rectify this important gap in the literature in terms of reactivity to error feedback. Study 1 found that individuals high in neuroticism were faster to switch behavioural responses following errors, whereas an opposite pattern was found among individuals low in neuroticism. Study 2 extended this error-reactivity perspective to the realm of behavioural decision making. Individuals high in neuroticism switched their behavioural predictions following error feedback, whereas this tendency was non-significant among individuals low in neuroticism. Together, the studies present novel, but theory-informed, cognitive paradigms for assessing punishment-reactivity processes, confirm neuroticism's link to such processes, and do so in the realms of both reaction time (Study 1) and behavioural predictions (Study 2). The discussion focuses on the utility of modelling punishment-reactivity processes in cognitive terms and highlights relevant directions for future research.