Photographic Evidence and the Problem of Theory-Ladenness

Scientists use visualisations of different kinds in a variety of ways in their scientific work. In the following article, we will take a closer look at the use of photographic pictures as scientific evidence. In accordance with Patrick Maynard’s thesis, photography will be regarded as a family of technologies serving different purposes in divergent contexts. One of these is its ability to detect certain phenomena. Nonetheless, with regard to the philosophical thesis of theory-ladenness of observation, we encounter certain reservations concerning the status of photography and that of photographic pictures in the process of measurement in science. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is twofold: We will discuss suggested solutions both for the technological and for the psychological part of the problem of theory-ladenness appearing in the context of the use of photography in scientific observations. The essential proposal will be to follow Christian Suhm in his advice to make a distinction between theory-relativity and theory-ladenness.     

Design of micro-nanoscale bio-inspired hierarchical materials

In this article two mathematical models, force- or energy-based, are proposed for the design of nanoscale bio-inspired hierarchical materials, considering strong or weak interfaces, respectively. Simple formulas describing the dependence of strength, toughness and stiffness on the considered size scale are derived, taking into account toughening biomechanisms. A simple experimental comparison on a new two-level hierarchical grained material is also discussed.     

Intrusion errors in visuospatial working memory performance

This study tested the hypothesis that failure in active visuospatial working memory tasks involves a difficulty in avoiding intrusions due to information that is already activated. Two experiments are described, in which participants were required to process several series of locations on a 4 × 4 matrix and then to produce only the final location of each series. Results revealed a higher number of errors due to already activated locations (intrusions) compared with errors due to new locations (inventions). Moreover, when participants were required to pay extra attention to some irrelevant (non-final) locations by tapping on the table, intrusion errors increased. Results are discussed in terms of current models of working memory functioning.     

Towards an interpersonal understanding of bodily experience

This paper attempts to understand the interpersonal nature of bodily experience. It explores the way the body symptoms we meet in the consulting room, and in everyday life, express and communicate disturbances in our relationships with others. The article seeks to understand how others that are close to us can really get under our skins. The work of the philosopher of the body, MerleauPonty, findings from contemporary developmental psychology, recent psycho-biological studies and psychoanalytic insights are all drawn upon as a way of offering an introduction to contemporary developments in thinking and research on the body.

The article explores the interdependence of body and environment. In particular, the body is always in an interpersonal context with others. Bodies are interdependent; communication is first and foremost bodily. Bodily behaviour and biological functions develop in the context of a relationship. The relationship with the other influences the formation of bodily processes and actions. Clinical examples are drawn upon to illustrate how interpersonal disturbances in development are expressed in bodily symptoms. The difference between a hysterical and psychosomatic body symptom is also briefly addressed.     

Two-Year-Old Children's Understanding of Visual Perception and Knowledge Formation in Others

A landmark study by O'Neill (1996 O'Neill , D. K. ( 1996 ). Two-year-old children's sensitivity to a parent's knowledge state when making requests . Child Development , 67 , 659 – 677 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), in which 2-year-old children were found to be more likely to point toward a hidden object to help an adult who was unsighted during the hiding event than to point helpfully for an adult who had been sighted, seems to undermine the conventional assumption that children this young do not understand the relationship between seeing/not seeing and knowing/not knowing. Concerns remain, however, as to whether the children's success was mentalistic or behavioral. In two experiments, 2-year-old children received first-person experience with two kinds of glasses of different colors but with apparently identical opaque lenses, one of which blocked their vision and the other of which they could see through. When the parent was wearing these glasses, the children were able to use their own first-person experience of the glasses to infer whether the adult could see or not. Despite this, they did not understand the causal relationship between visual perception and knowledge formation, as demonstrated by their indiscriminate pointing behavior in response to an ignorant or a knowledgeable parent. However, in a third experiment, we examined the relationship between experience of the adult's behavioral incompetence when wearing glasses of a certain color and the children's pointing behavior. Here they tended to point appropriately. We conclude that the phenomenon reported by O'Neill (1996 O'Neill , D. K. ( 1996 ). Two-year-old children's sensitivity to a parent's knowledge state when making requests . Child Development , 67 , 659 – 677 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) yields to an account in terms of the 2-year-olds' assumptions about behavioral competence/incompetence rather than about knowledge/ignorance.     

Cognitions supportive of violence and violent behavior

The role of cognitions supportive of violence is acknowledged in many theories of violent behavior. Despite this, relatively little attention has been paid in research to the cognitions that contribute to violence at an individual level. The aim here was to conduct a systematic review of studies examining the impact of violence-related cognitions on non-sexual violence. Five studies were identified and these studies reported the use of five measures of violence-related cognition, namely, the EXPAGG, a Life Map, the ‘My Life’ checklist, the Provictim Scale, and the Maudsley Violence Questionnaire. The studies indicated that scales of instrumental aggression were positively related to self-reported violence in both prison and non-offender samples. Beliefs supportive of violence were also positively related to violence. This suggests that viewing aggression as means to achieve positive outcome is a risk factor for violence. By contrast, scores on an expressive aggression scale were inversely related to violence indicting that loss of control and guilt about behavior are protective factors against violence. Also, pro-victim attitudes were inversely related to violence. These scales tap the self-conscious moral emotions and recognition of these emotions may be important in violence inhibition. There is clearly a need to extend the identification of cognitions supportive of violence. This would aid research into individual-level violence and contribute to the development of effective interventions to reduce violence.     

Tool-use and instrumental learning in the Eurasian jay (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Garrulus glandarius</Emphasis>)

Recent research with Rooks has demonstrated impressive tool-using abilities in captivity despite this species’ classification as a non-tool-user in the wild. Here, we explored whether another non-tool-using corvid, the Eurasian Jay, would be capable of similar feats and investigated the relative contributions of causal knowledge and instrumental conditioning to the birds’ performance on the tasks. Five jays were tested on a variety of tasks involving water displacement. Two birds reliably interacted with the apparatuses. In these tasks, both birds showed a preference for inserting stones into a tube containing liquid over a tube containing a solid or a baited ‘empty’ tube and also for inserting sinkable items over non-sinkable items into a tube of water. To investigate the contribution of instrumental conditioning, subjects were then tested on a series of tasks in which different cues were made available. It was found that, in the absence of any apparent causal cues, these birds showed a clear preference for the rewarded tube when the food incrementally approached with every stone insertion, but not when it simply “appeared” after the correct number of stone insertions. However, it was found that subjects did not prefer to insert stones into a tube rewarded by the incremental approach of food if the available causal cues violated the expectations created by existing causal knowledge (i.e. were counter-intuitive). An analysis of the proportion of correct and incorrect stone insertions made in each trial across tasks offering different types of information revealed that subjects were substantially more successful in experiments in which causal cues were available, but that rate of learning was comparable in all experiments. We suggest that these results indicate that Eurasian jays use the incremental approach of the food reward as a conditioned reinforcer allowing them to solve tasks involving raising the water level and that this learning is facilitated by the presence of causal cues.     

The interrelation between cognitive and motor development in typically developing children aged 4-11 years is underpinned by visual processing and fine manual control

We charted the interrelation between cognitive and motor skills in typically developing children aged 4-11 years across broad ability measures from standardized tests and investigated the nature of this relationship by examining effects of age and sex. Results indicated a significant, moderate correlation between gross cognitive and motor scores across all participants. Correlations between indices of the standardized measures and a principal component analysis revealed that visual processing (VP) and fine manual control (FMC) largely accounted for the interrelation between the overall domains. Age and sex affected the strength of gross correlation: 7-year-olds showed a weaker correlation than all other ages and females exhibited a significantly stronger correlation than males. However, the correlation between VP and FMC was constant across all age and sex groups, except 4-year-old males. These findings advance evidence that from an early age, cognitive and motor development is linked by elucidating the underlying nature of this relationship. These results have important implications for clinical, educational, and experimental practice.