On Argumentation Logic and Propositional Logic

This paper studies the relationship between Argumentation Logic (AL), a recently defined logic based on the study of argumentation in AI, and classical Propositional Logic (PL). In particular, it shows that AL and PL are logically equivalent in that they have the same entailment relation from any given classically consistent theory. This equivalence follows from a correspondence between the non-acceptability of (arguments for) sentences in AL and Natural Deduction (ND) proofs of the complement of these sentences. The proof of this equivalence uses a restricted form of ND proofs, where hypotheses in the application of the Reductio of Absurdum inference rule are required to be “relevant” to the absurdity derived in the rule. The paper also discusses how the argumentative re-interpretation of PL could help control the application of ex-falso quodlibet in the presence of inconsistencies.     

Comparison between Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale 2 (GSS2) and Bonn Test of Statement Suggestibility (BTSS) in measuring children’s interrogative suggestibility

Susceptibility of children to leading questions and interrogative pressure is an important forensic issue. The most used techniques for assessing interrogative suggestibility are the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales (GSS) and the Bonn Test of Statement Suggestibility (BTSS). Apart from minor differences, the two tests, investigate the same dimensions: Yield, Shift, Immediate Recall, and Total Suggestibility. In this study, to investigate correlation measures for the corresponding variables in the two tests, we individually examined 84 children from the fourth and fifth grades (44 boys and 40 girls). All the participants completed the GSS2 the BTSS-1, the Vocabulary and the Similarity subtests of the WISC-R, and Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices. No significant gender differences were observed for any of the variables studied. Comparison between the corresponding variables for the two tests showed a positive correlation. Yield and Total Suggestibility scores correlated negatively with the three cognitive variables. We conclude that although the two suggestibility scales measure analogous variables, the BTSS seems more suitable than the GSS2 for assessing a child’s suggestibility during police and forensic interviews.     

Kant’s sacrificial turns

This paper addresses the role of the notion of sacrifice in Kant’s theoretical philosophy, practical philosophy, and in his account of religion. First, I argue that kenotic sacrifice, or sacrifice as ‘withdrawal’, plays a hidden and yet important role in the development of Kant’s transcendental philosophy. Second, I focus on Kant’s practical philosophy, arguing that the notion of sacrifice that is both implied and explicitly analyzed by Kant is mainly suppressive sacrifice. However, Kant’s account is fundamentally ambiguous, as sometimes the kenotic meaning of sacrifice seems to resurface, especially in the context of Kant’s discussion of the happiness of others as an end in itself. Because religious notions are regarded by Kant as necessary transitional forms (Darstellungen) to be used to make moral ideas applicable to the world, I then scrutinize Kant’s view of sacrifice as an improper symbol, and I analyze Kant’s arguments for such a dismissal and discuss the subject matter in recent literature. Finally, I examine the role of sacrifice in Kant’s account of Christ as the prototype of pure moral disposition. I conclude by arguing that Kant indeed grasped the importance of including kenotic dynamics in practical philosophy but was somehow unable or unwilling to integrate it into the formal grounding of his ethics. This tension, however, effectively provides an entry point for features that can be found in the post-Kantians.     

rTMS for PTSD: induced merciful oblivion or elimination of abnormal hypermnesia?

Neuroimaging studies and experimental data suggest that symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are associated with dysfunctions of neural circuits linking prefrontal cortex and the limbic system that have a role in autobiographic episodic memory. High-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has been suggested to be beneficial to patients with PTSD, transiently alleviating re-experiencing as well as avoidance reactions and associated anxiety symptoms. In healthy humans, converging evidence suggests that rTMS of the right DLPFC interferes with episodic memory retrieval. Hence, we hypothesize that daily applications of rTMS in PTSD patients may reduce access to the set of autobiographical stored events, that, if re-experienced, may cause the overt PTSD symptoms.     

Proof-Theoretic Modal PA-Completeness III: The Syntactic Proof

This paper is the final part of the syntactic demonstration of the Arithmetical Completeness of the modal system G; in the preceding parts [9] and [10] the tools for the proof were defined, in particular the notion of syntactic countermodel. Our strategy is: PA-completeness of G as a search for interpretations which force the distance between G and a GL-LIN-theorem to zero. If the GL-LIN-theorem S is not a G-theorem, we construct a formula H expressing the non G-provability of S, so that ⊢_GL-LIN ∼ H and so that a canonical proof T of ∼ H in GL-LIN is a syntactic countermodel for S with respect to G, which has the height θ(T) equal to the distance d(S, G) of S from G. Then we define the interpretation ξ of S which represents the proof-tree T in PA. By induction on θ(T), we prove that ⊢_PA S^ξ and d(S, G) > 0 imply the inconsistency of PA. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Hopelessness, Temperament, Anger and Interpersonal Relationships in Holocaust (Shoah) Survivors�� Grandchildren

The psychiatric literature is divided with regard to the long-term psychological effects associated with Holocaust (Shoah) experiences because the findings of clinical and empirical studies often contradict each other. Despite case reports of emotional sequelae related to intergenerational transmission of trauma, recent empirical research has suggested that offspring of survivors of the Shoah did not differ from other children and found no evidence that traumatic experiences of survivors of the Shoah affected their children??s and grandchildren??s adjustment. To shed light on some of the differences between the empirical and clinical observations, the present study set out to compare the grandchildren of survivors of the Shoah and persons of the same age whose families had not been through the Shoah experience. This study compared the two groups on some psychological dimensions relevant to traumatic sequelae: hopelessness, temperament, personality, attitudes, and interpersonal expectations. Subjects were 124 equally divided among the Shoah survivors?? grandchildren and comparison groups; we administered to all subjects TEMPS-A Rome, Beck Hopelessness Scale, State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory, and 9AP (9 Attachment Profile). We found no differences between two groups in Hopelessness, Dysthimic/Cyclotimic/Anxious, Hyperthimic temperament, and self-perception; instead the Shoah survivors?? grandchildren have a view of the other as rejecting, hostile, submissive, insecure, unreliable, and competitive in the interpersonal relationships. The Shoah survivors?? grandchildren are similar to controls in affective temperament, hopelessness and self-perception, but they are more irritable and angry than controls, and their perception about others is deeply negative. Attribution theory was used to elucidate these findings.     

Influence of aesthetic perception on visual event-related potentials

The aim of the study was to assess the effects of visual aesthetic perception on event-related potentials (ERPs). Eight subjects assigned an aesthetic judgment (beautiful, neutral, or ugly) and a 10-step beauty estimation to the target stimuli, consisting of famous artistic pictures and geometric shapes. In a further task, the subjects performed a motor response to the previously judged pictures and geometric shapes. ERPs were recorded through 54 scalp electrodes during both tasks. The P3b amplitude was increased during the categorization of the geometric shapes compared to the artistic figures and during the vision of the beautiful targets preceding the motor response. The categorization of the aesthetic qualities of geometrical shapes seems to induce a higher level of attention, while a higher arousal variation was elicited by the recognition of beauty, in any form that was presented.     

The effect of experience and of dots’ density and duration on the detection of coherent motion in dogs

Knowledge about the mechanisms underlying canine vision is far from being exhaustive, especially that concerning post-retinal elaboration. One aspect that has received little attention is motion perception, and in spite of the common belief that dogs are extremely apt at detecting moving stimuli, there is no scientific support for such an assumption. In fact, we recently showed that dogs have higher thresholds than humans for coherent motion detection (Kanizsar et al. in Sci Rep UK 7:11259, 2017). This term refers to the ability of the visual system to perceive several units moving in the same direction, as one coherently moving global unit. Coherent motion perception is commonly investigated using random dot displays, containing variable proportions of coherently moving dots. Here, we investigated the relative contribution of local and global integration mechanisms for coherent motion perception, and changes in detection thresholds as a result of repeated exposure to the experimental stimuli. Dogs who had been involved in the previous study were given a conditioned discrimination task, in which we systematically manipulated dot density and duration and, eventually, re-assessed our subjects’ threshold after extensive exposure to the stimuli. Decreasing dot duration impacted on dogs’ accuracy in detecting coherent motion only at very low duration values, revealing the efficacy of local integration mechanisms. Density impacted on dogs’ accuracy in a linear fashion, indicating less efficient global integration. There was limited evidence of improvement in the re-assessment but, with an average threshold at re-assessment of 29%, dogs’ ability to detect coherent motion remains much poorer than that of humans.