Black–White differences on the g-factor in South Africa: a “Jensen Effect” on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children — revised

A test is made to determine whether South African Black–White differences on various tests of cognitive performance are like the Black–White differences in the United States in being positively associated with a test's g loadings, where g is the general factor of intelligence. Data are analyzed from Skuy, Schutte, Fridjhon and O'Carroll [Skuy, M., Schutte, E., Fridjhon, P., & O'Carroll, S. (2001). Suitability of published neuropsychological test norms for urban African secondary school strudents in South Africa. Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 1413–1425) of 154 13- to 15-year-old secondary school students in Soweto, Johannesburg, on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Revised (WISC-R). The more highly correlated a sub-test was with g, the more it predicted the African–White difference (r =0.77, p=0.05). The effect remained even when the Vocabulary sub-test was excluded or when g was extracted from the Black rather than from the White standardization sample (r=0.60, P<0.05), as it did as well if Spearman's rho was used instead of Pearson's r (g from Whites=0.74, g from Blacks=0.74, P< 0.005). Understanding observed Black–White differences around the world requires new research on the nature and nurture of g.     

Acquired Crossed Aphasia in Dextral Children Revisited

In contrast to the estimated low incidence of crossed aphasia in dextral adults (among 1%), crossed aphasia in children has been considered a common finding for almost a century. However, reviewing the literature on crossed aphasia in dextrals (CAD) and its related topics from 1975 onward, we encountered only 5 children in a corpus of 180 cases (2.7%). Critical analysis rendered three of the reported cases ambiguous and hence not suitable to draw potentially relevant conclusions. In this review, the neurobehavioral manifestations of the two representative childhood CAD cases are analyzed and compared with adult CAD and acquired childhood aphasia (ACA). In the light of our findings, which support the position of innate cerebral specialization for language, the long-standing controversy as to whether lateralized hemispheric specialization for language is innate or develops progressively during maturation is briefly discussed.     

Relationships between executive function,working memory,and decision-making on the Iowa Gambling Task: Evidence from ventromedial patients,dorsolateral patients,and normal subjects

The results of previous studies are inconsistent in regard to the relationship between the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), working-memory (WM), and executive tasks, and whether these cognitive processes could be considered as mechanisms underlying a decision-making deficit. Moreover, the relationship between the IGT and executive measures is examined based on a limited number of executive tasks, within different populations showing diffuse damage. In addition, there are fewer studies carried out within control participants, with those studies also being inconclusive. It is also suggested that the association of the IGT performance with executive tasks depends on whether the IGT was running under ambiguity or under risk. In this work, all of these issues are studied. Results showed that both patients with ventromedial (VMPFC, N = 10) and dorsolateral (DLPFC, N = 10) prefrontal cortex lesions are significantly impaired on almost all executive tasks, WM tasks, and the IGT. Furthermore, when the IGT is run under risk, there are significant correlations between executive measures and the IGT for the DLPFC patients and the control participants (N = 34) but not the VMPFC patients. No correlation was found between WM tasks and the IGT for both frontal subgroups and control participants. These findings suggested that the mechanisms underlying the IGT deficit differ according to the lesion locations.     

Relational Representation Theorems for Extended Contact Algebras

Studia Logica - In topological spaces, the relation of extended contact is a ternary relation that holds between regular closed subsets A, B and D if the intersection of A and B is included in D....     

Sex differences on use of associative and dissociative cognitive strategies among male and female athletes

This study assessed whether men and women differed in using associative and dissociative cognitive strategies during athletic performance. Athletes (31 men, M age = 23.2 yr., SD = 3.9 and 29 women, M age = 22.9 yr., SD = 4.3) who practiced endurance activities (running, swimming, and cycling) were considered high-level performers because they participated in national or international competition. The athletes were interviewed, and Schomer's 1986 method of measurement was used to evaluate and quantify two cognitive strategies. Most specifically, categories of association concerned the way the athlete paid close attention to bodily signals, and categories of dissociation described how the athlete shunned sensory inputs. Analysis of variance and the t test showed that women tend to be more dissociative than men and men more associative than women. The results suggest that pain perception in these sports may be a function of sex.     

Field perspective deficit for positive memories characterizes autobiographical memory in euthymic depressed patients

Research on autobiographical memory (AM) and the ability to retrieve specific autobiographical events in euthymic depressed patients yielded divergent results. The main goal of the present study was to further explore episodic specificity of AM among fully remitted depressed patients. Twenty euthymic depressed patients and 20 matched healthy controls were given a semi-structured interview, which assesses episodic specificity of positive and negative autobiographical memories regarding event and details' specificity, autonoetic consciousness (remember/know procedure) and visual perspective (field/observer procedure). Results showed an impairment of episodic specificity of AM in euthymic depressed patients. This impairment was explained by a field perspective deficit for positive memories only. These results suggest that euthymic patients continue to exhibit discrepancy between their current self and their self for positive past behaviors, which maintains an unfavorable view of their current self. Specific cognitive interventions may improve the self-relevance of their positive memories.     

Emerging Technologies and the Future of Philosophy

This article examines how a class of emerging technologies—specifically, radical cognitive enhancements and artificial intelligence—has the potential to influence the future of philosophy. The article argues that progress in philosophy has been impeded, in part, by two specific constraints imposed on us by the natural architecture of our cognitive systems. Both of these constraints, though, could in principle be overcome by certain cognitive technologies currently being researched and/or developed. It surveys a number of these technologies, and then looks at a particular metaphilosophical stance (called “inflationism”) that advocates amplifying the abilities of philosophers rather than reducing the ambitions of philosophy, given the apparent “teleological gap” between philosophy's ultimate goal (i.e., “the truth”) and the limited capacities of our evolved mental machinery.