Quasi-Realism's Problem of Autonomous Effects

Simon Blackburn defends a 'quasi-realist' view intended to preserve much of what realists want to say about moral discourse. According to error theory, moral discourse is committed to indefensible metaphysical assumptions. Quasi-realism seems to preserve ontological frugality, attributing no mistaken commitments to our moral practices. In order to make good this claim, quasi-realism must show that (a) the seemingly realist features of the 'surface grammar' of moral discourse can be made compatible with projectivism; and (b) certain realist-sounding statements which we might use in describing the nature of our moral commitments can be understood in projectivist terms. Much attention has been devoted to whether quasi-realism can deliver (a). I raise an important difficulty with regard to (b).     

Effects of contextual and local factors on Ponzo illusion magnitude

Ponzo illusion has been explained by considering either just the inducing elements present in a restricted area of the visual field, the same area in which the test elements are located, or the stimulus configuration as a whole in which even the most distal figural elements – i.e., the external converging lines, here called “Ponzo wedge”– play a crucial role. The two studies reported here aimed at showing that both global configurational characteristics and inducing elements locally interacting with the test stimuli can independently affect the illusory effect. This hypothesis was tested using stimuli in which graphic-inducing elements giving rise to a herringbone pattern (Coren & Girgus, 1978) were drawn in the same area of the test segments. Results of Exp. 1 confirmed the effect of the two factors. In particular, both factors proved to determine the illusion, since they induced illusory effects either in isolation or in the same/opposite direction. In Exp. 2 the relative weight of these two factors was evaluated in relation to the width of the angle of the inducing elements and to the distance of the test segments from the vertex. Results showed no linear relationships between the distance of the test segments from the external inducing elements and the weight of the Ponzo wedge factor. Received: 25 June 1996 / Accepted: 1 October 1997     

Transforming roles to support student development of academic literacies: a reflection on one team’s experience

Social work is a discipline that attracts students from diverse academic backgrounds. Many are first in family to attend university, and come to university through alternative pathways such as vocational education. As a result, there are higher levels of attrition compared to other disciplines, especially in the first year. To address this, and in keeping with a commitment to provide accessible education, one school of social work undertook a project to embed academic literacies into the curriculum. This paper used Gibb’s reflective process to explore how this was experienced by team members. Data were collected via staff focus groups at two different points in time across the project and compared. The reflection unpacked a number of tensions experienced by team members, including concerns about potential loss of resources as a result of academics adopting new roles, and concerns about implementing what was seen as Westernised academic skills which may not fit with students’ ways of thinking and creating knowledge. Overfull curricula and constant change also appeared to be of concern. The reflection highlighted that to achieve effective and sustainable change, action was required at multiple levels.     

Metacognitive scaffolding boosts cognitive and neural benefits following executive attention training in children

Interventions including social scaffolding and metacognitive strategies have been used in educational settings to promote cognition. In addition, increasing evidence shows that computerized process‐based training enhances cognitive skills. However, no prior studies have examined the effect of combining these two training strategies. The goal of this study was to test the combined effect of metacognitive scaffolding and computer‐based training of executive attention in a sample of typically developing preschoolers at the cognitive and brain levels. Compared to children in the regular training protocol and an untrained active control group, children in the metacognitive group showed larger gains on intelligence and significant increases on an electrophysiological index associated with conflict processing. Moreover, changes in the conflict‐related brain activity predicted gains in intelligence in the metacognitive scaffolding group. These results suggest that metacognitive scaffolding boosts the influence of process‐based training on cognitive efficiency and brain plasticity related to executive attention.     

Deconstructive and Constructive Dynamics in the Clinical Process: A Step Further in the Validation of the Two-Stage Semiotic Model

The two-stage semiotic model (TSSM) suggests that the basic dynamics of a psychotherapy process could be described in terms of alternation of two different processes aimed respectively at constraining patients’ meanings regulating experience and action (deconstructive process) and at supporting the elaboration of innovative meanings (constructive process). The present case study tests the specificity of each of these processes in terms of clinically relevant features detected at interpersonal, intrapsychical, and clinical levels. A 76-session good-outcome psychodynamic treatment was studied. The results enable constructive and deconstructive sessions to be differentiated in terms of interaction modalities and the patient's modalities of thinking. This is consistent with the TSSM hypothesis that the constructive and deconstructive sessions are composed of qualitatively different clinical processes.     

Judgments of differences and ratios of subjective heaviness

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics - Experimental instructions to judge differences or ratios of subjective heaviness numerically are generally assumed to produce judgments linearly...     

On the learnability of frequent and infrequent word orders: An artificial language learning study

Most languages have a basic or "canonical" word order, which determines the relative positions of the subject (S), the verb (V), and the object (O) in a typical declarative sentence. The frequency of occurrence of the six possible word orders among world languages is not distributed uniformly. While SVO and SOV represent around 85% of world languages, orders like VSO (9%) or OSV (0.5%) are much less frequent or extremely rare. One possible explanation for this asymmetry is that biological and cognitive constraints for structured sequence processing make some word orders easier to be processed than others. Therefore, the high frequency of these word orders would be related to their higher learnability. The aim of the present study was to compare the learnability of different word orders between groups of adult subjects. Four artificial languages with different word orders were trained: two frequent (SVO, SOV) and two infrequent (VSO, OSV). In a test stage, subjects were asked to discriminate between new correct sentences and syntax or semantic violations. Higher performance rates and faster responses were observed for more frequent word orders. The results support the hypothesis that more frequent word orders are more easily learned.     

Affect, unconscious and sensemaking. A psychodynamic, semiotic and dialogic model

The work presents a psychodynamic, semiotic and dialogical model of affect and of the role it plays in sensemaking. The model is based on the following three general assumptions.A) Affective semiosis works in accordance to the dynamic unconscious which Freud conceptualized in terms of primary process. According to this interpretation, the unconscious is the mind’s homogenising way of functioning, which transforms every categorical relation into a relation of identity. B) Affect is the generalized, homogenising and absolutizing embodied basic intersubjective meanings according to which experience is interpreted. C) Affective semiosis performs both the grounding and regulative functions in sensemaking, orienting the way people interpret experience.