Do small visual angles produce a word superiority effect or differential lateral masking?

Purcell, Stanovich, and Spector 119781 report that recognition of the center letter of the words APE, ARE, ACE, and AGE is superior to recognition of the same targets in the nonwords formed by the context letters V_H. Since a small set of predesignated targets was used and there was complete certainty about the location of the target letter, these results pose serious problems for three otherwise viable accounts for why word superiority effects (WSEs) are obtained in a variety of other paradigms. This series of experiments explores the possibility that the word advantages reported by Purcell et al. have nothing to do with the lexical properties of the A_E display or the general phenomenon of word superiority, but they result from a fortuitous case of differential lateral masking. This reinterpretation is supported by five experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 show that the A_E word advantages are anomalous in that the magnitude of the WSE obtained with these particular words is not contingent upon the presence of a patterned mask. Experiment 3 provides direct evidence for differential lateral masking by showing that digit recognition is poorer in the V_H than in the A_E frame. Experiments 4 and 5 show that the WSE obtained under these conditions does not generalize to a new set of words and nonwords that produce the same amount of lateral masking. It was concluded that a genuine WSE does not occur under the conditions tested by Purcell et al., and that, therefore, the WSE has not been shown to depend on visual angle.     

On the Duty of Scholars to Aid Their Persecuted Peers

Global threats to academic freedom are multiplying not only in an era of authoritarian resurgence, but also – less overtly – in an era of increasingly managerial governance of higher-education sectors in democratic nations, where protection of institutional revenue streams, and of institutional reputation, may take priority over protection of scholars' and students' academic freedoms. In such circumstances, justifications for rendering aid to at-risk scholars and students have become obscured. This article argues that the Kantian concept of imperfect duty can be adapted to theorizing collective, institutional obligations to aid those scholars and students, undertaken in light of academic freedom as a constitutive institutional value.     

Adverse Housing Conditions and Early‐Onset Delinquency

Housing constitutes an important health resource for children. Research has revealed that, when housing conditions are unfavorable, they can interfere with child health, academic performance, and cognition. Little to no research, however, has considered whether adverse housing conditions and early‐onset delinquency are significantly associated with one another. This study explores the associations between structural and non‐structural housing conditions and delinquent involvement during childhood. Data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) were employed in this study. Each adverse housing condition was significantly associated with early‐onset delinquency. Even so, disarray and deterioration were only significantly linked to early delinquent involvement in the presence of health/safety hazards. The predicted probability of early‐onset delinquency among children exposed to housing risks in the presence of health/safety hazards was nearly three times as large as the predicted probability of early‐onset delinquency among children exposed only to disarray and/or deterioration, and nearly four times as large as the predicted probability of early‐onset delinquency among children exposed to none of the adverse housing conditions. The findings suggest that minimizing housing‐related health/safety hazards among at‐risk subsets of the population may help to alleviate other important public health concerns—particularly early‐onset delinquency. Addressing household health/safety hazards may represent a fruitful avenue for public health programs aimed at the prevention of early‐onset delinquency.     

Mental Institutions

We propose to extend Clark and Chalmer’s concept of the extended mind to consider the possibility that social institutions (e.g., legal systems, museums) may operate in ways similar to the hand-held conveniences (notebooks, calculators) that are often used as examples of extended mind. The inspiration for this suggestion can be found in the writings of Hegel on “objective spirit” which involves the mind in a constant process of externalizing and internalizing. For Hegel, social institutions are pieces of the mind, externalized in their specific time and place. These institutions are the products of shared mental processes. We then use these institutions instrumentally to do further cognitive work, for example, to solve problems or to control behavior.

Sexual Desire and Depression Following Spinal Cord Injury: Masculine Sexual Prowess as a Moderator

Men’s adherence to masculine norms stressing sexual prowess may contribute to their adjustment to changes in sexual functioning following spinal cord injury. The authors test this hypothesis by examining the moderating role of men’s conformity to gender norms for sexual prowess on the relationship between sexual desire and depression. One hundred and sixteen male citizens of the United States with spinal cord injuries were recruited for participation in the internet-based survey. Results indicated that participants with strong sexual desire evinced higher rates of depression when they conformed to masculine norms emphasizing sexual prowess. Men with little reported sexual desire, by contrast, demonstrated lower rates of depression when they endorsed norms for prowess. Directions for future research and treatment interventions are offered.     

Gesture following deafferentation: a phenomenologically informed experimental study

Empirical studies of gesture in a subject who has lost proprioception and the sense of touch from the neck down show that specific aspects of gesture remain normal despite abnormal motor processes for instrumental movement. The experiments suggest that gesture, as a linguistic phenomenon, is not reducible to instrumental movement. They also support and extend claims made by Merleau-Ponty concerning the relationship between language and cognition. Gesture, as language, contributes to the accomplishment of thought.     

Intersubjectivity in perception

The embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended approaches to cognition explicate many important details for a phenomenology of perception, and are consistent with some of the traditional phenomenological analyses. Theorists working in these areas, however, often fail to provide an account of how intersubjectivity might relate to perception. This paper suggests some ways in which intersubjectivity is important for an adequate account of perception.

Precis: Enactivist Interventions

Philosophical Studies -     

Replies to Barrett,Corris and Chemero,and Hutto

Philosophical Studies - In this essay, I respond to the critical remarks of Louise Barrett, Amanda Corris and Anthony Chemero, and Daniel Hutto on my book Enactivist Interventions. In doing so, I...     

Dissociating mere exposure and repetition priming as a function of word type

The mere exposure effect is defined as enhanced attitude toward a stimulus that has been repeatedly exposed. Repetition priming is defined as facilitated processing of a previously exposed stimulus. We conducted a direct comparison between the two phenomena to test the assumption that the mere exposure effect represents an example of repetition priming. In two experiments, having studied a set of words or nonwords, participants were given a repetition priming task (perceptual identification) or one of two mere exposure (affective liking or preference judgment) tasks. Repetition priming was obtained for both words and nonwords, but only nonwords produced a mere exposure effect. This demonstrates a key boundary for observing the mere exposure effect, one not readily accommodated by a perceptual representation systems (Tulving & Schacter, 1990) account, which assumes that both phenomena should show some sensitivity to nonwords and words.