The Modal Logic of Bayesian Belief Revision

In Bayesian belief revision a Bayesian agent revises his prior belief by conditionalizing the prior on some evidence using Bayes’ rule. We define a hierarchy of modal logics that capture the logical features of Bayesian belief revision. Elements in the hierarchy are distinguished by the cardinality of the set of elementary propositions on which the agent’s prior is defined. Inclusions among the modal logics in the hierarchy are determined. By linking the modal logics in the hierarchy to the strongest modal companion of Medvedev’s logic of finite problems it is shown that the modal logic of belief revision determined by probabilities on a finite set of elementary propositions is not finitely axiomatizable.

     

The Anatomy of a Philosophical Hoax

This article reflects upon the state of the philosophical profession vis‐à‐vis a close reading of the hoax perpetrated against the International Journal of Badiou Studies in 2016. This hoax is not a subversive act of disciplinary criticism (as the hoaxers contend). Rather, it is a poorly disguised attempt to enforce a partisan and myopic conception of philosophy and to delegitimize an entire subfield of philosophical production—namely, continental philosophy. The hoax is symptomatic of a deeper problem that plagues the profession today: the willingness exhibited by many philosophers to police the boundaries of the discipline by engaging in what we call “acts of force.” The prevalence of acts of force demonstrates that professional philosophy is shaped not only by the giving and taking of reasons but also by shopworn disciplinary tribalisms (for example, continental versus analytic) and asymmetrical power relations involving agents with unequal amounts of social, professional, and philosophical capital.     

Psychometric properties of the cyberbullying triangulation questionnaire: A prevalence analysis through seven roles

This study explores the psychometric properties of the Cyberbullying Triangulation Questionnaire (CTQ), which measures and triangulates the roles of cybervictimization, cyberaggression, and cyberbystanding. The study sample was composed of 5,036 Spanish students with a mean age of 14.19 years (SD = ±1.7; range = 10–23 years). Confirmatory factor analysis of the three correlated‐factor model yielded a high goodness of fit. Reliability as measured by Omega coefficients was adequate (>0.94). The measurement model was invariant for the two age groups (10–14 years and 15–23 years). Cybervictimization and cyberaggression correlated with offline victimization and aggression (r = 0.49; p < 0.001; r = 0.57; p < 0.001, respectively). The results show that the most prevalent cyberbystanding subrole was that of the Defender of the Victim (54.6%), and that cyberaggression and cyberbystanding were more prevalent among male adolescents (p < 0.001). The lack of parental control over children's use of the mobile phone was associated with cyberaggression (p < 0.001).     

Emotional sharing and the extended mind

Synthese - This article investigates the relationship between emotional sharing and the extended mind thesis. We argue that shared emotions are socially extended emotions that involve a specific...     

‘Ought’ implies ‘can’ against epistemic deontologism: beyond doxastic involuntarism

Synthese - According to epistemic deontologism, attributions of epistemic justification are deontic claims about what we ought to believe. One of the most prominent objections to this conception,...     

The big two dictionaries: Capturing agency and communion in natural language

Four studies developed and validated two dictionaries to capture agentic and communal expressions in natural language. Their development followed the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) approach (Study 1) and we tested their validity with frequency-based analyses and semantic similarity measures. The newly developed Agency and Communion dictionaries were aligned with LIWC categories related to agency and communion (Study 2), and corresponded with subjective ratings (Study 3), confirming their convergent validity. Very low or absent correspondence between proposed dictionaries and unrelated LIWC categories demonstrated their discriminant validity (Study 2). Finally, we applied both dictionaries to language used in advertisements. In correspondence to gender stereotypes, male-dominated jobs were advertised with more agentic than communal words, and female-dominated jobs with more communal than agentic words (Study 4). Both dictionaries represent reliable tools for quantifying agentic and communal content in natural language, and will improve and facilitate future research on agency and communion.     

Two sides of the same coin: The differentiating role of need satisfaction and frustration in passion for screen-based activities

Rooted in Self-Determination Theory, the present research sought to investigate whether the “bright” and “dark” side of human functioning (need satisfaction and need frustration, respectively) would, as determinants, differentially predict harmonious passion (HP) and obsessive passion (OP) for screen-based activities such as Facebook use, TV series watching, online gaming, and smartphone gaming. For this purpose, four cross-sectional studies were carried out (N_total = 1,065). Results showed that, across all activities, need satisfaction was negatively related to OP, but not HP. A similar pattern emerged with need frustration: It was positively related to OP, but not HP. Moreover, even after controlling for the self-reported amount of time spent on the activities, HP predicted adaptive, activity-specific outcomes, whereas OP predicted maladaptive ones. These findings suggest that general need satisfaction may be a protective factor against the compensatory function of OP, but need frustration may be a potential risk factor of OP and both should be taken into account in the case of passion for screen-based activities.     

Sex differences in the development of physical aggression: An intergenerational perspective and implications for preventive interventions

This article reviews the state of knowledge on the development of chronic physical aggression (CPA), with the aim of identifying the most effective prevention strategies. We specifically focus on the early development of physical aggression, on sex differences in the use of physical aggression, and on the transmission of behavior problems from one generation to the other. The body of research on the development of CPA from the past three decades that we review shows increasing evidence that its prevention requires a long-term biopsychosocial developmental approach which also must include an intergenerational perspective. Recent genetic and epigenetic research has indicated that there are both important genetic and environmental effects on gene expression which start at conception. We conclude that one of the most effective strategies to break the intergenerational transmission of CPA involves giving long-term support to pregnant women with a history of behavior problems, their spouse, and their offspring.     

When Seeing Is Not Believing: An Examination of the Mechanisms Accounting for the Protective Effect of Media Literacy on Body Image

Sex Roles - The present study aimed to explore the moderating role of three dimensions of media literacy on the relationship between media exposure and body dissatisfaction, mediated by thin-ideal...     

Error feedback and the acquisition of geographical representations

Three training conditions were compared in a task of learning locations of cities on a map: One in which participants could avoid errors by searching for the name of the correct city, and two others in which either immediate feedback after each response or delayed feedback after all responses had been made was given. Learners who received feedback only after placing all the cities on the map performed more poorly overall during training but outperformed the other two groups in both immediate and delayed tests. This advantage is interpreted as evidence of differential development of relational knowledge and application of cognitive effort across training conditions. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.