Geometric and featural representations in semantic concepts

We explore the adequacy of two types of similarity representation in the context of semantic concepts. To this end, we evaluate different categorization models, assuming either a geometric or a featural representation, using categorization decisions involving familiar and unfamiliar foods and animals. The study aims to assess the optimal stimulus representation as a function of the familiarity of the stimuli. For the unfamiliar stimuli, the geometric categorization models provide the best account of the categorization data, whereas for the familiar stimuli, the featural categorization models provide the best account. This pattern of results suggests that people rely on perceptual information to assign an unfamiliar stimulus to a category but rely on more elaborate conceptual knowledge when assigning a familiar stimulus.     

Genetic evidence for multiple biological mechanisms underlying in-group favoritism

In-group favoritism is ubiquitous and associated with intergroup conflict, yet is little understood from a biological perspective. A fundamental question regarding the structure of favoritism is whether it is inflexibly directed toward distinct, "essentialist" categories, such as ethnicity and race, or is deployed in a context-sensitive manner. In this article, we report the first study (to our knowledge) of the genetic and environmental structure of in-group favoritism in the religious, ethnic, and racial domains. We contrasted a model of favoritism based on a single domain-general central affiliation mechanism (CAM) with a model in which each domain was influenced by specific mechanisms. In a series of multivariate analyses, utilizing a large, representative sample of twins, models containing only the CAM or essentialist domains fit the data poorly. The best-fitting model revealed that a biological mechanism facilitates affiliation with arbitrary groups and exists alongside essentialist systems that evolved to process salient cues, such as shared beliefs and ancestry.     

Tobacco Dependence: Insights from Investigations of Self-Reported Smoking Motives

The Wisconsin Inventory of Smoking Dependence Motives (WISDM) assesses 13 theoretically-derived dimensions of smoking motivation. These 13 subscales were intended to index comprehensively the severity of tobacco dependence and provide insight into the disorder. Recent studies indicate that four subscales (Automaticity, Craving, Loss of Control, and Tolerance) represent the core features of tobacco dependence and have been dubbed the Primary Dependence Motives (PDM). The remaining nine subscales, the Secondary Dependence Motives (SDM), may be clinically relevant but index less essential features of dependence.     

What subjective experiences determine the perception of falling asleep during sleep onset period?

Sleep onset is associated with marked changes in behavioral, physiological, and subjective phenomena. In daily life though subjective experience is the main criterion in terms of which we identify it. But very few studies have focused on these experiences. This study seeks to identify the subjective variables that reflect sleep onset. Twenty young subjects took an afternoon nap in the laboratory while polysomnographic recordings were made. They were awakened four times in order to assess subjective experiences that correlate with the (1) appearance of slow eye movement, (2) initiation of stage 1 sleep, (3) initiation of stage 2 sleep, and (4) 5 min after the start of stage 2 sleep. A logistic regression identified control over and logic of thought as the two variables that predict the perception of having fallen asleep. For sleep perception, these two variables accurately classified 91.7% of the cases; for the waking state, 84.1%.     

Visual working memory is disrupted by covert verbal retrieval

If working memory (WM) depends on a central resource—as is posited in some theories, but not in others—it should be possible to observe interference between tasks that share few features with each other. We investigated whether interference with WM for visual arrays would occur, even if the interfering task required neither visual processing nor overt responding. In an auditory-verbal interfering task, a response was to be made if a word was recognized as having come from one of two prelearned lists, but not from the other list. As compared with nonretrieval control conditions, even covert verbal memory retrieval disrupted the storage of visual items held in WM. A second experiment ruled out verbal recoding of the visual arrays as the basis of interference. The results indicate that visual WM and verbal long-term retrieval share a central resource (e.g., attention).     

How Master of Divinity Education Changes Students: A Research‐Based Model

To increase understanding of how Master of Divinity education actually functions and to respond to accreditors' emphasis on the outcomes of learning, this paper presents a research‐based model that focuses on how M.Div. education transforms students. The students‐in‐seminary model is conceptually undergirded by life course theory. In the model, students attending seminary engage in a messy process in which they respond to competing demands of school, church, and family. The author compares the students‐in‐seminary model with the dominant message model for theological education articulated by Carroll et al. (1997 ) and argues that the students‐in‐seminary model more adequately describes the process of theological education. The author calls for further research to study how seminaries promote key messages to their students, the plasticity of students' sense of calling, the impact of church requirements on M.Div. students, and the complexity of life for multiple‐role students.     

Narcissism Distorts the Fading Affect Bias in Autobiographical Memory

The Fading Affect Bias (FAB) occurs when the affect associated with personal events fades differentially across time: Positive affect fades slower than negative affect. Three studies examined whether the magnitude of the FAB is moderated by narcissism. Results from Study 1 (diary method, N = 26) showed that low narcissism participants evidenced a large FAB, but high narcissism participants evidenced a reversed FAB. Results from Study 2 (retrospective recall method, N = 110) showed that low narcissism participants evinced a large FAB and that the FAB diminished or dissipated as narcissism increased. Results from Study 3 (retrospective recall method, N = 83) showed that high narcissists evinced a FAB when they recalled achievement‐themed autobiographical events but evinced a reversed FAB when they recalled communal‐themed events. These findings occurred independently of event rehearsal frequency. Results are discussed in terms of the idea that emotion regulation efforts may be disrupted in narcissists. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Holy Spirit in EG,TTL, and CTC: The Pneumatological Impulse for Christian Mission

This article examines the correspondence in the pneumatological impulse for mission among three documents: Evangelii Gaudium (EG), Together towards Life (TTL), and The Cape Town Commitment (CTC). This consonance in EG, TTL, and CTC is significant given the dissonance on theological and missiological perspectives across the representing ecclesial bodies since the mid‐20th century. Following a review of pneumatology in these three documents, the paper proposes a forward‐looking trajectory to a more expansive view of the Spirit's ever‐mysterious operations in the church, in missions, and in the world.