Spatial interactions of taste stimuli on the human tongue

Two nearby loci on the human tongue were stimulated with solutions representing the four basic taste qualities. The recognition threshold for each test stimulus was measured when a strong concentration of one of the four qualities or water was placed nearby. Decreased sensitivity for the test stimulus resulted when both stimuli were the same quality, with the exception of an enhancement of bitter sensitivity by QHCl. The only effect across qualities was a suppression of citric acid by NaC1. In contrast, classical studies reported across-quality enhancement. Stimulation of two loci on the same half of the tongue and the use of modern psychophysical techniques may explain the differences between these and earlier results.     

Analytic practice: Convergences and divergences1

The author discusses current convergences and divergences concerning analytic practice. After presenting a clinical vignette that can be understood differently according to different theoretical approaches, he discusses Wallerstein’s proposal of a common ground in psychoanalysis and suggests that the present state of the art indicates that psychoanalysis is a pluralistic discipline, with different ways of training and practising it, and that the main challenge is to improve our ability to listen to and to learn from different approaches.     

Observer memory and immunity to error through misidentification

Synthese - Are those judgments that we make on the basis of our memories immune to error through misidentification (IEM)? In this paper, I discuss a phenomenon which seems to suggest that they are...     

Correction to: Lambek Calculus with Conjugates

Studia Logica - We, the authors, would like to thank Guillaume Aucher for informing us of his “Displaying Updates in Logic”, published in the Journal of Logic and Computation,...     

Correction to: The Hahn Embedding Theorem for a Class of Residuated Semigroups

Studia Logica - Let $${\mathcal {O}}$$ be the class of odd involutive $$\hbox {FL}_e$$ -chains which admit finitely many idempotent elements. The price for describing the structure of such a rich...     

Revisiting Reichenbach’s logic

Synthese - In this paper we show that, when analyzed with contemporary tools in logic—such as Dunn-style semantics, Reichenbach’s three-valued logic exhibits many interesting features,...     

Personal Uniqueness and Events

Human Studies - In contrast to Anglophone debates on personal identity initially formed by John Locke’s investigation of personal identity in the sense of personal continuity or persistence...     

Depth as Nemesis: Merleau-Ponty’s Concept of Depth in Phenomenology of Perception,Art and Politics

Human Studies - The concept of depth is central to Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology and informed not only his philosophy of perception but also his thinking about psychology, art and politics....     

Language Processing Differences Between Blind and Sighted Individuals and the Abstract Versus Concrete Concept Difference

In the property listing task (PLT), participants are asked to list properties for a concept (e.g., for the concept dog, “barks,” and “is a pet” may be produced). In conceptual property norming (CPNs) studies, participants are asked to list properties for large sets of concepts. Here, we use a mathematical model of the property listing process to explore two longstanding issues: characterizing the difference between concrete and abstract concepts, and characterizing semantic knowledge in the blind versus sighted population. When we apply our mathematical model to a large CPN reporting properties listed by sighted and blind participants, the model uncovers significant differences between concrete and abstract concepts. Though we also find that blind individuals show many of the same processing differences between abstract and concrete concepts found in sighted individuals, our model shows that those differences are noticeably less pronounced than in sighted individuals. We discuss our results vis-a-vis theories attempting to characterize abstract concepts.