Neuroscience today,Florence 25–27 March 2007: foreword

Currently in humor research, there exists a dearth of computational models for humor perception. The existing theories are not quantifiable and efforts need to be made to quantify the models and incorporate neuropsychological findings in humor research. We propose a new computational model (GraPHIA) for perceiving phonological jokes or puns. GraPHIA consists of a semantic network and a phonological network where words are represented by nodes in both the networks. Novel features based on graph theoretical concepts are proposed and computed for the identification of homophonic jokes. The data set for evaluating the model consisted of homophonic puns, normal sentences, and ambiguous nonsense sentences. The classification results show that the feature values result in successful identification of phonological jokes and ambiguous nonsense sentences suggesting that the proposed model is a plausible model for humor perception. Further work is needed to extend the model for identification of other types of phonological jokes.

Neuronal functional diversity and collective behaviors: a scientific case

A major issue in today’s neuroscience is how the brain complex and highly flexible organization emerges from its individual components. Robustness of neuronal properties with weak linkages between regulatory processes are suggested to account for the adaptive, tunable, multistable dynamics, the coding schemes and the complexity of neuronal functional (sub)systems. Interneurons and neurotransmitter diversity, resonance phenomena due to properties of the cell or network, time/frequency-dependent activation of dedicated neuronal assemblies, code- and frequency-specific oscillations interact in determining the brain functional setup and operations. Despite the scientific relevance, comprehensive theories are not yet available, but the scenario—however incomplete and incompletely characterized—is promising and warrants further investigation.     

Verbal intelligence and self-regulatory competencies: Joint predictors of boys’ aggression

Two studies examined the interactive effect of receptive verbal intelligence measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and self-regulatory competencies measured in the delay of gratification paradigm on boys’ aggression. Study 1 participants (N = 98) were middle school, low-income boys primarily ethnic minority. Participants for Study 2 (N = 59) were drawn from a treatment camp for boys from low-income neighborhoods with behavioral adjustment problems. In both studies, the interaction between verbal intelligence and self-regulation was significant such that verbal intelligence was associated with lower aggression to a greater extent among boys who had effective self-regulatory skills than among those who had ineffective self-regulatory skills. The implications of these findings for interventions and for a theory of risk factors in aggression are discussed.     

The Minority-Majority Conundrum in Northern Ireland: An Orange Order Perspective

Researchers have argued that, depending on the framing of the Northern Ireland conflict, each group could either be a minority or a majority relative to the other. This complicates macrosocial explanations of the conflict which make specific predictions on the basis of minority or majority positions. The present paper argues that this conundrum may have arisen from the inherent variability in microidentity processes that do not fit easily with macroexplanations. In this paper the rhetoric of relative group position is analysed in political speeches delivered by leading members of an influential Protestant institution in Northern Ireland. It is apparent that minority and majority claims are not fixed but are flexibly used to achieve local rhetorical goals. Furthermore, the speeches differ before and after the Good Friday Agreement, with a reactionary "hegemonic" Unionist position giving way to a "majority-rights power sharing" argument and a "pseudo-minority" status giving way to a "disempowered minority" argument. These results suggest a view of the Northern Ireland conflict as a struggle for "symbolic power," i.e., the ability to flexibly define the intergroup situation to the ingroup's advantage.     

Choices, Consequences, And Rationality

A generalized theory of revealed preference is formulated for choice situations where the consequences of choices from given menus are uncertain. In a nonprobabilistic framework, rational choice behavior can be defined by requiring the existence of a preference relation on the set of possible consequences and an extension rule for this relation to the power set of the set of consequences such that the chosen sets of possible outcomes are the best elements in the feasible set according to this extension rule. Rational choice is characterized under various assumptions on these relations.     

The Common Beliefs Survey-III and the Situational Self-Statement and Affective State Inventory: Test-Retest Reliability, Internal Consistency, and Further Psychometric Considerations

The Common Beliefs Survey-III (CBS-III), a factored measure of general irrational beliefs, has satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity. The Situational Self-Statement and Affective State Inventory (SSSASI), also with acceptable basic psychometric properties, assesses specific thoughts and feelings in response to vignettes describing frustrating events. Both inventories are potentially useful in assessing dimensions important to REBT, but information on test-retest reliability is needed. The CBS-III and the SSSASI were administered to 101 undergraduate students on two occasions, two or three weeks apart. Satisfactory test-retest reliability coefficients were obtained on all subscales of both inventories, but in the case of the SSSASI reliabilities were generally stronger when the same form of the test was used on both occasions (Form 1 presented the thoughts before the feelings, whereas Form 2 presented the feelings before the thoughts). Further exploration showed that responding to the thoughts before the feelings significantly attenuated scores on the feelings, but responding to the feelings before the thoughts had no effect on scores on the thoughts. This unexpected finding also held true in a previously unexamined data set obtained with a different sample of students several years earlier. Taking careful stock of one's emotional reactions before embarking on cognitive modification interventions seems essential to REBT, and it follows that asking questionnaire respondents to rate their affective states before they rate their self-statements could be desirable conceptually. These results provide empirical support for that strategy.     

The orthogonal transformations of a factorial matrix into itself

Certain matrix algebra, pertinent to multiple factor theory, is presented.