Relational knowledge: the foundation of higher cognition

Accumulating evidence on the nature, function and acquisition of relational knowledge indicates a crucial role of such knowledge in higher cognitive processes. In this review, we specify the essential properties of relational knowledge, together with the role it plays in reasoning, categorisation, planning, quantification and language. Furthermore, we discuss the processes involved in its acquisition and how these processes have been implemented in contemporary neural network models. We present evidence demonstrating that relational knowledge integrates heuristic and analytic cognition, is important for symbolic processes and the creation of novelty, activates specific regions of the prefrontal cortex, and is the most recently evolved and slowest-developing cognitive process. Arguably, relational knowledge represents the core of higher cognition.     

Limits of generalization between categories and implications for theories of category specificity

Both domain-specific and expertise accounts of category specialization assume that generalization occurs within a domain but not between domains. Yet it is often difficult to define the boundaries and critical features of object domains. Differences in how categories are defined make it difficult to adjudicate between accounts of category specificity and may lead to contradictory results. For example, evidence for whether car experts recruit the fusiform face area is mixed, and this inconsistency may be due to the inclusion of antique cars in one of those previous studies (e.g., Grill-Spector, Knouf, & Kanwisher, 2004). The present study tested the generalization of expertise from modern to antique cars and found that modern-car experts showed expert discrimination and holistic processing of modern cars but not of antique cars. These findings suggest that the neural specialization underlying perceptual expertise is highly specific and may not generalize to distinct subclasses, even when they share some degree of perceptual and conceptual features.     

Socioeconomic Status and Coronary Heart Disease Risk: The Role of Social Cognitive Factors

The aim of this study is to examine existing research on social cognitive factors that may, in part, mediate the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and coronary heart disease (CHD). We focus on how social status is 'carried' in the mental systems of individuals, and how these systems differentially affect CHD risk and associated behaviors. To this end, literatures documenting the association of various social cognitive factors (e.g., social comparison, perceived discrimination, and self-efficacy) with cardiovascular disease are reviewed as are literatures regarding the relationship of these factors to SES. Possible mechanisms through which social cognitions may affect health are addressed. In addition, directions for future research are discussed, and a model identifying the possible associations between social cognitive factors, SES, and coronary disease is provided.     

Can the relationship between tangential velocity and radius of curvature explain motor constancy?

To address contributions of speed, efficiency, radius of curvature and joint complexity to the strength of the lawful relationship between tangential velocity and radius of curvature (power law), an experiment considered the strength of the power law when participants were instructed to perform circling movements using the elbow, finger, shoulder, or wrist. Five participants performed circling motions in a vertical plane upon a Smartboard that sampled finger tip position at 200Hz. Page's L tested whether the strength of the power law could be predicted by: (1) speed; (2) submovements; (3) joint complexity; (4) radius of curvature. A second experiment considered the strength of the power law when six participants were instructed to perform circling movements of different sizes (large, medium, and small) using their shoulders. Movement speed or efficiency could not explain the strength of the power law, instead the power law was stronger for movements with a smaller radius of curvature or fewer joints. The strength of the power law varied with effector, questioning the role of the power law in motor constancy.     

Event-related potential (ERP) evidence for varied recollection during source monitoring

The source monitoring framework (SMF; M. K. Johnson, S. Hashtroudi, & D. S. Lindsay, 1993) posits that source monitoring can be supported by varying degrees of recollection. Source judgments were made for words heard at study (male or female voice) followed by remember/know (RK) judgments in order to assess differences in degrees of recollection during source monitoring (J. L. Hicks, R. L. Marsh, & L. Ritschel, 2002). The neural correlate of recollection was examined by contrasting event-related potentials (ERPs) for R and K responses that followed accurate source judgments. The recollection ERP effect was greater for R than K responses but greater for K responses than correct rejections, which reinforces the behavioral evidence that indicates source monitoring can be supported by varying degrees of recollection. A robust late posterior negativity ERP effect was present and began earlier for accurate source judgments given subsequent R than K responses. This is interpreted as reflecting systematic decision processes that are described by the SMF.     

The role of control functions in mentalizing: dual-task studies of theory of mind and executive function

Conflicting evidence has arisen from correlational studies regarding the role of executive control functions in Theory of Mind. The current study used dual-task manipulations of executive functions (inhibition, updating and switching) to investigate the role of these control functions in mental state and non-mental state tasks. The 'Eyes' pictorial test of Theory of Mind showed specific dual-task costs when concurrently performed with an inhibitory secondary task. In contrast, interference effects on a verbal 'Stories' task were general, occurring on both mental state and non-mental state tasks, and across all types of executive function. These findings from healthy functioning adults should help to guide decisions about appropriate methods of assessing ToM in clinical populations, and interpreting deficits in performance in such tasks in the context of more general cognitive dysfunction.     

The Structure of Self-Consciousness in Children and Young Adolescents and Relations to Social Anxiety

Decades of research have examined the structure of self-consciousness in adults and its relationship to social anxiety. This study examined the structure of self-consciousness via the Self-Consciousness Scales (Fenigstein et al., J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 43:522–527, 1975) in a school sample of 175 children and young adolescents (92 girls; mean age = 11.5). Confirmatory factor analysis best supported a five-factor solution (Internal State Awareness, Self-Reflectiveness, Appearance Consciousness, Style Consciousness and Social Anxiety). Although some factor based subscales evidenced low internal consistencies, convergent and discriminant correlations with self-report measures of social phobia, negative affect, and positive affect as well as parent-report measures of internalizing and externalizing problems provided additional support for the five-factor model. Future studies should further examine the multidimensional nature as well as the developmental course of self-consciousness and its relation to social anxiety longitudinally.

The challenge of religious pluralism: A reply to James Kraft

Religious pluralis does have, as James Kraft says, a negative impact on the epistemic confidence with which one holds a religious position, when epistemology is thought on both the externalist and internalist lines. I also conclude both that there is a resulting epistemic humility and that a tolerance of religious diversity results from it, but I reach these conclusions for entirely different reasons. Epistemic humility and religious tolerance are fostered by the realization that many religions are striving for the infinite, though all have limited views of it.     

Poisoning the Well

In this paper it is shown is that although poisoning the well has generally been treated as a species of ad hominem fallacy, when you try to analyze the fallacy using ad hominem schemes, even by supplementing with related schemes like argument from position to know, the analysis ultimately fails. The main argument of the paper is taken up with proving this negative claim by applying these schemes to examples of arguments associated with the fallacy of poisoning the well. Although there is a positive finding in this quest, in that poisoning the well is shown to be based on and associated with these forms of argument in interesting ways, the paper in the end is led to the conclusion that the fallacy is irreducibly dialectical. Poisoning the well is thus analyzed as a tactic to silence an opponent violating her right to put forward arguments on an issue both parties have agreed to discuss at the confrontation stage of a critical discussion. It is concluded that it is a special form of strategic attack used by one party in the argumentation stage of a critical discussion to improperly shut down the capability of the other party for putting forward arguments of the kind needed to properly move the discussion forward.