Explaining Our Own Beliefs: Non-epistemic Believing and Doxastic Instability

It has often been claimed that ourbelieving some proposition is dependent uponour not being committed to a non-epistemicexplanation of why we believe that proposition.Very roughly, I cannot believe that p andalso accept a non-epistemic explanation of mybelieving that p. Those who have assertedsuch a claim have drawn from it a range ofimplications: doxastic involuntarism, theunacceptability of Humean naturalism, doxasticfreedom, restrictions upon the effectiveness ofpractical (Pascalian) arguments, as well asothers. If any of these implications are right,then we would do well to have a precisestatement of the nature of this phenomenoncentral to first-person doxastic explanations,as well as of our reasons for believing that itholds. Both of these are lacking in theliterature. This paper is an attempt toelucidate and defend this claim.     

Dissecting the brain's internal clock: how frontal-striatal circuitry keeps time and shifts attention.

The ability of organisms to time and coordinate temporal sequences of events and to select particular aspects of their internal and external environments to which they will attend is vital to the organism's ability to adapt to the world around them. Numerous psychological theories have been proposed that describe how organisms might accomplish such stimulus selection and represent discrete temporal events as well as rhythm production. In addition, a large number of studies have demonstrated that damage to the frontostriatal circuitry appears to compromise the ability of organisms to successfully shift attention and behavior to adapt to changing temporal contexts. This suggests that frontostriatal circuitry is involved in the ability to make such shifts and to process temporal intervals. A selective review is accomplished in this article which focuses upon the specific neural mechanisms that may be involved in interval timing and set shifting. It is concluded that prefrontal cortex, substantia nigra pars compacta, pedunculopontine nucleus, and the direct and indirect pathways from the caudate to the thalamus may provide the neuroanatomical and neurophysiological substrates that underlie the organism's ability to shift its attention from one temporal context to another.     

Fazang's Total Power Mereology: An Interpretive Analytic Reconstruction

In his Treatise on the Golden Lion, Fazang says that wholes are in each of their parts and that each part of a whole is every other part of the whole. In this paper, I offer an interpretation of these remarks according to which they are not obviously false, and I use this interpretation in order to rigorously reconstruct Fazang's arguments for his claims. On the interpretation I favor, Fazang means that the presence of a whole's part suffices for the presence of the whole and that the presence of any such part is both necessary and sufficient for the presence of any other part. I also argue that this interpretation is more plausible than its extant competitors.     

Using E-Z reader to model the effects of higher level language processing on eye movements during reading

Although computational models of eye-movement control during reading have been used to explain how saccadic programming, visual constraints, attention allocation, and lexical processing jointly affect eye movements during reading, these models have largely ignored the issue of how higher level, postlexical language processing affects eye movements. The present article shows how one of these models, E-Z Reader (Pollatsek, Reichle, & Rayner, 2006c), can be augmented to redress this limitation. Simulations show that with a few simple assumptions, the model can account for the fact that effects of higher level language processing are not observed on eye movements when such processing is occurring without difficulty, but can capture the patterns of eye movements that are observed when such processing is slowed or disrupted.     

Improving psychological adjustment following a first episode of psychosis: A randomised controlled trial of cognitive therapy to reduce post psychotic trauma symptoms

There are few evaluated psychological interventions or theoretical approaches which are specifically aimed at reducing problems related to adjustment and adaptation following a first episode of psychosis. The present study tests the efficacy of a form of CBT (Cognitive Recovery Intervention; CRI) in reducing trauma, depression and low self esteem following a first episode of psychosis, in a single-blind randomised controlled trial. A total of 66 patients who had recently experienced a first episode of psychosis were randomly assigned to CRI or treatment as usual (TAU) and followed up at 6 and 12 months. People receiving CRI tended to have lower levels of post-intervention trauma symptoms and demonstrated greater improvement than those receiving TAU alone. This was especially the case at 6 months for those with high pre-treatment levels of trauma. There was, however, no advantage for the CRI group with regards to reduced depression or improved self esteem. In conclusion, CRI appears to be an effective intervention to help young people adapt to the traumatic aspects of a first episode of psychosis although further evaluation in a larger study is warranted.     

Theory as metaphor: clinical knowledge and its communication

Abstract :  This paper investigates the relationship between clinical knowledge and psychological theory and considers the implications for clinical writing. I argue that clinical knowledge is a way of understanding rather than a body of facts and compare clinical material to 'texts' that generate multiple and indeterminate meanings. Analytic theories, which represent the crystallization of ways of understanding clinical phenomena, have an inherently metaphorical 'as if' quality since they are derived from and adapted to the clinical process of making meaning by representing psychic states in symbolic form. Thus good clinical writing demonstrates an integration of theory and clinical material into a unified network of symbolic meanings. Redfearn's paper, 'The captive, the treasure, the hero and the "anal" stage of development' (1979), is discussed as an exemplar of such integration. It is suggested that clinical knowledge is equivalent to the skill of making effective interpretations.     

The Frequency of Prayer,Meditation and Holistic Interventions in Addictions Treatment: A National Survey

This study examines the prevalence of endorsing the twelve step approach and the use of prayer, meditation, and holistic techniques in a national sample of 139 substance abuse treatment centers. Ninety one percent of the programs endorsed a twelve step orientation. Twenty six percent of the programs actively used prayer and 58% used meditation as a component of treatment. Thirty three percent of the programs used some form of a self-designated holistic technique. There was a divergent range of techniques that were used by programs, falling into four broad categories: (1) nutrition, exercise, relaxation and physical health; (2) recreation and adventure-based activities; (3) religious and spiritual practices; and (4) the use of specific therapy modalities.     

Restoring Pastors Following a Moral Failure: The Effects of Self-Interest and Group Influence

We studied attitudes toward restoring a pastor following a moral failure using an experimental design. Sixty undergraduates (43 women, 17 men) read a narrative in which a pastor admitted to an adulterous affair with a congregant. Following exposure to one of four conditions formed by the two levels of two independent variables, a self-interest condition (pastoral counseling referral) and a group discussion condition, participants provided their forgiveness and restoration to ministry ratings. After adjusting for participant gender, we found a significant main effect for group discussion and the interaction of self-interest and group discussion. We discussed the possible implications for group and self-interest factors when considering pastoral restoration.