Detecting Design: Fast and Frugal or All Things Considered?

Within the Cognitive Science of Religion, Justin Barrett has proposed that humans possess a hyperactive agency detection device that was selected for in our evolutionary past because ‘over detecting’ (as opposed to ‘under detecting’) the existence of a predator conferred a survival advantage. Within the Intelligent Design debate, William Dembski has proposed the law of small probability, which states that specified events of small probability do not occur by chance. Within the Fine-Tuning debate, John Leslie has asserted a tidiness principle such that, if we can think of a good explanation for some state of affairs, then an explanation is needed for that state of affairs. In this paper I examine similarities between these three proposals and suggest that they can all be explained with reference to the existence of an explanation attribution module in the human mind. The forgoing analysis is considered with reference to a contrast between classical rationality and what Gerd Gigerenzer and others have called ecological rationality.

Identifying and changing the normative beliefs about aggression which lead young Muslim adults to join extremist anti‐Semitic groups in Pakistan

Two studies investigated the role of beliefs about the acceptability of aggression (“normative beliefs”) against Jews in determining who would join an extremist group. In Study 1, students in a university in Pakistan (N=144) completed self‐report attitude measures, and were subsequently approached by a confederate who asked whether they wanted to join an extremist anti‐Semitic organization. Normative beliefs about aggression against Jews were very strong predictors of whether participants agreed to join. In Study 2, participants (N=92) were experimentally assigned to either a brief educational intervention, designed to improve inter‐group relations, or to a control group. They also filled in self‐report attitude measures pre and post intervention. Participants in the intervention group were much less likely to agree to join the extremist group, and this effect of the intervention on joining was mediated by changes in normative beliefs about aggression against Jews. The results have implications for theories of inter‐group aggression and interventions to prevent people from being recruited into extremist groups. Aggr. Behav. 35:514–519, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Social Interaction During Computer-based Activities: Comparisons by Number of Sessions, Gender, School-level, Gender Composition of the Group, and Computer-child Ratio

This study assessed the quality of social interactions that occur in group-based computer learning contexts. Gender comparisons of interactions were examined across 3 sessions with 116 preschoolers (M age?=?4.9 years) and 108 fifth and sixth-grade (M age?=?11.7 years) Canadian children from southwestern Ontario, when children had access to one computer per child (parallel computer) or one computer per group (integrated computer), and when they worked with same-gender or mixed-gender peers. Preschoolers engaged in more collaborative behaviors in mixed-gender than same-gender groups, while elementary children engaged in collaborative behaviors more often in integrated than parallel computer conditions. In mixed-gender groups, boys were more likely than girls to dominate the computer in elementary school while girls were more likely than boys to dominate the computer in preschool.     

Neurobiological Markers of Illness Onset in Psychosis and Schizophrenia: The Search for a Moving Target

In this review, we describe neuropsychological and brain imaging findings in the early stages of psychosis and schizophrenia. We focus on recent clinical high-risk studies and consider whether the evidence supports these as ‘endophenotypes’ of a vulnerability to the illness or as ‘biomarkers’ of illness onset and transition. The findings suggest that there are a number of processes at psychosis onset that may represent biomarkers of incipient illness. These neurobiological indices particularly implicate the integrity of frontal and temporal cortices, which may or may not be related to the genetics of psychosis (i.e. potential ‘endophenotypes’). However, these brain regions are dynamically changing during normal maturation, meaning that any putative neurobiological markers identified at the earliest stages of illness may be relatively unstable. We suggest that, while such measures may be readily identified as potential neurobiological markers of established illness, they are inconsistent at (or around) the time of illness onset when assessed cross-sectionally. Instead, identification of more valid risk markers may require longitudinal assessment to ascertain normal or abnormal trajectories of neurodevelopment. Accordingly, we assert that the current conceptualisations of potential biomarkers and/or ‘endophenotypes’ for schizophrenia may need to be reconsidered in the context of normal and abnormal brain maturational processes at the time of onset of psychotic disorders.     

Diversion of attention in everyday concept learning: Identification in the service of use

Many people tend to believe that natural categories have perfectly predictive defining features. They do not easily accept the family resemblance view that the features characteristic of a category are not individually sufficient to predict the category. However, common category-learning tasks do not produce this simpler-than-it-is belief. If there is no simple classification principle in a task, the participants know that fact and can report it. We argue that most category-learning tasks in which family resemblance categories are used fail to produce the everyday simpler-than-it-is belief because they encourage analysis of identification criteria during training. To simulate the learning occurring in many natural circumstances, we developed a procedure in which participants' analytic activity is diverted from the way in which the stimuli are identified to the use to which the stimuli will be put. Finally, we discuss the prevalence of this diverted analysis in everyday categorization.     

From Speechlessness to Presence

Spiritual direction, or the directed art of inner conversation, emerges from a psychological inflection in which we learn that radical inner otherness is the fuel of spirit. Spirit, manifesting between self and other incarnates through and in the subject, as well as through the other encountered as authentic subject. One individuates, then, by relating to the Self as a desiring subject. Moving in the direction of spirit, we push back dimension by dimension to get to one dimension. Eventually, we may encounter a numinous silence, an emptiness that is full.     

Structural Solutions to Social Dilemmas: A Field Study on Commuters’ Willingness to Fund Improvements in Public Transit1

The present field study examined commuters’(N= 152) willingness to fund improvements in public transit. Consistent with Samuelson's (1993; Samuelson & Messick, 1995) multiattribute evaluation model of structural change in social dilemmas, support for the transit plan was higher when it was perceived to be (a) effective at reducing congestion and pollution, (b) personally beneficial, and (c) fair in terms of taxes and benefits. Also consistent with predictions, these relationships were moderated by individual differences in social value orientation (MClintock, 1968) and the consideration of future consequences (CFC; Strathman, Gleicher, Boninger, & Edwards, 1994). Prosocials responded more to the perceived fairness of the plan, while proselfs responded more to the plan's effectiveness in reducing congestion. Low CFCs responded more to the plan's personal benefits and effectiveness in reducing congestion, while high CFCs responded more to the plan's effectiveness in reducing pollution.     

Kant on Duties Regarding Nonrational Nature: Allen W. Wood

Kant's moral philosophy is grounded on the dignity of humanity as its sole fundamental value, and involves the claim that human beings are to be regarded as the ultimate end of nature. It might be thought that a theory of this kind would be incapable of grounding any conception of our relation to other living things or to the natural world which would value nonhuman creatures or respect humanity's natural environment. This paper criticizes Kant's argumentative strategy for dealing with our duties in regard to animals, but defends both his theory and most of his conclusions on these topics.