The Intimate Relationship Between the McNaughton and the Chinese Remainder Theorems for MV-algebras

We show the intimate relationship between McNaughton Theorem and the Chinese Remaindner Theorem for MV-algebras. We develop a very short and simple proof of McNaughton Theorem. The arguing is elementary and right out of the definitions. We exhibit the theorem as just an instance of the Chinese theorem. Since the variety of MV-algebras is arithmetic, the Chinese theorem holds for MV-algebras. However, to make this paper self-contained and entirely elementary, we include a simple proof of this theorem inspired in Ferraioli and Lettieri (Math Logic Q 1:27–43, 2011).     

From STEM to STEAM: How to Monitor Creativity

Creativity is a broad and complex construct, difficult to define and to quantify, assumed to introduce new impulses into science education (STEM), and leading to better acceptance of science by adolescents. Therefore, increasing efforts are being undertaken to integrate traditional creativity (Arts), in modifying STEM to STEAM. Consequently, a valid way of empirically quantifying of creativity of adolescents is needed. In this study, part of a European initiative (CREATIONS), an 8-item Likert-scale questionnaire quantifying individual creativity was administered to a sample of 2,713 students, aged 11–19 (M ± SD = 15.71 ± 2.24; 54.7% females), revealing two subscales: one, labelled Act, covering conscious and trainable cognitive processes; the second, named Flow, contained items describing elements of flow experiences, a mental state of creativity. Analyses indicated that there were no gender differences and that younger students’ creativity scores were higher than those of older students. Recommendations for implementation in STEAM lessons are discussed.     

Information-Hierarchical Organization of Natural Systems I: The Information-Physical Principle

The mathematical notion of information characterizing system organization as such has been developed. The information-physical principle, which characterizes an information exchange in natural hierarchical systems and has been confirmed by its numerous applications, is laid down. It is shown to be based on the ancient “matter–measure–information” concept of physical world structure and talked about in the Hermes Trismegistus's will.     

Information-Hierarchical Organization of Natural Systems II: Futures of Man–Biosphere Interactions and Climate Control

The informational influence of both the vegetation and human society on climate dynamics in moderate and arid zones is revealed. The stability of the Eurasia climate during the last 2,000 years was determined by the specific structure of the Christianity-Judaism sociobiosystem. The study has also revealed the potential information-hierarchical organization of human society with a 71,874-year existence. This organization includes three world religions (Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam) as subsystems and provides both the global stability of climate processes and the conservation of evolutionary developed information-hierarchical organization of the biosphere.     

Cultural influences on preference consistency: Consistency at the individual and collective levels

Previous research has shown that there are cultural differences in self-concept consistency across situations. However, little is known about cultural differences in preference consistency over time. The present research examined whether Americans are more consistent in their preferences over time than are Japanese. As hypothesized, there were cultural differences in self-reported ( and ) and actual ( and ) preference consistency over time. Further, cultural differences in preference consistency at the individual level (Study 1) were found to aggregate into collective level differences ( and ) in the consistency of preference trends, such as the popularity of baby names. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

Cost minimization during simulated evolution of paired neural networks leads to asymmetries and specialization

Motivated by specialization (lateralization) that occurs in corresponding left and right regions of the cerebral cortex, several past computational models have studied conditions under which functional specialization can arise during learning due to underlying asymmetries in paired neural networks. However, these past studies have not addressed the basic issue of how such underlying asymmetries arise in the first place. As an initial step in addressing this issue, we investigated the hypothesis that underlying asymmetries will appear in paired neural networks during a simulated evolutionary process when fitness is based not only on maximizing performance, but also on minimizing various ‘costs’ such as energy consumption, neural connection weights, and response times. Simulated evolution under these conditions consistently produced networks with left–right asymmetries in region size, excitability and plasticity. These underlying asymmetries were often synergistic, leading to subsequent functional lateralization during network training. While our computational models are too simple for these results to be directly extrapolated to real nervous systems, they provide support for the hypothesis that brain asymmetries and lateralization in biological nervous systems may be a consequence of cost minimization present during evolution, and are the first computational demonstration of emergent population lateralization.     

Do patients with OCD and pathological gambling have similar dysfunctional cognitions?

The obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder (OCSD) theory postulates that a wide range of disorders is closely related to OCD. Current cognitive models ascertain that certain beliefs leading to misinterpretation of the significance of intrusions are important in the etiology and maintenance of OCD. This study examined whether pathological gambling, a disorder belonging to the OC spectrum, is characterized by similar dysfunctional cognitions as OCD. Dysfunctional beliefs of OCD patients were compared to those of patients with pathological gambling, panic disorder and normal controls. These beliefs were measured by the Obsessive-compulsive Beliefs Questionnaire-87 (OBQ-87), which was developed by a group of leading OCD researchers [Behav. Res. Ther. 35 (1997) 667]. It was hypothesized that according to the OCSD theory, pathological gamblers would exhibit similar cognitions to OCD patients, as well as increased levels of OCD symptoms. Analysis showed that OCD patients exhibited higher OBQ-87 scores than both panic patients and normal controls, but equal to pathological gambling patients. Pathological gamblers exhibited, however, no increase in OCD symptoms. These mixed results do not seem to support the OC spectrum theory for pathological gambling, moreover being contradictory to contemporary cognitive OCD models.     

Incomplete figure perception and invisible masking

The Gollin test (measuring recognition thresholds for fragmented line drawings of everyday objects and animals) has traditionally been regarded as a test of incomplete figure perception or 'closure', though there is a debate about how such closure is achieved. Here, figural incompleteness is considered to be the result of masking, such that absence of contour elements of a fragmented figure is the result of the influence of an 'invisible' mask. It is as though the figure is partly obscured by a mask having parameters identical to those of the background. This mask is 'invisible' only consciously, but for the early stages of visual processing it is real and has properties of multiplicative noise. Incomplete Gollin figures were modeled as the figure covered by the mask with randomly distributed transparent and opaque patches. We adjusted the statistical characteristics of the contour image and empty noise patches and processed those using spatial and spatial-frequency measures. Across 73 figures, despite inter-subject variability, mean recognition threshold was always approximately 15% of total contour in naive observers. Recognition worsened with increasing spectral similarity between the figure and the 'invisible' mask. Near threshold, the spectrum of the fragmented image was equally similar to that of the 'invisible' mask and complete image. The correlation between spectral parameters of figures at threshold and complete figures was greatest for figures that were most easily recognised. Across test sessions, thresholds reduced when either figure or mask parameters were familiar. We argue that recognition thresholds for Gollin stimuli in part reflect the extraction of signal from noise.     

Comparing solid-body with point-light animations

The movement of faces provides useful information for a variety of tasks and is now an active area of research. We compare here two ways of presenting face motion in experiments: as solid-body animations and as point-light displays. In the first experiment solid-body and point-light animations, based on the same motion-captured marker data, produced similar levels of performance on a sex-judgment task. The trend was for an advantage for the point-light displays, probably in part because of residual spatial cues available in such stimuli. In the second experiment we compared spatially normalised point-light displays of marker data with solid-body animations and pseudorandom point-light animations. Performance with solid-body animations and normalised point-light displays was similar and above chance, while performance with the pseudorandom point-light stimuli was not above chance. We conclude that both relatively few well-placed points and solid-body animations provide useful information about facial motion, but that a greater number of randomly placed points does not support above-chance performance. Solid-body animations have the methodological advantages of reducing the importance of marker placement and are more effective in isolating motion information, even if they are subsequently rendered as point-light displays.