Similarity and attribution in concept combination: Reply to Wisniewski

Wisniewski raises several important points in his comment on our study of the (non)role of similarity in concept combination. He notes that feature diagnosticity is an important factor in property attribution. He also points out that relational interpretations of combined concepts depend on thematic role plausibility, not constituent similarity. We agree with both of these points. Wisniewski further identifies a possible item artifact that might account for our results. However, reexamination of those items fails to support this hypothesis. Wisniewski also claims that an alignment process is necessary to specify how an attributed property should be instantiated in the combined concept. We argue instead that postcomprehension elaboration processes can account for specific property instantiations. Finally, we suggest that the perceived similarity between the constituents of a combined concept is an outcome of the comprehension process, not a prior condition for, or an integral part of, that process.     

Android Epistemology For Babies: Relections On Words,Thoughts And Theories

Words, Thoughts and Theories arguesthat infants and children discover the physical and psychological featuresof the world by a process akin to scientific inquiry, more or less asconceived by philosophers of science in the 1960s (the theory theory).This essay discusses some of the philosophical background to analternative, more popular, ``modular' or ``maturational' account ofdevelopment, dismisses an array of philosophical objections to the theorytheory, suggests that the theory theory offers an undeveloped project forartificial intelligence, and, relying on recent psychological work oncausation, offers suggestions about how principles of causal inference mayprovide a developmental solution to the ``frame problem'.     

The shared and unique genetic relationship between mental well-being,depression and anxiety symptoms and cognitive function in healthy twins

Alterations to cognitive function are often reported with depression and anxiety symptoms, yet few studies have examined the same associations with mental well-being. This study examined the association between mental well-being, depression and anxiety symptoms and cognitive function in 1502 healthy adult monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins, and the shared/unique contribution of genetic (G) and environmental (E) variance. Using linear mixed models, mental well-being was positively associated (p?β?=?0.127), inhibition (β?=?0.096), cognitive flexibility (β?=?0.149), motor coordination (β?=?0.114) and working memory (β?=?0.156), whereas depression and anxiety symptoms were associated (p?β?=??0.134), inhibition (β?=??0.139), cognitive flexibility (β?=??0.116) and executive function (β?=??0.139). Bivariate twin modelling showed well-being shared a small environmental correlation with motor coordination and a small genetic correlation with working memory. Trivariate twin modelling showed well-being shared a small genetic correlation with inhibition, whereas depression and anxiety symptoms shared a small environmental correlation with inhibition. The remaining variance was mostly driven by unique G and/or E variance. Overall, well-being and depression and anxiety symptoms show both independent and shared relationships with cognitive functions but this is largely attributable to unique G or E variance and small shared G/E variance between pairs of variables.     

A self-determination theory approach to problematic drinking and intimate partner violence

Problematic drinking has long been established as an important antecedent to the perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV). As little research has evaluated individual differences beyond anger in this association, this research examines problematic drinking and IPV perpetration through the lens of self-determination theory (SDT), the relational perspective suggesting individuals are motivated to be in their relationship for autonomous (i.e., self-driven) and controlled (i.e., guilt-driven) reasons. We test the hypothesis that problematic drinking is more strongly associated with IPV among those who are controlled in their motivation in four independent samples (N?=?617). College students in relationships completed measures of alcohol consumption, negative alcohol-related consequences, relationship motivation, and IPV perpetration. Results generally suggested that the association between both alcohol consumption and negative alcohol-related consequences and IPV perpetration is only significant among those endorsing greater controlled motivation. This study supports problematic drinking as not being an equal risk factor for all individuals, and suggests that some people may be more vulnerable to problematic drinking resulting in relationship aggression.