Internalism, active externalism, and nonconceptual content: the ins and outs of cognition

Active externalism (also known as the extended mind hypothesis) says that we use objects and situations in the world as external memory stores that we consult as needs dictate. This gives us economies of storage: We do not need to remember that Bill has blue eyes and wavy hair if we can acquire this information by looking at Bill. I argue for a corollary to this position, which I call 'internalism.' Internalism says we can acquire knowledge on a need-to-know basis by consulting portable, inner analogues of the world. This, however, leads to a dilemma. If the knowledge was stored in memory, it is difficult to see how we could have acquired it by consulting inner analogues, for it would seem that we knew it already. Moreover, if it was stored in memory, we lose the economies of storage that provide much of the rationale for external memory stores and hence for their inner analogues. If, on the other hand, the knowledge was not stored in memory, it is difficult to see how we could have acquired it by consulting inner analogues, for it was not there to be acquired. I propose a solution to this problem that turns on the concept of nonconceptual content, and I relate the solution to Stephen Kosslyn's (1994) architecture of perception and visual mental imagery. Viewed in a broader context, the solution shows that the world leaks into the mind, as well as mind leaking into the world.     

科技人员创造动机与创造力的研究

本研究初步探讨了我国科技人员创造动机与创造力的关系及其基本特征。 1 74名科技人员回答了成就目标、内部动机与外部动机、创造动机和创造力问卷。研究结果表明我国科技人员有较高的创造力和创造动机水平 ,在动机中内部动机水平最高。在动机与创造力的关系上 ,内部动机对创造力的直接与间接影响均达到了显著水平 ,外部动机对创造力的负面影响没有达到显著水平 ,任务目标对创造力无影响 ,自我目标对创造力的积极影响未达到显著水平。     

Adolescents' perceptions of school neighbourhood built environment for walking and cycling to school

Walking is a more common transport mode to school than cycling among adolescents in many countries worldwide. Adolescents' and their parents' have different perceptions of walking versus cycling to school. This study compared adolescents' perceptions of school neighbourhood built environment characteristics for walking versus cycling to school. Adolescents familiar with their school neighbourhoods (n=411; age: 15.0 ± 1.2 years; male: 31.3%) from six secondary schools in Dunedin, New Zealand completed an online survey about their travel to school and perceptions of their school neighbourhood environments for walking and cycling to school. Overall, 32.8% of adolescents walked to school, and only 1.2% cycled. More adolescents reported sufficient footpaths than cycle paths (77.9% vs 42.3%) in their school neighbourhoods. Compared to walking, adolescents reported that their school neighbourhood environments provided less support for cycling to school, including fewer crossings/signals for cyclists versus pedestrians (52.8% vs 69.3%), fewer street lights (cycling vs walking; 57.9% vs 70.3%) and fewer destinations within easy cycling versus walking distance from their school (65.5% vs 50.4%) (all p<0.05). Active transport users perceived lower traffic volume, higher traffic speed, and fewer hilly streets along the walking and cycling routes to school than motorised and mixed transport users (all p<0.05). Future active transport interventions in school neighbourhoods need to be tailored to address walking- and/or cycling-specific barriers, including built environment and traffic safety in a local context.     

Identifying the determinants and understanding their effect on the perception of safety,security, and comfort by pedestrians and cyclists: A systematic review

The continuous growth of the world population and its agglomeration in urban cities, demand an increasing need for mobility, which in turn contributes to the worsening of traffic congestion and pollution in cities. Therefore, it is necessary to promote active travel, such as walking and cycling. However, this is not an easy task, as pedestrians and cyclists are the most vulnerable link in the system, and low levels of safety, security and comfort can contribute to choosing private cars over active travel. Hence, it is essential to understand the determinants that affect the perceptions of pedestrians and cyclists, in order to support the definition of policies that promote the use of active modes of transport. Thus, this article fills an important gap in the literature by identifying and discussing the objective and subjective determinants that affect the perceptions of safety, security and comfort of pedestrians and cyclists, through a systematic review of the literature published in the last ten years. It followed the PRISMA statement guidelines and checklist, resulting in 68 relevant articles that were carefully analyzed. The results show that the perception of safety is negatively affected by fear of traffic-related injuries, fear of falling related to infrastructure and infrastructure maintenance, and negative behavior of drivers. Regarding security, crime was the major concern of pedestrians and cyclists, either with emphasis on the person or on personal property. With regard to comfort, high levels of air and noise pollution, lack of vegetation, bad weather conditions, slopes and long commuting distances negatively affected the users' perception. The results also suggest that poor lighting affects all domains, providing a negative perception of safety, security and comfort. Similarly, the presence of people is seen as negatively influencing the perception of safety and comfort, while the absence of people negatively impacts the perception of security. Therefore, the findings achieved by this study are key to assist in the definition of transport policies and infrastructure creation in large smart cities. Additionally, new transport policies are proposed and discussed.     

Disability,inclusive adventurous training and adapted sport: Two soldiers' stories of involvement

ObjectivesTo generate insights into the personal meaning and value of an inclusive adventurous training and adapted sport course for military personnel who have experienced physical disability as a result of injuries sustained during active service.DesignNarrative storytelling approach based on collaboratively written creative nonfictions.MethodFirst-person stories were constructed with two male soldiers on the basis of informal interviews and conversations across five days of a residential adventure training and sport course.ResultsThe stories portray the personal benefits, meaning, and value of adventurous training and sport by illuminating each individual's experiences since injury/trauma, his experiences while on the course, and how these interact to shape psychological wellbeing and future life horizons. They reveal a complex interplay between physical, psychological, and social disability among some military personnel.ConclusionsThe story as analysis expands current understanding of the psychological effects of physical activity for injured military personnel through: (i) providing an alternative analytical approach; (ii) revealing subjectivities, personal meaning, and biographical connections to generate a holistic understanding of the individual; (iii) preserving the complexity and ambiguity that characterize lived experience to support plural understandings; (iv) sharing an embodied representation as an ethical act of witnessing another's life. We suggest these kinds of understandings are necessary for physical activity practitioners who wish to support military personnel who have sustained a disability.     

Eye movement control during scene viewing: Immediate degradation and enhancement effects of spatial frequency filtering

What controls how long the eyes remain fixated during scene perception? We investigated whether fixation durations are under the immediate control of the quality of the current scene image. Subjects freely viewed photographs of scenes in preparation for a later memory test while their eye movements were recorded. Using the saccade-contingent display change method, scenes were degraded (Experiment 1) or enhanced (Experiment 2) via blurring (low-pass filtering) during predefined saccades. Results showed that fixation durations immediately after a display change were influenced by the degree of blur, with a monotonic relationship between degree of blur and fixation duration. The results also demonstrated that fixation durations can be both increased and decreased by changes in the degree of blur. The results suggest that fixation durations in scene viewing are influenced by the ease of processing of the image currently in view. The results are consistent with models of saccade generation in scenes in which moment-to-moment difficulty in visual and cognitive processing modulates fixation durations.     

The creativity-spirituality construct and its role in transformative coping

The present study examines whether and to what extent creativity and spirituality are used in coping in a cross-cultural and cross-denominational student sample of 610 participants. Two new theory-based instruments, displaying good internal consistency and satisfactory levels of content-, and construct validity, are introduced, the Creative Coping Scale-19 (CCS-19), and the Spiritual Coping Scale-30 (SCS-30). A positive, moderate relationship between creative and spiritual coping emerged, thus supporting the theory of transformative coping. The findings demonstrated that participants applied both creative and spiritual coping in their lives in order to deal with acute and chronic stress. Associations between creative and spiritual coping and demographic variables were outlined. Practical applications for the promotion of mental health were discussed. Future research should seek to replicate and extend the present findings.     

Working with prisoners in a transitional space

In this paper I talk about the potential benefits for offenders of working within the transitional space provided by a discussion group. Through ‘play’ these men have an opportunity to interact and learn to be potent without resorting to omnipotent defences of violence to get their own way. In considering the discussion group within the context of the prison as a whole, I focus on the relationship between staff and prisoners and how this relationship can be managed in such a way as to create more opportunities for thinking, leading to an enhanced focus on rehabilitation.     

The Impossible Ideal: A Patient-Oriented Therapy

Abstract

Langan R. Proteus Reprised. Int Forum Psychoanal 1997;6:45-49. Stockholm, ISSN 0803-706X.

Proteus was the mythical Greek sea-god able to change his shape at will. In the Odyssey, King Menelaos manages not to release his wrestler's hold on the mercurial trickster, and theory can, at last, return home. The myth has sundry and changing applications to the living experience of what goes on between patient and psychoanalyst. In one sense, the analyst's job is to be like Proteus, escaping the transferential grip whereby the patient tries to pin the analyst into characterological shapes of the past. In another sense, the patient is Proteus, and the analyst's job is to hold firmly to the process of future change, refusing to settle for one fixed version of selfhood. In yet another sense, both patient and analyst become Proteus, experiencing fluidly present senses of self as an inner subjective “I,” as an intimately relational “Thou” with “Thee,” and objectively, as one Other among others. Additionally, the myth insinuates within the psychoanalytic situation a potential transcendence of time.