Events and the ontology of individuals: verbs as a source of individuating mass and count nouns

What does mass-count syntax contribute to the interpretation of noun phrases (NPs), and how much of NP meaning is contributed by lexical items alone? Many have argued that count syntax specifies reference to countable individuals (e.g., cats) while mass syntax specifies reference to unindividuated entities (e.g., water). We evaluated this claim using the quantity judgment method, and tested the interpretation of words used in mass and count syntax that described either protracted, "durative" events (e.g., mass: some dancing; count: a dance), or instantaneous, "punctual" events (e.g., mass: some jumping; count: a jump). For durative words, participants judged, for example, that six brief dances are more dances but less dancing than two long dances, thus showing a significant difference in their interpretation of the count and mass usages. However, for punctual words, participants judged, for example, that six small jumps are both more jumps and more jumping than two long jumps, resulting in no difference due to mass-count syntax. Further, when asked which dimensions are important for comparing quantities of durative and punctual events, participants ranked number as first in importance for durative and punctual words presented in count syntax, but also for punctual words presented in mass syntax. These results indicate that names for punctual events individuate when used in either mass or count syntax, and thus provide evidence against the idea that mass syntax forces an unindividuated construal. They also indicate that event punctuality as encoded by verbs is importantly linked to the individuation of NPs, and may access a common underlying ontology of individuals.     

TOP‐DOWN AND BOTTOM‐UP: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL INFORMATION PROCESSING AND MINDFULNESS AS PREDICTORS IN MATERNAL–INFANT INTERACTION

The cross‐generational transmission of attachment appears to reflect a complex interplay of factors, which have been challenging to identify. The current longitudinal study explored the maternal cognitive model of relationships through language use, maternal mindfulness, and attachment style assessed prenatally, as predictors of maternal response to distress and infant behavior at 6 months’ postpartum. Infant behavior to the mother also was examined to provide an understanding of the evolving relationship. Thirty‐two females were interviewed prenatally regarding social and family experiences. At 6 months’ postpartum, each mother participated in a video‐recorded session where she was asked to teach her infant a developmentally appropriate task. Videos were analyzed using the NCAST Teaching Protocol. Language use prenatally as well as the mindfulness facets (acting with awareness and describing) predicted the mothers’ ability to respond to infant distress, indicating greater attunement. Infant's response to mother and clarity of cues also were predicted by maternal pronoun use. The study highlights the role of internal working models reflective of interpersonal beliefs, cognitive models, and current‐moment awareness in maternal behavior. The effect of maternal language on infant behavior arguably indicates the infant's integration of maternal internal working models.     

Self-consciousness impairments in schizophrenia with and without first rank symptoms using the moving rubber hand illusion

IntroductionThe moving rubber hand illusion allows the evaluation both the sense of body ownership and agency using visuo-motor stimulations.MethodsWe used the moving rubber hand illusion in anatomic congruence with explicit measures to compare active asynchronous and passive synchronous movements in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia with first rank symptoms (FRS) (n = 31) versus without FRS (n = 25).ResultsPatients with FRS are characterized by a lack of agency in active asynchronous condition. The two groups had no sense of ownership in synchronous passive condition. Using a multivariate regression model, we found an association between agency and body ownership measures in the active asynchronous condition in two groups (OR: 1.825, p < 0.001). In the passive condition, this association was only present in the group with first rank symptoms (OR: 2.04, p < 0.001).ConclusionTemporal proximity and sensorimotor information are essential in the understanding of self-consciousness disorders in schizophrenia.     

Automatic gender detection of dream reports: A promising approach

A computer program was developed in an attempt to differentiate the dreams of males from females. Hypothesized gender predictors were based on previous literature concerning both dream content and written language features. Dream reports from home-collected dream diaries of 100 male (144 dreams) and 100 female (144 dreams) adolescent Anglophones were matched for equal length. They were first scored with the Hall and Van de Castle (HVDC) scales and quantified using DreamSAT. Two male and two female undergraduate students were asked to read all dreams and predict the dreamer’s gender. They averaged a pairwise percent correct gender prediction of 75.8% (κ = 0.516), while the Automatic Analysis showed that the computer program’s accuracy was 74.5% (κ = 0.492), both of which were higher than chance of 50% (κ = 0.00). The prediction levels were maintained when dreams containing obvious gender identifiers were eliminated and integration of HVDC scales did not improve prediction.     

My body until proven otherwise: Exploring the time course of the full body illusion

Evidence from the Full Body Illusion (FBI) has shown that adults can embody full bodies which are not their own when they move synchronously with their own body or are viewed from a first-person perspective. However, there is currently no consensus regarding the time course of the illusion. Here, for the first time, we examined the effect of visuomotor synchrony (synchronous/asynchronous/no movement) on the FBI over time. Surprisingly, we found evidence of embodiment over a virtual body after five seconds in all conditions. Embodiment decreased with increased exposure to asynchronous movement, but remained high in synchronous and no movement conditions. We suggest that embodiment of a body seen from a first-person perspective is felt by default, and that embodiment can then be lost in the face of contradictory cues. These results have significant implications for our understanding of how multisensory cues contribute to embodiment.     

Croyance en un soi chanceux : effet de la croyance en la chance personnelle sur l’émergence et le maintien les conduites de jeu de hasard et d’argent

Luck is perceived by some people as a quality of the person (as opposed to the situation) that can be used to maximize the outcome of chance games. This paper reviews empirical studies that examine the conditions under which perceptions of personal luck can be experienced, and how it might facilitate the increase of gambling behavior to pathological levels. Specifically, the opportunity for choice and the experience of near outcomes in games of chance are considered as ways to affect the extent to which perceptions of personal luck are experienced. The ease of facilitating these perceptions suggests that personal luck may be an overlooked factor in the emergence of gambling pathology. As such, implications for gambling behavior and treatment of problem gamblers are discussed.     

Perception and its objects

Early modern empiricists thought that the nature of perceptual experience is given by citing the object presented to the mind in that experience. Hallucination and illusion suggest that this requires untenable mind-dependent objects. Current orthodoxy replaces the appeal to direct objects with the claim that perceptual experience is characterized instead by its representational content. This paper argues that the move to content is problematic, and reclaims the early modern empiricist insight as perfectly consistent, even in cases of illusion, with the realist contention that these direct objects of perception are the persisting mind-independent physical objects we all know and love.

Making the uncontrollable seem controllable: The role of action in the illusion of control

It is well known that certain variables can bias judgements about the perceived contingency between an action and an outcome, making them depart from the normative predictions. For instance, previous studies have proven that the activity level or probability of responding, P(R), is a crucial variable that can affect these judgements in objectively noncontingent situations. A possible account for the P(R) effect is based on the differential exposure to actual contingencies during the training phase, which is in turn presumably produced by individual differences in participants' P(R). The current two experiments replicate the P(R) effect in a free-response paradigm, and show that participants' judgements are better predicted by P(R) than by the actual contingency to which they expose themselves. Besides, both experiments converge with previous empirical data, showing a persistent bias that does not vanish as training proceeds. These findings contrast with the preasymptotic and transitory effect predicted by several theoretical models.     

Searching for Control: Priming Randomness Increases the Evaluation of Ritual Efficacy

Reestablishing feelings of control after experiencing uncertainty has long been considered a fundamental motive for human behavior. We propose that rituals (i.e., socially stipulated, causally opaque practices) provide a means for coping with the aversive feelings associated with randomness due to the perception of a connection between ritual action and a desired outcome. Two experiments were conducted (one in Brazil [n = 40] and another in the United States [n = 94]) to evaluate how the perceived efficacy of rituals is affected by feelings of randomness. In a between‐subjects design, the Scramble Sentence Task was used as a priming procedure in three conditions (i.e., randomness, negativity, and neutral) and participants were then asked to rate the efficacy of rituals used for problem‐solving purposes. The results demonstrate that priming randomness increased participants' perception of ritual efficacy relative to negativity and neutral conditions. Implications for increasing our understanding of the relationship between perceived control and ritualistic behavior are discussed.