How to Do Things with Emotional Expressions: The Theory of Affective Pragmatics

It is widely accepted that emotional expressions can be rich communicative devices. We can learn much from the tears of a grieving friend, the smiles of an affable stranger, or the slamming of a door by a disgruntled lover. So far, a systematic analysis of what can be communicated by emotional expressions of different kinds and of exactly how such communication takes place has been missing. The aim of this article is to introduce a new framework for the study of emotional expressions that I call the theory of affective pragmatics (TAP). As linguistic pragmatics focuses on what utterances mean in a context, affective pragmatics focuses on what emotional expressions mean in a context. TAP develops and connects two principal insights. The first is the insight that emotional expressions do much more than simply expressing emotions. As proponents of the Behavioral Ecology View of facial movements have long emphasized, bodily displays are sophisticated social tools that can communicate the signaler's intentions and requests. Proponents of the Basic Emotion View of emotional expressions have acknowledged this fact, but they have failed to emphasize its importance, in part because they have been in the grip of a mistaken theory of emotional expressions as involuntary readouts of emotions. The second insight that TAP aims to articulate and apply to emotional expressions is that it is possible to engage in analogs of speech acts without using language at all. I argue that there are important and so far largely unexplored similarities between what we can “do” with words and what we can “do” with emotional expressions. In particular, the core tenet of TAP is that emotional expressions are a means not only of expressing what's inside but also of directing other people's behavior, of representing what the world is like and of committing to future courses of action. Because these are some of the main things we can do with language, the take home message of my analysis is that, from a communicative point of view, much of what we can do with language we can also do with non-verbal emotional expressions. I conclude by exploring some reasons why, despite the analogies I have highlighted, emotional expressions are much less powerful communicative tools than speech acts.     

Does Conditional Affordance Imply Representational Non-Conceptual Content?

Jan Alm?ng believes that James J. Gibson’s notion of affordances offers a reason to reject John McDowell’s thesis that representational perceptual content is conceptual through and through. I argue that Alm?ng’s arguments for the claim that the perceptual content in which conditional affordances feature can be both representational and non-conceptual are questionable.     

From women to objects: Appearance focus, target gender, and perceptions of warmth, morality and competence

Most literally, objectification refers to perceiving a person as an object, and consequently, less than fully human. Research on perceptions of humanness and the stereotype content model suggests that humanness is linked to perceptions of warmth, morality and competence. Merging these insights with objectification theory, we hypothesized that focusing on a woman's, but not a man's, appearance should induce objectification, and thus reduce perceptions of these characteristics. In three studies, females, but not males, were perceived as less competent (Studies 2 and 3) and less warm and moral (Studies 1, 2 and 3) when participants were instructed to focus on their appearance. These findings support our position and help rule out stereotype activation as an alternative explanation to dehumanization. Further, they generalized to targets of different races, familiarity, physical attractiveness and occupational status. Implications for gender inequity and the perpetuation of objectification of women are discussed.     

视觉工作记忆内容对自上而下注意控制的影响：一项ERP研究

采用视觉搜索范式, 以二维抽象对称图形为材料, 通过记录\16名被试在长短两种时间间隔(ISI)条件和有效、中性、无效三种视觉工作记忆内容条件下的行为反应和事件相关电位(ERPs), 探讨视觉工作记忆内容对自上而下注意控制影响的认知过程和脑机制。结果发现：(1)无论ISI长或短, 有效信息条件(记忆图形与目标所在的背景图形相同)的反应时均显著短于无效信息条件(记忆图形与目标所在的背景图形不同)。(2)有效信息条件下的额区P2波幅显著大于中性信息条件(记忆图形不出现在搜索序列中); 枕区P1、N1波幅和潜伏期在视觉工作记忆内容条件下差异不显著; 短ISI条件下, 有效信息条件下的枕区P300波幅显著大于无效信息条件; 长ISI条件下, 有效信息条件的枕区P300波幅显著小于无效信息条件。表明当目标出现在与记忆内容相匹配的客体中时, 激活了工作记忆中的客体表征, 以自上而下的方式优先捕获注意; 同时ISI变化对此过程起着调节作用。     

Some reflections on Husserlian intentionality,intentionalism, and non-propositional contents

This paper discusses Husserl’s theory of intentionality and compares it to contemporary debates about intentionalism. I first show to what extent such a comparison could be meaningful. I then outline the structure of intentionality as found in Ideas I. My main claims are that – in contrast with intentionalism – intentionality for Husserl (i) covers just a region of conscious contents; that it is (ii) essentially a relation between act-processes and presented content; and that (iii) the side of act-processes contains non-representational contents. In the third part, I show that Husserl also (iv) offers resources against intentionalism’s exclusive concern with propositional content.     

Automatic thoughts as a predictor of internalizing and externalizing problems in Chinese adolescents: A test of the cognitive content‐specificity hypothesis with age effects

The main aim of the current study was to test the cognitive content‐specificity hypothesis across internalizing and externalizing problems in Chinese adolescents. The participants consisted of 2,158 adolescents aged 11–19 years from three middle schools, and they completed a number of measures assessing a wide range of automatic thoughts and syndromes related to internalizing and externalizing problems. Multivariate regression analyses demonstrated that thoughts about social threats, personal failure and hostility were the strongest predictors of anxiety, depression, and externalizing problems, respectively. Age was a statistically significant, albeit modest, moderator of the relationship between automatic thoughts about social threat and anxiety. The current study provides support for the cognitive content‐specificity hypothesis in internalizing and externalizing problems in a Chinese sample.     

Rights Forfeiture Theorists Should Embrace the Duty View of Punishment

In this paper, I bring into conversation with each other two views about the justification of punishment: the rights forfeiture theory and the duty view. I argue that philosophers attracted to the former should instead accept the latter.     

Learning unfamiliar faces in infants: The advantage of the regular sequence presentation and the three‐quarter view superiority

We investigated the effect of the regular sequence of different views and the three‐quarter view effect on the learning of unfamiliar faces by infants. 3–8‐month‐old infants were familiarized with unfamiliar female faces in either the regular condition (presenting 11 different face views from the frontal view to the left‐side profile view in regular order) or the random condition (presenting the same 11 different face views in random order). Following the familiarization, infants were tested with a pair of a familiarized and a novel female face either in a three‐quarter (Experiment 1) or in a profile view (Experiment 2). Results showed that only 6–8‐month‐old infants could identify a familiarized face in the regular condition when they were tested in three‐quarter views. In contrast, 6–8‐month‐old infants showed no significant novelty preference in profile views. The results suggest that the regular sequence of different face views promotes the learning of unfamiliar faces by infants over 6 months old. Moreover, our findings imply that the three‐quarter view effect appears in infants.     

Media framing of proposed nuclear reactors: An analysis of print media

Nuclear energy has received substantial recent attention, marketed as a ‘green’ solution to global climate change (GCC) with calls for new reactors. However, considerable debate exists about whether it represents a viable solution to GCC. Given the complexity and urgency of the issue, a full and balanced debate is desirable. Since media play an important role in shaping public perception, we examined print media coverage of proposed reactors in Georgia—one site in the southeastern United States, which has been the focus of such proposals. We analysed the content of editorials and news articles from two local newspapers—the Augusta Chronicle and Atlanta Journal‐Constitution. The former exclusively published pro‐nuclear opinion pieces whereas the latter published a mix of pro‐ and anti‐nuclear opinions. The majority of news articles in both newspapers generally presented balanced arguments. Pro‐ and anti‐nuclear arguments most often reflected economic and environmental benefits and risks, whereas informational text primarily detailed regulatory processes and financing. Findings suggested that informational text was not necessarily ‘neutral’, sometimes masking covert pro‐ and anti‐nuclear content. Implications for how findings might shape public opinion and strategies for shaping media and extending public deliberation are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.