Lateralization of object-shape information in semantic processing

An experiment was conducted to examine whether perceptual information, specifically the shape of objects, is activated during semantic processing. Subjects judged whether a target word was related to a prime word. Prime-target pairs that were not associated, but whose referents had similar shapes (e.g. LADDER-RAILROAD) yielded longer "no" responses than unassociated prime-target pairs, suggesting that shape information had been activated. A visual-field manipulation showed that, in right-handed subjects, this effect was localized in the left hemisphere. This finding is consistent with behavioral, brain imaging, and lesion data, which suggest that object shape at the category level is represented in the left hemisphere.     

Cumulative semantic inhibition in picture naming: experimental and computational studies

We report an experiment in which subjects named 120 pictures, consisting of series of five pictures drawn from each of 24 semantic categories (and intermixed with 45 fillers). The number of intervening trials (lag) between successive presentations of members of the same category varied from two to eight. Subjects' naming latencies were slowed by 30 ms for each preceding member of the category. This effect was both cumulative and linear, and unrelated to the lag elapsing since the previous presentation of a category member. These results definitively demonstrate the occurrence of cumulative interference for word retrieval by prior retrieval of other exemplars of the same semantic category-cumulative semantic inhibition. We claim that this inhibition effect could only occur if the spoken word production system possesses three specific properties (competition, priming, and sharing of semantic activation). We provide computational-modelling evidence in support of this claim. We show that no current theory of spoken word production has all of these properties. In their current form, all these theories are falsified by these results. We briefly discuss the obstacles that may be encountered by current models were they modified to account for our findings.     

Semantic distance effects on object and action naming

Graded interference effects were tested in a naming task, in parallel for objects and actions. Participants named either object or action pictures presented in the context of other pictures (blocks) that were either semantically very similar, or somewhat semantically similar or semantically dissimilar. We found that naming latencies for both object and action words were modulated by the semantic similarity between the exemplars in each block, providing evidence in both domains of graded semantic effects.     

Eros as the Educational Principle of Democracy

This paper explores the value of the eros motif for critical pedagogy and citizenship education. The conceptual affinities between eros and democracy are identified and integrated into a theory of democratic political education. Long recognized as vital to the process of self knowledge, the ancient Greek concept of eros has nevertheless been largely erased from contemporary educational debate. By retrieving eros from the fringe of academic discourse and integrating it with critical pedagogy, the aims of radical democracy can be more fully achieved. The essay emphasizes the civil society or cultural dimensions of democracy as against its legal or procedural aspects. Renewed emphasis on the associational qualities of democracy underscore the importance of eros as an educational principle. The ancient pedagogical motif of educating the desires is posited as an alternative to the liberal/modernist paradigm of education which de-values affective domains of knowledge.     

FUNCTIONALISM, FALLIBILISM, AND ANTI–FOUNDATIONALISM IN WIEMAN'S EMPIRICAL THEISM

Abstract. Empirical philosophy of religion is usually appraised in light of its theological uses, rather than in terms of its relation to philosophical forms of empiricism. The present paper examines the empirical theism of Henry Nelson Wieman by relating it to Carl Hempel's critique of functionalism, Karl Popper's use of falsifiability, and the growth of post–empiricist anti–foundationalism in epis–temology. It is concluded that Wieman's argument commits the fallacy of affirming the consequent; that his theistic perspective nevertheless offers an important heuristic device in line with fal–libilism, and that his radical empiricism anticipates recent anti–foundationalist trends.     

Non-semantic contributions to “semantic” redundancy gain

Recently, two groups of researchers have reported redundancy gains (enhanced performance with multiple, redundant targets) in tasks requiring semantic categorization. Here we report two experiments aimed at determining whether the gains found by one of these groups resulted from some form of semantic coactivation. We asked undergraduate psychology students to complete choice RT tasks requiring the semantic categorization of visually presented words, and compared performance with redundant targets from the same semantic category to performance with redundant targets from different semantic categories. If the redundancy gains resulted from the combination of information at a semantic level, they should have been greater in the former than the latter situation. However, our results showed no significant differences in redundancy gain (for latency and accuracy) between same-category and different-category conditions, despite gains appearing in both conditions. Thus, we suggest that redundancy gain in the semantic categorization task may result entirely from statistical facilitation or combination of information at non-semantic levels.     

Additivity of semantic and phonological effects: Evidence from speech production in Mandarin

A number of previous studies using picture–word interference (PWI) tasks conducted with speakers of Western languages have demonstrated non-additive effects of semantic and form overlap between pictures and words, which may indicate underlying non-discrete processing stages in lexical retrieval. The present study used Mandarin speakers and presented Chinese characters as distractors. In two experiments, we crossed semantic relatedness with “pure” phonological (i.e., orthographically unrelated) relatedness and found statistically additive effects. In a third experiment, semantic relatedness was crossed with orthographic overlap (phonological overlap was avoided), and once again we found an additive pattern. The results are discussed with regard to possible cross-linguistic differences between Western and non-Western languages in terms of phonological encoding, as well as concerning the locus of relatedness effects in PWI tasks.     

From Stigmatized Immigrants to Radical Right Voting: A Multilevel Study on the Role of Threat and Contact

This study examines the interplay between presence of stigmatized immigrants, threat, and intergroup contact that underlies radical right voting (voting propensity and actual district‐level vote results). On the one hand, low‐status immigrants are often stigmatized and depicted as threats. Thus, presence of stigmatized immigrants should heighten threat perceptions, thereby increasing radical right voting. On the other hand, as positive contact with stigmatized immigrants is known to reduce anti‐immigrant prejudice, it should also attenuate radical right voting. As predicted, multilevel path analyses with the Swiss Election Studies 2011 data (N = 1,736 respondents in 136 districts) revealed that the proportion of stigmatized immigrants (from former Yugoslavia and Albania) in districts heightened perceived threat. Threat perceptions, in turn, increased propensity to vote for the Swiss People's Party, the major radical right party. In contrast, experiencing positive, everyday contact with former Yugoslav and Albanian immigrants reduced voting propensity through attenuated threat perceptions. Contact and threat perceptions were also related to the actual vote through voting propensity.     

Conceptual Integration of Arithmetic Operations With Real‐World Knowledge: Evidence From Event‐Related Potentials

Research on language processing has shown that the disruption of conceptual integration gives rise to specific patterns of event‐related brain potentials (ERPs)—N400 and P600 effects. Here, we report similar ERP effects when adults performed cross‐domain conceptual integration of analogous semantic and mathematical relations. In a problem‐solving task, when participants generated labeled answers to semantically aligned and misaligned arithmetic problems (e.g., 6 roses + 2 tulips  = ? vs. 6 roses + 2 vases  = ?), the second object label in misaligned problems yielded an N400 effect for addition (but not division) problems. In a verification task, when participants judged arithmetically correct but semantically misaligned problem sentences to be “unacceptable,” the second object label in misaligned sentences elicited a P600 effect. Thus, depending on task constraints, misaligned problems can show either of two ERP signatures of conceptual disruption. These results show that well‐educated adults can integrate mathematical and semantic relations on the rapid timescale of within‐domain ERP effects by a process akin to analogical mapping.     

Historical Semantic Chaining and Efficient Communication: The Case of Container Names

Semantic categories in the world's languages often reflect a historical process of chaining: A name for one referent is extended to a conceptually related referent, and from there on to other referents, producing a chain of exemplars that all bear the same name. The beginning and end points of such a chain might in principle be rather dissimilar. There is also evidence supporting a contrasting picture: Languages tend to support efficient, informative communication, often through semantic categories in which all exemplars are similar. Here, we explore this tension through computational analyses of existing cross‐language naming and sorting data from the domain of household containers. We find (a) formal evidence for historical semantic chaining, and (b) evidence that systems of categories in this domain nonetheless support near‐optimally efficient communication. Our results demonstrate that semantic chaining is compatible with efficient communication, and they suggest that chaining may be constrained by the functional need for efficient communication.