Pentecostal Dynamics of African Initiated Churches

This essay is a historical consideration of the body of churches known as African Initiated Churches (AICs). The key research questions I am investigating are whether this church can be classified as Pentecostal and how it employs transnational networking in its mission strategy. I have approached this question by exploring the Pentecostal dynamics and transnational networking of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church as an example of an AIC. To this end, I analyze the Pentecostal and transnational nature of an international ecumenical conference organized by the church in London in 2017. This essay is written from the perspective of someone who was born and raised within the church movement, but has also studied the movement as part of African Christianity. The originality of this essay is in its analysis of the transnational nature of the international ecumenical conference.     

Response to Stuart Kauffman: The Measurement Problem in Quantum Mechanics

Richard Feynman, a 1965 Nobel Prize winner in physics, quoting an unknown philosopher, said: “It is necessary for the very existence of science that the same conditions always produce the same results.” And Feynman's reply: “Well, they don't.” Double-slit experiments with both slits open and the wave interference pattern created by electrons falling on a screen behind the slits speak volumes to those two statements and the interpretive problem created by the non-deterministic behavior of microscopic matter. Quantum mechanics (QM) with its successes over the last 85 years has created the information age, and with insights into nature has given humans an economy concentrated with products based on quantum technology. All this even with questions about the fundamental aspects of measurement in the quantum world still being debated! Discussing the measurement aspect of QM does not require a physics background where physics scholars join other scholarly disciplines engaged in gaining knowledge about the reality of the one world of human experience. The necessary tools for discussion are imagination, speculation, and curiosity. But for a new credible interpretation of the measurement problem, quantum training or a quantum theoretician is required.     

The Temporal Relations of PTSD Symptoms Among Treatment-Seeking Victims of Sexual Assault: A Longitudinal Study

This prospective study assessed the temporal relationships between the symptom clusters of PTSD in two nonprobability samples of treatment-seeking victims of sexual abuse: rape victims and adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Both groups were assessed at three time periods using self-report measures of PTSD symptomology. Findings from two cross-lagged panel analyses indicated weak temporal relationships between the symptom clusters of PTSD; however, avoidance and emotional numbing symptoms were found to exert the strongest cross-lagged effects. Avoidance and emotional numbing symptoms were also found to be the strongest predictor of subsequently meeting caseness for PTSD in both samples. Results suggest that there are minimal cross-lagged effects between the PTSD symptom clusters after three months from traumatic exposure.     

Tactile order memory: evidence for sequence learning phenomena found with other stimulus types

We examine serial order memory for sequences of tactile stimuli and investigate whether established characteristics of order memory, namely serial position effects, error distributions, and Hebb repetition learning, are observed with tactile memory. Visually obscured participants received six tactile stimulations: one to each of six fingers. At test, participants lifted the six fingers in the order of stimulation. For every third trial participants received the same order of stimulation (i.e. the Hebb sequence). Serial recall accuracy produced the canonical bowed serial position function found for immediate serial recall. In addition, recall for the Hebb sequence improved relative to the filler sequences, providing the first demonstration of the Hebb repetition effect with tactile stimuli. Analysis of errors revealed close similarities to that reported with verbal and visual stimuli. This experiment further generalises established features of order memory to tactile memory, supporting the utilisation of an analogous order memory mechanism across stimuli.     

错误加工意识水平与错误相关脑电成分

错误加工的意识水平包括有意识水平、无意识水平以及介于两者之间的意识水平。意识水平的划分通常通过错误报告范式实现。根据其对意识水平的划分, 可以将相关研究分为二元意识水平研究和多元意识水平研究。已有研究, 主要关注于意识水平与错误诱发的Ne、Pe的关系。两类研究一致表明, Pe受意识水平的调节, 但是并没有得到fMRI研究的一致支持。对Ne的激活是否独立于意识, 研究者们仍存在争议。还有研究考察了注意对错误意识水平的影响, 结果支持Pe与意识水平共变的观点, 但是对注意如何影响错误意识水平还存在质疑。在对以上研究进行整理与分析的基础上, 对将来的研究提出了建议。     

Vice and Reason

Aristotle's account of vice presents a puzzle: (1) Viciouspeople must be guided by reason, since they act on decision(prohairesis), not on their non-rational desires. (2) And yet theycannot be guided by reason, since they are said to pay attention totheir non-rational part and not to live in accordance with reason. Wecan understand the conception of vice the reconciles these two claims,once we examine Aristotle's account of (a) the pursuit of the fine andof the expedient; (b) the connexion between vice and the pursuit ofpleasure; (c) the particular kind of regret to which the vicious personis subject.     

The development of spontaneous trait inferences about the actor and spontaneous trait transferences about the informant: Evidence from children aged 8–13 years

In social‐cognitive research, little attention has been paid to the developmental course of spontaneous trait inferences about the actor (STIs about the actor) and spontaneous trait transferences about the informant (STTs about the informant). Using a false recognition paradigm, Study 1 investigated the developmental course of STIs and Study 2 investigated the developmental course of STTs, comparing 8‐, 9‐, 10‐, 11‐, 12‐ and 13‐year olds. The results of Study 1 showed that 8‐year olds could make STIs about the actor, and the magnitude of STIs increased from ages 8 to 10 years, stabilised at the age of 10, 11, 12 years, and decreased from ages 12 through 13 years. The results of Study 2 showed that 8‐year olds could make STTs about the informant, and the magnitude of STTs did not vary with age. In all age groups, the magnitude of STIs about the actor was greater than that of STTs about the informant.     

Positive affect as a moderator of liking effects on trust and attraction

Attitude similarity effects on attraction appear to be mediated sequentially by positive affect, inferred attraction, and trust. That is, the first two supposedly distal mediators influence each other in building trust, a mediator proximal to attraction. However, the correlational nature of data reported heretofore precludes definitive conclusions about sequential dependency between the two distal mediators. In the research reported, therefore, the authors manipulated positive affect in the participants (Time 1) and liking of the partner for them (Time 2), and measured trust before attraction. As predicted, liking effects on trust and attraction were stronger when positive affect in the participants was high than when it was low. Importantly, the interaction effect in trust fully mediated the interaction effect in attraction.     

建构主义教学与元思维的关系:认知压力的解释

本研究采用建构主义教学评估问卷、认知压力问卷、一般元思维量表与情境元思维量表对381名学生进行测量,考察了建构主义教学与元思维之间的关系,以及一级、二级认知压力在其中的中介或解释作用。研究采用结构方程模型分析,结果显示:(1)仅考虑一级认知压力时,建构主义教学能正向预测两种元思维,一级认知压力在建构主义教学与两种元思维间皆起部分中介作用;(2)仅考虑二级认知压力时,其在建构主义教学与两种元思维间皆起完全中介作用;(3)同时加入两种认知压力时,仅二级认知压力的中介作用显著。     

人声加工的神经机制

人声是人类听觉环境中最熟知和重要的声音, 传递着大量社会相关信息。与视觉人脸加工类似, 大脑对人声也有着特异性加工。研究者使用电生理、脑成像等手段找到了对人声有特异性反应的脑区, 即颞叶人声加工区(TVA), 并发现非人类动物也有类似的特异性加工区域。人声加工主要涉及言语、情绪和身份信息的加工, 分别对应于三条既相互独立又相互作用的神经通路。研究者提出了双通路模型、多阶段模型和整合模型分别对人声的言语、情绪和身份加工进行解释。未来研究需要进一步讨论人声加工的特异性能否由特定声学特征的选择性加工来解释, 并深入探究特殊人群(如自闭症和精神分裂症患者)的人声加工的神经机制。