The Evolution of Consciousness and the Theology of Nature

Theology and philosophy have traditionally assumed a radical split between human beings and the rest of creation. Philosophically, the split is usually justified in terms of a locus humanus , some one cognitive trait that human beings possess and nonhuman animals do not. Theologically, this trait is usually identified as that which makes us in the image of God. Research in animal cognition, however, suggests that we are not unique in as many respects as we think we are. This suggests that we rethink the idea of the image of God. In light of this, I propose that we think of nature itself as being in the image of God, with humankind as part of the broader natural and theological process.     

Relativist ethics, scientific objectivity, and concern for human rights

This paper comments on the conflict between ethical relativism and anthropologists’ concerns with rights, and tries to show that neither scientific objectivity nor respect for cultural diversity require denying an extracultural stance for ethical judgments. An earlier version of this paper was presented at a symposium entitled “Ethics in Science: Special Problems in Anthropology and Archaeology” held at the 1998 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Philadelphia, PA, 15 February, 1998.     

Research ethics committees: a regional approach

Guidelines for Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) or research ethics committees exist at national and international levels. These guidelines are based on ethical principles and establish an internationally acceptable standard for the review and conduct of medical research. Having attained a multinational consensus about what these fundamental guidelines should be, IRBs are left to interpret the guidelines and devise their own means of implementing them. Individual and community values bear on the interpretation of the guidelines so different IRBs attain different levels of effectiveness. In the Caribbean and Pan American regions there are few IRBs. Obstacles to the establishment and function of IRBs are exacerbated in developing regions like these by differences in language, literacy, and local value systems; education, administrative expertise, facilities, and access to information are also limited. A regional IRB network might facilitate more uniform ethical review in developing countries, and simplify IRB procedures. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

《淮南子》人力管理的心理学思想

本文认为《淮南子》管理心理学思想,是对先秦道家的继承和发展。文章从人员的甄选心理、任用心理、激励心理三个方面对其中人力管理心理学思想作了整理。     

A human laboratory test of eysenck's theory of incubation: A search for the resolution of the neurotic paradox

A number of recent attempts have been made by neobehaviorists to resolve the neurotic paradox by incorporating a nontraditional learning principle. Eysenck's concept of incubation represents one of these attempts and is the subject matter of this paper. Incubation theory states that under certain conditions exposure to a fear-provoking conditioned stimulus (CS) can result in a substained growth of fear. This concept is used to explain extreme avoidance (symptom) maintenance in extinction. To test this theory, three conditions identified by Eysenck and considered critical to the development of incubation were manipulated in a classical conditioning paradigm: unconditioned stimulus (UCS) intensity, duration of CS exposure, and individual differences in neuroticism/introversion. Both physiological and self-report fear measures were taken. Results indicated that, contrary to incubation theory, fear extinguished in all groups. Long durations of CS exposure were found to be more effective than brief exposure in reducing fear of highly fearful subjects. Clinical implications for therapies using fear exposure such as flooding and implosion were discussed, as well as the resolution of the neurotic paradox via established learning principles.     

Response patterns and cardiovascular effects during response sequence acquisition by humans.

The effects of temporal delays imposed between successive responses and of vitamin C administration were examined on the acquisition of response sequences and on cardiovascular reactivity during sequence acquisition. Thirteen adult subjects (6 female, 7 male), in good health, gave written consent prior to participating in 12 weekly 45-min sessions. Points, exchanged for money after each session, were presented when subjects completed 15-response sequences on a touch-sensitive three-response keypad. A position counter increased from 0 to 14 as subjects emitted correct responses in the sequence. Four novel 15-response sequences were presented each session. No delays were imposed between successive responses during the acquisition of one sequence; delays were imposed immediately following each response during the acquisition of a second sequence, thereby delaying response feedback; delays were imposed following feedback during acquisition of a third sequence, resulting in the removal of the stimulus correlated with sequence position; and, as a control condition, delays were imposed following feedback, but stimuli correlated with sequence position were reinstated prior to the next response during acquisition of a fourth sequence. Subjects were exposed to one of two delay durations (0.2 and 0.5 or 0.5 and 1.0 s) each session, and delay durations alternated every session. During Weeks 5 to 8, subjects received 3 grams of vitamin C per day, whereas during Weeks 1 to 4 and 9 to 12, subjects received placebo under single-blind conditions. All subjects acquired the sequences, as evidenced by decreasing percentages of incorrect responses across trials. When temporal delays were imposed between successive responses during sequence acquisition, acquisition efficiency was enhanced. Examination of response latencies suggested that the status of preceding responses (i.e., correct or incorrect) rather than the status of the position counter influenced subsequent responding. Cardiovascular effects were inversely related to the length of the temporal delay. Neither cardiovascular reactivity or sequence acquisition were related to vitamin C administration.     

算法决策趋避的过程动机理论

算法常用于决策, 但相较于由人类做出的决策, 即便内容相同, 算法决策更容易引起个体反应的分化, 此即算法决策趋避。趋近指个体认为算法的决策比人类的更加公平、含有更少的偏见和歧视、也更能信任和接受, 回避则与之相反。算法决策趋避的过程动机理论用以解释趋避现象, 归纳了人与算法交互所经历的原初行为互动、建立类社会关系和形成身份认同三个阶段, 阐述了各阶段中认知、关系和存在三种动机引发个体的趋避反应。未来研究可着眼于人性化知觉、群际感知对算法决策趋避的影响, 并以更社会性的视角来探究算法决策趋避的逆转过程和其他可能的心理动机。     

Drawing the line: How the workplace shapes the naming of sexual harassment

Although sexual harassment naming – the process by which individuals identify and label experiences as sexual harassment – is key to tackling the problem of workplace sexual harassment, extant research focused on individual differences has explained a limited amount of variance in individuals’ propensity to name. We push this research in a new direction, drawing on institutional theory and strategic human resource management to identify workplace contextual factors that influence individuals’ propensity to name sexual harassment. Surveying 408 employed adults, we find that current employment in an industry with a high prevalence of sexual harassment reduces individuals’ likelihood of identifying scenarios as sexual harassment. Further, prior work experience in highly sexually harassing industries has a lasting negative effect on individuals’ propensity to name. In contrast, we show that individuals’ propensity to identify sexual harassment is greater when they perceive that their organization has implemented more HR practices supporting a climate for naming and that these HR practices can actually reduce the negative effect of current employment in a highly sexually harassing industry. Critically, by demonstrating that changing industry norms or adopting specific HR practices can shift individual naming of sexual harassment, we offer new avenues for sexual harassment prevention.     

The Machines Take Over: A Comparison of Various Supervised Learning Approaches for Automated Scoring of Divergent Thinking Tasks

Traditionally, researchers employ human raters for scoring responses to creative thinking tasks. Apart from the associated costs this approach entails two potential risks. First, human raters can be subjective in their scoring behavior (inter-rater-variance). Second, individual raters are prone to inconsistent scoring patterns (intra-rater-variance). In light of these issues, we present an approach for automated scoring of Divergent Thinking (DT) Tasks. We implemented a pipeline aiming to generate accurate rating predictions for DT responses using text mining and machine learning methods. Based on two existing data sets from two different laboratories, we constructed several prediction models incorporating features representing meta information of the response or features engineered from the response’s word embeddings that were obtained using pre-trained GloVe and Word2Vec word vector spaces. Out of these features, word embeddings and features derived from them proved to be particularly effective. Overall, longer responses tended to achieve higher ratings as well as responses that were semantically distant from the stimulus object. In our comparison of three state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms, Random Forest and XGBoost tended to slightly outperform the Support Vector Regression.     

DISTINCTIVELY HUMAN? MEANING-MAKING AND WORLD SHAPING AS CORE PROCESSES OF THE HUMAN NICHE

Part of the task in studying human evolution is developing a deep understanding of what we share, and do not share, with other life, as a mammal, a primate, a hominin, and as members of the genus Homo. A key aspect of this last facet is gained via the examination of the genus Homo across the Pleistocene. By at least the later Pleistocene members of the genus Homo began to habitually insert shared meaning into and onto their world forming one of the bases of contemporary human abilities to develop a distinctive human niche and human culture. Meaning-laden cultural dynamics constitute the core of a ubiquitous semiotic ecosystem, which in turn structures the architecture of the complex niches and niche construction processes that characterize humanity today. Here, I offer a summary of Pleistocene evolution of the genus Homo and an argument for when and how that extensive and distinctive capacities for shared meaning-making and a particularly dynamic niche construction emerged.