The predicting brain: Unconscious repetition, conscious reflection and therapeutic change

Neuroscience indicates that 'repetition' is fundamental to brain function. The brain non-consciously predicts what is most likely to happen and sets in motion perceptions, emotions, behaviors and interpersonal responses best adapted to what is expected-before events occur. Predictions enable individuals to be ready 'ahead of time' so reactions occur rapidly and smoothly when events occur. The brain uses past learning as the guide for what to expect in the future. Because of prediction, present experience and responses are shaped by the past. Predictions from early life can be deeply encoded and enduring. Predictions based on the past allow for more efficient brain function in the present, but can lead to mistakes. When what is predicted does not occur, consciousness can be engaged to monitor and correct the situation. But if a perception or emotion seems reasonable for the situation, a person might not notice an error, and a maladaptive 'repetition' may remain unchanged. The author discusses how predictions contribute to psychological defenses and transference repetition, and how conscious self-reflection facilitates therapeutic change. The neuroscience of prediction indicates why, in certain cases, active engagement by the analyst may be necessary. The author makes the argument for use of a 'neuroscience interpretation'.     

Animal Minds,Cognitive Ethology,and Ethics

Our goal in this paper is to provide enough of an account of the origins of cognitive ethology and the controversy surrounding it to help ethicists to gauge for themselves how to balance skepticism and credulity about animal minds when communicating with scientists. We believe that ethicists’ arguments would benefit from better understanding of the historical roots of ongoing controversies. It is not appropriate to treat some widely reported results in animal cognition as if their interpretations are a matter of scientific consensus. It is especially important to understand why loose references to “cognitive ethology” by philosophers can signal ignorance of the field to scientists who are more deeply immersed in the relevant literature. Understanding the variety of approaches to cognitive phenomena in animals is essential if such capacities are to form the foundation of scientifically-informed ethical reasoning about animals.     

动物的元认知能力研究综述

“知道自己知道,知道自己不知道”,这种“元认知”能力被看成是人类最复杂的认知能力之一;目前学者们对人类的元认知能力进行了比较深入地研究,这时人们不禁会问:这种普遍存在于人类身上的基本认知能力,在动物身上是否也同样存在呢?一些学者做了实验研究加以考察,并提出两个相反的观点;这个领域的研究也在这样的争论中不断发展,通过对动物元认知模式的研究,科学家可以回答这一问题并试图描绘出动物进化的图谱,以及认知因素在物种进化中的作用,更重要的是,它为我们从物种学角度探讨意识和自我意识的起源提供了很好的思考角度。     

制度伦理视野中的传统文化的现代转换

要适应市场经济发展的需要,适应制度伦理建设的需要,必须要实现传统文化的现代转换。从制度伦理的视角而言,传统文化的现代转换主要包括从农业文明到商业文明,从人治社会到法治社会,从国家主义到以人为本的转换。     

Strategy for Dualism

Dualists need to change their argumentative strategies if they wish to make a plausible case for dualism. In particular, dualists should not merely react and respond to physicalist views and arguments; they need to develop their own positive agenda. But neither should they focus their energies on constructing a priori arguments for dualism. Rather, dualists should acknowledge that what supports their view that consciousness exists and is a nonphysical phenomenon is observation, not argumentation. What is needed is a positive account of the nature of consciousness and the indispensable role that it plays in our lives, for it is only by showing the explanatory utility of the nonphysical that dualists can begin to discredit those who would deny its existence. In this paper, I try to give some idea of what such a positive theory of consciousness would look like. In particular, I argue for a theory of consciousness that contains a priori synthetic truths about the ontological nature and causal powers of consciousness.     

Evolution, Genes, and Behavior

The pseudoscience of evolutionary psychology purports to explain human behaviors by reference to an ancestral environment (essentially, a hunting-gathering way of life) in which we evolved. Contemporary human behaviors are allegedly governed directly by genes that reflect adaptation to this environment by natural selection. However, the evolutionary process is much more complex than this reductionist approach implies, and adaptation cannot involve the fine-tuning of structures or behaviors within individuals or species: natural selection can only affect entire organisms, not their components. Similarly, genetic processes are too complex to admit this simplistic view. Instead, our flexible, complex human behaviors probably represent an emergent acquisition.     

人工语法学习中意识加工的渐进发展

内隐学习研究致力于探讨学习活动的意识加工程度, 当前相关的研究逻辑从传统的意识二分观转向渐进意识假设。本研究通过对人工语法范式进行改造, 并借鉴加工分离程序的有关思想, 在学习阶段引入双重测量任务, 并根据双重任务成绩计算分离出相应学习时段的意识与无意识成分的贡献分数, 从而考察在内隐学习过程中两种加工成分的动态变化特征。研究结果支持渐进意识假设, 在学习进程中, 无意识成分和意识成分都呈现出渐进发展的趋势; 而随学习的深入, 两种成分呈现出不同的变化模式, 中后期意识加工快速增长, 无意识加工则保持平缓发展, 渐进意识系统整体呈现向外显学习推进的发展态势。     

说明文阅读中因果推理的意识性

采用独立记得-知道范式(IRK)和加工分离范式(PDP)探讨说明文阅读中因果推理的意识性。根据关系部分的描述与目标句是否存在逻辑冲突,创设推理成功和推理失败两种实验条件。实验1和2分别使用独立记得-知道范式和加工分离范式进行研究。两个实验的结果都发现推理成功和推理失败在有意识和无意识加工指标上都差异显著,表明说明文阅读中因果推理既影响有意识加工也影响无意识加工,该结果支持和完善了文本阅读双加工理论。     

内隐序列学习意识的理论、测量和影响因素

内隐序列学习意识理论有二分和渐进两种观点。意识的主观和客观行为测量来源于二分理论, 其研究却产生了渐进理论; 电生理和脑成像测量则存在严重的二分偏向。影响意识的三因素--反应刺激间隔(RSI)、人格开放性和新异刺激都是意识产生的原因, 其有关研究各自支持或反对两种意识理论, 进一步探索可能孕育出新的意识理论。鉴于二分理论无法解释中间意识, 反之渐进理论无法解释意识与无意识的脑区分离, 本文提出双系统渐进理论或可统合两者, 且可能促使大脑网络技术探索意识产生机制的多样性和竞争性等新研究的产生。此外, 所有测量方式的敏感性等级尚待确定, 影响意识三因素的交互作用也值得探索。     

Materialism and Fashion Consciousness: The Moderating Role of Status Consumption Tendencies and Religiosity

Understanding whether materialistic values translate directly into fashion consciousness or whether it is the status consumption and religiosity that intensifies this relationship within the specifics of explicitly religious consumers is important as fashion consumption appears to occupy a focal position both socially and economically in the lives of many. The Islamic fashion clothing market has begun to attract recent attention and is becoming an area of interest in consumer research. The Turkish Islamic fashion clothing consumptionscape that reached a yearly sales volume of $39 billion in 2013 within a $266 billion global market shows that the explicitly Muslim Turkish consumer gains excitement and pleasure from keeping up‐to‐date with fashion. Utilizing a unique data set from a survey in Istanbul this article examines the relationships between materialism, status consumption tendencies, intrinsic religiosity, and fashion‐novelty consciousness. Strong evidence is found for the positive relationship of materialism to fashion‐novelty consciousness. In addition, intrinsic religiosity has been identified to have a negative moderating effect on the materialism‐fashion‐novelty consciousness association.