How self-transcendence via individualised moral foundations predict emotional and social enhancement

In this article we focus on explaining personality trait self-transcendence (ST) in relation to social and emotional competence, and suggest that ST through differences in moral foundations can partially predict social and emotional competence. A sample of 195 university students was used to test hypotheses regarding several paths between ST, trait emotional intelligence (EI), universalism and moral foundations. Consistent with the hypotheses, ST was found to predict social and emotional competence via individualised moral foundations (IMF). Results have implications for our understanding of the relationship between ST, moral foundations, social and emotional competence.     

Imposing Genetic Diversity

The idea that a world in which everyone was born “perfect” would be a world in which something valuable was missing often comes up in debates about the ethics of technologies of prenatal testing and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). This thought plays an important role in the “disability critique” of prenatal testing. However, the idea that human genetic variation is an important good with significant benefits for society at large is also embraced by a wide range of figures writing in the bioethics literature, including some who are notoriously hostile to the idea that we should not select against disability. By developing a number of thought experiments wherein we are to contemplate increasing genetic diversity from a lower baseline in order to secure this value, I argue that this powerful intuition is more problematic than is generally recognized, especially where the price of diversity is the well-being of particular individuals.     

Performing the imago Dei: human enhancement,artificial intelligence and optative image-bearing

If the imago Dei is not a taxonomic definition but rather something that is performed in context, what are the implications for questions of human enhancement and the development of artificial intelligence (AI)? The author considers Alistair McFadyen’s performative vision of the imago Dei, one that actively seeks humanity in concrete situations, in the context of human enhancement and AI, asking the questions, ‘Does becoming cyborg through human enhancement make us less bearers of the divine image?’ And, ‘Can AI ever be considered to be in the image of God?’ Briefly tracing the shift in perspectives on the imago Dei, before considering what a performance of the image might look like, the author proposes three performances that have significant implications for questions about what it means to be human. To be an image-bearer is not dependent upon human DNA or species membership, but on an optative performance of the imago Dei.     

目标决策还是动作诱发?动作反应对注意促进效应的影响

注意促进效应(ABE)指的是在双任务条件下, 伴随探测任务的目标刺激呈现的背景信息记忆成绩要优于伴随分心刺激呈现的背景信息记忆成绩的现象。以往研究主张, ABE的产生主要源于目标决策时所诱发的注意增强。但由于目标探测往往伴随着动作反应, 而已有研究发现, 动作反应就能直接诱发背景信息的记忆增强效应, 因此ABE也可能源于动作诱发的记忆增强效应。为此, 研究设置了NoGo目标探测条件与Go目标探测条件, 通过4个实验系统地探讨了动作反应与目标决策在ABE产生中的作用及关系。结果表明, Go目标探测条件下的ABE是稳定的, 但NoGo目标探测条件下的ABE会受到动作反应频率对分心词的影响。此外, NoGo目标探测跨条件的ABE也是非常稳定的。这些结果表明, 目标决策产生的注意促进作用是相对稳定的, 但ABE的产生更多是目标决策的促进作用与动作诱发的记忆增强效应动态权衡后的结果。     

Bilateral saccades increase intrahemispheric processing but not interhemispheric interaction: Implications for saccade-induced retrieval enhancement

Retrieval of memories is enhanced when bilateral saccades are made immediately before attempting retrieval. One hypothesis is that saccades enhance retrieval by increasing interaction of the brain hemispheres. To test this, subjects viewed arrays of lateralized letters and indicated whether target letters matched either of two probe letters. Matching targets and probes were presented to either the same hemisphere (within-hemisphere trials) or separate hemispheres (across-hemisphere trials). Match detection requires interhemispheric interaction on across-hemisphere trials but primarily intrahemispheric processing on within-hemisphere trials. Subjects performed letter matching following saccades and a fixation control condition. Saccades increased match-detection accuracy on within-hemisphere trials only, suggesting that, counter to the hypothesis, saccades enhance intrahemispheric processing but not interhemispheric interaction. Across-hemisphere accuracy was higher, however, for subjects who were not strongly right-handed, versus those who were, and the absence of strong right-handedness may reflect greater interhemispheric interaction. We discuss implications for accounts of saccade-induced retrieval enhancement.     

文化与社会赞许反应:社会个人互动的观点

在处理社会赞许反应的文化差异时,常用的两种方法为实验控制和统计控制。我们在本文中提出另一个观点。通过回顾近期的相关文献,我们指出:社会赞许反应的文化差异,反映在不同社会环境中,人们在相应的文化要求下,以不同的自我呈现方式来加强他们追求个人目标的动力。这种社会、文化与个人的对话历程乃研究文化—心理关系的核心课题。用实验或统计方法将因这个历程产生的变量从跨文化数据中剔除后,所得的结果便只有微薄的文化意义了。因此,我们反对将社会赞许反应的文化差异视为跨文化研究的噪音。相反地,我们认为跨文化研究者应认真地分析社会赞许反应的社会文化意义,以社会赞许反应作为一个窗口,管窥社会、文化与行为相生相成的关系。     

Yesterday’s Child: How Gene Editing for Enhancement Will Produce Obsolescence—and Why It Matters

Despite the advent of CRISPR, safe and effective gene editing for human enhancement remains well beyond our current technological capabilities. For the discussion about enhancing human beings to be worth having, then, we must assume that gene-editing technology will improve rapidly. However, rapid progress in the development and application of any technology comes at a price: obsolescence. If the genetic enhancements we can provide children get better and better each year, then the enhancements granted to children born in any given year will rapidly go out of date. Sooner or later, every modified child will find him- or herself to be “yesterday’s child.” The impacts of such obsolescence on our individual, social, and philosophical self-understanding constitute an underexplored set of considerations relevant to the ethics of genome editing.     

聋人阅读中的副中央凹视觉注意增强效应——来自消失文本的证据

为适应失聪后的复杂环境, 聋人视觉注意资源的空间分布发生改变, 这对聋人的阅读加工产生了影响。本研究尝试提出“聋人阅读中的副中央凹视觉注意增强效应”, 并采用消失文本范式考察这一效应对聋人读者副中央凹及中央凹处词汇信息视觉编码效率的影响。结果发现, 在词n+1短暂呈现时, 聋生快速编码副中央凹处文本信息的加工效率与其生理年龄匹配组相近, 高于阅读能力匹配组; 但在词n短暂呈现时, 聋生快速编码中央凹处文本信息的加工效率落后于健听控制组, 其词汇通达和总阅读效率均受阻。综上所述, 本研究证实了聋人阅读中的副中央凹视觉注意增强效应, 表现为副中央凹加工效率增强, 但中央凹加工效率受阻。