The Irrationality of Choosing Egoism—A Reply to Eshelman

Despite the vast literature on Rawls's work, few have discussed his arguments for the value of democracy. When his arguments have been discussed, they have received staunch criticism. Some critics have charged that Rawls's arguments are not deeply democratic. Others have gone further, claiming that Rawls's arguments denigrate democracy. These criticisms are unsurprising, since Rawls's arguments, as arguments that the principle of equal basic liberty needs to include democratic liberties, are incomplete. In contrast to his trenchant remarks about core civil liberties, Rawls does not say much about the inclusion of political liberties of a democratic sort – such as the right to vote – among the basic liberties.

In this paper, I complete some of Rawls's arguments and show that he has grounds for including political liberties, particularly those of a democratic nature, in the principle of equal basic liberty. In doing so, I make some beginning steps toward illustrating the genuinely democratic nature of Rawls's arguments. Rawls believes that a few different arguments can be given for democratic institutions and that these arguments work together to support the value of democracy. In this paper, I focus on Rawls's arguments relating to self-respect. I focus on this set of arguments because they are among the strongest of Rawls's arguments for equal political liberty and its fair value.     

Syntactic processing in the human brain: what we know, what we don't know, and a suggestion for how to proceed

For every claim in the neuroimaging literature about a particular brain region supporting syntactic processing, there exist other claims implicating the target region in different linguistic processes, and, in many cases, in non-linguistic cognitive processes (e.g., Blumstein, 2009). We argue that traditional group analysis methods in neuroimaging may obscure functional specificity because of inter-subject anatomical variability (Fedorenko & Kanwisher, 2009). In Fedorenko, Hsieh, Nieto-Castanon, Whitfield-Gabrieli, and Kanwisher (2010) we presented a functional localizer that allows quick and reliable identification of key language-sensitive regions in each individual brain. This approach enables pooling data from corresponding functional regions across subjects rather than from the same locations in stereotaxic space that may differ functionally due to inter-subject anatomical variability. In the current paper we demonstrate that the individual-subjects functional localization approach is superior to the traditional methods in its ability to distinguish among conditions in a brain region’s response. This ability is at the core of all neuroimaging research and is critical for answering questions of functional specialization (e.g., does a brain region specialize for processing syntactic aspects of the linguistic signal), which is in turn essential for making inferences about the precise computations conducted in each brain region. Based on our results, we argue that supplementing existing methods with an individual-subjects functional localization approach may lead to a clearer picture of the neural basis of syntactic processing, as it has in some other domains, such as high-level vision (e.g., Kanwisher, 2010) and social cognition (e.g., Saxe & Kanwisher, 2003).     

The Symbolic Object

Abstract

The term “symbolic object” is introduced as a way to understand the moments between analyst and patient where “something” new and dynamic emerges within the dyadic relationship. The symbolic object is the bridge between the idealized, all-good object and symbolization proper. The intrapsychic atmosphere between self and object representations is in a relatively non-conflicted state during this process. By reformulating the Nirvana principle and the principle of constancy as ways in which the organism economically strives for the most organized and homoeostatic state possible, the infant or adult can be seen to be searching for the position of lowest unpleasure possible. This is the optimum balance between the libidinal and aggressive forces in the self and object representational field. These moments of “truce” between often highly conflicted phantasies usher in a more refined use of projective identification as a form of intrapsychic/interpersonal communication. This is a particular atmosphere from which both parties, within the projective/introjective, back-and-forth dyadic world, can begin to co-create and rediscover assorted amalgams of self and object functioning. This newly awakened psychic entity is the symbolic object. This outgrowth of something fresh to the dyadic orbit is a mutative moment that propels the relationship into a different direction. Within the pairing of minds, a novel and mutual understanding is produced. Both parties share this new symbolic object and each is shaped by it.     

Dual processes,evolution and rationality

In three experiments we tested hypotheses derived from the goal specificity literature using a real-world physics task. In the balance-scale paradigm participants predict the state of the apparatus based on a configuration of weights at various distances from the fulcrum. Non-specific goals (NSG) have been shown to encourage hypothesis testing, which facilitates rule discovery, whereas specific goals (SG) do not. We showed that this goal specificity effect depends on task difficulty. The NSG strategy led to rule induction among some participants. Among non-discoverers, SG participants were faster and more accurate on difficult problems than NSG participants. The use of misleading exemplars (scale configurations that obscured the rule governing outcomes) led to fixation on inappropriate hypotheses for NSG but not SG participants. When more diagnostic learning exemplars were used, NSG non-discoverers still performed worse than SG participants on difficult problems. SG participants also outperformed NSG participants on a post-test of difficult problems. These findings qualify the generality of goal specificity effects.     

Transposed-letter priming effect in Hebrew in the same–different task

We investigated the interaction between morphological structure and transposed-letter priming using the same–different task with Hebrew, a Semitic language in which morphology has been shown to play a key role in visual word recognition. In contrast to the results observed with lexical decision (e.g., Velan & Frost, 2009, 2011), a transposed-letter priming effect was observed irrespective of the morphological structure of the words. We take these results to suggest that morphological decomposition occurs only in the service of lexical access. We discuss further a unique feature of written Arabic, another Semitic language, to explain the apparent conflict between our findings and those reported by Perea, Abu Mallouh, García-Orza, and Carreiras (2010).     

Examining the effects of variation in emotional tone of voice on spoken word recognition

Emotional tone of voice (ETV) is essential for optimal verbal communication. Research has found that the impact of variation in nonlinguistic features of speech on spoken word recognition differs according to a time course. In the current study, we investigated whether intratalker variation in ETV follows the same time course in two long-term repetition priming experiments. We found that intratalker variability in ETVs affected reaction times to spoken words only when processing was relatively slow and difficult, not when processing was relatively fast and easy. These results provide evidence for the use of both abstract and episodic lexical representations for processing within-talker variability in ETV, depending on the time course of spoken word recognition.     

Immediate recognition memory for wine

We describe a preliminary investigation concerning the short-term recognition memory function for gustatory stimuli (wines). In Experiment 1A, 24 non-expert wine drinkers completed a yes/no recognition task for 3-wine sequences. For the raw recognition scores, the serial position function comprised both primacy and recency. Recency did not, however, achieve significance for the d′ scores. In Experiment 1B, 24 participants completed the same yes/no recognition task for 3-visual matrix sequences. In contrast to Experiment 1A, the serial position function comprised recency and an absence of primacy. We argue that the presence of primacy for the wine sequences cannot be interpreted via a verbal labelling strategy, nor can it be interpreted via proactive interference from the first wine in the list on subsequent list items. The result suggests qualitative differences in the memory processing for gustatory and non-verbal visual stimuli.     

Flank to the left,flank to the right: Testing the modified receptive field hypothesis of letter-specific crowding

The present study tested for effects of number of flankers positioned to the left and to the right of target characters as a function of visual field and stimulus type (letters or shapes). On the basis of the modified receptive field hypothesis (Chanceaux & Grainger, 2012), we predicted that the greatest effects of flanker interference would occur for leftward flankers with letter targets in the left visual field. Target letters and simple shape stimuli were briefly presented and accompanied by either 1, 2, or 3 flankers of the same category either to the left or to the right of the target, and in all conditions with a single flanker on the opposite side. Targets were presented in the left or right visual field at a fixed eccentricity, such that targets and flankers always fell into the same visual field. Results showed greatest interference for leftward flankers associated with letter targets in the left visual field, as predicted by the modified receptive field hypothesis.     

The effect of noun animacy on the processing of unambiguous sentences: Evidence from French relative clauses

It has previously been shown that moving images are remembered better than static ones. In two experiments, we investigated the basis for this dynamic superiority effect. Participants studied scenes presented as a single static image, a sequence of still images, or a moving video clip, and 3 days later completed a recognition test in which familiar and novel scenes were presented in all three formats. We found a marked congruency effect: For a given study format, accuracy was highest when test items were shown in the same format. Neither the dynamic superiority effect nor the study–test congruency effect was affected by encoding (Experiment 1) or retrieval (Experiment 2) manipulations, suggesting that these effects are relatively impervious to strategic control. The results demonstrate that the spatio-temporal properties of complex, realistic scenes are preserved in long-term memory.     

Foot Position Tends to be Sensed as More Medial Than the Actual Foot Position

ABSTRACT

Participants placed different parts of their foot as close as possible to a target line without stepping onto it while wearing modified goggles that obscured their view of their feet. Once they felt that their foot was appropriately placed, the distance between their foot and the target line was measured. Participants tended to step 20–30 mm over the target line when asked to place the most lateral part of their foot near the target line and tended to place their foot 20–30 mm away from the target line when asked to place the most medial part of their foot near the target line. These results indicate that the placed feet shifted more laterally than sensed, which may explain unexpected tripping during walking.