Kripke,Cartesian Intuitions,and Materialism

A popular idea at present is that emotions are perceptions of values. Most defenders of this idea have interpreted it as the perceptual thesis that emotions present (rather than merely represent) evaluative states of affairs in the way sensory experiences present us with sensible aspects of the world. We argue against the perceptual thesis. We show that the phenomenology of emotions is compatible with the fact that the evaluative aspect of apparent emotional contents has been incorporated from outside. We then deal with the only two views that can make sense of the perceptual thesis. On the response–dependence view, emotional experiences present evaluative response-dependent properties (being fearsome, being disgusting, etc.) in the way visual experiences present response-dependent properties such as colors. On the response–independence view, emotional experiences present evaluative response-independent properties (being dangerous, being indigestible, etc.), conceived as ‘Gestalten’ independent of emotional feelings themselves. We show that neither view can make plausible the idea that emotions present values as such, i.e., in an open and transparent way. If emotions have apparent evaluative contents, this is in fact due to evaluative enrichments of the non-evaluative presentational contents of emotions.     

The pigeon's discrimination of shape and location information

Two groups of pigeons (n = 4) were trained with 16 line drawings portraying a fixed shape and a variable shape. The four variable shapes (a wedge, a cone, a cylinder, and a handle) appeared to the left of, to the right of, above, or below the fixed shape (a cube). Group Shape (S) was required to discriminate the identity of the variable shape that was mated with the cube, whereas Group Location (L) was required to discriminate where the variable shape appeared relative to the cube. Three of the four pigeons in each group mastered their respective tasks. Later tests revealed that the two groups of pigeons had attended to different aspects of the shape pairs, even though the visual stimuli and general procedures they had been given were the same. Group S had attended to the identity of the variable shape and had ignored the identity and location of the cube, whereas Group L had attended to the configuration of the two shapes. The methods and stimuli could be useful in delineating the biological bases of shape and location perception.     

Martin Niemöller

ABSTRACT

A text by Martin Niemoller which begins “When the Nazis came for the Communists …” has been widely quoted, but its text varies greatly and the date and original audience have been uncertain. This article examines the evidence and concludes that the most probable original version, which differs from most versions by having no mention of the Jews, was published in an article by Niemoller in 1979. This text was probably first spoken in the context of Niemoller's political activism in the late 1950s or 1960s. The various developments in the famous text can then be explained by principles of oral (or semi-oral) transmission of texts.     

Compensatory knowledge signaling in consumer word‐of‐mouth

This paper extends prior research on consumer knowledge beliefs and word-of-mouth transmission. Findings from four studies suggest that people compensate for unfavorable discrepancies between their actual and ideal consumer knowledge with heightened efforts to signal knowledgeability through the content and volume of their word-of-mouth transmissions. This compensatory knowledge signaling effect is moderated by the self-concept relevance (psychological closeness) of the word-of-mouth target and lay beliefs in the self-enhancement benefits of transmitting product knowledge. Content analysis of participants' product communications further supports our knowledge signaling account. The relationship between actual:ideal knowledge discrepancies and heightened word-of-mouth intentions is mediated by the specific negative emotion associated with actual:ideal self-discrepancies. Overall, the findings suggest that the relationship between consumer knowledge and word-of-mouth transmission depends not only on what you think you know, but also on what you wish you knew.     

Differentiating sexual preference in men: Using dual task rapid serial visual presentation task

Cognition research suggests that allocating attention resources to evolutionarily relevant stimuli is facilitated suggesting that sexual stimuli interfere with human information processing. In a group of gay (n = 13) and straight men (n = 13) recruited in Finland, Germany and Italy, we investigated if and how sexually relevant visual stimuli affect information processing of both a target one (T1) and a subsequent target two (T2) in a dual target rapid serial visual presentation procedure. We hypothesized that: (1) due to the attentional blink (AB) phenomenon, the accuracy of reporting of T2 would decrease when following accurately identified sexually preferred T1 compared to accurately identified non‐sexually preferred T1; 2) due to the pop out effect, the accuracy of reporting of T1 and T2 would be relatively increased when T1 and T2 were sexually preferred by the participants compared to when they were not. Our findings did not support hypothesis 1 but supported hypothesis 2. We further found that the pop out effect had a good capacity to differentiate sexual preference between the groups of gay and straight men. We conclude that dual target rapid serial visual presentation can be used as an attention‐based measurement to differentiate sexual preference in men. Limitations and the applicability in the field of measuring sexual preference were discussed.     

源问题呈现方式对认知负荷及类比推理的影响

采用2×2×2匹配分组实验设计,以176名初中三年级学生为被试,探讨了源问题呈现方式对中学生认知负荷及类比推理的影响。结果表明：（1）归纳、源问题内容相似性和源问题结构清晰性对认知负荷均有显著影响。（2）归纳和源问题结构清晰性对类比推理均有显著影响,且归纳、源问题内容相似性和源问题结构清晰性三者之间在对类比推理的影响上存在交互作用。     

职业使命感对大学生可就业能力的影响:求职清晰度与求职效能感的中介作用

基于生涯发展理论与自我效能感理论探讨了职业使命感与大学生可就业能力的关系,以及求职清晰度与求职效能感的中介效应。采用职业使命感量表、求职清晰度量表、求职效能感量表和大学生可就业能力量表对802名大学生进行研究。结果显示：（1）职业使命感对大学生可就业能力的影响受到了求职清晰度的中介作用;（2）求职清晰度对大学生可就业能力的影响受到了求职效能感的中介作用;（3）职业使命感对大学生可就业能力的影响受到了求职效能感的中介作用。因此,求职清晰度与求职效能感在职业使命感与大学生可就业能力之间起链式中介作用,职业使命感不仅会直接影响大学生可就业能力,还会通过求职清晰度与求职效能感间接影响大学生可就业能力。     

虚拟现实购物网站的等级深度与宽度关系研究

为研究虚拟现实表征方式下,网上购物系统等级结构的宽度与深度特征对用户信息行为的影响,本文在实验室环境下研究了三种结构方式(8 6 1、16 3 1、4 4 3 1),结果初步发现:对于虚拟现实购物网站(或系统的虚拟现实表征方式),宽度的增加所带来的对用户信息搜索速度的损害大于深度的增加对用户信息搜索速度的损害,这与对二维表征方式下的既有研究结果相反;而且虚拟现实系统的8 6 1结构方式更容易带来用户的迷失。