The Psychophysiology Of Intuition: A Quantum-Holographic Theory Of Nonlocal Communication

This work seeks to explain intuitive perception—those perceptions that are not based on reason or logic or on memories or extrapolations from the past, but are based, instead, on accurate foreknowledge of the future. Often such intuitive foreknowledge involves perception of implicit information about nonlocal objects and/or events by the body's psychophysiological systems. Recent experiments have shown that intuitive perception of a future event is related to the degree of emotional significance of that event, and a new study shows that both the brain and the heart are involved in processing a pre-stimulus emotional response to the future event. Drawing on this research and on the principles of quantum holography, I develop a theory of intuition that views the perception of things remote in space or ahead in time (nonlocal communication) as involving processes of energetic resonance connecting the body's psychophysiological systems to the quantum level. The theory explains how focused emotional attention directed to the nonlocal object of interest attunes the bio-emotional energy generated by the body's psychophysiological systems to a domain of quantum-holographical information, which contains implicit information about the object. The body's perception of such implicit information about things distant in space/time is experienced as an intuition.     

Can > Will: Predictions of What Can Happen are Extreme,but Believed to be Probable

Predictions of uncertain events are often described in terms of what can or what will happen. How are such statements used by speakers, and what are they perceived to mean? Participants in four experiments were presented with distributions of variable product characteristics and were asked to generate natural, meaningful sentences containing either will or can. Will was typically associated with either low or intermediate numeric values, whereas can consistently suggested high (maximum) values. For instance, laptop batteries lasting from 1.5 to 3.5 hours will last for 1.5 hours or for 2.5 hours, but they can last for 3.5 hours. The same response patterns were found for positive and negative events. In will‐statements, the most frequent scalar modifiers were at least and about, whereas in can‐statements, the most frequent modifier included up to. A fifth experiment showed that will indicates an outcome that may be certain but more often simply probable. Can means possible, but even can‐statements are perceived to imply probable outcomes. This could create a communication paradox because most speakers use can to describe outcomes that because of their extremity are at the same time quite unlikely. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Buddhist prajÑĀ and Greek sophia

The present review examines five books, one by a non-Baha'i, three by a Baha'i academic, and one by a Baha'i non-academic. The non-Baha'i volume, which is very short, is by a Danish sociologist of religion, Margit Warburg. It forms a solid explanatory text informed by a lengthy experience of the Baha'is both in Denmark and abroad. This review discusses, inter alia, three volumes by a Baha'i sociologist, Peter Smith. While the three titles are very different books, taken together they form an intelligent presentation of the religion from the perspective of a thoughtful insider. Finally, the article looks at a completely different sort of book, an intelligent portrayal of Baha'ism from its spiritual and moral perspectives by Moojan Momen. This last brings readers closest to typical fare for believers and new converts.     

Mommy is only happy! Dutch mothers’ realisation of speech sounds in infant-directed speech expresses emotion,not didactic intent

Exaggeration of the vowel space in infant-directed speech (IDS) is well documented for English, but not consistently replicated in other languages or for other speech-sound contrasts. A second attested, but less discussed, pattern of change in IDS is an overall rise of the formant frequencies, which may reflect an affective speaking style. The present study investigates longitudinally how Dutch mothers change their corner vowels, voiceless fricatives, and pitch when speaking to their infant at 11 and 15 months of age. In comparison to adult-directed speech (ADS), Dutch IDS has a smaller vowel space, higher second and third formant frequencies in the vowels, and a higher spectral frequency in the fricatives. The formants of the vowels and spectral frequency of the fricatives are raised more strongly for infants at 11 than at 15 months, while the pitch is more extreme in IDS to 15-month olds. These results show that enhanced positive affect is the main factor influencing Dutch mothers’ realisation of speech sounds in IDS, especially to younger infants. This study provides evidence that mothers’ expression of emotion in IDS can influence the realisation of speech sounds, and that the loss or gain of speech clarity may be secondary effects of affect.     

Young Children's Trust in Overtly Misleading Advice

The ability of 3‐ and 4‐year‐old children to disregard advice from an overtly misleading informant was investigated across five studies (total n = 212). Previous studies have documented limitations in young children's ability to reject misleading advice. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that these limitations are primarily due to an inability to reject specific directions that are provided by others, rather than an inability to respond in a way that is opposite to what has been indicated by a cue. In Studies 1 through 4, a puppet identified as The Big Bad Wolf offered advice to participants about which of two boxes contained a hidden sticker. Regardless of the form the advice took, 3‐year olds performed poorly by failing to systematically reject it. However, when participants in Study 5 believed they were responding to a mechanical cue rather than the advice of the Wolf, they were better able to reject misleading advice, and individual differences in performance on the primary task were systematically correlated with measures of executive function. Results are interpreted as providing support for the communicative intent hypothesis, which posits that children find it especially difficult to reject deceptive information that they perceive as being intentionally communicated by others.     

Parental communication appears not to be an effective strategy to reduce smoking in a sample of Dutch adolescents

This longitudinal study examined the reciprocal effects of the frequency of parent–adolescent communication on tobacco-related issues (smoking-specific communication), and adolescents’ smoking. Participants were 428 Dutch older and younger siblings between 13 and 16 years old. Smoking-specific communication did not affect youth smoking in general; however, among younger, but not older, siblings, smoking-specific communication was associated with a higher likelihood of smoking over time. In addition, when adolescents already smoked parents started to talk more frequently about smoking-related issues with their older and younger adolescents later on. Neither the quality of smoking-specific communication, the quality of parent–adolescent relationship, nor parental smoking moderated these reciprocal effects. In conclusion, prevention campaigns encouraging parents to undertake smoking-specific communication might not be desirable.     

Smoking-specific communication and children's smoking onset: An extension of the theory of planned behaviour

The aim of this study was to test whether maternal smoking-specific communication and parental smoking related to smoking cognitions (i.e. attitude, self-efficacy and social norm) derived from the Theory of Planned Behaviour in association with smoking onset during preadolescence. A total of 1478 pairs of mothers and children participated (mean age: 10.11; standard deviation?=?0.78). Structural equation models in Mplus were used to examine whether smoking-specific communication influences children's smoking cognitions, which in turn, affect smoking onset. A positive association was found between pro-smoking attitudes and smoking onset. Smoking-specific communication and parental smoking were related to smoking cognitions. Specifically, frequency of communication was negatively associated with pro-smoking attitudes, social norms of mother and best friend. Quality of communication related negatively to pro-smoking attitudes and positively to self-efficacy and norms of friends. Parental smoking was positively associated with pro-smoking attitudes and norms of mother and (best) friends. Additionally, more frequent communication and higher levels of parental smoking were associated with higher smoking onset. In conclusion, smoking-specific communication and parental smoking were associated with smoking cognitions and smoking onset. Already during preadolescence, parents contribute to shaping the smoking cognitions of their children, which may be predictive of smoking later in life.