Three problems for the evolutionary debunking argument

In attempting to debunk moral realism through an appeal to evolutionary facts, debunkers face a series of problems, which we label the problems of scope, corrosiveness, and post-hoc justification. To overcome these problems, debunkers must assume certain metaphysical or epistemological positions, or otherwise pre-establish them. In doing so, they must assume or pre-establish the very conclusion they seek in advancing the argument. This means that such debunking arguments either beg the question against the moral realist or are undermined as standalone metaethical arguments.     

Human Aggressive and Escape Responding: Effects of Provocation Frequency

The Psychological Record - The effect of point loss frequency on aggressive and escape responding was investigated in two experiments. Subjects could respond on levers marked “A,”...     

A Simple Logical Matrix and Sequent Calculus for Parry’s Logic of Analytic Implication

Studia Logica - We provide a logical matrix semantics and a Gentzen-style sequent calculus for the first-degree entailments valid in W. T. Parry’s logic of Analytic Implication. We achieve...     

Influence of timing of post-weaning isolation on play fighting and serious aggression in the male golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus)

Effects of timing of social isolation on play fighting and serious fighting were studied at different ages in male golden hamsters. Litters were isolated at 21, 35, and 65 days of age, and tested in a resident-intruder paradigm. Behaviors were compared within grous and with a fourth group of socially reared conspecifics. The earlier the pups were isolated, the more they engaged in play activities. Later, in adulthood, the aggression level of the same animals was retested using the same paradigm. The three isolated groups showed a high level of aggression, with significant differences among them. When compared with socially reared subjects, a reliable difference in the level of aggression was also found. These results support the view that early social experience is important, suggesting that isolation during early critical periods of socialization has a significant impact on play fighting, whereas short periods of isolation may be enough to trigger adult agonistic behavior. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

A Hierarchy of Classical and Paraconsistent Logics

Journal of Philosophical Logic - In this article, we will present a number of technical results concerning Classical Logic, ST and related systems. Our main contribution consists in offering a...     

Semantic and syntactic forces in noun phrase production

Three experiments investigated semantic and syntactic effects in the production of phrases in Dutch. Bilingual participants were presented with English nouns and were asked to produce an adjective + noun phrase in Dutch including the translation of the noun. In 2 experiments, the authors blocked items by either semantic category or grammatical gender. Participants performed the task slower when the target nouns were of the same semantic category than when they were from different categories and faster when the target nouns had the same gender than when they had different genders. In a final experiment, both manipulations were crossed. The authors replicated the results of the first 2 experiments, and no interaction was found. These findings suggest a feedforward flow of activation between lexico-semantic and lexico-syntactic information.     

Motor-iconicity of sign language does not alter the neural systems underlying tool and action naming

Positron emission tomography was used to investigate whether the motor-iconic basis of certain forms in American Sign Language (ASL) partially alters the neural systems engaged during lexical retrieval. Most ASL nouns denoting tools and ASL verbs referring to tool-based actions are produced with a handshape representing the human hand holding a tool and with an iconic movement depicting canonical tool use, whereas the visual iconicity of animal signs is more idiosyncratic and inconsistent across signs. We investigated whether the motor-iconic relation between a sign and its referent alters the neural substrate for lexical retrieval in ASL. Ten deaf native ASL signers viewed photographs of tools/utensils or of actions performed with or without an implement and were asked to overtly produce the ASL sign for each object or action. The control task required subjects to judge the orientation of unknown faces. Compared to the control task, naming tools engaged left inferior and middle frontal gyri, bilateral parietal lobe, and posterior inferotemporal cortex. Naming actions performed with or without a tool engaged left inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral parietal lobe, and posterior middle temporal gyrus at the temporo-occipital junction (area MT). When motor-iconic verbs were compared with non-iconic verbs, no differences in neural activation were found. Overall, the results indicate that even when the form of a sign is indistinguishable from a pantomimic gesture, the neural systems underlying its production mirror those engaged when hearing speakers name tools or tool-based actions with speech.     

Articulatory duration in single-word speech production

Three different speech production paradigms assessed C. T. Kello, D. C. Plaut, and B. MacWhinney's (2000) claim that the characteristics of speech production flexibly vary between staged and cascaded modes depending on task demand. All experiments measured response latencies and durations of single words without and with a response deadline. Experiment 1 used a picture-word interference task; Experiment 2 blocked pictures either by semantic category or by word-initial overlap; and Experiment 3 used a Stroop paradigm. In all cases, systematic effects of semantic and form relatedness were obtained on latencies but not on response durations. These results support the assumption that articulation, as assessed by response duration, is never influenced by central cognitive processes once a response has been initiated.     

Do expertise and the degree of perception-action coupling affect natural anticipatory performance?

Two experiments using a temporal occlusion paradigm (the first with expert and novice participants and the second with participants of intermediate skill) were conducted to examine the capability of tennis players to predict the direction of an opponent's service in situ. In both experiments two different response conditions, reflecting differing degrees of perception-action coupling, were employed. In a coupled condition players were required to make a movement-based response identical to that which they would use to hit a return of service in a game situation, whereas in an uncoupled condition a verbal prediction of service direction was required. Experiment 1 provided clear evidence of superior prediction accuracy under the coupled response condition when ball flight was available, plus some limited evidence to suggest that superior prediction accuracy under uncoupled response conditions might hold true if only advance (pre-contact) information was available. Experiment 2 showed the former finding to be a robust one, but was unable to reveal any support for the latter. Experiment 1 also revealed that expert superiority is more apparent for predictions made under natural (coupled) than uncoupled response-mode conditions. Collectively, these findings suggest that different perceptual processes may be in operation in anticipatory tasks which depend on skill level, the type of information presented, and degree of perception-action coupling inherent in the task requirements.