A critique of Habermas' theory of practical rationality

Habermas' theory of practical rationality is a significant theoretical attempt to preserve both rationality and democracy at the level of political decision making that transcends both technocratic and decisionistic theories of rationality. Habermas' theory of rationality accords with his epistemological, sociological, psychological, and linguistic premises. His theory, however, overlooks the interactions between instrumental action and symbolic interaction, the relevance of professional knowledge of facts for the choice of ends, the conflict between the norms of efficiency and democracy, and the duality of subject and object in historical formation. The rational interest in reproduction of free communication, however, can be used to reformulate Habermas' theory of rationality.     

Can sample-specific simulations help detect low base-rate taxonicity?

The authors examined the role of the sample-specific simulations (SSS; A. M. Ruscio & J. Ruscio, 2002; J. Ruscio & A. M. Ruscio, 2004) procedure in detecting low base-rate taxa that might otherwise prove elusive. The procedure preserved key distributional characteristics for moderate to high base-rate taxa, but it performed inadequately for low base-rate taxa, with low to moderate nuisance covariance, decreasing indicator validity, and increasing average nuisance covariance. Visual inspection of the curves produced by the SSS procedure, combined with the expectation that the inchworm test should produce a clear peak for low base-rate taxonic samples, led to inappropriate conclusions about the suitability of data. The authors speculate that examination of low base-rate taxa using SSS may require other algorithms for generating comparison distributions, consideration of the shape of the whole curve, and/or relaxation of the expectation that a clear peak will emerge with the inchworm test.     

Unilateral forced nostril breathing affects dichotic listening for emotional tones

Unilateral forced nostril breathing (UFNB) through the left nostril is associated with enhanced spatial abilities, whereas UFNB through the right nostril is associated with enhanced verbal abilities. However, the effects of UFNB on standard tasks of laterality (e.g., dichotic listening) are unknown. This study employed dichotic listening for word targets, which typically exhibits a right ear advantage (REA), and dichotic listening for emotional targets, which typically exhibits a left ear advantage (LEA). Participants were asked to breathe either through their dominant nostril (congruent UFNB) or to breathe through their non-dominant nostril (incongruent UFNB) for the entire testing session. There was a significant three-way interaction between the type of dichotic listening task, nostril dominance, and nostril assignment, with the expected REA for word targets and the expected LEA for emotional targets-with one exception. Right nostril dominant participants assigned to the congruent condition exhibited an LEA for emotional targets (p < .05). The other three groups exhibited the expected LEA/right hemisphere advantage for the detection of emotional targets and all groups exhibited the expected REA/left hemisphere advantage for detection of word targets. As such, possible bias induced by tactile stimulation of the contralateral face cannot account for these results. Thus, our data are consistent with a selective enhancement of right hemispheric lateralized functions by right nostril UFNB.     

Selective attention determines emotional responses to novel visual stimuli

Distinct complex brain systems support selective attention and emotion, but connections between them suggest that human behavior should reflect reciprocal interactions of these systems. Although there is ample evidence that emotional stimuli modulate attentional processes, it is not known whether attention influences emotional behavior. Here we show that evaluation of the emotional tone (cheery/dreary) of complex but meaningless visual patterns can be modulated by the prior attentional state (attending vs. ignoring) used to process each pattern in a visual selection task. Previously ignored patterns were evaluated more negatively than either previously attended or novel patterns. Furthermore, this emotional devaluation of distracting stimuli was robust across different emotional contexts and response scales. Finding that negative affective responses are specifically generated for ignored stimuli points to a new functional role for attention and elaborates the link between attention and emotion. This finding also casts doubt on the conventional marketing wisdom that any exposure is good exposure.     

Lesions of Periaqueductal Gray Dissociate-Conditioned Freezing From Conditioned Suppression Behavior in Rats

It is commonly assumed that suppression of an ongoing behavior is an indirect measure of freezing behavior. We tested whether conditioned suppression and freezing are the same or distinct conditioned responses. Rats were trained to press a bar for food and then given fear-conditioning sessions in which a tone was paired with a foot shock (two pairings a day for 2 days). They then received either sham or electrolytic lesions of the periaqueductal gray (PAG). Post-training PAG lesions blocked freezing to the conditioned stimulus (CS), but had no effect on the suppression of operant behavior to the same CS. Thus, conditioned suppression and freezing, which both cause a cessation in activity, appear to be mediated by separate processes.     

Ability Emotional Intelligence Predicts Quality of Life beyond Personality,Affectivity, and Cognitive Intelligence

The current study explored the incremental validity of the ability emotional intelligence test to predict suicidal ideation (a subjective indicator of Quality of Life) beyond the ‘Big Five’ personality dimensions, affectivity, and general cognitive ability in a sample of 184 university students (mean age 29.50 years). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that after controlling for demographic variables, the Big Five personality traits, affectivity, and the cognitive intelligence, the block of ability emotional intelligence scores explained a statistically significant increment of variance in suicidal ideation. It is noteworthy that the predictive power of the ability emotional intelligence appeared to be mostly due to the contribution of its two branch scores–regulation of emotion and understanding of emotion. Findings are discussed with reference to emotional intelligence theory and suicidal behaviors.     

Episodic and semantic remote autobiographical memory in ageing

Many laboratory studies have demonstrated an age effect on episodic memory which is in contrast with the preservation of semantic memory. The aim of this study was the assessment of age effects on autobiographical memory according to the length of the retention interval, taking into account the episodic and semantic components. A total of 52 subjects, aged between 40 and 79, were divided into four age groups. They were tested with a sophisticated autobiographical questionnaire consisting of two tasks, one involving the recall of semantic information and another the recall of episodic events. Results revealed that episodic recall deteriorated more with age and retention interval than semantic recall. These data, gathered using an ecological test, confirm age differences demonstrated by laboratory tests on the episodic-semantic distinction. Furthermore, the profile of results obtained for the recall of specific detailed events, and analysed according to age of encoding, confirms the distribution of episodic memories across the lifespan, as modelled by Rubin, Wetzler, and Nebes (1986) with the cue-word technique.