Boskovic's unobservables

Boskovic treated unobservables in two different ways. During his earlier period (1741–48) the difference between observables and unobservables was a significant element of his specific semantic instrumentalism. The sentences of unobservables (such as absolute space, time and motions) were treated only as convenient tools conceived to provide for the empirical success of a theory. Later, especially in his Theory of Natural Philosophy (1763), Boskovic relativized this distinction by positing absolute properties (continuity and impenetrability), which are common to both observables and unobservables. As a scientific realist he was committed to his original unobservable entities, i.e. “points of matter”. Due to the intrinsic paradox contained in the concept of these points, his realist position was led to the absurd, which demands an anti‐realist interpretation of Boskovic's theory.     

Seeing What’s Possible: Videos are more Effective than Written Portrayals for Enhancing the Relatability of Scientists and Promoting Black Female Students’ Interest in STEM

Sex Roles - Although interactions with Black female scientists can alter beliefs about STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) and encourage Black female students’ interest in...     

Phenomenological approaches to personal identity

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences - This special issue addresses the debate on personal identity from a phenomenological viewpoint, especially contemporary phenomenological research on...     

Medical Trainees’ Readiness for the Promotion of Sexual Health in Tunisia: A Cross Sectional Study

In the Arab and Muslim countries, there are several taboos of sexuality. To overcome the latter, and to distinguish between cultural and scientific data, sexual education is a key measure, especially during medical studies. The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge of the Tunisian medical trainees and to identify their sources of information concerning sexuality. We conducted a survey among medical trainees of the faculty of medicine of Sfax, in Tunisia. An anonymous questionnaire was distributed to 171 and completed by 157 trainees (91.8%). The sources of knowledge about sexuality were: friends (81.5%; N = 128), internet (77.1%; N = 121), television and movies (68.2%; N = 107), courses at the faculty (40.1%; N = 63) and parents (22.9%; N = 36). The score of correct answers was higher than or equal to 75% for 28 trainees (17.8%). It was on average 63.3%. It was correlated with male gender (p = 0.006), being a second-year trainee (p = 0.017) and television and movies as a source of knowledge about sexuality (p = 0.008). Masturbation was considered pathological by 17.2% of participants (N = 27). A 5-min period of intercourse was deemed sufficient to have a female orgasm by 44 trainees (28%). Andropause and menopause are inconsistent with a satisfying sexuality according to 44.6% (N = 70) and 56.1% (N = 88) of the participants respectively.     

A Note on Bisimulation and Modal Equivalence in Provability Logic and Interpretability Logic

Provability logic is a modal logic for studying properties of provability predicates, and Interpretability logic for studying interpretability between logical theories. Their natural models are GL-models and Veltman models, for which the accessibility relation is well-founded. That’s why the usual counterexample showing the necessity of finite image property in Hennessy-Milner theorem (see [1]) doesn’t exist for them. However, we show that the analogous condition must still hold, by constructing two GL-models with worlds in them that are modally equivalent but not bisimilar, and showing how these GL-models can be converted to Veltman models with the same properties. In the process we develop some useful constructions: games on Veltman models, chains, and general method of transformation from GL-models/frames to Veltman ones.     

Blood flow velocity changes in anterior cerebral arteries during cognitive tasks performance

Objective

Transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD) enables monitoring of blood flow velocities (BFVs) in basal cerebral arteries during different cognitive tasks performance with great temporal resolution. So far, BFVs changes during mental activity were monitored primarily in middle cerebral arteries (MCAs) and little is known about these changes in anterior cerebral arteries (ACAs).

Aim

To determine the effect of different cognitive tasks performance on BFV changes and hemispheric dominance in ACAs and to assess the most suitable activation test for monitoring of BFV changes in ACAs.

Methods

Fourteen right-handed, healthy subjects aged 20–26 were included in the study. BFVs in both ACAs were recorded simultaneously during performance of cognitive tasks designed to activate frontal lobes: phonemic verbal fluency test (pVFT), Stroop tests and Trail Making Tests (TMTs).

Results

A statistically significant BFV increase was recorded in both ACAs during performance of all cognitive tasks. Statistically significant right ACA dominance was found during performance of pVFT and TMTB. The most significant BFV increase was obtained during performance of TMTB.

Conclusion

Our result addressed cognitive tests with great activation potential for monitoring of ACAs that might be used in distinguishing of healthy individuals and patients with neurovascular or neurodegenerative diseases.     

Message size constraints on discourse planning in synchronous computer-mediated communication

Three groups of 20 dyads planned the MTV Music Video Awards Show over computers. The groups varied in whether they could send 4-line, 10-line, or 18-line messages, in part to examine whether increased planning efficiency in computer-mediated communication reflects communication strategies associated with constraints on message size. The results demonstrate that increased efficiency is not a function of such design features as the maximum message that may be sent. However, the subjects in the 4-line condition sent shorter messages to one another, were less likely to engage in a strategy of making multiple suggestions that required a single assent, and were more likely to differ in the relative proportion of their contributions to the discourse. The subjects in the 10-line condition had shorter maximum messages (and proportionately more disfluencies) than did those in the 18-line condition, despite the finding that the maximum messages of the latter would have also fit within 10 lines. Thus, the results also support a claim that size of the text window may result in different discourse management strategies and may influence an initial discourse-planning stage.     

Social-Psychological Interventions for Intergroup Reconciliation: An Emotion Regulation Perspective

Intergroup reconciliation is a requirement for lasting peace in the context of intergroup conflicts. In this article, we offer an emotion regulation perspective on social-psychological interventions aimed at facilitating intergroup reconciliation. In the first section of the article, we conceptualize intergroup reconciliation as an emotion-regulation process involving positive affective change and offer a framework that integrates the emotion regulation and intergroup reconciliation literatures. In the sections that follow, we review social-psychological interventions that involve changes in beliefs and identity and assess their effects on specific intergroup emotions pertinent for intergroup reconciliation. More specifically, we focus our discussion on specific reconciliation-oriented intervention strategies and their relation to emotions pertinent for facilitating reconciliation, including intergroup hatred, anger, guilt, hope, and empathy. In the final section, we consider key implications and growth points for the field of intergroup reconciliation.