Across-reinforcement blocking effects in a mediational test of the CS's general signaling property

Rats received Pavlovian aversive (shock) conditioning in which white noise was established for independent groups as a CS+, CSo, or CS−. Then, in an easy (light-dark) T-maze discrimination, the CS was presented either immediately following choice (Locus 1) or at the food cup in the goal (Locus 3), contingent upon either a food-reinforced (right) or nonreinforced (wrong) response. When presented at Locus 3, the CS+ facilitated and the CS− retarded learning for CS/right subjects, with these effects being exactly reversed but somewhat less pronounced for CS/wrong subjects. However, when the CS was presented at Locus 1, the CS+ and CS− effects for both response contingencies were attenuated. These findings oppose an interpretation of the CS's function as a general cue or transformed signal for the presence or absence of the new appetitive reinforcer and argue instead for across-reinforcement blocking effects: By signaling in the presence of food reinforcement an outcome (safety or shock) which is consonant with or discrepant from the “good” outcome obtained, the CS− blocks (retards) and the CS+ counterblocks (enhances) the association of food reinforcement and the S^D; conversely, in the presence of nonreinforcement (a “bad” outcome), the CS− counterblocks and the CS+ blocks inhibitory conditioning to the S^Δ. As in Kamin's (1968) original research, such effects are attenuated when the CS is presented early in the compound, distal to the reinforcer.     

Fowler's Stages of Faith Development in an Honors Science-and-Religion Seminar

According to Paul Tillich's understanding of religion as "ultimate concern," a religious dimension is implicit in all university curricula. A science-and-religion course, such as one taught at Southeast Missouri State University, can offer students the opportunity to integrate their worldview, taking seriously both religious ideas and scientific information. Assignments based on A. E. Lawson's model of a learning cycle provide a vehicle for evaluating significant student learning leading toward fuller integration. The stages of faith developed by James W. Fowler serve as a fruitfull framework for interpreting changes in student viewpoints. Fowler's six stages of faith are characterized. Examples from student writing assignments demonstrate shifts in the cognitive understanding of faith that coincide with Fowler's stages.     

The "God Module" and the Complexifying Brain

Recent reports of the discovery of a "God module" in the human brain derive from the fact that epileptic seizures in the left temporal lobe are associated with ecstatic feelings sometimes described as an experience of the presence of God. The brain area involved has been described as either (a) the seat of an innate human faculty for experiencing the divine or (b) the seat of religious delusions.
In fact, religious experience is extremely various and involves many parts of the brain, including some that are prehuman in their evolutionary history and some that are characteristically human. In the continuing integration of such experiences, spiritual formation takes place. Thus the entire human brain might be described as a "God module."
Such a process is only possible because of the brain's complexity. The human brain is the most complex entity for its size that we know of. As used here, complexity is a specialized term denoting the presence of a web of interlinked and significant connections—the more intricate the web, the more complex the entity. Complex systems develop only in a milieu that provides both lawfulness and freedom, and they tend to be self-organizing, becoming more complex and more effective as a result of both inward and outward experience. The evidence suggests that both personal growth and spiritual growth are processes of complexification of character, and of the brain itself. This thesis is tested in light of the work of William James and James W. Fowler.     

BRAIN, SYMBOL, & EXPERIENCE: A PSYCHIATRIC AND THEOLOGICAL DIALOGUE

Abstract. Brain, Symbol & Experience attempts to solidify the authors' work in the fields of neurophenomenology and consciousness. The interdisciplinary nature of the work dictates less than extensive discussions of individual academic topics, but it does facilitate the identification of mutual points of interest for future pluralistic dialogues. This paper explores the implications of Laughlin, McManus, and d'Aquili for the neurosciences, psycho-pathology, psychotherapy, contemporary literature, theology, and faith development theory. Suggestions for specific interdisciplinary conversations are offered.     

Intentional Faith: An Alternative View of Faith Development

Faith was defined as the search for an integrating center of value and meaning that is cognitional in nature, developmental in process, and transcendental in its dimensions. An original psychometric measure was constructed and tested in two samples in a midwestern metropolitan area. The life span sample of Catholics (N = 509) ranged in ages 18–84, median age 49. Respondents were 40% male, 60% female. The sample of college students (N = 303) had a mode age of 19, but was ethnically and religiously diverse. The results indicated that the covariance structure of the scale was equivalent for the two samples. The scale clearly measures 4 independent aspects of faith: Self and Moral development, God and Death, Ritual, and Authority. Reliability was established for four developmental Ways of Faith, based on Bernard Lonergan's intentionality analysis: Common Sense Faith, Thoughtful Faith, Responsible Faith, and Transcendent Faith. The data suggested that faith development may be best conceived as a continuous reworking of one's faith, rather than a sequence of acquisition and abandonment of beliefs. A mixed pattern of modest gender, age, and attachment effects was found for the Ways of Faith. A measure of self-church identification was found to be a consistent correlate of faith development.     

Mark Twain's life‐long fascination with phrenology

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain; 1835–1910), American humorist and writer, followed scientific and medical developments, and relished exposing questionable practices and ideas. In his youth, he pondered how phrenologists were assessing character, and in 1855 he copied sections of a phrenology book and a skull diagram into a notebook. Later, in London, he had two phrenological examinations by Lorenzo Fowler—one without and the other after identifying himself. Following his “test,” which produced contrasting results, he began to ridicule phrenologists and phrenology in Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and other works. He underwent at least two more head readings in the United States, and in Eddypus, an unfinished work from 1901 to 1902, he maintained that phrenologists base their insights primarily on how people dress and answer questions. Although now lampooning the craniological tenets of phrenology, Twain never seemed to reject the idea of distinct faculties of mind associated with specialized brain organs.