Psychology Commons^™

The Surprise Exam Paradox: Disentangling Two Reductios, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

One tradition of solving the surprise exam paradox, started by Robert Binkley and continued by Doris Olin, Roy Sorensen and Jelle Gerbrandy, construes surprise epistemically and relies upon the oddity of propositions akin to G. E. Moore's paradoxical 'p and I don't believe that p.' Here I argue for an analysis that evolves from Olin's. My analysis is different from hers or indeed any of those in the tradition because it explicitly recognizes that there are two distinct reductios at work in the student's paradoxical argument against the teacher. The weak reductio is easy to fault. Its invalidity determines the …

Justifying Circumstances And Moore-Paradoxical Beliefs: A Response To Brueckner, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

In 2004, I explained the absurdity of Moore-paradoxical belief via the syllogism (Williams 2004): (1) All circumstances that justify me in believing that p are circumstances that tend to make me believe that p. (2) All circumstances that tend to make me believe that p are circumstances that justify me in believing that I believe that p. (3) All circumstances that justify me in believing that p are circumstances that justify me in believing that I believe that p.

Moorean Absurdity And Conscious Belief, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

No abstract provided.

Moorean Absurdities And Higher Order Beliefs, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

No abstract provided.

Externalism And Knowledge Of Comparative Content, Yoo Guan Tan

John N. WILLIAMS

Concepts are the constituents of thoughts, which in turn, are the contents of propositional attitudes. They are also what the predicates of our language express. According to a tradition going back to Plato, questions about comparative content – questions of the form Is concept F the same as concept G? – are purely about relations of ideas, and so are answerable a priori. This does not mean that no experience at all is necessary to answer such questions, for experience may be needed to grasp their content. Call a piece of information about Fs extraneous if it is not required …

Moore's Paradoxes And Iterated Belief, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

I give an account of the absurdity of Moorean beliefs of the omissive form (om) p and I don’t believe that p, and the commissive form (com) p and I believe that not-p, from which I extract a definition of Moorean absurdity. I then argue for an account of the absurdity of Moorean assertion. After neutralizing two objections to my whole account, I show that Roy Sorensen’s own account of the absurdity of his ‘iterated cases’ (om1) p and I don’t believe that I believe that p, and (com1) p and I believe that I believe that not-p, is unsatisfactory. …

Wittgenstein, Moorean Absurdity And Its Disappearance From Speech, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

G. E. Moore famously observed that to say, "I went to the pictures last Tuesday but I don't believe that I did" would be "absurd." Why should it be absurd of me to say something about myself that might be true of me? Moore suggested an answer to this, but as I will show, one that fails. Wittgenstein was greatly impressed by Moore's discovery of a class of absurd but possibly true assertions because he saw that it illuminates "the logic of assertion". Wittgenstein suggests a promising relation of assertion to belief in terms of the idea that one "expresses …

Moorean Absurdity And Expressing Belief, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

No abstract provided.

Wittgenstein, Moorean Absurdity And Its Disappearance From Speech, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

G. E. Moore famously observed that to say, I went to the pictures last Tuesday but I don't believe that I did would be absurd. Why should it be absurd of me to say something about myself that might be true of me? Moore suggested an answer to this, but as I will show, one that fails. Wittgenstein was greatly impressed by Moore's discovery of a class of absurd but possibly true assertions because he saw that it illuminates the logic of assertion. Wittgenstein suggests a promising relation of assertion to belief in terms of the idea that one expresses …

Superman, Wittgenstein And The Disappearance Of Moorean Absurdity, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

'You have known me for years, Lois' explains Superman, as I lay aside my copy of Crimmins’s example (1992). 'But there is something you have not yet discovered. You also know me under a disguise. You have not yet realized that this person is I in disguise. On that way of thinking about me, you have different opinions of me. In fact you think me an idiot.' I've just informed Superman that I accept his testimony on the strength of his intelligence. But I confess I don’t quite know how to acknowledge my acceptance of his final remark.

The Ethics Of Placebo-Controlled Trials In Developing Countries To Prevent Mother-To-Child Transmission Of Hiv, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

Placebo-trials on HIV-infected pregnant women in developing countries like Thailand and Uganda have provoked recent controversy. Such experiments aim to find a treatment that will cut the rate of vertical transmission more efficiently than existing treatments like zidovudine. This scenario is first stated as generally as possible, before three ethical principles found in the Belmont Report, itself a sharpening of the Helsinki Declaration, are stated. These three principles are the Principle of Utility, the Principle of Autonomy and the Principle of Justice. These are taken as voices of moral imperative. But although each has intuitive appeal, it can be shown …

Orwell And Huxley: Making Dissent Unthinkable, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

In this paper I compare the fictional world depicted by Orwell’s 1984 with that of Huxley’s Brave New World from the point of view of an analytic philosopher. Neither novel should be read as predictions, the accuracy of which can be used to judge them. Rather, both attempt to portray what humanity could conceivably become. The authenticity of this conceivability is a necessary condition of the power of both works to raise central philosophical questions about the human condition. What is ethically wrong with control? How far can Man go in recreating himself? In what sense are these worlds anti-utopian? …

Moore’S Paradox, Defective Interpretation, Justified Belief And Conscious Belief: A Reply To Vahid, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

No abstract provided.

Moorean Absurdity, Knowledge And Iterated Belief, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

No abstract provided.

The Completeness Of The Pragmatic Solution To Moore’ Paradox: A Reply To Chan, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

No abstract provided.

A Simple Solution To The Surprise Exam Paradoxes, John N. Williams

John N. WILLIAMS

No abstract provided.

Developing Constructs For Psychopathology Research: Research Domain Criteria, Charles A. Sanislow, Daniel S. Pine, Kevin J. Quinn, Michael J. Kozak, Marjorie A. Garvey, Robert K. Heinssen, Philip Sung-En Wang, Bruce N. Cuthbert

Charles A. Sanislow, Ph.D.

There exists a divide between findings from integrative neuroscience and clinical research focused on mechanisms of psychopathology. Specifically, a clear correspondence does not emerge between clusters of complex clinical symptoms and dysregulated neurobiological systems, with many apparent redundancies. For instance, many mental disorders involve multiple disruptions in putative mechanistic factors (e.g., excessive fear, deficient impulse control), and different disrupted mechanisms appear to play major roles in many disorders. The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework is a heuristic to facilitate the incorporation of behavioral neuroscience in the study of psychopathology. Such integration might be achieved by shifting the central research focus …

On The Number Of Trials Necessary For Stabilization Of Error-Related Brain Activity Across The Life Span, Jason Themanson, Matthew Pontifex, Mark Scudder, Michael Brown, Kevin O'Leary, Chien-Ting Wu, Charles Hillman

Jason R. Themanson, Ph.D

The minimum number of trials necessary to accurately characterize the error-related negativity (ERN) and the error positivity (Pe) across the life span was investigated using samples of preadolescent children, college-age young adults, and older adults. Event-related potentials and task performance were subsequently measured during a modified flanker task. Response-locked averages were created using sequentially increasing errors of commission in blocks of two. Findings indicated that across all age cohorts ERN and Pe were not significantly different relative to the within-participants grand average after six trials. Further, results indicated that the ERN and Pe exhibited excellent internal reliability in preadolescent children …

Découvrir Le Pouvoir De Ses Mains : La Gestuelle Des Futurs Enseignants De Langue., Marion Tellier, Gale Stam

Gale Stam, Ph.D.

No abstract provided.

State Effects Of Major Depression On The Assessment Of Personality And Personality Disorder, Leslie C. Morey, M. Tracie Shea, John C. Markowitz, Robert L. Stout, Christopher J. Hopwood, John G. Gunderson, Carlos M. Grilo, Thomas H. Mcglashan, Shirley Yen, Charles A. Sanislow, Andrew E. Skodol

Charles A. Sanislow, Ph.D.

OBJECTIVE: The authors sought to determine whether personality disorders diagnosed during a depressive episode have long-term outcomes more typical of those of other patients with personality disorders or those of patients with noncomorbid major depression.

METHOD: The authors used 6-year outcome data collected from the multisite Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorders Study (CLPS). Diagnoses and personality measures gathered from the study cohort at the index assessment using interview and self-report methods were associated with symptomatic, functional, and personality measures at 6-year follow-up. Of 668 patients initially recruited to the CLPS, 522 were followed for 6 years. All participants had either a …

Speech And Gesture In Language Acquisition Studies, Gale Stam

Gale Stam, Ph.D.

No abstract provided.

Speech And Gesture In Language Acquisition Studies, Gale Stam

Gale Stam, Ph.D.

No abstract provided.

The Relation Of Aerobic Fitness To Neuroelectric Indices Of Cognitive And Motor Task Preparation, Jason Themanson, Keita Kamijo, Kevin O'Leary, Matthew Pontifex, Charles Hillman

Jason R. Themanson, Ph.D

The relation of aerobic fitness to task preparation was examined in a sample of young adults separated into higher- and lower-fit groups according to their maximal oxygen consumption. Participants performed a modified Sternberg working memory task under speed and accuracy instructions while measures of task performance and contingent negative variation (CNV) were collected. Analyses revealed no significant fitness differences between groups on task performance measures. However, frontal CNVamplitude was significantly larger for lower-fit participants compared to higher-fit participants during the speed instructions, an effect not found for the accuracy instructions. These results suggest that lower-fit individuals may rely to a …

Identity Politics, Cigdem Sirin

Cigdem V. Sirin

No abstract provided.

Cortical Underconnectivity Coupled With Preserved Visuospatial Cognition In Autism: Evidence From An Fmri Study Of An Embedded Figures Task, Saudamini Damarla, Timothy A. Keller, Rajesh K. Kana, Vladimir L. Cherkassky, Diane L. Williams, Nancy J. Minshew, Marcel Adam Just

Marcel Adam Just

No abstract provided.

Developing Constructs For Psychopathology Research: Research Domain Criteria, Charles A. Sanislow, Daniel S. Pine, Kevin J. Quinn, Michael J. Kozak, Marjorie A. Garvey, Robert K. Heinssen, Philip S. Wang, Bruce N. Cuthbert

Charles A. Sanislow, Ph.D.

There exists a divide between findings from integrative neuroscience and clinical research focused on mechanisms of psychopathology. Specifically, a clear correspondence does not emerge between clusters of complex clinical symptoms and dysregulated neurobiological systems, with many apparent redundancies. For instance, many mental disorders involve multiple disruptions in putative mechanistic factors (e.g., excessive fear, deficient impulse control), and different disrupted mechanisms appear to play major roles in many disorders. The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework is a heuristic to facilitate the incorporation of behavioral neuroscience in the study of psychopathology. Such integration might be achieved by shifting the central research focus …

Can An L2 Speaker’S Patterns Of Thinking For Speaking Change?, Gale Stam

Gale Stam, Ph.D.

No abstract provided.

Research Domain Criteria (Rdoc): Toward A New Classification Framework For Research On Mental Disorders, Thomas R. Insel, Bruce N. Cuthbert, Marjorie A. Garvey, Robert K. Heinssen, Daniel S. Pine, Kevin J. Quinn, Charles A. Sanislow, Philip S. Wang

Charles A. Sanislow, Ph.D.

Current versions of the DSM and ICD have facilitated reliable clinical diagnosis and research. However, problems have increasingly been documented over the past several years, both in clinical and research arenas (e.g., 1, 2). Diagnostic categories based on clinical consensus fail to align with findings emerging from clinical neuroscience and genetics. The boundaries of these categories have not been predictive of treatment response. And, perhaps most important, these categories, based upon presenting signs and symptoms, may not capture fundamental underlying mechanisms of dysfunction. One consequence has been to slow the development of new treatments targeted to underlying pathophysiological mechanisms.

A Neurosemantic Theory Of Concrete Noun Representation Based On The Underlying Brain Codes, Marcel Adam Just, Vladimir L. Cherkassky, Sandesh Aryal, Tom M. Mitchell

Marcel Adam Just

No abstract provided.

Complex Problem Solving: A Case For Complex Cognition?, Joachim Funke

Joachim Funke