bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Chapter 4. Strategic communication
Authors: Riley Patricia , Hollihan Thomas A.
Published: March 2014

The rapidly changing global media environment has dramatically altered the flow of news and information and increased the complexity of foreign policy. National governments must now communicate simultaneously to domestic and international publics who have access to many of the same media sources. There is an emerging awareness that in this environment the media has become an instrument of policy and not merely a means to communicate policy and the result is an increased emphasis on the principles of strategic communication. This study examines the argument strategies of media diplomacy and analyzes media maneuvers following U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel in March, 2010. A foreign policy controversy developed when the Israeli government announced the construction of 1,600 new housing units on land claimed by the Palestinians, despite U.S. opposition. The announcement and its provocative timing resulted in a complex system of diplomatic arguments and media maneuvers as both sides sought to communicate their strategic objectives to diverse audiences with multiple, conflicting goals.
Chapter 10. Everyday argument strategies in Appellate Court argument about same-sex marriage
Authors: Tracy Karen
Published: March 2014

Arguments that occur in the legal sphere are often held up as exemplars of good argument conduct, distinctively different from how most ordinary argument proceeds. In this chapter I analyze oral arguments in two cases of the California Supreme Court (In Re Marriage, Strauss v. Horton) as the court considered the legality of its laws regarding same-sex marriage. In both cases, the focal issue concerned whether denying same-sex couples the name “marriage” for their unions constituted a violation of the California law. The first case declared that it did; the second case, following a change to the state constitution defining marriage as one man-one woman, said it did not. After describing three argument strategies that are pervasive in everyday discourse – defining key terms to advantage one’s position, using a vivid analogy to drive home the (un)reasonableness of an action, and using lexical choices that cue a stance on a contentious issues – I illustrate that in the technical sphere of appellate argument these everyday strategies were commonly used. The chapter concludes by considering the significance of this interpenetration of everyday argument practices and technical legal argument.
Chapter 12. Expert authority and ad verecundiam arguments
Authors: Kutrovátz Gábor
Published: March 2014

Discussions of ad verecundiam arguments have always engaged with an essential tension between two kinds of possible approaches. On the one hand, ad verecundiams are typically classed under the heading of ‘fallacies’ as potentially abusive and non-rational argument forms, especially in the field of ‘informal logic’ (Copi, Walton). Similarly, the pragma-dialecticians focus on ‘fallacious’ uses by treating fallacies as violations of the rules of rational discussion. On the other hand, frequent appeals to authority are part and parcel of human cognitive enterprises ranging from lay knowledge to highly specialized scientific research, as recognised by fileds such as social epistemology (Coady, Goldman), the history of science (the problem of testimony – Kusch, Shapiro), or recent trends in the social studies of science and technology (‘studies of expertise and experience’, Collins, Evans). Recently Walton approaches these appeals in the framework of argument schemes. The paper tries, in the context of recent trends both in the public understanding of science and in the study of argumentation, to contrast these approaches with each other, and with empirical considerations concerning appeals to authority based on Internet blog discussions of the H1N1 case.
Chapter 16. The battle for health care reform and the liberal public sphere
Authors: Rowland Robert C.
Published: March 2014

The battle over health care reform in 2009 and 2010 was the most important domestic policy debate in decades and therefore provides a good case to test the performance of the public sphere in the United States. The most appropriate means of carrying out that test is with liberal public sphere theory based in foundational conceptions of liberal democracy, especially the writings of James Madison. Under this theory, four key actors – the public, representatives of the public, the media, and the expert community – each must carry out key responsibilities. In the essay, the course of the debate is described and the performance of each actor assessed. While there were flaws in the performance of each of the key actors, the media and the expert community largely carried out their responsibilities. While much of the debate was inauthentic, the representatives of the public eventually enacted a reform effort. The performance of the public was more troubling with sizable percentage either uninformed or misinformed about the legislation. Overall, the liberal public sphere worked, but only by the barest of margins.
Distinct characteristics of conscious experience are met by large-scale neuronal synchronization
Authors: Melloni Lucia , Singer Wolf
Published: March 2014

Conscious processes have a number of distinct properties that need to be accounted for by neuronal mechanisms supporting conscious experience. It is proposed that synchronization of distributed neuronal activity patterns meets most of these requirements. A major problem for the identification of neuronal correlates of consciousness is the distinction between the processes that lead to conscious experience and those that follow once contents have become conscious. Criteria for this distinction are discussed in the context of published evidence.
Dreaming as a model system for consciousness research
Authors: Revonsuo Antti , Valli Katja
Published: March 2014

Based on biological realism, that is, the philosophical assumption that consciousness is a real natural biological phenomenon in the brain, we argue that dreaming is a pure form of phenomenality, and suggest that the dreaming brain could be used as a model system for consciousness. The dreaming brain offers the most challenging model system that represents all the theoretically and philosophically interesting features of consciousness. Although difficult to study experimentally, the dreaming brain is the model system that fully preserves all the essential features of consciousness, and cannot be ignored by any theory that aims to explain consciousness.
Lucid dreaming and the bimodality of consciousness
Authors: Hobson Allan , Voss Ursula
Published: March 2014

In this essay, we develop our working hypothesis that consciousness in primates and humans is a state-dependent commodity that has at least two expressions. Waking and dreaming are two such states that differ in conscious awareness. In both states, we are perceptive and emotional. Whereas in dreaming, our thoughts are delusional, however, waking consciousness potentiates volition and reflection. We propose that dreaming is a state of primary consciousness, while usually, secondary consciousness is reserved to waking. Lucid dreaming is an extraordinary state with elements of both waking and dreaming and both primary and secondary consciousness. It is a rare but very real condition which is a promising tool in the study of the brain basis of consciousness.
Consciousness as the spin-off and schizophrenia as the price of language
Authors: Crow Timothy J.
Published: March 2014

Hearing “voices”, the experience of thoughts as not one’s own, and incoherent speech are symptoms of mental illness (usually termed “schizophrenia”). Here I argue that (1) the “torque” is the feature that defines the human brain as four chambered by comparison with the two chambers of the generalized mammalian brain, (2) by separating “thought” from speech production in the frontal lobes, and “meaning” from speech perception in occipito-parieto-temporal association cortex the torque thereby confers on the species the capacity for language, and (3) the phenomena of psychosis can be seen as “leakage” from one to another of the four quadrants of association cortex. Thus consciousness is the spin-off and schizophrenia is the price that Homo sapiens pays for language.
Consciousness and psychosis associated with schizophrenia
Authors: Behrendt Ralf-Peter
Published: March 2014

Information encoded by the autoassociation network of CA3 situates landmarks and objects within an allocentric frame of space and time. Guiding locomotion across the spatial environment, and generally organizing behaviour that transcends space and time, the hippocampus creates phenomenal space and time themselves, thus laying the foundations for conscious awareness. It is argued that conscious experience describes the informational content of self-organizing activity patterns in CA3. Excessive pyramidal cell activity in CA3, due to deficient inhibition by GABAergic basket interneurons, leading to event memory formation unrestrained by entorhinal input may be a mechanism for the generation of hallucinations in schizophrenia.
Dreaming as a physiological psychosis
Authors: D'Agostino Armando , Limosani Ivan , Scarone Silvio
Published: March 2014

Periodicity, hallucinatory phenomena and lack of awareness of one’s detachment from reality seem to connect the subjective experience of dreaming to that of psychosis. Both can be considered fully conscious states of the brain/mind, with an immediate influence of non-conscious elements caused by an impaired interaction with the external world. Psychological and pharmacological induction of lucidity in dreams may prove useful in the comprehension of acute psychoses and in clinical practice.
Conscious awareness versus optimistic beliefs in recreational Ecstasy/MDMA users
Authors: Parrott Andrew
Published: March 2014

The willingness of humans to take psychoactive drugs may reflect an unconscious optimism bias, where users focus on desired aims rather than actual consequences. A series of in-depth interviews will illustrate the experiences and explicit knowledge of recreational Ecstasy/MDMA users. Next an unpublished empirical study will be described, where four subgroups of Ecstasy users reported that MDMA loses its efficacy over time, while drug-related distress increased. As this cost-benefit ratio deteriorates, users take MDMA less frequently, before quitting permanently. The in-depth personal knowledge of experienced Ecstasy users might be useful for drugs education packages, since it could replace unconscious optimism with greater conscious awareness.
The paradoxes of creativity
Authors: Ranpura Ashish , Lythgoe Mark F.
Published: March 2014

Creativity is the crowning jewel of human cognition, the ability that most uniquely characterizes our species. At the heart of subjective accounts of creativity are three deeply paradoxical features. First, creative acts are widely considered acts of self-expression, yet by many accounts the creative experience is selfless and only partially volitional. Second, creative activity is often hypnotically engrossing, while psychological theories about creativity emphasize loose, defocussed thinking. Third, loose associations during creative acts might be profligate and degenerate, but creative products are often highly specific and optimal. Here we present two novel hypotheses which might explain the paradoxical nature of subjective accounts of creativity. First, we suggest that creativity requires a “quiet mind,” simultaneously focused and disinhibited. Second, we describe how this paradoxical activity in the cerebral cortex might support the Darwinian selection engine, a previously-proposed network-level mechanism for organizing and developing mental representations.
Self-induced altered states of consciousness
Authors: Gangadhar Bangalore N. , Rao Naren P.
Published: March 2014

Consciousness can be altered willfully. There are different methods to induce altered state of consciousness including psychological means. While some such induced states are pathological many others are not. Indian and other eastern concepts emphasize one can induce "higher states of consciousness" oneself. Physiological changes are observed in these altered states of consciousness that point to a neural basis.
Plants of the gods and shamanic journeys
Authors: Perry Elaine K. , Laws Valerie
Published: March 2014

Among agents which alter the boundary between conscious and non conscious cognition, the ritualistic use of plant species (often in a spiritual context, hence ‘plants of the gods’) provides an example of long-standing empirical knowledge subsequently verified by scientific (chemical, pharmacological and psychological) evidence. Based on such an impressive record of acquired knowledge, exploration of experiences of the shaman, who deliberately enters an altered state of consciousness to obtain otherwise inaccessible information allegedly from other ‘dimensions’ of consciousness, may contribute new insights in the neuroscience of consciousness.
Chapter 10. Dynamic embodiment and its functional role
Authors: Suitner Caterina , Koch Sabine C. , Bachmeier Katharina , Maass Anne
Published: March 2014

The situated nature of memory is here discussed with a specific focus on body memory. The chapter describes two studies on the effects of dynamic movement qualities on memory and one study on the Spatial Agency Bias, that is the tendency to envisage action as evolving in the same direction in which we habitually read and write. In addition to showing the situated nature of memory, we will for the first time provide evidence for its dynamic aspect. Situated memory will be discussed as functional in the interaction with the environment and body feedback as a key underlying mechanism.
Chapter 15. The memory of the cell
Authors: Meyer Ralf P.
Published: March 2014

Body memory and neurobiology – two faces of the same coin? Our genome serves as a basis for cellular development. Ensuing proliferation and differentiation of the cells are regulated by epigenetic factors and specific hormones, and are characterized by external influence like nutrition, environment, and education. This is an important process in adoption. The brain cells further integrate into a complex and stressable network by synaptogenesis and plasticity – a prerequisite in higher brain function. Brain’s limbic system conducts memory, cognition, and emotion and interacts with the visual and prefrontal cortex, the frontal and temporal lobes. Perception and imitation are main factors in learning, memory, and emotional reaction. Body memory in neurobiological context may be hypothesized as a concept influenced by (epi)genetics, environmental input (hormones), cultural influence (network building), cognition, and emotion.
Chapter 18. Body memory as a part of the body image
Authors: Pylvänäinen Päivi
Published: March 2014

First outlining body memory from a phenomenological perspective, this chapter then relates that view with the information offered by neurosciences, especially with the work of Kandel (2007), and makes efforts to understand, what is the nature of connections between body memory and the body-self; is something one just experienced part of body memory immediately after the lived moment; and how body memory influences the responses and actions the body-self expresses. Through vignettes from a clinical dance/movement therapy (DMT) group, it is explored how patients encounter body memory related issues in DMT.
Chapter 21. The emergence of body memory in Authentic Movement
Authors: Konopatsch Ilka , Payne Helen
Published: March 2014

The re-discovery and integration of body and bodily-felt experience as well
as the connection between different levels of processing are essential parts of the
practice of Authentic Movement (AM). Memories and regression can be experienced as more
“whole” by adding formerly unconscious or forgotten bodily-felt aspects. Embodying
metaphors may lead to a direct experience of their structure. The integration of
different levels of experience can be furthered through metaphors which support a
holistic understanding of the body-mind process as well as the communication between
mover and witness. The BodyMind Approach (BMA) facilitates the connection and sense-making
between body movement, sensation, imagination, feeling and cognition for patients
suffering Medically Unexplained Symptoms (MUS) (Payne 2009a, 2009b).
Chapter 23. Dance/movement therapy with traumatized dissociative patients
Authors: Koch Sabine C. , Harvey Steve
Published: March 2014

In this chapter, we describe dissociation and dissociative identity disorder (DID) and the value of dance/movement therapy (DMT) with traumatized dissociative child and adult patients. Most patients with dissociative states have suffered trauma during childhood and have recurring traumatic memories, loss of time (dissociative amnesia), and physical stress (i.e., stress on the sensorimotor level often relieved by self-harm on the bodily level). In order to address trauma that occurred on the body level, we consider therapy on the body level to be an important part of a multidisciplinary approach. The first part of the chapter contains some general thoughts on the phenomenon of dissociation and how to address it in DMT. The second part of the chapter provides a case vignette of an abused child experiencing dissociation and five adult group therapy case vignettes in the context of a clinical DMT session designed to help DID patients. In the end, we present principles of movement therapy from work with dissociative children and adults.
Chapter 24. Focusing, felt sensing and body memory
Authors: Kruithoff Elmar
Published: March 2014

Our bodies implicitly contain our entire life context. While continuously interacting with their environment, our bodies are our past experiences and implied next steps at the same time. Past and future are inseparable in the present bodily process, which is capable of generating highly organized meanings and behavior. “Body memory” is part of what is called “felt sensing” in Focusing terms.
Chapter 25. Mindfulness, embodiment, and depression
Authors: Michalak Johannes , Burg Jan M. , Heidenreich Thomas
Published: March 2014

During the past decade, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) aiming at relapse prevention in depression has been developed and empirically tested. All exercises taught during MBCT are based on the development of a heightened awareness of one’s body. The important role of the body is also stressed in a recently emerging interdisciplinary field of research termed ‘embodiment’. This research program focuses on the interactions between bodily, cognitive, and emotional processes. Based on the obvious role of the body in MBCT and on the theoretical and empirical evidence highlighting the role of the body in emotional processes, we argue that considering embodied processes might be a useful perspective for research on the etiology of depression and on mechanisms of action in MBCT.
Chapter 26. Body memory
Authors: Summa Michela , Koch Sabine C. , Fuchs Thomas , Müller Cornelia
Published: March 2014

In this final chapter, we summarize the state of the art concerning the research on body memory in phenomenology, in the cognitive sciences, and in embodied therapies. Thereby, we show the impact of the studies collected in this volume for the development of the research in these three fields. Firstly, we consider the contributions from the cognitive sciences and from embodied therapies from a phenomenological standpoint. Secondly, we show how the present volume contributes to the current debate on memory in the cognitive sciences. Thirdly, we discuss the relevance of body memory with selected populations from the perspective of embodied therapies. And finally, we conclude with the most important points of this book.
Chapter 1. Is there a measurement system for odour quality?
Authors: Berglund Birgitta , Höglund Anders
Published: March 2014

Although humans can discriminate a huge number of odours, the mechanisms behind the perception of odours are not well understood. The theory of the present essay and our experiments were developed with the view that odours are homogeneous perceptions (as opposed to visual objects that are heterogeneous percepts). Other typical examples of homogeneous perceptions are colours and some emotional states. Thus, through perceptual learning, which is a prerequisite for perceiving, we become aware of and may recognise odours in the environment. Typically, odours are detected at very low concentrations as compared to chemical instruments, the “electronic nose” inclusive. Four principles of investigating the human world of odour qualities are discussed: (i) classification and sorting according to odour-quality resemblance, (ii) using names and verbal attributes for odour sources, (iii) using odour qualities for a representative set of reference odorants, and (iv) measuring odour quality by similarity scaling of pairs of odorous stimuli. Although a huge number of odours can be discriminated, the quality of odour mixtures is intermediary among the odour qualities of their components. This applies to single chemical compounds or mixtures thereof and for very broadband mixtures like indoor air. Our perceptual world simply consists of a massive amount of odour qualities potentially attributable to sources in the environment. Their organisation is, however, still a mystery.
Chapter 2. There’s something in the air
Authors: Dalton Pamela
Published: March 2014

Although often underrated in importance, the human sense of smell has both evolutionary and contemporary significance: our ability to perceive odors provides information that allows us to evaluate and guide our responses to our environments. For example, the rich aromas wafting from a bakery encourage us to linger and savor them, whereas the smell of rotting garbage impels us to move away. No account of the role of smell in our lives would be complete, however, without an acknowledgment that people vary in their perception of and response to ambient odors in their environment. Some of this variability can be attributed to inter-individual variation in sensitivity. However, an important source of differences in response to ambient, environmental odors may also stem from cognitive factors, such as an individual’s beliefs and expectations about the consequences of exposure to an odor. This essay will provide an overview of the multiple factors-including expectations, suggestion and physiological reactions- that influence individual and community responses to environmental odors. Recognizing the interaction between the sensory and the psychological responses to odors is of significant value when trying to remediate community reactions to odors from these sources. The perception of health risks from short- or long-term exposures to environmental odors is of escalating concern to the general public and research indicates that such concerns can amplify the vigilance and attention paid to even low-level, neutral, background odors. Our research also suggests that interventions that reduce ambient pollutants, but which do not eliminate all odors may not remediate the concerns and anxieties of occupants. The historical basis for such beliefs and their consequences will provide a framework for discussing the contemporary responses to environmental odors.
Chapter 5. Olfactory perception
Authors: Stevenson Richard J.
Published: March 2014

From a functional perspective odor perception involves the detection and recognition of complex chemical blends against an ever-changing chemical background. This chapter examines one account of how this might occur using an object recognition approach (ORA). Drawing first on sensory physiology, it is apparent that basic parameters of olfactory processing are consistent with an ORA. There is the capacity to support figure/ground separation based upon rapid cortical adaptation and via content addressable memory, a capacity to recognize even degraded signals. The second part of the chapter examines whether psychological evidence is consistent with an ORA. Based upon data from behavioral genetics, psychophysical studies, child development, cross-cultural research and neuropsychology, these different fields all suggest the centrality of learning and memory in olfactory perception, and support various predictions derived from an ORA. The final part of the chapter examines the limitations and implications of an ORA, for multimodal flavor perception, for the centrality of affect in olfaction and the nature of top-down processing.
Chapter 7. Knowing what we smell
Authors: Jönsson Fredrik U. , Olsson Mats J.
Published: March 2014

In this chapter, we review the nature of, and performance levels for, odor source naming, and the different proposed explanations to the generally low odor naming performance observed in experimental studies. We differentiate between odor naming and odor identification and show that although humans can rarely name more than 50% of common household items, this is not an odor naming problem, but rather reflects the difficulty we have in identifying odors. We investigate two broad accounts of odor identification failures in terms of perceptual and associative processes necessary for correct identification. Additionally, we discuss the feeling of knowing and tip of the nose experience commonly associated with identification failures. This type of metacognition provides us with odor knowledge in the absence of odor identification. In light of these phenomena, we discuss the importance of odor identification for olfactory functioning.
Is the function of consciousness to act as an interface?
Authors: Pierce Bryony
Published: March 2014

The mind-body problem – how conscious experience can arise from a physical system – is commonly taken to be the problem of how phenomenal properties could come to accompany psychological or behavioural functions, which, being functional and attainable by non-conscious entities in virtue of their physical features, are not viewed as part of the ‘hard problem’. This implies that there is a relation between the system constituted by the physical body negotiating the external world on the one hand, and conscious experience on the other, in which psychological features, such as beliefs and desires leading to action, are situated, conceptually and functionally, somewhere between these two realms. The alternative approach I will discuss takes the view that conscious experience, rather than being conceptualised as one step beyond psychological functions, in relation to the physical self, should be situated at the interface between the physical body and cognitive processes. Work in the field of experimental psychology, by Balleine and Dickinson (1998), provides empirical evidence consistent with this view. Dickinson and Balleine’s hypothesis is that the function of consciousness is to act as an interface, providing a means of interaction between bodily states and affordances in the external world, enabling rational, goal-directed action. My philosophical work on grounding rationality draws the same conclusion, providing support for Dickinson’s interface theory, Hedonic Interface Theory (HIT). Keywords: interface theory; consciousness; goal-directed action
Es are good
Authors: Ward Dave , Stapleton Mog
Published: March 2014

We present a specific elaboration and partial defense of the claims that cognition is enactive, embodied, embedded, affective and (potentially) extended. According to the view we will defend, the enactivist claim that perception and cognition essentially depend upon the cognizer’s interactions with their environment is fundamental. If a particular instance of this kind of dependence obtains, we will argue, then it follows that cognition is essentially embodied and embedded, that the underpinnings of cognition are inextricable from those of affect, that the phenomenon of cognition itself is essentially bound up with affect, and that the possibility of cognitive extension depends upon the instantiation of a specific mode of skillful interrelation between cognizer and environment. Thus, if cognition is enactive then it is also embodied, embedded, affective and potentially extended. Keywords: enactivism; embodied cognition; situated cognition; affective cognition
“My mind”
Authors: Castelfranchi Cristiano
Published: March 2014

Mind-reading is adapted for social interaction (e.g. coordination, cooperation, exchange), and, in particular, for adoption of beliefs and goals from others, and for influencing, manipulating, persuading them; that is, changing the other mind, beliefs and goals, in order to change their behavior. Given this ability to interpret the others’ mind and to use this representation to induce certain behavior in others, in this paper I discuss the introjection of this mechanism, a reflexive application of this form of social cognition and action to our own selves. Or better, to be “our selves” means to have such a social-like representation (image) of us as a person, to know and to build who we are, by creating, updating and operating through this image. I assume that there is self-directed mind-reading and self-influencing: I learn to read my own behavior in mental terms; I learn to have a reflexive mind-reading, based not on introspection but on behavior interpretation; this leads me to meta-represent by beliefs, goals, etc. For what? Not just for understanding what I’m doing and why, not just for predicting and expecting what I will do, but also (and perhaps mostly) for helping myself and cooperating with myself, for influencing myself: changing my own mind, in particular my goals. In order to fighting or cooperating with myself, “imposing” to myself certain preferences, contrasting unwanted needs or dangerous desires. This activity involves reflexive communication acts, requests, duties, emotions, promises, and the like, all of which constitute a form of reflexive sociality: the intrapersonal re-use of skills and mechanisms originally evolved to serve interpersonal needs. Keywords: mind-reading; power; manipulation; self; will; sociality; internalization
Coherence of conduct and the self-image
Authors: Miceli Maria , Castelfranchi Cristiano
Published: March 2014

The need for coherence of conduct has been viewed, more or less implicitly, as one of the fundamental human needs, in association with one’s social image and self-image. Actually it appears to accomplish a variety of possible functions: identity negotiation, as a condition for smooth and predictable social interactions; the maintenance or enhancement of self-esteem; and the maintenance of one’s self-view regardless of either self-esteem or social identity concerns. In the present work, while acknowledging the plausibility and appeal of such general functions, we will proceed in a more “bottom-up” fashion, trying to single out and analyze in greater detail the possible “uses” of coherence of conduct. We will first specify our notion of coherence of conduct, as well as of its underlying need. Then, we will address its impact on the individual’s behavior, with reference to its relationships with persistence in goal pursuit, the need to show a stable social identity, perceived self-efficacy, general self-esteem, and personal identity or self-image. We will discuss how the need for coherence comes into play in one’s self-image, which includes not only one’s self-evaluations but also, more generally, one’s self-beliefs, especially those about one’s own goals and the kind of person one believes or wants to be. We will focus on the crucial impact of the individual’s values on his or her coherence of conduct. Finally, we will address the issue of self-coherence and change of conduct, pointing to some mechanisms which favor self-coherence without granting actual coherence of conduct. Keywords: coherence of conduct; self-image; persistence; values; defense mechanisms
Ulysses’ will
Authors: Paglieri Fabio
Published: March 2014

This paper discusses the widespread strategy of controlling one’s own future behavior by imposing external constraints on possible actions – a strategy well exemplified by the episode of Ulysses and the Sirens. I first discuss the strategic use of external constraints in the context of other methods to improve self-control, showing that this strategy is ubiquitous and constitutes a proper manifestation of self-control, but not of willpower. I analyze the difference between these two concepts and the possibility of considering the use of external constraints as a way of externalizing self-control, in the vein of the extended mind hypothesis. Then I offer a game-theoretic characterization of constraint-based self-control as sequential games where each player can have limited control over the game structure, with the players being the same self at different points in time. The potential implications of this analysis are discussed, and an alternative game-theoretic representation of the strategic situation is offered, in the form of larger sequential games. The two characterizations have similar explanatory power, and they are used to diagnose the reasons behind a common failure at self-control via external constraints (advanced payment as a form of ineffective pre-commitment) and to suggest a possible remedy (advanced payment with conditional reimbursement). Finally, I discuss the implications of this approach for how rationality should be assessed in intertemporal decisions, i.e. choices that involve trade-offs between subsequent selves: I offer a critique of existing principles of diachronic rationality, and propose expected utility maximization over a collectivity of temporal selves as a viable alternative Keywords: self-control; external constraints; intertemporal choice; diachronic rationality; willpower
Bodily intentionality and social affordances in context
Authors: Rietveld Erik
Published: March 2014

There are important structural similarities in the way that animals and humans engage in unreflective activities, including unreflective social interactions in the case of higher animals. Firstly, it is a form of unreflective embodied intelligence that is ‘motivated’ by the situation. Secondly, both humans and non-human animals are responsive to ‘affordances’ (Gibson 1979); to possibilities for action offered by an environment. Thirdly, both humans and animals are selectively responsive to one affordance rather than another. Social affordances are a subcategory of affordances, namely possibilities for social interaction offered by an environment: a friend’s sad face invites comforting behavior, a person waiting for a coffee machine can afford a conversation, and an extended hand affords a handshake. I will review recent insights in the nature of the bodily intentionality characteristic of unreflective action. Such ‘motor intentionality’ can be characterized as “our direct bodily inclination to act in a situated, environmental context” (Kelly 2005, p. 106). Standard interpretations of bodily intentionality see grasping an object as the paradigmatic example of motor intentionality. I will discuss the implications of another, novel perspective that emphasizes the importance of unreflective switches from one activity to another (Rietveld 2004) and understands bodily intentionality in terms of adequate responsiveness to a field of relevant affordances. In the final section I will discuss some implications for cognitive neuroscientists who use empirical findings related to the ‘mirror neuron system’ as a starting point for a theory of motor intentionality and social cognition. Keywords: embodied cognition; enaction; motor intentionality; affective cognition; field of affordances
Seeing with the hands
Authors: Sinigaglia Corrado
Published: March 2014

When witnessing someone else’s action people often take advantage of the same motor cognition that is crucial to successfully perform that action themselves. But how deeply is motor cognition involved in understanding another’s action? Can it be selectively modulated by either the agent’s or the witness’s being actually in the position to act? If this is the case, what does such modulation imply for one’s making sense of others? The paper aims to tackle these issues by introducing and discussing a series of experimental studies showing how body and space may constrain one’s own motor cognition reuse in understanding another’s action. These findings, I shall argue, may shed new light on the mechanisms underlying the primary ways of identifying ourselves with other people and of being connected to them. Keywords: motor cognition; social cognition; space representation; mirror neurons; proactive gaze
The Paratactic Account of propositional attitude ascription
Authors: Spicer Finn
Published: March 2014

In this paper a new theory is offered of the concepts we use to think about thought-content in propositional attitude ascriptions – the Paratactic Account. According to the Paratactic Account, in a propositional attitude ascription a person is described as standing in an attitudinal relation to a representational entity – a content. In making a propositional attitude ascription, then, one refers to a content; according to the Paratactic Account, one does this by using a demonstrative concept, which demonstrates a tokening of the target content in one’s own thinking. The Paratactic Account is offered as a competitor to Peacocke’s Redeployment View, and to Russellian and Fregean accounts of the concepts used in propositional attitude ascriptions. It is defended as a superior account to these rivals in its capacity to explain subjects’ folk-psychological abilities and their intuitions about the correctness of propositional attitude reports. Keywords: propositional attitude ascription; representations; folk psychology; propositional attitude reports
Experience and identity of the self
Authors: Lamarra Antonio
Published: March 2014

The idea of consciousness, as subjective awareness of the self and of its mental contents, appeared in European culture only in the late 17th century as resulting from a relatively rapid process of conceptual development, which had started in the framework of the post-Cartesian culture. It was rooted in the ancient idea of moral conscience insofar it requested as a condition the existence of a subjective interiority within which any mental content could be objectified and reflected. In addition, a new model of mind was necessary as well as a general concept under which mental contents of any sort could be included. Cartesian philosophy, by assuming that thought and mind were co-extensive, met these requirements. When investigating on personal identity, J. Locke for the first time defined consciousness in modern terms and focused on it as closely linked to the idea of the self. His philosophy of mind was largely influenced by the Cartesian paradigm (and in particular by the assumption that thinking is always a conscious mental operation), although he avoided any metaphysical commitment. In this way, Locke safeguarded personal identity from the turbulences of theological disputes and paved the road to psychology as an empirical discipline. Leibniz on the contrary grounded consciousness on an immaterial substance, the monad, but gave it an intentional relationship with the external world that was alien to Descartes’ as well as to Locke’s philosophy of mind. Moreover, he viewed consciousness as a phenomenon of the self, a reality in itself largely unconscious. Keywords: consciousness; conscience; self; personal identity; mind
Consciousness and imagination in the anthropological view of G. Vico
Authors: Sanna Manuela
Published: March 2014

This study is intended to follow up and illustrate the theoretical steps through which G.B. Vico defined the concept of “Consciousness” (coscienza) in the works that preceded his masterpiece, the Scienza Nuova. The theme of consciousness is elaborated by the Neapolitan philosopher in a very different way from Descartes’s proposals, since it comes out by approaching verum to facere and, later, verum to conformari. This displacement occurs by means of a theoretical passage through the level of conscire, outlining a deep gap between feeling (sentire) and imagining (immaginare). Vico works on a possible definition of the concept of “consciousness” and moves a tight critique to skeptic and neostoic currents posing the question about how to became able to feel something while striving to imagine in a conscious way. The whole anthropological framework which allows the definition of the human is built on this theoretical passage and on the etymologic reconstruction of conscire as cum-scire and of conscientia as a part of scientia. Keywords: consciousness; imagination; G. Vico; science
Consciousness and faculties in De antiquissima Italorum sapientia by Vico
Authors: Cerchiai Geri
Published: March 2014

Face to Descartes’ rationalism, in the book entitled De antiquissima Italorum sapientia Vico tries to examine non reflexive aspects of thought. According to Vico, the clear and distinct idea cannot originate the cogito as a criterion of truth; moreover, the clear and distinct idea exchanges the intelligere of God with the human cogitare; third, the method of doubt doesn’t consider the link, in men, of res cogitans and res extensa and the correlation between mind and body. Fourth, this theory arises from a wrong notion of substance. Following these four points, the article will stress the rejection by Vico of the Cartesian idea of consciousness and will try to determine a possible theory of consciousness as it is implied by Vichian reflections. Keywords: Vico; Descartes; consciousness
Time after time
Authors: Lloyd Dan
Published: March 2014

A useful theory linking dynamical systems to phenomenal experience will be a story thrice told. It will involve some description of phenomenal experience, which should be true. It will also involve some sort of dynamical model (second). But (third) the model will have to be at least plausibly implementable in human beings – that’s where the theory becomes useful. Finally, once all three stories are told, they must align. It should be evident to all that the phenomenal story, the dynamical story, and the implementation story are really one story, about one entity, described in three different ways, akin to one story as it might be told in three different languages. A theory of consciousness then is an exercise in translation, somewhat like deciphering the Rosetta Stone. This chapter outlines a possible alignment with respect to a foundational, structural property of experience, namely, time.
Early views on binocular rivalry
Authors: Wade Nicholas J. , Ngo Trung T.
Published: March 2014

Contributions from 19th Century scholars to binocular rivalry research are well recognized, however, observations concerning the phenomenon commenced centuries earlier and suggest a rich seam of research that is much less well known. This chapter discusses these early investigations, along with conflicting views and observations thereafter. We also discuss the early application of notions of attention and consciousness to rivalry. Such notions have more recently been the subject of concerted investigation into distinguishing brain activity mediating the rivalling states from that underlying visual stimulation. Observations in the literature that preceded this key principle are discussed.  We also trace the rivalry studies that followed and note their relevance to current thinking on the phenomenon.
The neuron doctrine of binocular rivalry
Authors: Sengpiel Frank
Published: March 2014

Ever since Horace Barlow (1972) proposed his neuron doctrine for perceptual psychology, the holy grail for neurophysiologists has been to find individual neurons or groups of neurons whose firing correlates with specific percepts or even a state of mind or consciousness. Binocular rivalry is a particularly attractive paradigm for this approach because a stable visual stimulus causes an ever-changing subjective perceptual experience. The publication of Blake’s neural theory of binocular rivalry (Blake, 1989) inspired numerous attempts to identify neurons in various areas along the central visual pathways whose firing rate might signal dominance or suppression. Collectively these studies have shown that depending on the type of stimulus, rivalry is resolved at both lower and higher levels in the visual system.
The USUS evaluation framework for user-centered HRI
Authors: Weiss Astrid , Bernhaupt Regina , Tscheligi Manfred
Published: March 2014

This chapter presents the USUS evaluation framework for the user-centered assessment of interaction scenarios with humanoid robots based on the factors Usability, Social Acceptance, User Experience, and Societal Impact. It consists of (1) a theoretical factor-indicator framework and (2) a methodological framework. Each of the four theoretical evaluation factors is split up into several indicators, which are extracted and justified by literature review. The methodological framework is based on a method mix derived from various disciplines. It proposes the most feasible method for each indicator to be addressed in a human-robot interaction study. This chapter concludes with a validation and application process of the framework and a discussion and outlook on future work with the proposed USUS evaluation framework.
The co-evolution of basic spatial terms and categories
Authors: Spranger Michael
Published: March 2014

This chapter studies how basic spatial categories such as left-right, front-back, far-near or north-south
can emerge in a population of robotic agents in co-evolution with terms that express these categories. It introduces
various language strategies and tests them first in reconstructions of German spatial terms, then in
acquisition experiments to demonstrate the adequacy of the strategy for learning these terms, and finally in
language formation experiments showing how a spatial vocabulary and the concepts expressed by it can emerge
in a population of embodied agents from scratch.
Methodological paradigms  in interaction research
Authors: de Ruiter Jan
Published: March 2014

Interaction researchers often tend to identify themselves and others with the methods they are using, rather than with the topic they are studying. I survey a number of commonly used research methods in human interaction research, and indicate some of their strengths, weaknesses, and relative advantages. I will argue that human interaction is a topic of such massive complexity that it will require not only a multidisciplinary approach, but also, and more importantly, a multimethodological approach. This requires open-mindedness about the use of methods that we happen not to be familiar with. Combining different qualitative and quantitative methods to address similar and converging research questions is essential for gaining progress in the complex field of human interaction.
On making syntax dynamic
Authors: Gregoromichelaki Eleni , Kempson Ruth M. , Howes Christine , Eshghi Arash
Published: March 2014

The Pickering and Garrod model (Pickering & Garrod, 2013) represents a significant advance within the language-as-action paradigm in providing a mechanistic non-inferential account of dialogue. However, we suggest that, in maintaining several aspects of the language-as-product tradition, it does not go far enough in addressing the dynamic nature of the mechanisms involved. We argue for a radical extension of the language-as-action account, showing how compound-utterance phenomena necessitate a grammar-internal characterization which can only be met with a shift of perspective into one in which linguistic knowledge is seen as procedural. This shift provides a more psychologically plausible model of language-in-use, a basis for allowing intentions and speech-acts to be co-constructed, as well as a computationally tractable basis for dialogue models.