In this commentary, we discuss an important pattern of results in the literature on the neural basis of expertise: decrease of cerebral activation at the beginning of acquisition of expertise and functional cerebral reorganization as a consequence of years of practice. We show how these two results can be integrated with the neural reuse framework.

Expert chess players, specialized in different openings, recalled positions and solved problems within and outside their area of specialization. While their general expertise was at a similar level, players performed better with stimuli from their area of specialization. The effect of specialization on both recall and problem solving was strong enough to override general expertise—players remembering positions and solving problems from their area of specialization performed at around the level of players 1 standard deviation (SD) above them in general skill. (...) Their problem‐solving strategy also changed depending on whether the problem was within their area of specialization. When it was, they searched more in depth and less in breadth; with problems outside their area of specialization, the reverse. The knowledge that comes from familiarity with a problem area is more important than general purpose strategies in determining how an expert will tackle it. These results demonstrate the link in experts between problem solving and memory of specific experiences and indicate that the search for context‐independent general purpose problem‐solving strategies to teach to future experts is unlikely to be successful. (shrink)

The original book chapter does not have an abstract. However, I have written an abstract for this repository: Religious life encompasses a wide diversity of situations for which the emotional tone is on a continuum from extreme euphoria to extreme dysphoria. In this book chapter, we propose the novel hypothesis that euphoria and dysphoria have distinctly separate functional consequences for religious evolution and survivability. This is due to the differential cognitive states that are created in euphoric and dysphoric situations. Based (...) on readings from religious studies and cognitive psychology, we propose that euphoria in religion is conducive to social bonding and situations needing lateral thinking and creativity; whereas dysphoria in religion is conducive to situations where precision and analogical reasoning are necessary. (shrink)

In this study, we apply MOSAIC (model of syntax acquisition in children) to the simulation of the developmental patterning of children's optional infinitive (OI) errors in 4 languages: English, Dutch, German, and Spanish. MOSAIC, which has already simulated this phenomenon in Dutch and English, now implements a learning mechanism that better reflects the theoretical assumptions underlying it, as well as a chunking mechanism that results in frequent phrases being treated as 1 unit. Using 1, identical model that learns from child‐directed (...) speech, we obtain a close quantitative fit to the data from all 4 languages despite there being considerable cross‐linguistic and developmental variation in the OI phenomenon. MOSAIC successfully simulates the difference between Spanish (a pro‐drop language in which OI errors are virtually absent) and obligatory subject languages that do display the OI phenomenon. It also highlights differences in the OI phenomenon across German and Dutch, 2 closely related languages whose grammar is virtually identical with respect to the relation between finiteness and verb placement. Taken together, these results suggest that (a) cross‐linguistic differences in the rates at which children produce OIs are graded, quantitative differences that closely reflect the statistical properties of the input they are exposed to and (b) theories of syntax acquisition need to consider more closely the role of input characteristics as determinants of quantitative differences in the cross‐linguistic patterning of phenomena in language acquisition. (shrink)

The Einstellung effect occurs when the first idea that comes to mind, triggered by familiar features of a problem, prevents a better solution being found. It has been shown to affect both people facing novel problems and experts within their field of expertise. We show that it works by influencing mechanisms that determine what information is attended to. Having found one solution, expert chess players reported that they were looking for a better one. But their eye movements showed that they (...) continued to look at features of the problem related to the solution they had already thought of. The mechanism which allows the first schema activated by familiar aspects of a problem to control the subsequent direction of attention may contribute to a wide range of biases both in everyday and expert thought - from confirmation bias in hypothesis testing to the tendency of scientists to ignore results that do not fit their favoured theories. (shrink)

In this study we use a computational model of language learning called model of syntax acquisition in children (MOSAIC) to investigate the extent to which the optional infinitive (OI) phenomenon in Dutch and English can be explained in terms of a resource-limited distributional analysis of Dutch and English child-directed speech. The results show that the same version of MOSAIC is able to simulate changes in the pattern of finiteness marking in 2 children learning Dutch and 2 children learning English as (...) the average length of their utterances increases. These results suggest that it is possible to explain the key features of the OI phenomenon in both Dutch and English in terms of the interaction between an utterance-final bias in learning and the distributional characteristics of child-directed speech in the 2 languages. They also show how computational modeling techniques can be used to investigate the extent to which cross-linguistic similarities in the developmental data can be explained in terms of common processing constraints as opposed to innate knowledge of universal grammar. (shrink)

Professeure de lettres, l'auteure retrace le cheminement historique (l'âge d'or) et géographique (l'Espagne surtout) du concept de Dieu au regard de la foi et de la raison. L'époque contemporaine (depuis 1800) est abordée dans le dernier chapitre.

Essays, written between 1920 and 1953, by an influential, modern painter on the purpose of art in modern life.

Cet ouvrage se veut une lecture rhétorique de quelques problèmes-clés ayant marqué la période qui s'étend des débuts de la révolution scientifique du XVIIe siècle jusqu'au moment où, au XIXe, une autre se prépare. Une telle sorte d'analyse se fonde sur le fait qu'avant d'intervenir dans les efforts de persuasion, certains schèmes " poétiques " sont déjà présents et actifs dans la formation et l'acceptation de toute représentation nouvelle. C'est pourquoi la " rhétorique profonde " que nous propose ici (...) class='Hi'>Fernand Hallyn ne se contente nullement d'éclairer les procédés de la science qui interviennent dans la communication de positions, de démarches ou de résultats, mais vise d'abord à étudier ses formes d'invention et de découverte. Saisir la démarche scientifique en train de se faire comme un cas particulier de la problématique générale de la créativité - bref explorer plus avant la voie ouverte dans La Structure poétique du mande - tel est donc l'enjeu de ce volume. (shrink)

O argumento da Aposta é talvez o fragmento que melhor sintetiza o sentido da apologia que Pascal pretendera realizar nos Pensamentos e a forma de que ele se utiliza da razão para guiar o incrédulo a buscar a fé cristã. A razão parece fornecer somente uma orientação prática ao homem. Impossibilitado de determinar com certeza a existência divina, Pascal pretende demonstrar por meio do cálculo de probabilidade como a aposta cristã é a mais razoável e rentável para o incrédulo. Assim, (...) a argumentação de Pascal visa garantir que o incrédulo faça tudo o que for possível para adquirir a fé, caso estivesse entre os desígnios de Deus infundir-lhe essa graça. (shrink)

Pioneering work in the 1940s and 1950s suggested that the concept of chunking might be important in many processes of perception, learning and cognition in humans and animals. We summarize here the major sources of evidence for chunking mechanisms, and consider how such mechanisms have been implemented in computational models of the learning process. We distinguish two forms of chunking: the first deliberate, under strategic control, and goal-oriented; the second automatic, continuous, and linked to perceptual processes. Recent work with discrimination-network (...) computational models of long- and short-term memory (EPAM/CHREST) has produced a diverse range of applications of perceptual chunking. We focus on recent successes in verbal learning, expert memory, language acquisition and learning multiple representations, to illustrate the implementation and use of chunking mechanisms within contemporary models of human learning. (shrink)

When we deliberate about what to do, we appear to be free to decide on different options. Three accounts use ordinary beliefs to explain this apparent freedom—appealing to different types of ‘epistemic freedom’. When an agent has epistemic freedom, her evidence while deliberating does not determine what decision she makes. This ‘epistemic gap’ between her evidence and decision explains why her decision appears free. The varieties of epistemic freedom appealed to might look similar. But there is an important difference. Two (...) rely on an agent's ability to justifiably form beliefs unconstrained by evidence, and identify decisions as beliefs—either beliefs about acts or about decisions. But, when used to explain apparent freedom, these accounts face serious problems: they imply that agents have epistemic freedom over evidence-based beliefs, and rely on a faulty notion of justification. Underlying these troubles, it turns out that these accounts presuppose an unexplained apparent ability to form different beliefs. A third variety of epistemic freedom uses ignorance conditions instead (Levi and Kapitan). We appear free partly because we’re ignorant of what we’ll decide. Ignorance-based accounts avoid the above problems, and remain a promising alternative. (shrink)

In den Philosophischen Brocken kritisiert Kierkegaard die sokratische Präexistenzlehre wegen ihrer nihilistischen Konsequenzen für die Zeitlichkeit: Das geschichtliche Dasein des Menschen wäre überflüssig, wenn er a priori bereits vollendet wäre. Weil Kierkegaard in seiner christlichen Argumentation dennoch nicht umhin kann, selbst ein Analogon zum vorgeburtlichen Sein der Seele bei Platon vorauszusetzen, wendet er in der religiösen Schrift Die Krankheit zum Tode einen sophistischen Trick an, mit dessen Hilfe er die Präexistenzimplikation aus dem Bewusstsein des Lesers verdrängen will.

In einer philosophischen Inhaltsangabe und Interpretation versuche ich, die Doppeldeutigkeit der Vergeltungsmetapher im Ijob-Buch herauszuarbeiten. Entgegen den geläufigen theologischen oder pessimistischen Deutungsvarianten ist dabei streng zwischen einer vorreflexiv-moralischen und metaphysischen Sinnebene zu unterscheiden. Während Ijobs Freunde über das Referat einer noch nicht vernünftig angeeigneten Tradition nicht hinauskommen, entwickelt sich der ,,Angefeindete" zweifelnd und philosophisch suchend zu einem geistigen Individuum, indem er die Einschränkungen eines endlichen Daseins letztlich als ermöglichende Bedingungen seiner Freiheit erkennt, sich aus dem Seinsgrund der Gerechtigkeit Gottes selbst (...) zu gestalten. (shrink)

These days, some countries experience chaos due to the recession and moral degradation of the Government and the People which has led to the formation of 'The Pros and Cons' of the Government 'incumbent'. Everything happens because of a dilapidated character and because they no longer respect each other and know their respective positions in the life of nation and state. The people temporarily forget their responsibilities and attitudes to obey and obey the existing Government, on the other hand, the (...) Government also temporarily forgets their responsibilities and attitudes to lead, protect the community, and fulfill the needs of its people because each has an opinion and a way itself so that this momentum was made by experts to comment but without the realization of implementation - everything was merely political verbal language. (shrink)

In a famous study of expert problem solving, de Groot (1946/1978) examined how chess players found the best move. He reported that there was little difference in the way that the best players (Grand Masters) and very good players (Candidate Masters) searched the board. Although this result has been regularly cited in studies of expertise, it is frequently misquoted. It is often claimed that de Groot found no difference in the way that experts and novices investigate a problem. Comparison of (...) expert and novice chess players on de Groot's problem shows that there are clear differences in their search patterns. We discuss the troublesome theoretical and practical consequences of incorrectly reporting de Groot's findings. (shrink)

Fundamental physics makes no clear use of causal notions; it uses laws that operate in relevant respects in both temporal directions and that relate whole systems across times. But by relating causation to evidence, we can explain how causation fits in to a physical picture of the world and explain its temporal asymmetry. This paper takes up a deliberative approach to causation, according to which causal relations correspond to the evidential relations we need when we decide on one thing in (...) order to achieve another. Tamsin's taking her umbrella is a cause of her staying dry, for example, if and only if her deciding to take her umbrella for the sake of staying dry is adequate grounds for believing she'll stay dry. This correspondence explains why causation matters: knowledge of causal structure helps us make decisions that are evidence of outcomes we seek. The account also explains why we can control the future and not the past, and why causes come before their effects. When agents properly deliberate, their decisions can never count as evidence for any outcomes they may seek in the past. From this it follows that causal relations don't run backwards. This deliberative asymmetry is itself traced back to asymmetries of evidence and entropy, providing a new way of deriving causal asymmetry from temporally symmetric laws. (shrink)

How should we give accounts of scientific modal relations? According to the Humean, we should do so by considering the role of such relations in our lives and scientific theorizing. For example, to give a Humean account of chance, we need to identity a non-modal relation that can play the ‘role’ of chance—typically that of guiding credences and scientifically explaining events. Defenders of Humean accounts claim to be uniquely well placed to meet this aim. Humean chances are objective, and so (...) suitable for explaining. Humean chances reduce to patterns in actual events in a way that limits the possible divergence between relative frequencies and chances. So, they argue, Humean chances can uniquely be shown to satisfy chance−credence principles. I’ll argue that Humeans have no special advantage. When used in scientific contexts, Humean chances must be allowed to diverge from the relative frequencies. So, when considering the scientific question of whether agents who align their credences to the chances will do well, it is merely probable that they will. This scientific use of chance undercuts the Humean’s claimed advantage over their rivals. This undercutting also points to a deeper tension in Humeanism: Humeans must either give up the aim of recovering scientific practice, or live with a disunity between science and metaphysics. While a focus on function is laudable, the motivation for being Humean must come from elsewhere. (shrink)

Este artigo apresenta o resultado de uma pesquisa desenvolvida no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ensino de História da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (ProfHistória/UFU). Nos limites do texto o objetivo consistiu em apresentar o processo que culminou na elaboração do Curso intitulado “Por uma educação antirracista: o estudo da história da África, cultura afro-brasileira e relações étnico-raciais” produzido como resultado da pesquisa desenvolvida no mestrado profissional, tendo como base e público alvo estudantes jovens e adultos. O estudo está fundamentado em uma (...) pesquisa qualitativa, com revisão bibliográfica em livros e artigos acadêmicos tendo como principais referências autores que realizaram estudos sobre Educação de Jovens e adultos (EJA) e Educação e relações étnico-raciais. Analisamos documentos que regularizam a educação brasileira e as leis antirracistas dedicando atenção especial à Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação (LDB) 9.394/96 e à Lei 10.639/03, alterada posteriormente pela Lei 11.645/08 que estabelece a obrigatoriedade da temática História e cultura afro-brasileira e indígena. Recorreu também a um questionário diagnóstico aplicado aos jovens e adultos estudantes do Centro Estadual de Educação Continuada (CESEC Uberlândia). Conclui-se que para efetivar uma educação antirracista, o ensino de História da África e Cultura Afro-Brasileira não pode se limitar a ações pontuais. É necessário descolonizar os currículos. (shrink)

This paper tries to characterize the factors determining human relations with its environment and to identify the drives of those behavioral patterns and “praxis”. One scrutinizes the physiological and psychological factors that influence those drives, and tries to determine ways of overriding instinctive drives in favor of rational, sustainable ones. It focuses its attention on the way the different ecosystemic, economic and socio-cultural systems work, and pin-points the critical issues in view of the development of sustainable behavioral patterns. Also the (...) values that must build the new behavioral paradigm, as well as the ways to ensure the evolutionary quantum-leap necessary to ensure this sustainable condition, and the fulfilment, at every level, the different needs of humans and human societies, are analyzed. In conclusion, it stresses the fact that any reliable and long lasting change towards a sustainable behavior must start at the individual and the close social groups levels, and of the development of new factors of self-fulfillment and gratification, able to support and foster that change. The proposed epistemological approach is particularly innovative, precisely because of this emphasis on the individual drives and the way they determine the global patterns of environmental use, as well as the way they can evolve into a more rational character. In short, the paper focuses itself in the way man can evolve from its natural animal instincts and drives toward more rational ones, humanizing its behavior and turning, therefore, into an able actor of the process of sustainability building. (shrink)