A communicative approach to early word learning
Publication date: Available online 12 September 2017 Source:New Ideas in Psychology Author(s): Daniel Yurovsky Young children learn the meanings of thousands of words by the time they can run down the street. Many efforts to explain this rapid development begin by assuming that the computational-level problem being solved is acquisition. Consequently, work in this line has sought to understand how children infer the meanings of words from cues in the communicative signals of the speakers around them. I will argue, however, that this formulation of the problem is backwards: the computational problem is communication, and...
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - September 25, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The embodied simulation account of cognition in Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy
We present important embodied cognition concepts from the position of grounded cognition and conceptual-act theory of emotions and discuss their implications for the biological foundation of irrational beliefs, the identity position on psychological interactionism, and the centrality of irrational beliefs for disturbed emotions. Finally, we describe the embodied simulation concepts in relation to the cognitive model of emotional disturbance in REBT and conclude by pointing to general implications for the treatment. (Source: New Ideas in Psychology)
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - September 25, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Affective semiosis and affective logic
Publication date: January 2018 Source:New Ideas in Psychology, Volume 48 Author(s): Luca Tateo Psychology values consistency, reduction of uncertainty, causality and continuity as normative aspects of mental life. Even though theories of dynamic equilibrium include phenomena of ruptures, homeostasis and tension as part of the psychological functioning, these are understood as momentary alterations of a condition that must be restored in order to maintain the integrity of the system. Yet in everyday life one can observe phenomena in which human beings constantly move ahead the conditions of living and the limits of what ...
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - September 25, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Meaning and importance of weeping
Publication date: Available online 3 July 2017 Source:New Ideas in Psychology Author(s): C.V. Bellieni Most animals can cry but only humans have psychoemotional shedding of tears, also known as “weeping”. The aim of this review is to analyze and discuss the available data on the function and significance of weeping. It emerged that weeping is a behavior distinct from crying. Crying is the immediate reaction to pain or anger, it is not always associated with shedding tears, and indicates a peculiar and shocking change in behavior. Weeping is a more complex phenomenon: it is a behavior that induces empathy perhaps wit...
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - July 4, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Aesthetic perception: A naturalistic turn
Publication date: Available online 27 June 2017 Source:New Ideas in Psychology Author(s): Argyris Arnellos, Ioannis Xenakis (Source: New Ideas in Psychology)
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - June 29, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Autonomy and morality: A Self-Determination Theory discussion of ethics
Publication date: December 2017 Source:New Ideas in Psychology, Volume 47 Author(s): Alexios Arvanitis Kantian ethics is based on a metaphysical conception of autonomy that may seem difficult to reconcile with the empirically-based science of psychology. I argue that, although not formally developed, a Self-Determination Theory (SDT) perspective of ethics can broaden the field of Kantian-based moral psychology and specify what it means, motivationally, to have autonomy in the application of a moral norm. More specifically, I argue that this is possible when a moral norm is fully endorsed by the self through a process of...
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - June 10, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
What is consciousness for?
Publication date: Available online 7 June 2017 Source:New Ideas in Psychology Author(s): Lee M. Pierson, Monroe Trout The answer to the title question is, in a word, volition. Our hypothesis is that the ultimate adaptive function of consciousness is to make volitional movement possible. All conscious processes exist to subserve that ultimate function. Thus, we believe that all conscious organisms possess at least some volitional capability. Consciousness makes volitional attention possible; volitional attention, in turn, makes volitional movement possible. There is, as far as we know, no valid theoretical argument or c...
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - June 8, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
A psycho-ethical approach to personality disorders: The role of volitionality
This article is an attempt to reconceptualize PD from a psycho-ethical perspective, which includes the dimension of volitionality, to clarify how moral decisions can undermine psychological capacities and contribute, to a greater or lesser degree, to a progressive depersonalization. It is proposed that behaviors with a strong similarity with types of classical vicious character can be categorized into different typical PDs. Using the contributions of theorists who have described types of cognitive biases, in light of virtue epistemology and the underling motivation, we present an understanding of how vicious cognition deve...
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - June 4, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
A proposed universal model of problem solving for design, science and cognate fields
Publication date: December 2017 Source:New Ideas in Psychology, Volume 47 Author(s): Cliff Hooker A modestly generic, innovative, problem solving process with roots in the study of design and scientific research problem solving is presented and motivated. It is argued to be the shared core process of all problem solving. At its heart is a recognition of five foci or nodes of change vital to the process (changes in problem and solution formulation, method, constraints, and partial solution proposals) together with a bootstrap marked by the formation of higher order knowledge about problem solving in the domain in tandem ...
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - May 28, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
From the banality of evil to the complicity of indifference: The effects on intergroup relationships
Publication date: December 2017 Source:New Ideas in Psychology, Volume 47 Author(s): Stefano Passini As the analysis of historical intergroup conflicts has shown, support for unequal policies was not conveyed just by an uncritical obedience to authorities but also by an indifference towards other social groups. Indifference for others may indeed have a role of complicity in supporting discriminatory policies and arousing intergroup conflicts on par with the obedience to authority identified by the banality-of-evil thesis. In the present manuscript, the aim is to define such indifference and to consider which socio-psych...
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - May 27, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Rediscovering James' Principles of Psychology
Publication date: Available online 5 May 2017 Source:New Ideas in Psychology Author(s): James Cresswell, Brady Wagoner, Andres Hayes This paper is an introduction to a special issue celebrating the 125th anniversary of William James' Principles of Psychology. The special issue demonstrates the continued relevance and insight offered by James. It reviews the articles in this issue and delineates three main themes: (1) he recognition of the inherent relationality of psychological phenomena, (2) a science of psychology ought to include biology and sociocultural phenomena (e.g. language); and (3) human consciousness is ad...
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - May 5, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Historical impact in psychology differs between demographic groups
Publication date: December 2017 Source:New Ideas in Psychology, Volume 47 Author(s): Christopher D. Green, Shane M. Martin Psychology has a long tradition of creating lists of the most eminent members of the discipline. Such lists are typically created under the assumption that there is a general answer to the question of eminence, covering all psychologists everywhere. We wondered, however, to what degree perceived eminence depends on the individual's particular demographic situation. Specifically, are different historical figures “eminent” to people of different genders, ages, and geographical locations? We teste...
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - April 29, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Aesthetics as evaluative forms of agency to perceive and design reality: A reply to aesthetic realism
Publication date: Available online 24 April 2017 Source:New Ideas in Psychology Author(s): Ioannis Xenakis, Argyris Arnellos Following a naturalist-realist point of view, this paper attempts to contribute to the metaphysical question of whether or not reality includes aesthetics. During evolution, cognitive agents have constructed (goal-directed) regulatory abilities forming anticipatory contents in the form of feelings regarding opportunities for interaction. These feelings are considered to be the fundamental part of an evaluative or (what in this paper considered as aesthetic) behavior through which agents show a pr...
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - April 25, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Is aesthetic experience evidence for cognitive penetration?
Publication date: Available online 20 April 2017 Source:New Ideas in Psychology Author(s): Daniel C. Burnston (Source: New Ideas in Psychology)
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - April 21, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Up the nose of the beholder? Aesthetic perception in olfaction as a decision-making process
This article dismantles the myth that olfaction is an unsophisticated sense. It makes a case for olfactory aesthetics by integrating recent insights in neuroscience with traditional expertise about flavor and fragrance assessment in perfumery and wine tasting. My analysis concerns the importance of observational refinement in aesthetic experience. I argue that the active engagement with stimulus features in perceptual processing shapes the phenomenological content, so much so that the perceptual structure of trained smelling varies significantly from naive smelling. In a second step, I interpret the processes that determin...
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - April 16, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
