Validity and the causal structure of a disorder

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Latent Variable ◽  
Causal Structure ◽  
Complex Structure ◽  
The Other ◽  
Causal Mechanisms ◽  
Causal Processes ◽  
Physical Variables ◽  
Causal Structures ◽  
As Effects

There are two aspects to validation: one is establishing the very existence of a disorder, the other is determining how good our methods are of determining the presence of the disorder. Both aspects depend on the conception of the disorder as something with a causal structure implicating the symptoms of the disorder. The symptoms may figure in this structure as effects of a single latent variable, or as homeostatically related merely to one another, or in some more complex structure. But without some such conception of the causal structure of the disorder, we have no idea what we are about trying to validate criteria for the disorder. The problem in psychiatry is that we currently seem to be demanding that those causal structures should involve relations between psychological and physical variables; and we have no idea how to think of those relations in terms of causal processes and causal mechanisms.

scholarly journals Experimental entanglement of temporal order

Quantum ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 621
Author(s):  
Giulia Rubino ◽  
Lee A. Rozema ◽  
Francesco Massa ◽  
Mateus Araújo ◽  
Magdalena Zych ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Temporal Order ◽  
Causal Structure ◽  
Physical Processes ◽  
Physical Constraints ◽  
Quantum Description ◽  
Causal Processes ◽  
Causal Structures ◽  
Probabilistic Theories

The study of causal relations has recently been applied to the quantum realm, leading to the discovery that not all physical processes have a definite causal structure. While indefinite causal processes have previously been experimentally shown, these proofs relied on the quantum description of the experiments. Yet, the same experimental data could also be compatible with definite causal structures within different descriptions. Here, we present the first demonstration of indefinite temporal order outside of quantum formalism. We show that our experimental outcomes are incompatible with a class of generalised probabilistic theories satisfying the assumptions of locality and definite temporal order. To this end, we derive physical constraints (in the form of a Bell-like inequality) on experimental outcomes within such a class of theories. We then experimentally invalidate these theories by violating the inequality using entangled temporal order. This provides experimental evidence that there exist correlations in nature which are incompatible with the assumptions of locality and definite temporal order.

scholarly journals Associative Accounts of Causal Cognition

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike E. Le Pelley ◽  
Oren Griffiths ◽  
Tom Beesley
Keyword(s):  
Causal Relationship ◽  
General Principle ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
Causal Learning ◽  
The Other ◽  
Causal Mechanisms ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Associative Models ◽  
Causal Structures ◽  
Causal Cognition

Humans are clearly sensitive to causal structures—we can describe and understand causal mechanisms and make predictions based on them. But this chapter asks: Is causal learning always causal? Or might seemingly causal behavior sometimes be based on associations that merely encode the information that two events “go together,” not that one causes the other? This associative view supposes that people often (mis)interpret associations as supporting the existence of a causal relationship between events; they make the everyday mistake of confusing correlation with causation. To assess the validity of this view, one must move away from considering specific implementations of associative models and instead focus on the general principle embodied by the associative approach—that the rules governing learning are general-purpose, and so do not differentiate between situations involving cause–effect relationships and those involving signaling relationships that are non-causal.

scholarly journals A Study of the Effects of Rain, Snow and Hail on the Atmospheric Electric Field near Ground

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 996
Author(s):  
Athanasios Karagioras ◽  
Konstantinos Kourtidis
Keyword(s):  
Frequency Distribution ◽  
Complex Structure ◽  
Potential Gradient ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Fair Weather ◽  
Northern Greece ◽  
Rain Events ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Bounce Back

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the impact of rain, snow and hail on potential gradient (PG), as observed in a period of ten years in Xanthi, northern Greece. An anticorrelation between PG and rainfall was observed for rain events that lasted several hours. When the precipitation rate was up to 2 mm/h, the decrease in PG was between 200 and 1300 V/m, in most cases being around 500 V/m. An event with rainfall rates up to 11 mm/h produced the largest drop in PG, of 2 kV/m. Shortly after rain, PG appeared to bounce back to somewhat higher values than the ones of fair-weather conditions. A decrease in mean hourly PG was observed, which was around 2–4 kV/m during the hail events which occurred concurrently with rain and from 0 to 3.5 kV/m for hail events with no rain. In the case of no drop, no concurrent drop in temperature was observed, while, for the other cases, it appeared that, for each degree drop in temperature, the drop in hourly mean PG was 1000 V/m; hence, we assume that the intensity of the hail event regulates the drop in PG. The frequency distribution of 1-minute PG exhibits a complex structure during hail events and extend from −18 to 11 kV/m, with most of the values in the negative range. During snow events, 1-minute PG exhibited rapid fluctuations between high positive and high negative values, its frequency distribution extending from −10 to 18 kV/m, with peaks at −10 and 3 kV/m.

scholarly journals Cyclic quantum causal models

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Barrett ◽  
Robin Lorenz ◽  
Ognyan Oreshkov
Keyword(s):  
Causal Reasoning ◽  
Causal Structure ◽  
Bell Inequalities ◽  
Quantum Correlations ◽  
Quantum Systems ◽  
Causal Models ◽  
Causal Order ◽  
Quantum Processes ◽  
Causal Explanations ◽  
Causal Structures

AbstractCausal reasoning is essential to science, yet quantum theory challenges it. Quantum correlations violating Bell inequalities defy satisfactory causal explanations within the framework of classical causal models. What is more, a theory encompassing quantum systems and gravity is expected to allow causally nonseparable processes featuring operations in indefinite causal order, defying that events be causally ordered at all. The first challenge has been addressed through the recent development of intrinsically quantum causal models, allowing causal explanations of quantum processes – provided they admit a definite causal order, i.e. have an acyclic causal structure. This work addresses causally nonseparable processes and offers a causal perspective on them through extending quantum causal models to cyclic causal structures. Among other applications of the approach, it is shown that all unitarily extendible bipartite processes are causally separable and that for unitary processes, causal nonseparability and cyclicity of their causal structure are equivalent.

scholarly journals The Inflation Technique Completely Solves the Causal Compatibility Problem

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Navascués ◽  
Elie Wolfe
Keyword(s):  
Linear Programming ◽  
Latent Variables ◽  
Causal Explanation ◽  
Causal Structure ◽  
Categorical Variables ◽  
False Negatives ◽  
The Given ◽  
Causal Structures ◽  
Compatibility Question ◽  
Structure Graph

AbstractThe causal compatibility question asks whether a given causal structure graph — possibly involving latent variables — constitutes a genuinely plausible causal explanation for a given probability distribution over the graph’s observed categorical variables. Algorithms predicated on merely necessary constraints for causal compatibility typically suffer from false negatives, i.e. they admit incompatible distributions as apparently compatible with the given graph. In 10.1515/jci-2017-0020, one of us introduced the inflation technique for formulating useful relaxations of the causal compatibility problem in terms of linear programming. In this work, we develop a formal hierarchy of such causal compatibility relaxations. We prove that inflation is asymptotically tight, i.e., that the hierarchy converges to a zero-error test for causal compatibility. In this sense, the inflation technique fulfills a longstanding desideratum in the field of causal inference. We quantify the rate of convergence by showing that any distribution which passes the nth-order inflation test must be $\begin{array}{} \displaystyle {O}{\left(n^{{{-}{1}}/{2}}\right)} \end{array}$-close in Euclidean norm to some distribution genuinely compatible with the given causal structure. Furthermore, we show that for many causal structures, the (unrelaxed) causal compatibility problem is faithfully formulated already by either the first or second order inflation test.

scholarly journals VISITORS’ PERCEPTION OF CIREBON AS A TOURIST DESTINATION-BUILDING TO PROMOTE THE CITY

ETIKONOMI ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Purnama Tarigan ◽  
Tuti Handayani
Keyword(s):  
Latent Variable ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Tourist Destination ◽  
Image Communication ◽  
Equation Modelling ◽  
Communication Variable ◽  
Variable Equation ◽  
The City ◽  
Relationship Equation

The problem identified in this study is how visitors’ perception and the image communication influenced the overall image of Cirebon as a tourist destination. This study was conducted by using structural equation modelling. The results of this study show that perception variable equation significantly affected the overall image variable, while the image communication variable did not significantly affect the overall image. On the other hand, the causal relationship equation shows that there is a significant relationship between the exogenous latent variable of perception and endogenous latent variable of Overall Image. While there is no relationship between exogenous latent variable of image Communication with endogenous variable of overall image. The result is expected to give recommendation to the local government to develop and promote tourism that at the end can put tourism to generate income for the city.DOI: 10.15408/etk.v11i1.1872

scholarly journals Is coding a relevant metaphor for the brain?

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romain Brette
Keyword(s):  
Brain Function ◽  
Neural Coding ◽  
Causal Structure ◽  
Linear Chain ◽  
Neural Codes ◽  
Experimental Parameters ◽  
Representational Power ◽  
Causal Structures ◽  
Perceptual Systems ◽  
The Brain

Abstract “Neural coding” is a popular metaphor in neuroscience, where objective properties of the world are communicated to the brain in the form of spikes. Here I argue that this metaphor is often inappropriate and misleading. First, when neurons are said to encode experimental parameters, the neural code depends on experimental details that are not carried by the coding variable (e.g., the spike count). Thus, the representational power of neural codes is much more limited than generally implied. Second, neural codes carry information only by reference to things with known meaning. In contrast, perceptual systems must build information from relations between sensory signals and actions, forming an internal model. Neural codes are inadequate for this purpose because they are unstructured and therefore unable to represent relations. Third, coding variables are observables tied to the temporality of experiments, whereas spikes are timed actions that mediate coupling in a distributed dynamical system. The coding metaphor tries to fit the dynamic, circular, and distributed causal structure of the brain into a linear chain of transformations between observables, but the two causal structures are incongruent. I conclude that the neural coding metaphor cannot provide a valid basis for theories of brain function, because it is incompatible with both the causal structure of the brain and the representational requirements of cognition.

scholarly journals Revising Stanley’s footsteps: encountering the ‘other’ in Darkest England (1996) by Christopher Hope

Literator ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-98
Author(s):  
H. Roos
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Complex Structure ◽  
Frame Of Reference ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Black Africa ◽  
Colonial Texts ◽  
Travel Writings

As has now become a familiar image in Hope’s writings, once again ttie idea of looking at a society from the position of an outsider and an exile forms the central theme of Darkest England (1996). In this satirical novel, the tradition of nineteenth-century travel writings set in a colonial context is reversed, undermined, and then remarkably recreated to portray the present-day manifestation of encounters and relations between (black) Africa and the (white) West. Presenting the (fictional) journals of a Khoisan leader, David Mungo Booi, within a dynamic frame of reference to classical colonial texts by, among others, Livingstone and Stanley. Hope writes a new travel report. This essay discusses how, by the reversal of point of view, a change in time and space, and creating a satirical mood, the colonizer and the colonized are interchanged and the original texts are evoked to be rewritten. The notions of Self/Other, colonial /(post-)colonial and primitive/civilized are placed in new and disturbing contexts, adding to the complex structure of this fascinating text.

scholarly journals A NEW SPECIES OF MALDIVEA GERLACH, 1962 (NEMATODA, OXYSTOMINIDAE) FROM FELIDHOO ATOLL (MALDIVES, INDIAN OCEAN) AND AN EMENDED DIAGNOSIS OF THE SUB-FAMILY AND GENUS

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Federica Semprucci ◽  
Maria Balsamo
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Type Species ◽  
Distal Part ◽  
Complex Structure ◽  
Dorsal Side ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ventral Part ◽  
Endemic Genus ◽  
A New Species

Maldivea Gerlach, 1962 is a possible endemic genus of the Maldivian archipelago for which only M. xarifae Gerlach, 1962 has been described so far. A new species of this genus, M. complexa n.sp., was recently found in Felidhoo atoll. It reveals a more complex structure of gubernaculum than in type species which appears to be divided into two pieces: one is a sort of long wing in the ventral part of the spicule and the other one, more complex, is characterized by several curved stripes which envelop the dorsal side of the spicule distal part. According to the present considerations, diagnoses of Paroxystomininae and Maldivea are emended.

What kinds of things are psychiatric disorders?

2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 1143-1150 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. S. Kendler ◽  
P. Zachar ◽  
C. Craver
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Causal Structure ◽  
Biological Species ◽  
Physiological Mechanisms ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Causal Processes ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Different Cultures

This essay explores four answers to the question ‘What kinds of things are psychiatric disorders?’Essentialist kindsare classes whose members share an essence from which their defining features arise. Although elegant and appropriate for some physical (e.g. atomic elements) and medical (e.g. Mendelian disorders) phenomena, this model is inappropriate for psychiatric disorders, which are multi-factorial and ‘fuzzy’.Socially constructed kindsare classes whose members are defined by the cultural context in which they arise. This model excludes the importance of shared physiological mechanisms by which the same disorder could be identified across different cultures. Advocates ofpractical kindsput off metaphysical questions about ‘reality’ and focus on defining classes that are useful. Practical kinds models for psychiatric disorders, implicit in the DSM nosologies, do not require that diagnoses be grounded in shared causal processes. If psychiatry seeks to tie disorders to etiology and underlying mechanisms, a model first proposed for biological species,mechanistic property cluster(MPC)kinds, can provide a useful framework. MPC kinds are defined not in terms of essences but in terms of complex, mutually reinforcing networks of causal mechanisms. We argue that psychiatric disorders are objectively grounded features of the causal structure of the mind/brain. MPC kinds are fuzzy sets defined by mechanisms at multiple levels that act and interact to produce the key features of the kind. Like species, psychiatric disorders are populations with central paradigmatic and more marginal members. The MPC view is the best current answer to ‘What kinds of things are psychiatric disorders?’

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