Concurrently observed actions are represented as independent actions and not as a compound action

Recent research suggests that we can simultaneously represent the actions of multiple agents in our motor system. However, it is currently unclear exactly how we represent their actions. Here, we tested two competing hypotheses. According to the independence hypothesis, we represent concurrently observed actions as independent, competing actions. According to the compound hypothesis, we instead integrate those actions, whenever possible, into compound actions. In Experiment 1 (N = 32), we first show that the standard imitation-inhibition task with a single hand can be extended to measure automatic imitation of compound actions. In Experiment 2 (N = 55), we then tested how we represent concurrently observed actions by further extending this task to include two hands performing identical or different actions. The results revealed that two hands performing two different actions (e.g., one hand lifts index finger, one hand lifts middle finger) produced an effect similar to that of both hands performing just one of those actions (e.g., both hands lift index finger) but different from that of both hands performing both actions together (e.g., lift both index and middle finger). As such, our results show that concurrently observed actions are coded separately in the motor system.

Scale-Independent Aggression: A Fractal Analysis of Four Levels of Human Aggression

Using fractal analyses to study events allows us to capture the scale-independence of those events, that is, no matter at which level we study a phenomenon, we should get roughly the same results because events exhibit similar structure across scales. This is demonstrably true in mathematical fractals but is less assured in behavioral fractals. The current research directly tests the scale-independence hypothesis in the behavioral domain by exploring the fractal structure of aggression, a social phenomenon comprising events that span temporal scales from minutes of face-to-face arguments to centuries of international armed conflicts. Using publicly available data, we examined the temporal fractal structure of four scales of aggression: wars (very macrolevel, worldwide data), riots (macrolevel, worldwide data), violent crimes (microlevel, data gathered from cities and towns in the United States of America), and body movement during arguments (very microlevel, data gathered on American participants). Our results lend mixed support to the scale-independence hypothesis and provide insight into the self-organization of human interactions.

Limiting Properties of the Distribution of Primes in an Arbitrarily Large Number of Residue Classes

We generalize current known distribution results on Shanks–Rényi prime number races to the case where arbitrarily many residue classes are involved. Our method handles both the classical case that goes back to Chebyshev and function field analogues developed in the recent years. More precisely, let $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70B}(x;q,a)$ be the number of primes up to $x$ that are congruent to $a$ modulo $q$. For a fixed integer $q$ and distinct invertible congruence classes $a_{0},a_{1},\ldots ,a_{D}$, assuming the generalized Riemann Hypothesis and a weak version of the linear independence hypothesis, we show that the set of real $x$ for which the inequalities $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70B}(x;q,a_{0})>\unicode[STIX]{x1D70B}(x;q,a_{1})>\cdots >\unicode[STIX]{x1D70B}(x;q,a_{D})$ are simultaneously satisfied admits a logarithmic density.

Nuclear structure is governed by the fundamental laws of electromagnetism

Contradicting interpretations of the nuclear force as given by two contrasted approaches like the meson theory and the quantum chromodynamics, are overcome here by reviving the basic electromagnetic laws which are applicable on the existing charged subconstituents in nucléons. On this basis, considerable charge distributions in nucleons are determined after a careful analysis of the magnetic moments and the results of the deep inelastic scattering. Basic equations derived from the distributed charges of oriented spins of nucléons give strong and short ranged forces leading exactly to the binding energies of the deuteron and other nuclei. According to these interactions, p-p and n-n systems repel and only the p-n bonds form rectangles and closely packed parallelepipeds. Such contrary forces create structures of saturation and of finite number of nucléons. They also invalidate the charge independence hypothesis and differ fundamentally from the central potential and the effects of the Pauli principle of the electronic configurations responsible for the development of the models of the Fermi gas and nuclear shell. There are two kinds of p-n bonds, which imply anisotropy, leading often to elongated shapes of vibrational and rotational modes of excitation, while the surface tension contributes to the creation of non elongated shapes of stable arrangements. Finally, for A>40 a type of shell structure provides new rules for understanding the structure of magic nuclei for N>Z and the increasing ratio N/Z with A.

Development of a “fission-proxy” method for the measurement of 14-MeV neutron fission yields

Relative fission-yield measurements were made for 50 fission products from 25.6±0.5 MeV α-induced fission of Th-232. Quantitative comparison of these experimentally measured yields with the evaluated fission yields from 14-MeV neutrons on U-235 demonstrates the application of the Bohr-independence hypothesis for measuring fission yields. As optimum particle-target configurations may be impossible or compromised at a given facility, this new approach, fission-proxy, allows the measurement of fission yields for a given compound nucleus from an alternate reaction pathway since formation and subsequent decay are independent processes.

Partial report is the wrong paradigm

Is consciousness independent of the general-purpose information processes known as ‘cognitive access’? The dominant methodology for supporting this independence hypothesis appeals to partial report experiments as evidence for perceptual consciousness in the absence of cognitive access. Using a standard model of evidential support, and reviewing recent elaborations of the partial report paradigm, this article argues that the paradigm has the wrong structure to support the independence hypothesis. Like reports in general, a subject's partial report is evidence that she is conscious of information only where that information is cognitively accessed. So, partial report experiments could dissociate consciousness from cognitive access only if there were uncontroversial evidence for consciousness that did not imply reportability. There is no such evidence. An alternative, broadly Marrian methodology for supporting the independence hypothesis is suggested, and some challenges to it outlined. This methodology does not require experimental evidence for consciousness in the absence of cognitive access. Instead, it focuses on a function of perceptual consciousness when a stimulus is cognitively accessed. If the processes best suited to implement this function exclude cognitive access, the independence hypothesis will be supported. One relevant function of consciousness may be reflected in reason-based psychological explanations of a subject's behaviour. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Perceptual consciousness and cognitive access’.