The Role of Predictability During Negation Processing in Truth-Value Judgment Tasks

In experiments investigating the processing of true and false negative sentences, it is often reported that polarity interacts with truth-value, in the sense that true sentences lead to faster reaction times than false sentences in affirmative conditions whereas the same does not hold for negative sentences. Various reasons for this difference between affirmative and negative sentences have been discussed in the literature (e.g., lexical associations, predictability, ease of comparing sentence and world). In the present study, we excluded lexical associations as a potential influencing factor. Participants saw artificial visual worlds (e.g., a white square and a black circle) and corresponding sentences (i.e., “The square/circle is (not) white”). The results showed a clear effect of truth-value for affirmative sentences (true faster than false) but not for negative sentences. This result implies that the well-known truth-value-by-polarity interaction cannot solely be due to long-term lexical associations. Additional predictability manipulations allowed us to also rule out an explanatory account that attributes the missing truth-value effect for negative sentences to low predictability. We also discuss the viability of an informativeness account.

The alchemical symbols in the manuscripts of “The Mirror of Wonders” (Mirʾāt al-ʿajāʾib)

“The Mirror of Wonders” (Mirʾāt al-ʿajāʾib) is an illustrated Arabic treatise about a mysterious mirror that displays different alchemical symbols. This work of unsettled authorship, which was composed between the 12th and 16th centuries, has got a rich manuscript tradition with more than 45 extant copies dating from the 16th to the 20th centuries, including translations into Turkish and Persian and various short versions of the text. They prove the remarkable popularity of “The Mirror of Wonders” throughout the Islamicate world, even in modern times. Most manuscripts contain a coloured illustration of the mirror and its symbols, with a large scope of variation in their visual design. The nine alchemical symbols of the mirror are: 1. The two figures embracing each other (al-shakhṣān al-muʿtaniqān); 2. The black circle (al- dāʾira al-sawdāʾ); 3. The palm of the hand (al-kaff); 4. The black raven (al-ghurāb al-aswad); 5. The eagle (al-ʿuqāb); 6. The sun (al-shams); 7. The snake (al-thuʿbān); 8. The nine crabs (al-saraṭānāt al-tisʿa) with the dog descending into the water (al-kalb al-nāzil fī l-māʾ) and 9. The nine circles (al-dawāʾir al-tisʿa). This paper presents the manuscript tradition of Mirʾāt al-ʿajāʾib and analyses the diverging imagery of the symbols and their meanings in the different manuscripts.

Clinical Observation of 48 Cases of Black Eye Circle Treated with Modified Yu Rong San Gel Eye Mask

Objective: To observe the clinical effect of modified Yu Rong San gel eye mask in the treatment of dark circles. Methods: 96 cases of patients with dark circles were randomly divided into treatment group and control group. In the control group and the treatment group, the common eye mask and the modified Yu Rong San gel eye mask were applied to the black circle area respectively. After 15min, water was used to wash the face, the application of the mask for one time a day, four weeks, one course, and three courses were observed. Results: After three courses of treatment, the total effective rate of the treatment group was higher than that of the control group (P<0.05); the area of black eye circles in the treatment group was smaller than that before treatment (P<0.05); compared with the control group, the score of black eye circles was lower than that before treatment, the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion: Addition and reduction of Yu Rong San gel eye mask is effective in the treatment of dark circles.

Secondary eyes mediate the response to looming objects in jumping spiders ( Phidippus audax , Salticidae)

Some species have sensory systems divided into subsystems with morphologically different sense organs that acquire different types of information within the same modality. Jumping spiders (family Salticidae) have eight eyes. Four eyes are directed anteriorly to view objects in front of the spider: a pair of principal eyes track targets with their movable retinae, while the immobile anterior lateral (AL) eyes have a larger field of view and lower resolution. To test whether the principal eyes, the AL eyes, or both together mediate the response to looming stimuli, we presented spiders with a video of a solid black circle that rapidly expanded (loomed) or contracted (receded). Control spiders and spiders with their principal eyes masked were significantly more likely to back away from the looming stimulus than were spiders with their AL eyes masked. Almost no individuals backed away from the receding stimulus. Our results show that the AL eyes alone mediate the loom response to objects anterior to the spider.