The Efference Copy Signal as a Key Mechanism for Consciousness

Animals need to distinguish sensory input caused by their own movement from sensory input which is due to stimuli in the outside world. This can be done by an efference copy mechanism, a carbon copy of the movement-command that is routed to sensory structures. Here I tried to link the mechanism of the efference copy with the idea of the philosopher Thomas Reid that the senses would have a double province, to make us feel, and to make us perceive, and that, as argued by psychologist Nicholas Humphrey, the former would identify with the signals from bodily sense organs with an internalized evaluative response, i.e., with phenomenal consciousness. I discussed a possible departure from the classical implementation of the efference copy mechanism that can effectively provide the senses with such a double province, and possibly allow us some progress in understanding the nature of consciousness.

Testing the judgment-related account for the extinction of Evaluative Conditioning

Evaluative Conditioning (EC) effects refer to changes in the liking of a neutral (conditioned) stimulus (CS) due to pairing with an affective (unconditioned) stimulus (US). Some research found that EC effects are resistant to presentations of the CS without the US, whereas other studies found evidence for extinction effects. A recent study found extinction of EC only when participants rated the CS before and after the CS-only presentations, but not when CS evaluation was measured once or indirectly with the Evaluative Priming task. In two experiments (total N= 2,181), we found no evidence that indirectly measured evaluation is sensitive to extinction, using an indirect evaluation measure with high sensitivity – the Implicit Association Test. However, unlike previous research, we found that evaluation of any stimuli (and not only the CS) before the CS-only presentations decreases self-reported EC effects. Our results are compatible with the conclusion that the extinction of EC is limited to evaluation measured directly. We discuss the theoretical implications of these results, and conclude that the specific conditions (and mechanisms) that change the direct evaluative response are yet to be clarified.

Hubungan Pola Asuh Otoritatif dan Kontrol Diri dengan Sikap Remaja Terhadap Perilaku Seks Bebas

<em>Attitude is an evaluative response. Authoritative parenting and self-control is a factor that are factors that may have influenced the adolescent`s attitude towards free sex. This study aimed to describe: (1) the correlation of authoritative parenting with adolescent`s attitude towards free sex, (2) the correlation of of self-control with adolescent`s attitude towards free sex, and (3) the correlation of authoritative parenting and self-control with adolescent`s attitude towards free sex. This study used quantitative research which applied correlational approach. The population of the research was the student’s in SMA N 1 Stabat. By using proportional random sampling technique, 172 student’s were chosen as the sample. The instrument of the research was the scale of Likert. The instrument of the research was a scale. The purpose of the research was analyzed by using simple linear regression technique, and multiple linear regression technique. The results of the research revealed that: (1) there was a correlation between authoritative parenting with adolescent`s attitude towards free sex, (2) there was a correlation between self-control with adolescent`s attitude towards free sex, and (3) there was a correlation between authoritative parenting and self-control simultaneously with adolescent`s attitude towards free sex</em>.

Putting Operating Principles (What) Before Conditions (How and When) to Improve Theorizing: S - S versus S - R learning in Evaluative Conditioning

I argue that theorizing in evaluative conditioning has paid insufficient attention to distinguishing what is learned (operating principles) from how and when the learning takes place (operating conditions). In terms of its operating principles, EC effects can be established both via stimulus – stimulus (S – S) and via stimulus – evaluative response (S – R) associations. Operating conditions of EC that have received a lot of attention are the famous features of automaticity (awareness, intentionality, controllability, resource efficiency). A lot of research in our field has focused on investigating operating conditions, without specifying operating principles, which limits the interpretability of previous work, especially if conflicting findings arise. I call for putting the principles before the conditions, and to approach EC theorizing in a more piecemeal manner, from the ground up. I believe for now we should treat the operating principles and operating conditions as orthogonal, and do not assume that only certain processes can lead to certain representations. Evidently, this calls for a lot of future research, and theorizing that is more focused and precise. By specifying and testing clearly both operating principles and conditions, our theories will be (initially) smaller in scope, but likely more verifiable.

Basic Evaluation and the Virtuous Realisation of Values: The Integrative Model of Aristotle

Human affectivity is a research topic situated at the intersection of psychology, philosophical anthropology, theory of action and ethics. This article reconstructs the Aristotelian theory of emotions in the context of his theory of aspiration (o)/recij) and in terms of their function as primary evaluators of situations, which forms the basis for virtue ethics. The Aristotelian model integrates desire, motivation and morality for a rational being in community. Affects (pa/Jh) reveal the profile of relevance of the world to a person as an indispensable basis for the work of practical reason. They are analysed in the dimensions of their cognitive core, their social, bodily, and motivational aspects. Affectivity constitutes a primary evaluative response to situations and thereby disposes human beings to realise their call to morally good, virtuous and fulfilling action.

Relation between understanding and agreeing in response to one-sentence assertion*

abstractThree quasi-experimental studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between the evaluative (i.e., agree/true) and the meta-cognitive (i.e., understand) response, and to determine which type of response people are more likely to provide when responding to one-sentence assertive statements. In Studies 1 and 2, participants performed two separate tasks in which they were asked to indicate the levels of: (i) understanding and (ii) agreement / perceived truthfulness of 126 one-sentence statements. The results indicated that participants were likely to provide a negative evaluative response (i.e., disagree/false) to a statement that they did not understand. In Study 3, participants were asked to evaluate the same 126 statements and choose between four response options: agree, disagree, understand, do not understand. The results indicated that people are more likely provide an evaluative response regardless of the understandability of a statement. The results of these studies are discussed in relation to (i) pragmatic perspective of how people infer speakers’ meaning, and (ii) cognitive processes underlying evaluative and meta-cognitive response.

Are emotions perceptions of value?

A popular idea at present is that emotions are perceptions of values. Most defenders of this idea have interpreted it as the perceptual thesis that emotions present (rather than merely represent) evaluative states of affairs in the way sensory experiences present us with sensible aspects of the world. We argue against the perceptual thesis. We show that the phenomenology of emotions is compatible with the fact that the evaluative aspect of apparent emotional contents has been incorporated from outside. We then deal with the only two views that can make sense of the perceptual thesis. On the response–dependence view, emotional experiences present evaluative response-dependent properties (being fearsome, being disgusting, etc.) in the way visual experiences present response-dependent properties such as colors. On the response–independence view, emotional experiences present evaluative response-independent properties (being dangerous, being indigestible, etc.), conceived as ‘Gestalten’ independent of emotional feelings themselves. We show that neither view can make plausible the idea that emotions present values as such, i.e., in an open and transparent way. If emotions have apparent evaluative contents, this is in fact due to evaluative enrichments of the non-evaluative presentational contents of emotions.

Moral Intuition and Media Entertainment

This paper applies the social intuitionist perspective of moral foundations theory (MFT) to the study of media entertainment. It begins by introducing the MFT’s conception of morality as an intuitive evaluative response governed by the association of moral codes organized in five mental modules. These include harm/care (concerned with suffering and empathy); fairness (related to reciprocity and justice); loyalty (dealing with common good and punitiveness toward outsiders); authority (negotiating dominance hierarchies); and purity (concerned with sanctity and contamination). After discussing initial tests examining MFT’s application to narrative appeal, and its potential broad application to entertainment theory, a model of intuitive morality and exemplars (MIME) is presented. The model describes long-term and short-term processes of reciprocal influence between media and moral intuition. In the long-term, the model predicts that repeated exposure to module-related content will lead to an individual and culturally-shared increase in the salience of specific modules and module exemplars. In the short-term, resulting patterns of module salience will affect the immediate appraisal of media content or, if content presents ambiguous or complex moral patterns, a delayed response though careful reappraisal. Patterns of positive or negative evaluative responses resulting from these appraisal processes are expected to shape individual and aggregate patterns of selective exposure to media, as well as the subsequent production of content within media systems driven by these exposure patterns. The paper concludes with an example of the model’s utility by showing how its short-term components can be applied to address conceptual difficulties in distinguishing enjoyment from appreciation.