Object files and unconscious perception: a reply to Quilty-Dunn

Analysis ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-301
Author(s):  
Ian Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Conscious Experience ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
Unconscious Perception ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Object Files ◽  
Subjective Reports ◽  
Problem Of The Criterion

Abstract A wealth of cases – most notably blindsight and priming under inattention or suppression – have convinced philosophers and scientists alike that perception occurs outside awareness. In recent work (Phillips 2016a, 2018; Phillips and Block 2017, Peters et al. 2017), I dispute this consensus, arguing that any putative case of unconscious perception faces a dilemma. The dilemma divides over how absence of awareness is established. If subjective reports are used, we face the problem of the criterion: the concern that such reports underestimate conscious experience (Eriksen 1960, Holender 1986, Peters and Lau 2015). If objective measures are used, we face the problem of attribution: the concern that the case does not involve genuine individual-level perception. Quilty-Dunn (2019) presents an apparently compelling example of unconscious perception due to Mitroff et al. (2005) which, he contends, evades this dilemma. The case is fascinating. However, as I here argue, it does not escape the dilemma’s clutches.

scholarly journals Equivalence of LD-Score Regression and Individual-Level-Data Methods

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald de Vlaming ◽  
Magnus Johannesson ◽  
Patrik K.E. Magnusson ◽  
M. Arfan Ikram ◽  
Peter M. Visscher
Keyword(s):  
Maximum Likelihood ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Principal Components ◽  
Population Stratification ◽  
Summary Statistics ◽  
Test Statistics ◽  
Ceteris Paribus ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Genomic Relatedness

AbstractLD-score (LDSC) regression disentangles the contribution of polygenic signal, in terms of SNP-based heritability, and population stratification, in terms of a so-called intercept, to GWAS test statistics. Whereas LDSC regression uses summary statistics, methods like Haseman-Elston (HE) regression and genomic-relatedness-matrix (GRM) restricted maximum likelihood infer parameters such as SNP-based heritability from individual-level data directly. Therefore, these two types of methods are typically considered to be profoundly different. Nevertheless, recent work has revealed that LDSC and HE regression yield near-identical SNP-based heritability estimates when confounding stratification is absent. We now extend the equivalence; under the stratification assumed by LDSC regression, we show that the intercept can be estimated from individual-level data by transforming the coefficients of a regression of the phenotype on the leading principal components from the GRM. Using simulations, considering various degrees and forms of population stratification, we find that intercept estimates obtained from individual-level data are nearly equivalent to estimates from LDSC regression (R2> 99%). An empirical application corroborates these findings. Hence, LDSC regression is not profoundly different from methods using individual-level data; parameters that are identified by LDSC regression are also identified by methods using individual-level data. In addition, our results indicate that, under strong stratification, there is misattribution of stratification to the slope of LDSC regression, inflating estimates of SNP-based heritability from LDSC regression ceteris paribus. Hence, the intercept is not a panacea for population stratification. Consequently, LDSC-regression estimates should be interpreted with caution, especially when the intercept estimate is significantly greater than one.

scholarly journals Inaccuracy between subjective reports and objective measures of sleep duration and clinical correlates in bipolar disorder

2019 ◽  
Vol 250 ◽  
pp. 226-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher N. Kaufmann ◽  
Marina Z. Nakhla ◽  
Ellen E. Lee ◽  
Ho-Kyoung Yoon ◽  
David Wing ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bipolar Disorder ◽  
Sleep Duration ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
Clinical Correlates ◽  
Subjective Reports

scholarly journals Learners sacrifice robust communication as a result of a social bias

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masha Fedzechkina ◽  
Gareth Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Social Bias ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Language Structure ◽  
Informative Case ◽  
Efficient Communication ◽  
Constituent Order ◽  
Social Biases

Languages are subject to many competing pressures, which originate in individual-level learning and communication biases and in social biases reflecting community-level dynamics. Recent work has shown that certain aspects of language structure, such as the cross-linguistic trade-off between case and constituent-order flexibility, originate in learners' biases for efficient communication: Learners drop redundant case but retain informative case in production. Social biases can lead to retention of redundant case, resulting in systems that require more effort to produce. It is not clear, however, whether social biases can influence the use of informative cues. We tested this by exposing participants to a language with uninformative constituent order and two dialects, only one of which employed case. We manipulated the presence of social biases for and against the case dialect. Learners biased towards the no-case dialect dropped informative case without compensating for the resulting message uncertainty. Case was retained in all other conditions.

scholarly journals The eyes have it: The pupillary light response as a physiological index of aphantasia, sensory and phenomenological imagery strength

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lachlan Kay ◽  
Rebecca Keogh ◽  
Thomas Andrillon ◽  
Joel Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Physiological Response ◽  
Light Response ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
Light Responses ◽  
Physiological Index ◽  
Pupillary Light ◽  
Sensory Imagery

The pupillary light response is an important automatic physiological response that optimises light reaching the retina. Recent work has shown that the pupil also adjusts in response to illusory brightness and a range of cognitive functions, however, it remains unclear what exactly drives these endogenous changes. Here we show that the imagery pupillary light response correlates with objective measures of sensory imagery strength. Further, the trial-by-trial phenomenological vividness of visual imagery is tracked by the imagery pupillary light response. We also demonstrated that there was no evidence for an imagery pupillary light response in a group of individuals without visual imagery (aphantasia), however, they did show perceptual pupil light responses and pupil dilation with larger cognitive load. Our results provide evidence that the pupillary light response indexes the sensory strength of visual imagery and also provides the first physiological validation of aphantasia.

Valence-Based Biases in News Selection

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Stuart Soroka ◽  
Lauren Guggenheim ◽  
Dominic Valentino
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Online Game ◽  
Level Variation ◽  
Positive Information ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Learning Biases ◽  
Selection Decisions ◽  
News Selection

Abstract. Recent work highlights individual-level variation in negativity biases in news selection. There has, however, been limited work exploring the source of this individual-level variation. This study considers predispositions in information processing as a source of difference in news selection. We explore individual differences in learning biases identified using Hot Rod, a new purpose-built online game. Asymmetries in respondents’ learning of negative and positive information in Hot Rod are correlated with news selection decisions. It thus appears that valence-based differences in news consumption are at least partly a function of the same biases that govern learning and information processing more broadly.

Objective and Subjective Measures of Change Blindness: Where Are the Real Pitfalls?

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (9) ◽  
pp. 1903-1905 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niko A. Busch
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Change Blindness ◽  
Conscious Experience ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
Subjective Measures ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Given

What is the observer's conscious experience in a change blindness task? Overgaard, Jensen, and Sandberg argue that subjective measures are required for any conclusions about conscious experience. We will lay out how the choice of subjective or objective measures depends on the given research question and that objective measures allow inferences on experience given plausible assumptions regarding the relation between task performance and experience.

scholarly journals Presupposed free choice and the theory of scalar implicatures

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Marty ◽  
Jacopo Romoli
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Free Choice ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Scalar Implicatures ◽  
Compositional Semantics ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Pragmatic Principle ◽  
Hybrid Account

AbstractA disjunctive sentence like Olivia took Logic or Algebra conveys that Olivia didn’t take both classes (exclusivity) and that the speaker doesn’t know which of the two classes she took (ignorance). The corresponding sentence with a possibility modal, Olivia can take Logic or Algebra, conveys instead that she can take Logic and that she can take Algebra (free choice). These exclusivity, ignorance and free choice inferences are argued by many to be scalar implicatures. Recent work has looked at cases in which exclusivity and ignorance appear to be computed instead at the presupposition level, independently from the assertion. On the basis of those data, Spector and Sudo (Linguist Philos 40(5):473–517, 2017) have argued for a hybrid account relying on a pragmatic principle for deriving implicatures in the presupposition. In this paper, we observe that a sentence like Noah is unaware that Olivia can take Logic or Algebra has a reading on which free choice appears in the presupposition, but not in the assertion, and we show that deriving this reading is challenging on Spector and Sudo’s (2017) hybrid account. Following the dialectic in Fox (Presupposition and implicature in compositional semantics, Palgrave, London, pp 71–120, 2007), we argue against a pragmatic approach to presupposition-based implicatures on the ground that it is not able to account for presupposed free choice. In addition, we raise a novel challenge for Spector and Sudo’s (2017) account coming from the conflicting presupposed ignorance triggered by sentences like #Noah is unaware that I have a son or a daughter, which is infelicitous even if it’s not common knowledge whether the speaker has a son or a daughter. More generally, our data reveals a systematic parallelism between the assertion and presupposition levels in terms of exclusivity, ignorance, and free choice. We argue that such parallels call for a unified analysis and we sketch how a grammatical theory of implicatures where meaning strengthening operates in a similar way at both levels (Gajewski and Sharvit in Nat Lang Semant 20(1):31–57, 2012; Magri in A theory of individual-level predicates based on blind mandatory scalar implicatures, MIT dissertation, 2009; Marty in Implicatures in the DP domain, MIT dissertation, 2017) can account for such parallels.

scholarly journals Safe Habitats: Does the Association Between Neighborhood Crime and Walking Differ by Neighborhood Disadvantage?

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-39
Author(s):  
Sarah Foster ◽  
Paula Hooper ◽  
Nicola W. Burton ◽  
Wendy J. Brown ◽  
Billie Giles-Corti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Multilevel Models ◽  
Neighborhood Disadvantage ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
Neighborhood Crime ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Neighborhood Walkability ◽  
Disadvantaged Neighborhoods ◽  
The Individual

Interrelationships between neighborhood walkability, area disadvantage, and crime may contribute to the inconsistent associations between crime and walking. We examined associations between crime and walking, and tested for differences by neighborhood disadvantage while addressing these additional complexities. Participants ( n = 6,680) from 200 neighborhoods spanning the most and least disadvantaged in Brisbane, Australia, completed a questionnaire and objective measures were generated for the individual-level 1,000-m neighborhood. Multilevel models examined associations between crime (perceived and objective) and walking (recreational and transport), and interactions tested for differences by neighborhood disadvantage. High perceived crime was associated with reduced odds of transport walking, whereas high objective crime was associated with increased odds of transport walking. Patterns did not differ by neighborhood disadvantage. In disadvantaged neighborhoods, the “negative” criminogenic attributes were insufficient to outweigh the “positive” walkability attributes, producing similar walking patterns to advantaged neighborhoods where residents were dislocated from local destinations but buffered from crime.

Effects of wheat bran and olestra on objective measures of stool and subjective reports of GI symptoms

2000 ◽  
Vol 95 (5) ◽  
pp. 1244-1252 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. McRorie ◽  
J. Kesler ◽  
L. Bishop ◽  
T. Filloon ◽  
G. Allgood ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wheat Bran ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
Gi Symptoms ◽  
Subjective Reports

scholarly journals The Role of Threat in the Human Empowerment Sequence

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kris Dunn ◽  
Viktoria Spaiser ◽  
Harvey Dodds
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
World Values Survey ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Data Limitations ◽  
The World

Recent work by Dunn et al. (2017) proposes an integration of two normally disparate fields of research: political culture and individual-level authoritarianism. This proposal notes a remarkable similarly between Welzel’s (2013) concept of emancipative values and the values-oriented conceptualization of authoritarianism proposed by Feldman and Stenner (1997). Dunn at al. provide some rudimentary empirical evidence that authoritarianism can be productively integrated into Welzel’s “human empowerment sequence” but due to data limitations are unable to examine what they see as one of the most important benefits of this integration: the interaction between authoritarianism and threat in predicting emancipative attitudes. The sixth wave of the World Values Survey provides the previously unavailable data (a measure of perceived threat) and allows us to examine whether authoritarianism interacts with threat to affect the expression of social and political attitudes. Analysis of this data supports those expectations derived from the authoritarianism literature and provides further support for Dunn et al.’s proposal.

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