Mapping the Minds of Spectators During Extreme Ritual: A Psychological Network Perspective

Reactions of spectators during extreme rituals raise questions about evolutionary functions of ritual. We computed psychological network models during a large naturally occurring extreme ritual. Our aim is to identify the network structure of psychological reactions to extreme rituals in situ. Participants who observed high ordeal activities (N =1,041 Taoist-Buddhists) completed measures of social, affective, behavioral and uncertainty cognitions. Applying undirected psychometric network models, we found that 1) ritualist cognitions showed a smallworld network structure with highly interconnected nodes, 2) five robust clusters of cognitions that 3) can be organized along two major dimensions (positive vs negative valence, uncertainty beliefs vs uncertainty management) and 4) associations between clusters through linking nodes allow integration of previous theories of ritual and help to identify core cognition during ritual. Our study points towards new avenues for evolutionary theory by mapping the interdependence of experienced psychological reactions in situ.

Mapping the minds of spectators during extreme ritual: A psychological network perspective

We study the mental maps of spectators using psychological network models during a large naturally occurring extreme ritual. Our aim is to identify the network structure of psychological reactions to extreme rituals in situ, to understand lived ritualistic experience. Participants who observed high ordeal activities (N =1,041 Taoist-Buddhists) completed measures of social, affective, behavioral and uncertainty cognitions. Applying undirected psychometric network models, we found that 1) ritualist cognitions showed a smallworld network structure with highly interconnected nodes, 2) five robust clusters of cognitions that 3) can be organized along two major dimensions (positive vs negative valence, uncertainty beliefs vs uncertainty management) and 4) associations between clusters through linking nodes allow integration of previous theories of ritual and help to identify core cognition during ritual. Our study points towards new avenues for theories on ritual and religious practice by mapping the interdependence of experienced psychological reactions in situ.

Cognitive Structuralism: Explaining the Regularity of the Natural Numbers Progression

According to one of the most powerful paradigms explaining the meaning of the concept of natural number, natural numbers get a large part of their conceptual content from core cognitive abilities. Carey’s bootstrapping provides a model of the role of core cognition in the creation of mature mathematical concepts. In this paper, I conduct conceptual analyses of various theories within this paradigm, concluding that the theories based on the ability to subitize (i.e., to assess an exact quantity of the elements in a collection without counting them), or on the ability to approximate quantities (i.e., to assess an approximate quantity of the elements in a collection without counting them), or both, fail to provide a conceptual basis for bootstrapping the concept of an exact natural number. In particular, I argue that none of the existing theories explains one of the key characteristics of the natural number structure: the equidistances between successive elements of the natural numbers progression. I suggest that this regularity could be based on another innate cognitive ability, namely sensitivity to the regularity of rhythm. In the final section, I propose a new position within the core cognition paradigm, inspired by structuralist positions in philosophy of mathematics.

Coping and co-creation: one attempt and one route to well-being

All life strives to be well, but not all life is well. In this theoretical article we systematically specify the evolutionary core cognition of well-being in general living agents and we apply that to humans. We identify two strategies for the creation and protection of the conditions required for well-being and describe the associated behavioral ontologies. One strategy, coping, is for survival and the other strategy, co-creation, is for thriving. We summarize core cognition and the ontologies in two tables with defined key terms.Coping and co-creation correspond to two complementary ontologies of cognition that follow their own internal logic fine tuned by learned from real-world experiences. While both strategies are essential, the successful interplay of their strengths leads to the dominance of one of them: co-creation.We define adequacy in terms of improving or protecting viability, and we show that the four combinations of a coping and co- creation adequacy or inadequacy underlie the structure of identity in humans. The combinations also dictate how individuals attempt to protect and create the conditions for well-being, and their likelihood of success.The notion of ontological security, as it is known in literature, is an accurate description of the coping mode’s restricted capacity for the creation and protection of well-being. Ontological security leads to a self-limiting form of well-being that has been described as “abnormal normality”.Psychological safety provides the preconditions for high well-being and a safe environment promoting the healthy development of coping and co-creation adequacy.

Coping and Co-creation: One Attempt and One Route to Well-Being. Part 1. Conceptual Framework

Background. All life strives to be well, but not all life is well. This suggests that cognition aimed at improving and protecting well-being might share a common core across all life forms: core cognition Objective. In this first of a two-part theoretical article, we systematically specify the evolutionary core cognition of well-being from the perspective of general living agents. In Part 2 we apply this to identity development and the theoretical approaches to well-being. This first part aims to identify the strategies and conditions for the creation and protection of generalized well-being and describes associated behavioral ontologies. Results. We defined a set of key terms that, together, specify core cognition. This set comprises quite naturally concepts like agency, behavior, need satisfaction, intelligence, authority, power, and wisdom, which are all derived from the defining properties of life. We derived coping and co-creation as two essentially different, but complementary, behavioral ontologies. Coping is for survival and targeted problem solving and aims to end the need for its activation. Co-creation is for thriving and problem prevention and aims to perpetuate its activation. Co-creation can explain the growth of the biosphere. While both strategies are essential, the successful interplay of their strengths leads to the dominance of one of them: co-creation. Absence of success leads to a dominance of coping: a coping-trap and a strong urge to curtail behavioral diversity. We summarize the key terms of core cognition and the ontologies in two tables with defined terms.

Core cognition in adult vision: A surprising discrepancy between the principles of object continuity and solidity.

From an early age, humans intuitively expect physical objects to obey core principles, including continuity (objects follow spatiotemporally continuous paths) and solidity (two solid objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time). These two principles are sometimes viewed as deriving from a single overarching “persistence” principle. Indeed, violations of solidity where one solid object seemingly passes through another could theoretically be interpreted as a violation of continuity, with an object “teleporting” to switch places rather than passing through a solid obstacle. However, it is an empirical issue whether the two principles are processed distinctly or identically to one another. Here, adult participants tracked objects during dynamic events in a novel location detection task, which sometimes involved violations of the principles of continuity or solidity. While participants explicitly noticed both types of violations and reported being equally surprised at both, they made more errors and answered more slowly after continuity violations than after solidity violations. Our results demonstrate that the two principles show different signature patterns, and are thus represented distinctly in the mind.

The Epistemic Role of Core Cognition

According to a traditional picture, perception and belief have starkly different epistemic roles. Beliefs have epistemic statuses as justified or unjustified, depending on how they are formed and maintained. In contrast, perceptions are “unjustified justifiers.” Core cognition is a set of mental systems that stand at the border of perception and belief, and has been extensively studied in developmental psychology. Core cognition's borderline states do not fit neatly into the traditional epistemic picture. What is the epistemic role of these states? Focusing on the core object system, the author argues that core object representations have epistemic statuses like beliefs do, despite their many prototypically perceptual features. First, the author argues that it is a sufficient condition on a mental state's having an epistemic status as justified or unjustified that the state is based on reasons. Then the author argues that core object representations are based on reasons, through an examination of both experimental results and key markers of the basing relation. The scope of mental states that are subject to epistemic evaluation as justified or unjustified is not restricted to beliefs.