This article reports the structure of associations among 101 common verbs and body parts. The verbs are those typically learned by children learning English prior to 3 years of age. In a free association task, 50 adults were asked to provide the single body part that came to mind when they thought of each verb. Analyses reveal highly systematic and structured patterns of associations that are also related to the normative age of acquisition of the verbs showing a progression from (...) verbs associated with actions by the mouth, to verbs strongly associated with actions by hand and arm, to verbs not so strongly associated with any one body part. The results have implications for proposals about embodied verb meaning and also for processes of early verb learning. (shrink)

Although artificial intelligence techniques have been successfully applied to reproduce many rational features of human behaviour, a great barrier has been encountered in simulating human activities where intuition and emotion are involved. Art making and viewing are processes where typically rational and mechanical aspects interact with aesthetic and cognitive criteria. Can you make a computer understand and autonomously produce art?The main purpose of this paper is to present the most relevant approaches in the study of art perception and creation via (...) computer, focusing on the results achieved in artistic computer graphics. (shrink)

The subject of this essay is the classical problem of induction, which is sometimes attributed to David Hume and called “the Humean Problem of Induction.” Here, I examine a certain sort of Neo-Aristotelian solution to the problem, which appeals to the concept of natural kinds in its response to the inductive skeptic. This position is most notably represented by Howard Sankey and Marc Lange. The purpose of this paper is partly destructive and partly constructive. I raise two questions. The first (...) is: Are the natural kind solutions to the problem successful? The first thesis of this paper is that they are not, and I will show how and why they fail. And the second question I raise here is: Is there nonetheless some alternative Neo-Aristotelian solution to the problem which is successful and can overcome the shortcomings endemic to the Sankey-Lange account? The second thesis is that there is, and I’ll attempt to sketch one. My stance here may be summarized by saying that, while I agree with Sankey and Lange that the problem of induction can be adequately resolved, and while I am on the whole sympathetic with the Aristotelian spirit of their account, I am, for all that, dissatisfied with the letter of them. Nothing short of a more thoroughgoing Aristotelianism about the epistemology of induction will do. (shrink)

This paper relates firm size and opportunism by showing that, given certain behavioral dispositions of humans, the size of a profit-maximizing firm can be determined by cognitive aspects underlying firminternal cultural transmission processes. We argue that what firms do better than markets – besides economizing on transaction costs – is to establish a cooperative regime among its employees that keeps in check opportunism. A model depicts the outstanding role of the entrepreneur or business leader in firminternal socialization processes and the (...) evolution of corporate cultures. We show that high opportunismrelated costs are a reason for keeping firms’ size small. (shrink)

Recent research in cognitive science has demonstrated that there are differe nt types of memory processes. While declarative memory refers to memories for facts or events which can be recalled, procedural memories underlie skills yet encode information which cannot be recalled. This paper extends this distinction to the nature of emotions and emotional memories. Its implications for psychoanalytic theory are then examined, yielding fresh views of transference, defense, and treatment. Infantile amnesia is found to result partially from the immaturity of (...) the declarative memory system, yet procedural memories encode transference expectations and provide continuity in emotional functioning from early childhood onward. In this light, psychoanalytic treatment is conceptualized as the modification of emotional procedures. Two general methods for modifying procedures are then described, which provide a new model, grounded in current memory research, for understanding therapeutic change through insight and thrugh a new emotional experience with the psychoanalyst. (shrink)