Can we build endogenous expectations about the locus of occurrence of a target without being able to describe them? Participants performed cue–target detection tasks with different proportions of valid and invalid trials, without being informed of these proportions, and demonstrated typical endogenous effects. About half were subsequently able to correctly describe the cue–target relationships . However, even non-verbalizer participants showed endogenous orienting with peripheral cues , not depending solely on practice . Explicit instructions did not bring about dramatic advantages in (...) performance .With central symbolic cues, only verbalizers showed reliable endogenous effects . We concluded that endogenous orienting with peripheral cues can occur independently of participants developing explicit hypotheses about the cue–target relationships. (shrink)

Metaphorical meaning can be analyzed as triggered by an apparent communicative breach, an incongruity that leads to a default of the presumptive interpretation of a vehicle. This breach can be solved through contextual renegotiations of meaning guided by the communicative intention, or rather the presumed purpose of the metaphorical utterance. This paper addresses the problem of analyzing the complex process of reasoning underlying the reconstruction of metaphorical meaning. This process will be described as a type of abductive argument, aimed at (...) explaining how the vehicle can best contribute to the purpose of the utterance. This type of reasoning involves the analysis of the possible predicates that can be and usually are attributed to the vehicle, and the selection of the one that can support the implicit conclusion constituting the communicative goal of the metaphorical utterance. Metaphorical meaning, in this perspective, becomes the outcome of a complex process of meaning reconstruction aimed at providing the best explanation of the function of the vehicle within a discourse move. (shrink)

Unilateral neglect stems from a relatively selective impairment of exogenous, or stimulus-related, orienting of attention. This neuropsychological evidence parallels “change blindness” experiments, in which normal individuals lack awareness of salient details in the visual scene as a consequence of their attention being exogenously attracted by a competing event, suggesting that visual consciousness requires the integrity of exogenous orienting of attention.

In agreement with some of the ideas expressed by Perruchet & Vinter (P&V), we believe that some phenomena hitherto attributed to processing may in fact reflect a fundamental distinction between direct and reflexive forms of consciousness. This dichotomy, developed by the phenomenological tradition, is substantiated by examples coming from experimental psychology and lesion neuropsychology.

Right brain-damaged patients with unilateral neglect, who ignore left-sided visual events, may also omit left-sided details when describing known places from memory. Modulating the orienting of visual attention may ameliorate imaginal neglect. A first step toward explaining these phenomena might be to postulate that space-related imagery is a cognitive activity involving attentional and intentional aspects.

BackgroundThe measures taken to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, such as the lockdown in Italy, do impact psychological health; yet, less is known about their effect on cognitive functioning. The transactional theory of stress predicts reciprocal influences between perceived stress and cognitive performance. However, the effects of a period of stress due to social isolation on spatial cognition and exploration have been little examined. The aim of the present study was to investigate the possible effects and impact of the (...) COVID-19 pandemic on spatial cognition tasks, particularly those concerning spatial exploration, and the physiological leftward bias known as pseudoneglect. A right-hemisphere asymmetry for spatial attention processes crucially contributes to pseudoneglect. Other evidence indicates a predominantly right-hemisphere activity in stressful situations. We also analyzed the effects of lockdown on coping strategies, which typically show an opposite pattern of hemispheric asymmetry, favoring the left hemisphere. If so, then pseudoneglect should increase during the lockdown and be negatively correlated with the efficacy of coping strategies.MethodsOne week before the start of the lockdown due to COVID-19 in Italy, we had collected data from a battery of behavioral tests including tasks of peri-personal spatial cognition. During the quarantine period, from late April to early May 2020, we repeated the testing sessions with a subgroup of the same participants. At both testing sessions, participants performed digitized neuropsychological tests, including a Cancellation task, Radial Arm Maze task, and Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices. Participants also completed a newly developed COVID-19 Student Stress Scale, based on transactional models of stress, and the Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced—New Italian Version to assess coping orientation.ResultsThe tendency to start cancelation from a left-sided item, to explore first a left-sided arm of the maze, and to choose erroneous response items on the left side of the page on Raven’s matrices increased from T1 to T2. The degree of pseudoneglect increment positively correlated with perceived stress and negatively correlated with Positive Attitude and Problem-Solving COPE-NIV subscales.ConclusionLockdown-related stress may have contributed to increase leftward bias during quarantine through a greater activation of the right hemisphere. On the other hand, pseudoneglect was decreased for better coping participants, perhaps as a consequence of a more balanced hemispheric activity in these individuals. (shrink)

In den Jahren 1872-1874, 1876-1878 und schließlich erneut in der zweiten Hälfte det achtziger Jahre benutzte Nietzsche die Sprachanalyse als Waffe gegen die Mataphysik. Indem er verdeulichte, dass die Sprache als historisches Apriori des Denkens eine grundlegende Rolle innerhalb der Erkenntnissynthese spielt, kritisierte er die vermeintlich 'Reinheit' der Vernunft und folglich die Idee, dass diese zu allgemeingültigen, notwendigen Wahrheiten gelangen könne. Bei der Darlegung seiner Position knüpfte Nietzshe an einige Sprachphilosophen der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts an, die im Rahmen (...) ihrer Erörterung der eziehung zwischen Denken und Sprach im Lichte der Lehre Kants und Humboldts die Aufmerksamkeit auf die Tatsach gelenkt hatten, dass sich in der Sprach eine wahre Mythologie verbigt. In beträchtlichem Maße beeinflusse diese unbewusst nicht allein unsere Wirklichkeitsauffassung, sondern auch die Instrumente, die einer kritischen Wirklichkeisreflexion dienen müssten - wie Missenschaft und Philosophie.In 1872-74, in 1876-78, and once again in the second half of the eighteen-eighties, Nietzsche used linguistic analysis as a weapon against metaphysics. Emphasising the fact that language, as a historical apriori structure of thinking, plays a fundamental role in cognitive synthesis, he criticised the expected 'purity' of reason and, consequently, the idea that this may result in universal and necessary truths. In sustaining his position Nietzsche referred to certain linguistic philosophers of the second half of the nineteenth century who, when discussing the thought-language relationship in view of teh lessons from Kant and Humboldt, called attention to the fact that language hides, if unconsciously, unadulterated mythology which powerfully conditions not only our vision of reality, but also the tools - such as science and philosophy - on which is thought critically ponder. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Nietzsche was an avid reader of Emerson's essays, and their influence is discernible from his earliest philosophical writings through to his final philosophical works. Nietzsche's copies of Emerson's books are covered with traces of his reading, from underlinings, exclamation marks, question marks, and dog-eared pages to numerous annotations and philosophical comments written in the margins. I use some of these to analyze the influence Emerson exerted on Nietzsche's conception of history and historiography. The two authors can be considered “twin (...) souls” in that they both praised the strengthening effects of past greatness and, at the same time, opposed psychological subjugation or fanaticism. Nevertheless, they were not twin minds: Nietzsche rejected Emerson's metaphysical concept of an Oversoul and turned it into the ideal of a Dionysian soul, which aims at reliving the history of humanity in order to increase its power. (shrink)

Nietzsche as German Philosopher is a collection of essays by German authors – all living or recently deceased – on various aspects of the philosophy of Nietzsche. These range from aesthetics throug...

Für Emerson ist die self-reliance die Haupteigenschaft des großen Menschen, sie ist das Ergebnis von Selbsterkenntnis und Selbsbeherrschung. In moralischer Hinicht ist die self-reliance der Ursprung für den Heroismus, auf intellektuellem Gebiet ist sie die Quelle des Genies. Das Thema der self-reliance ist der Hauptgrund für die Atraktivität, die die Werke des Amerikaners auf Nietzsche ausüben. Wie ein roter Faden zieht sich dieses Thema durch den sich über einen Zeitraum von fünfundzwanzig Jahren ersteckenden Dialog mid Emersons Texten. Es stellt in (...) Nietzsches Werk einen Zusammenhang zwischen Schopenhauer als Erzicher und Zarathustra her, die beide Nietzsches Ideal des Ausnahmeindividuums verköpern, das über und gegen seine Zeit lebt.For Emerson self-reliance is the fundamental characteristic of a great man, being the product of self-acquaintance and self-possession. From a moral point of view, self-reliance is the origin of heroism, in the intellectual field it is the source of genius. The theme of self-reliance is the primary reason for the attraction that the American author's works exercised on Nietzsche. Like a fil rouge this theme runs through the virtual dialogue that he held with Emerson's writings over a period of more than twenty-five years. It generates in Nietzsche's work a continuity between Schopenhauer the educator and Zarathustra, who both incarnate the Nietzschean ideal of an exceptional individual who lives above and against his own time. (shrink)

The writings of the Italian philosophers Giovanni Vailati and Mario Calderoni, sometimes called logical pragmatists, are not well-known in the English-speaking countries. A recent revival of interest is due in part to the reflection in the works of these men of later developments in analytic and pragmatic philosophy. This bibliography has three parts; In Part I are listed English and French translations of some of Vailati's writings, and commentaries in English and French on his work. Part II indicates the extent (...) of Vailati's correspondence with scholars of his time, and lists reviews by Vailati of the works of his contemporaries. Part III is a list of his major writings in Italian, with English translations of the titles. (shrink)

Current deep neural networks (DNNs) are far from being able to model the rich landscape of human visual experience. Beyond visual recognition, we explore the neural substrates of visual mental imagery and other visual experiences. Rather than shared visual representations, temporal dynamics and functional connectivity of the process are essential. Generative adversarial networks may drive future developments in simulating human visual experience.

Attention is often conceived as a gateway to consciousness . Although endogenous spatial attention may be independent of conscious perception , exogenous spatial orienting seems instead to be an important modulator of CP . Here, we investigate the role of auditory alerting in CP in normal observers. We used a behavioral task in which phasic alerting tones were presented either at unpredictable or at predictable time intervals prior to the occurrence of a near-threshold visual target. We find, for the first (...) time in neurologically intact observers, that phasic alertness increases CP, both objectively and subjectively. This result is consistent with evidence showing that phasic alerting can ameliorate the spatial bias exhibited by visual neglect patients . The alerting network may increase the activity of fronto-parietal networks involved in top-down amplification required to bring a stimulus into consciousness. (shrink)

We used several cue–target SOAs and three different degrees of cue predictability , to investigate the role of awareness of cue–target predictability on cueing effects. A group of participants received instructions about the informative value of the cue, while another group did not receive such instructions. Participants were able to extract the predictive value of a spatially peripheral cue and use it to orient attention, whether or not specific instructions about the predictive value of the cue were given, and no (...) matter their ability to correctly report it in a post-test questionnaire. In the non-predictive block, bad estimators who received no instructions showed regular cueing effects, while good estimators exhibited smaller and non-significant facilitatory effects at the short SOA and an absence of significant IOR at longer SOAs. However, for the instructions group, the pattern of results reversed. (shrink)