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Letter from the editors
No full textLetter from the editors for Vol. 3 of the Maastricht Student Journal of Psychology and Neuroscienc
Lacking control, Pattern Perception, and Symptom Overendorsement
Get PDFWhitson and Galinksy (2008) claimed to have shown that a state of chaos – i.e. uncontrollability – promotes pattern perception and spurious beliefs. In this lab report, we discuss an attempt to replicate Whitson and Galinsky’s (2008) results. Furthermore, we tried to go one step further by exploring the possibility that uncontrollability and fantasy proneness promotes symptom overendorsement as an internal strategy to create order. In a within-subjects design, we asked 28 individuals to think about an uncontrollable situation or a situation in which they had been in full control. Next, participants were given a Snowy Picture Task (VPT), a Superstitious Beliefs Test (SBT), and a test tapping into symptom overendorsement (SIMS). We found that whether being in control or lacking control does not influence symptom overendorsement. Furthermore, we were not able to replicate Whitson and Galinsky’s (2008) results. Limitations and implications are discussed.
Memories in public speaking performance anxiety reconstructed: a qualitative exploration using a cognitive and etiological model
Get PDFPrior research on social anxiety disorder (SAD) demonstrated the importance of anxiety provoking images, which can be related to memories. The present study examines how imagery plays a role in young adults’ public speaking anxiety. The experiential intervention imagery rescripting (ImRs), conducted in fourteen participants with public speaking anxiety, resulted in reconstructing memories from adolescence. In order to explore which themes contribute to anxiety provoking images, the study of reconstructed memories focused on the cognitive anxiety process and etiological factors. Qualitative theory-driven analysis of these memories demonstrates that the anxiety process fits the cognitive model on SAD. With regard to etiology, expected influences of negative peer behaviour and parents were small or not found whereas influence of negative teacher behaviour was found. The present results therefore suggest that ImRs could be effective for the specific anxiety group which should be directed on negative teacher behaviour as contributor to their anxiety.
Probation and effective rehabilitation – an alternative to incarceration? Using neuroscience to facilitate rehabilitation methods
Get PDFIn recent years critiques of collective sentencing and imprisonment have gained importance. Alarming numbers of overcrowded prisons and extraordinary high rates of recidivism have drawn attention towards legal proceedings and the imposition of sanctions and sentences. Moreover, assessments of forensic psychologists appeared to be of rather less accuracy in terms of predicting the propensity of a perpetrator to reoffend. At the same time, the field of neuroscience has experienced significant progress in exploring our brains and the connection to our minds. More precisely, the research on correlations between specific brain functioning and appertaining human behaviour has remarkably advanced in recent years. Certain methods have been developed allowing for brain imagining and lie detection to a certain extent. For this reason, the field of ‘neurolaw’ has emerged with emphasis on the impact of neuroscience on law. Proponents of the latter suggest that neuroscience may serve as evidence to support solving questions of guilt and punishment and help to advance the forecast of future criminal behaviour. Especially in the light of emerging neuroscientific findings both legal and neuroscientific scholars have argued for a reform of the justice systems towards more individualized litigation and a greater focus on rehabilitation instead of incarceration
The negative neural correlates of consciousness
Get PDFFor a long time, scientists and philosophers alike have been speculating about the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC). Although definitions differ, usually an NCC denotes neural events whose occurrence correlates with our phenomenal experiences. In this essay, we motivate the introduction of the concept of a \u27negative neural correlate of consciousness\u27 (NNCC). The NNCC can be conceptually understood as neural events whose occurrence inversely correlates with a given phenomenal experience. We wish to introduce this concept for two reasons. First, it is an elegant solution to the problem of sufficiency that so far has unduly neglected in the NCC debate. Secondly, based on the Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness, we argue that only by pairing each NCC with a corresponding NNCC will scientists ever be able to predict conscious experience from brain data. We discuss empirical implications of and potential objections to the suggested NNCC framework
Political Awareness and Symmetric Vision Evaluating the Online Government Initiative Liquid Friesland from an Openness Perspective
Get PDFIn February 1980, the pilot of the popular British TV-series ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ aired under the title open government. In one scene, Sir Arnold vividly shares with the viewer his thoughts on the openness of government in a dialogue with Bernard Woolley: “My dear boy, it is a contradiction in terms: you can be open or you can have government” (Stanley, 2013). A clear statement, which however seems to have lost some of its truth during three decades; indeed, facilitating greater openness seems to have become a quasi-panacea for some of the maladies of contemporary western democracies – a growing political resentment amongst citizenries and a related alienation from the work of elected officials. A common element to most approaches to openness of governments – may they be theoretical or practical – is the idea of transparency. More precisely, one element inherent in the openness of governments is understood as the degree to which citizens are able to monitor and scrutinize the work of governments (Meijer et al, 2012). Well in line with this conception, attempts to facilitate a greater openness of governments – from the United States to Europe and from supranational to community level – revolve around making political decisions and processes more visible and hence more comprehensible for citizens. And indeed, reviews of such initiatives suggest their positive effect on trust and confidence in the political realm as perceived by citizens.
Cornelius de Pauw and the Degenerate Americas
Get PDFThe journals of travellers, or their reports back home, have always offered fascinating insights into the unknown for those left behind. But they are not the only source about exotic places that have been available to the interested reader. As there have been travel accounts, there also always have been books and analyses by writers who had never left their home country. This chapter will deal with one of these books. First published in two volumes in 1768 and 1769, Les Recherches Philosophiques sur les Américains, ou Mémoires Intéressante pour servir à l’Histoire de l’Espèce Humaine made its formerly unknown author almost instantly into one of the most-discussed writers of his time. The Dutchborn clergyman Cornelius de Pauw was going to be the centre of cultural attention for the rest of his lifetime, to be translated almost immediately into German and Dutch, and to be asked to contribute to the Encyclopédie. His fame was not only due to his early work: two more philosophical dissertations followed, first on the Egyptians and Chinese (1773) and then on the Greek (1787/88). His second work again caused great discussion, which epitomised in Voltaire writing his Lettres chinoises, indiennes et tartares à M. Pauw, par un bénédictin (1776) in defence of the Asian nations against de Pauw’s polemic. Today, however, Cornelius de Pauw is as good as forgotten and in my opinion wrongly so. Despite what one scholar called an “exceedingly uneventful” life (Church, 1936, p.181), the clergyman is a fascinating character, which admittedly is probably revealed more through his writing than his acting. He understood to popularise and polemicise topics that were much debated among scholars and in courts. His writing style was fashioned after the encyclopedists, his tone was characterised by the “leicht geschürzte(n) Plauderton des Friderizianischen Salons” – the “slightly arrogant conversation tone of the Frederickian salon” (Beyerhaus, 1926, p.470). On top of offering an explanation for de Pauw’s great success during his lifetime, all this makes his work still very accessible today. Why he then sank into oblivion so soon after his death, will not be part of this chapter however. Instead, it will focus on his first work, the Recherches sur les Américains, and deal with it in relation to its depiction of the American peoples as well as in relation to the so called “degeneracy theory”, which is the idea that the New World is inferior to the Old – an idea that has prevailed to our days in the form of anti-Americanism
Transparency in Local Government A Case Study of Transparency in Hamburg and Antwerp: Giving People What They Need?
Get PDFThis paper examines through what means local government can realize transparency policies and to what extent real transparency is achieved. We conduct a comparative study of information policies in Hamburg and Antwerp. In these studies we compare how both cities score on building real transparency in implementing laws aimed at increasing transparency. We define six indicators of real transparency in section 2 Indicators of Real Transparency. The aim of this paper is to show that there can be limits to the transparency effect of information distribution in terms of what is necessary, useful and understandable information transmitted to the public. Ill-considered implementation of right of information and transparency policies is not sufficient. We claim that, the subjective quality of the information, in terms of accessibility but also understandability is of overriding importance
Preface
Get PDFNeuroscience and law (in brief ‘Neurolaw’) is one of the most exciting recent developments at the intersection of law and science. It is a rapidly emerging field that reveals all kinds of details about how the human brain works. The aim of the course was to explore how this new scientific knowledge can or should affect the law. This influence is potentially important. The main reason for this is that law is full of presumptions about how and why people act. These presumptions are increasingly questioned by neuroscientists, giving rise to what some have called a ‘neuro-revolution’ in our thinking about law. However, it is far from clear what the exact impact of neuro-scientific insights has to be. The main aim of the course was to explore this impact. This led us to explore a wide range of different issues: a. a mapping exercise of the potential impact of neuroscience on law. This mapping exercise was the main activity during the first seven weeks of the project. b. an exploration of a number of more specific topics. Students selected these topics during the first seven weeks and then wrote an individual paper during the second part of the project
Gustav Kreitner’s Asian Travel Account – The Aino People in Japan
Get PDFThis paper investigates and analyses the book Im fernen Osten. Reisen des Grafen Béla Széchenyí in Indien, Japan, China, Tibet und Birma. In den Jahren 1877-1880 by Gustav Kreitner. Its focus lies on the section on Japan, the travel, expeditions and observations there. In particular it will examine the content of Kreitner’s chapter ‘The Island of Jesso and the Aino’ and analyze his observations. The Aino, an ethnic minority in Japan, were observed and described by Kreitner, and it appears rewarding to analyze these descriptions in terms of “otherness”, that is how he highlights the differences between the Aino, the Japanese and the Europeans. Despite their inevitable cultural bias, Kreitner’s detailed and informative descriptions in Im fernen Osten still stand out as an important document on the Aino. It should therefore, be taking serious as a travel report that influenced and shaped people’s imagination and opinion on the Japanese culture and society representing one of ‘the Other’ to the European reader