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Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Integrating Explanations in Spatial Cognition Across Scales
No full textSpatial cognition, which embraces varied explanatory methods, provides a useful focal point for dialogue among cognitive scientists. It highlights a common challenge in the field: researchers often focus on individual “trees”—specific mechanisms or localized phenomena—while overlooking the “forest” of broader, integrative frameworks that reflect the diverse research paradigms and explanatory styles in Cognitive Science. This paper explores how different explanations in spatial cognition can be integrated and communicated through the concept of scales, aiming to provide a balanced view of both the individual mechanisms and broader frameworks.
Spatial cognition spans multiple disciplines. Neuroscience and cognitive psychology often adopt mechanistic approaches, whereas fields such as situated cognition, ecological psychology, and geography lean toward nonmechanistic frameworks. To navigate this diversity, I begin by introducing the concept of levels—emerging from efforts to unify empirical sciences through reductive hierarchies— and the notion of mechanisms, which frame cognition in terms of component-based causal systems. The synthesis of these ideas into mechanistic levels aims to articulate how layered mechanisms give rise to observable spatial behaviors. I evaluate whether mechanistic levels provide a coherent and integrative framework for spatial cognition. As definitions shift across neuroscience and psychology, their universal applicability proves limited. In response, I propose that scales, or the extents over which phenomena are observed and analyzed, provide a more flexible and conceptually precise alternative, accommodating both mechanistic and non-mechanistic explanatory styles. By examining debates on egocentric and allocentric reference frames, I show how the notion of scales bridges disciplinary divides and supports a dual-mode hypothesis of spatial representation. I then survey existing proposals for scale-based approaches to spatial cognition, clarifying their definitions, their relationship to explanatory frameworks, and their utility for organizing empirical findings.
Although the current discussion may be preliminary and in need of refinement, I demonstrate that scales offers an easily measurable, widely accepted, and adaptive metric for spatial cognitive phenomena, making it a valuable tool for communicating and comparing explanations in spatial cognition. This contribution aims to support the development of diverse, integrative frameworks within the broader movement toward explanatory pluralism in cognitive science
In Need of Transformational Women: Theorizing the Substantive Representation of Women’s Issues by Female Parliamentarians in the Anglophone Caribbean
No full textAmidst the scholarly debate on the benefits of descriptive versus substantive representation, little research has been done on women’s representation in post-colonial contexts where social welfare issues may take precedence over explicitly women’s issues. This paper takes an interpretivist approach to understanding substantive women’s representation in a Global South context, namely the Anglophone Caribbean. I juxtapose theories of Caribbean womanism and transformational leadership to create a new typology (women, womanist, and transformational leaders) for analyzing how women wield power in contexts of underdevelopment and in the face of globalization. This theoretical framework is applied to three case studies of Caribbean women parliamentarians in the post-independence era. I find that where womanist leaders may usually see national development issues as women’s issues, transformational leaders will conversely also see women’s issues as national development issues. This analysis offers insight into a more intersectional understanding of leadership that does not solely center gender as an analytical category. It addresses some of the gaps left by Western feminist political thought and highlights community-oriented and women-focused approaches to achieving women’s rights and gender equity
Feynman Path Integrals
No full textThe Feynman path integral is one of the core techniques of quantum field theory, and it thus provides a window into the most fundamental laws of nature we have found so far. In this paper, we will explore what the path integral technique can do for our understanding of the universe. We will first motivate and describe the technique itself, and then we will showcase its power by using it to derive both the principle of least action and the Schrödinger equation. We will then discuss its diverse applications in modern physics, focusing on quantum field theory, statistical mechanics, and atom interferometry
Financial Inclusion and Inequality in Perú: Analyzing the Effectiveness of the National Strategy
No full textThis study examines the demographic and socio-economic determinants of financial inclusion in Perú and the effectiveness of policy at improving financial access, use, and quality. Using household survey data, I identify key factors contributing to financial exclusion, such as limited access to services, and underdeveloped financial infrastructure in rural areas. A digital divide is revealed, with internet access and smartphone ownership affecting individuals’ ability to engage with modern financial systems. Formal employment, education, business ownership, and internet access are consistent predictors of financial product ownership across the years of 2022 to 2024. Additionally, the data highlights a moderate increase in financial access following a policy intervention in 2019, particularly in savings accounts, debit cards, and fixed-term accounts, though with some fluctuations due to external factors like the pandemic. The models indicate an impact of policy on product ownership, while use patterns show modest changes
Jewish Jurisprudence: How editing divinity improves humanity’s perfection
No full textWhat is the religious significance of a thin wire strung between telephone poles around miles of Manhattan? The eruv is a Jewish ritual enclosure that allows orthodox Jews to bring items out of their house to synagogue on Shabbat in accordance with the laws of carrying. The original eruv was a 3.5-foot wall that encircled a city in biblical times. But why do observant Jews now respect the authority of an eruv the size of a wire? This essay explores how and why divine laws are still considered divine after human edits are made, and tests two hypotheses: (a) that customs have precedence in Jewish legal systems to a degree that is foreign to state-based legal systems which explains why laws that are not directly divine are followed so devoutly and (b) that the goal of editing laws is not to perfect them but to manipulate them so they compliment humanity’s imperfection (after the fall of Adam and Eve) and output perfect human action. Using the eruv in Manhattan as a case study, I argue that the best way to think about the authority behind the evolution of Jewish laws is through customs and imperfect purpose
Precipitation and groundwater: Increasing sensitivity of deep aquifers in Minnesota
No full textThe stability of groundwater as climate change progresses remains understudied at a scale relevant to policy, especially in temperate and agricultural regions. Minnesota represents one such region, where aquifers supply 90% of the water used for agricultural irrigation. Preliminary work suggests climate change may primarily affect groundwater levels indirectly by changing high-capacity pumping patterns. This climate-induced pumping could lead to groundwater depletion even in places like Minnesota with relatively high precipitation, particularly in deep aquifers that take longer to recharge and constitute an outsized share of the water supply. I use vector autoregression and wavelet analysis to evaluate the extent of climate-mediated pumping and its effects on groundwater elevation in Minnesota. Contrary to expectations, results show that deep aquifers respond more rapidly and severely to precipitation than shallow aquifers. This appears to result from groundwater pumping. In addition, precipitation appears to often drive groundwater pumping, especially in drier parts of the state. These findings may have implications for the sustainability of groundwater use in areas with increasing groundwater demand, such as Northwest Minnesota, where local economies depend on relatively limited groundwater supply. They also suggest that climate-mediated pumping may be of special interest in arid regions
Measuring CO2 flux in enhanced weathering trials in southeastern Minnesota: an evaluation of existing technologies and a proposed optimized model
No full textCarbon dioxide removal is urgently needed to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Enhanced weathering is a promising carbon dioxide removal pathway that has garnered increasing attention for its climate change mitigation potential. By accelerating natural rock weathering processes through application of crushed silicate rock to soil, particularly agricultural fields, enhanced weathering aims to increase the amount of inorganic carbon stored in drainage water and soils. One measure of the effectiveness of enhanced weathering is the flux of carbon dioxide (CO2) from soils to the atmosphere. CO2 flux measurements are critical in enhanced weathering field trials as they can be early indicators of successful emission reduction. Such measurements are increasingly utilized in the growing body of enhanced weathering studies, including an active field trial on the Carleton College campus over two growing seasons. This paper covers technology and theory for how CO2 gas flux is measured with available commercial instruments. Existing devices usually require either manual sampling at various locations (survey chambers) or automated sampling at a single location over time (automated chambers). Survey chambers provide the opportunity to increase spatial resolution, but with limited temporal resolution. Automated chambers in contrast improve temporal resolution, but commercial options are expensive and so spatial resolution is often impractical to achieve. This paper also presents early work in developing a new cost- effective, automated CO2 flux sensor design. The new design aims to improve the ability to collect robust datasets of CO2 flux at sufficient temporal and spatial resolution and improve monitoring enhanced weathering projects. Continued development of low-cost sensors will provide a better understanding of carbon dynamics in soil systems and accelerate the deployment of carbon dioxide removal projects for climate change mitigation
Crystallization history of Footwall Gneisses and Plutons of the Paparoa Core Complex, South Island, New Zealand
No full textUranium-Lead Laser Ablation Inductively-Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (U-Pb LA-ICP- MS) zircon dating of granitoids from the Charleston Metamorphic Group (CMG) reinforces the link between Cretaceous pluton emplacement and the development of SW-NE detachment faults within the Paparoa Metamorphic Core Complex (PMCC). A lens of biotite-rich, medium-grained banded orthogneiss (W97A) and a xenolith of metasedimentary texture (W96B) within the white two-mica granite (W96A) on the beach north of Parsons Hill provide evidence of interactions between the intruding granite and surrounding rocks. Major zircon populations in W97A and W96A show Cretaceous and Devonian-Carboniferous peaks, while the reanalyzed biotite orthogneiss (W92) exhibits predominantly Devonian-Carboniferous zircon populations, with a magmatic age of 360 ± 1 Ma. Zircon crystallization ages interpreted as inherited in W96A range from 300–500 Ma and 1000–1600 Ma, while the small zircon population in W97A around 360 Ma is interpreted as the magmatic age of the protolith of the foliated biotite granite. The youngest peaks from the probability density plot (PDP) of W96A are divided into an autocryst age of 109 ± 2 Ma and two antecryst ages of 112 ± 2 Ma and 116.3 ± 0.8 Ma, respectively. For W97A, the youngest PDP peaks are interpreted to represent periods of zircon growth after incorporation into the white two-mica granite (W96A) melt, yielding two overlapping ages of 109 ± 1 Ma and 116 ± 1 Ma, and an older population of 120 ± 1 Ma. Concerning protolith identification, the Ordovician Greenland Group is the most likely source for the metasedimentary xenolith (W96B), and for the foliated biotite granite lens (W97A), the most likely protolith is the biotite orthogneiss from Parsons Hill (W92). These findings fit within the timeline of Cretaceous extensional regimes, during the 2nd Zealandia High MAR event which facilitated the development of SW-NE detachment faults, the exhumation of the Core Complex, and the eventual rifting of New Zealand from Gondwana