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This dissertation takes a sharp methodological turn from prior research on religiousness, spirituality, and culture in organizations by making advances in the study of the structure and role of workplace religio-spiritual beliefs, combining a critical review, theory building, and two empirical sections. The research is based on the premise that the study of individual psychology has yet to address the cross-cultural and domain-specific nature of religio-spiritual beliefs that come to mind naturally in everyday work situations. First, after a case is made for the study of religio-spiritual beliefs, a critical review of the literature provides a comparison of 90 content-based measurement models, and is followed by implications for improving future measurement and research. Second, a conceptual discussion recommends a way forward for a domain-specific conceptualization of religiousness and spirituality and sets a framework for improving methodology, drawing from grounded theory, integral theory, and sense-making methodology. Third, a bottom-up exploration of the religio-spiritual beliefs induced by a variety of workplace situations is conducted through interviews of informants from six major faith traditions, plus the spiritual-but-not-religious. From the analysis, workplace situations, associated beliefs, and mental modules are structured according to the four quadrants of the Workplace Integral Model, each quadrant typified by a different workplace-grounded existential dilemma. Fourth, a higher level of religio-spiritual cognition is accessed through a sense-making methodology, revealing why and how work-related thoughts, self-concepts, and experiences become imbued with religio-spiritual significance, as illustrated in eight modes arranged on a Religio-Spiritual Sense-Making Circumplex. It is hoped that these findings can help set a foundation for future progress with research methods, measurement models, and theory building focused on the religio-spiritual thoughts of a diversity of people in the workplace. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Tillämpningen av pekskärmar i fordon har de senaste åren ökat i takt med att den tekniska utvecklingen går framåt, samtidigt som användandet av handhållna smartphones förbjudits då det anses vara för riskfyllt vid bilkörning. För att inte föraren ska rikta sin uppmärksamhet för mycket mot bilens infotainmentskärm istället för vägen är det viktigt att minska den kognitiva belastning som ställs på föraren. Genom att använda ett gränssnitt framtaget baserat påkognitionsvetenskapliga teorier och jämföra det mot ett gränssnitt baserat på dagens infotainmentsystem som i studien går under namnet designkursgränssnittet, undersöker denna observationsstudie om ett kognitionsvetenskapligt gränssnitt kan minska tiden då föraren tittar bort från vägen. Hypotesen är att det kognitionsvetenskapliga gränssnittet kommer minska tiden som föraren tittar bort från vägen jämfört med designkursgränssnittet. Denna studie har totalt 10 deltagare (5 män och 5 kvinnor) som fick utföra 8 olika uppgifter på vardera gränssnitt medan de skulle ha koll på vägen som presenterades på en dator framför dem, samt svara på en semistrukturerad intervju innan testen och efter vardera test. Både ljud och video spelades in genom programmet Camtasia för att kunna registrera deltagarnas ögonrörelser samt svar på intervjuerna. Resultaten av denna studie pekar på att ett infotainmentsystem för bilar baserat på kognitionsvetenskap kan minska tiden en förare tittar bort från vägen. Vidare forskning kan undersöka ifall fler eller andra kognitiva teorier kan bidra till att minska tiden som en förare tittar på infotainmentskärmen, eller med andra metoder såsom en bilkörnings-simulator eller en eye tracker. / The integration of touch screens in vehicles has increased in recent years as the technological development progresses. At the same time the use of handheld smartphones has been banned as it is considered too risky whilst driving. It is important to reduce the cognitive load placed on the driver so that the driver does not focus too much on the car’s infotainment screen insteadof the road. This observation study investigates whether a cognitive science interface can reduce the time spent looking away from the road by using an interface based on cognitivescience theories and comparing it to an interface based on today’s infotainment systems, whichin the study is referred to as ”the design course interface”. The hypothesis is that the cognitive science interface will reduce time the driver looks away from the road compared to the design course interface. This study has a total of 10 participants (5 men and 5 women) who had to perform 8 different tasks on each interface and answer a semi-structured interview before the tests and after each test. Both audio and video were recorded using the program Camtasia inorder to register the participants’ eye movements and interview answers. The results of this study indicate that an infotainment system based on cognitive science can reduce the time a driver looks away from the road. Further research can investigate wether other cognitive science theories can contribute to reduce the time, or try other methods such as a simulator or an eye tracker.

Up to this date there are several scientific disciplines that deal with religion´s underlying mechanisms and certain functions of our consciousness, but there isn´t anyone who takes into account the entire aspect of consciousness. The aim of the present work is to bring the entire aspect of our consciousness into the scientific discussion of religion. To help in doing this, the philosophical concept of qualia is used. First the concept is problematized, then an examination whether the concept has explanatory value in the science of religion and in the understanding of religious experience is done.  The concept of qualia has in this manner been applied to several scientific theories of religion and place-related entity continuity has been used as an example of religious experience. The present work is developed as a literature study and uses literature and theories from de scientific disciplines of philosophy of mind, cognitive neuroscience, neurotheology, cognitive science of religion and psychology of religion. As an underlying method the epistemological theory of holistic coherentism is used because it enables such an interdisciplinary study as this work is.   What this work shows is that qualia have a high explanatory value in the science of religion and in the understanding of religious experience and how we form religious concepts. However, the concept of qualia is problematic and great care must be exercised when inferences are made.

Previous studies have established that when a subject’s attention is directed to a specific body part, the subject is able to move that body part faster than a body part their attention was not drawn to. This is known as the body compatibility effect, and it has been shown that this effect only occurs when viewing upright images of the human body. In this study, we presented control subjects and expert acrobats with inverted and upright stimuli. We hypothesized that the amount of time the acrobats spent inverted would result in the acrobats exhibiting body compatibility effects for both upright and inverted stimuli. Compatibility effects were observed in the upright condition for both groups, but neither group exhibited any compatibility effects in the inverted position. Unexpectedly the acrobats responded significantly faster to incongruent trials compared to the control subjects, leading to the conclusion that there must be some form of priming occurring concurrently with the body compatibility task allowing the acrobats to respond faster than the control participants.

Why is it that we humans have a tendency to construct transcendental entities? That is one of the big questions the scientific discipline Cognitive Science of Religion is trying to answer. In order to gain validation for the concepts used by this discipline neural correlates are needed. The aim of the present work is to investigate the concepts Hypersensitive Agency Detection Device ((H)ADD) and Theory of Mind (ToM) both in psychological, cognitive and neural aspects to see if those concepts are enough to explain the human tendencies to construct transcendental entities. This work is developed as philosophical a literature study and uses literature from the scientific disciplines of cognitive neuroscience, cognitive science of religion, cognitive science, neurotheology, psychology of religion and philosophy of religion. This means that the present work is interdisciplinary and stands on a bridge between the theoretical and empirical sciences. A word of caution: Regardless the findings this work presents, the explanatory value is limited as it is a theoretical study in an empirical scientific field. It is when the findings in this work are tested empirically that the findings sustainability are decided.              What this work shows is that neural correlates for ToM already exist in the form of the Mirror Neuron-Theory (MNT), but it is problematic because it can not show how higher orders of representations are possible. No scientific data about neural correlates to (H)ADD has been found for this study, but here the amygdala may play a prominent role. Furthermore this work shows that (H)ADD and ToM is not enough to explain why humans have a tendency to construct transcendental entities. We are in need of peripheral cognitive mechanisms such as intuitive knowledge modules, ontological categories, teleological thinking, our drive to seek causal connections and our ability for pattern recognition.

Cette étude vise à décrire les différences liées à l'âge sur le plan cognitif en fonction du niveau de l'habileté créative des personnes. Sachant que le vieillissement normal est accompagné d'un déclin cognitif, celles-ci présentent-elles un vieillissement plus favorable c'est-à-dire des effets de l'âge moins prononcés sur le plan cognitif ? L'indice de " créativité " nécessite plus de stimulation cognitive qu'un indicateur de " stimulation classique " tel que les mots croisés, la lecture et met en jeu aussi des aspects motivationnels qui pourraient multiplier le caractère stimulant de l'activité créative d'où son intérêt pour cette recherche. Pour cela, chaque participant est évalué selon différentes mesures cognitives (mémoire de travail, raisonnement, vocabulaire et vitesse de traitement). La créativité a été évalué à l'aide des épreuves de créativité les plus courantes qui sont les tests de pensée divergente et les épreuves d'insight.

Le but de cette thèse est de caractériser ce qui se passe à la jonction entre le système linguistique et le système conceptuel de notre esprit. Nous défendons la thèse selon laquelle le système linguistique de notre esprit encode des règles permettant de manipuler directement des représentations mentales dotées d'un contenu sémantique. Après avoir examiné les propositions des formalistes du début du XXe siècle (Frege, Russell), des sémanticiens formels (Montague, Lewis) et de la pragmatique de Grice, nous développons notre propre théorie. Nous nous servons des travaux de Chomsky pour développer une théorie unifiée de l'interface langage/pensée dont nous montrons qu'elle rend compte des données neuropsychologiques concernant le traitement linguistique. Nous testons alors notre théorie en l'appliquant au problème des implicatures enchâssées et terminons en signalant ses applications possibles en TALN, à la clarification de l'hypothèse du langage de la pensée et à la distinction sémantique/pragmatique.