Retrieval of autobiographical memories (AMs) is important for “sense of self”. Current theoretical understanding of AM retrieval predicts that working memory (WM) and executive functions (ExF) enable the hierarchical search for, and reliving of past, personal events in the mind’s eye. However, there remains a lack of consensus as to the nature of the relationships between these cognitive functions and semantic and episodic aspects of AM. The present study therefore aimed to explore the associations between these variables in a sample with a wide range of ability on measures of WM, ExF, and AM. The study incorporated a between-groups component, and a correlational component with regression and mediation modelling. Participants with Alzheimer’s disease (n = 10) and matched healthy controls (n = 10) were assessed on measures of semantic and episodic AM search and retrieval, auditory and spatial WM, and verbal fluency. AD group AMs were significantly less episodic in nature compared to controls. There were no significant associations between WM measures and hierarchical search of semantic AM, or episodic AM retrieval. Verbal fluency, but not WM, predicted episodic AM retrieval and mediated the effect of dementia status on episodic AM retrieval independent of age effects. The study concluded that people with AD may be limited in their retrieval of episodic AM due to weaker verbal fluency, independent of ageing effects. WM appeared to play little role in facilitating episodic AM retrieval. Reminiscence interventions for people with AD might benefit from incorporating structured, individualised external memory-aids to facilitate more effective AM search and retrieval to prolong wellbeing.

Many event-related potential (ERP) studies have tried to find out which brain processes are responsible for the subjective experience of seeing. The contribution of these studies has been crucial in order to identify the temporal and spatial dynamics of visual awareness. The negative difference wave named visual awareness negativity (VAN), observed around 200 ms after the stimulus onset, has been claimed by many as a plausible candidate for reflecting the processes correlating with conscious visual perception. Other studies argue instead that only the P3 wave, a positive wave observed around 300-400 ms, correlates with visual awareness. The aim of the present study was to shed light on the issue of the presence of VAN even when using an experimental procedure that allows to dissociate the ERP correlate of subjective awareness from those of unconscious perception, allowing a separate analysis. Data from 24 participants was collected in the present study. The experimental framework included a forced-choice localization task of a low-contrast stimulus, followed by the subjective rating of awareness. The results of the study support the idea that the VAN is the earliest electrophysiological correlate of subjective visual awareness and that the phenomenon of visual awareness emerges early in the visual area.

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

My dissertation develops and defends a broadly Kantian account of perceptual experience. I call this account structuralism. Put briefly, the account holds that perceptual experience has a structure that is the manifestation of its priori content. I defend this account by showing that it provides a unified framework for understanding perceptual intentionality.I develop and defend structuralism by defending three theses. The first thesis is phenomenological. According to this thesis, perceptual experience has proprietary perceptual phenomenal intentionality only if it has a unity structure. I explicate the idea of the unity structure of experience in the process of defending this thesis. The second thesis is epistemic. Put roughly, this thesis holds that perceptual experience provides reasons for perceptual beliefs only if it has a priori content. I develop an account of the a priori content of perceptual experience in the process of defending this thesis. The third thesis unifies the phenomenological and the epistemic theses. According to this thesis, the dynamical unity structure of perceptual experience is the phenomenological manifestation of its a priori content. These three these, in conjunction with some plausible ideas provide a systematic account of perceptual intentionality.

This dissertation consists of two parts. Part I proposes a new approach to modality, abductive modal realism. Part II proposes a new version of physicalism, abductive physicalism. The parts relate in that abductive physicalism presupposes abductive modal realism.Abductive modal realism holds that inference to the best explanation (i.e. abduction) grounds some and any justified belief about mind-independent necessity and possibility. This approach avoids the disadvantages of extant approaches to modality. Specifically, unlike extant approaches, abductive modal realism accepts real, mind-independent necessities and possibilities without employing a modal epistemology that fits these poorly. Abductive physicalism holds that we should adopt abductive modal realism, that abduction favors physicalism, and thus, that we should adopt physicalism. Although standard a posteriori physicalism accepts the latter claims, it sees appeals to abduction as exceptions to an otherwise non-abductive modal epistemology. Abductive physicalism, contrariwise, sees abduction as the arbitrator of modal disputes quite generally. This difference allows abductive physicalism to avoid problems that plague standard a posteriori physicalism.

It is shown that there is an unconditional requirement on rational beings to adopt “reflexive” beliefs, these being beliefs with a very particular sort of self-referential structure. It is shown that whoever adopts such beliefs will thereby adopt beliefs that imply that a certain proposition, ᴪ, is true. From the fact that there is this unconditional requirement on rational being to adopt beliefs that imply ᴪ, it is concluded that ᴪ is knowable a priori. ᴪ is a proposition that says, in effect, that one’s own point of view is a point in space and time that is the point of view of some being who has reflexive beliefs. It is argued that this information that is contained in ᴪ boils down to the information that one’s point of view is located at a point in the world at which there is something that is “conscious” in a certain natural and philosophically interesting sense of that word. In other words, a theory of consciousness is defended according to which an entity is conscious if and only if it has reflexive beliefs.

This case study finds two modes in adults transformative learning experience. These modes create different openings for learning and conditions to be facilitated. A group of 23 adultlearners and the environment from a University course on organizational counseling, coaching and leadership provided its research site. Data from subjective, collective and interactive spaces in the course illuminate what conditions facilitate transformative learning processes. Field observations, interviews and documents from all parts of the course were analyzed using the computer software Nvivo. Conditions for transformative processes are found in the learner-experience relationships, the premises of a comfort zone, teacher-student and group constellations and are discussed in relation to considerations for their development. Commonalities are found in how to facilitate two phases of a learning experience in these conditions: Passive modes of learning can be facilitated by helping an individuals or groups extract meaning and express these meanings from his/their experience. Being exposed to the meaning environments of others can also have facilitating effects. Active modes of learning can be facilitated by helping an individual or group keep his/their attention directed towards the processes he/they are involved in. Holding attention directed over time towards the process and seeing the processes through a variety of different lenses and frames of thought helps integrate the learning and sustain its impact.

Prekyba žmonėmis daugiausiai orientuota į seksualinį išnaudojimą bei prostitucijos verslą. Europolo duomenimis, vien į Vakarų Europą kasmet parduodama daugiau kaip po 120 000 moterų ir vaikų. Visos organizacijos, dirbančios su prekybos moterimis aukomis, patvirtina vieną faktą – merginų amžius prostitucijoje jaunėja. Pasitaiko, kad įtraukiamos paauglės merginos, kurių amžius yra 13- 14 metų. Todėl šio darbo tikslas – didinti paauglių merginų sąmoningumą reflektuojant prekybą moterimis ir prostituciją. Siekiant didinti paauglių merginų sąmoningumą, buvo pasirinktas veiklos tyrimas dalyvaujant. Atliekant veiklos tyrimą dalyviai įgalinami per sąmonės augimą. Šis metodas pasirinktas todėl, kad tinka tirti jautrias, su tabu susijusias temas, reikalaujančiomis didesnio pasitikėjimo tyrėju ir kitais grupės nariais, atvirumo diskutuojant. Tyrimo duomenys buvo renkami pasitelkus fokusuotos grupės ir pusiau struktūruoto interviu metodus. Tyrime dalyvavo devynios merginos, 14-15 metų, lankančios gimnaziją. Veiklos tyrimas dalyvaujant, leido giliau pažvelgti į tai, ką paauglės merginos žino apie prekybą moterimis ir kaip jos pačios suvokia prostitucijos keliamus pavojus. Tyrimo rezultatai atskleidė, kad diskusija ir refleksija grupėje tikrai didina merginų sąmoningumą reflektuojant prekybą moterimis. Dalyvaujamosios veiklos tyrimas suteikė galimybę merginoms įsigilinti į galimus prostitucijos verbavimo būdus, ją skatinančias priežastis, padėjo suvokti pop kultūros daromą įtaką... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Human trafficking mostly focused in prostitution and sexual violence. Some material declare that annually buyable 120 000 women and children in Europe. All organization sustaining one fact, that girl’s age in prostitution is juvenescent. Occurred, that are retractile and girls who age are 13-14 years. Therefore, the aim of this work is to rising girls consciousness reflecting trafficking in women and prostitution. Seeking to raise girl’s consciousness was chosen participatory action research. Participatory action research is a dynamic process that develops from the unique needs, challenges, and learning experiences specific to a given group. This method was chosen because it is very fits study sensitive, with taboo interconnect themes, imperative assurance traces and groups members. Research material was elective using a semi-structuralized interview and focus group methods. Girls are 14 – 15 years old. Participatory action research allow to look up into what girls knows about women trafficking and how they herself conceptualize prostitutions dangers. Research outcomes revealed, that discussion and reflection in group really raising girls consciousness. Participatory action research conferment opportunity girls to plug in prostitution recruitment ways, it’s motivating reasons, helped conceptualize pop culture makes influence and also let conceptualized their consciousness import.

The following thesis is concerned with the contemporary debate in the philosophy of mind surrounding the nature of phenomenal consciousness (viz. subjective experience, or qualia). My primary aim is to adjudicate the ongoing dialectic between dualists and physicalists regarding the ontological status of phenomenal consciousness — physical or nonphysical — by examining the two major arguments most commonly deployed against physicalism: namely, the zombie argument (Chalmers), and the knowledge argument (Jackson). I conclude by showing that once physicalism has been shorn of the various doctrines that it need not and ought not accept — that is, once we are clear about what, precisely, the fundamental doctrine of physicalism actually is — it becomes clear that these arguments do not go through, and that the case for dualism has not been made. I also argue that the task of actually disarming these arguments (in the right way) is potentially critically instructive to contemporary physicalists, as this helps to nourish a clearer overall understanding of what physicalism (properly understood) is, and is not, committed to. In Chapter One I lay the groundwork for the aforementioned anti-physicalist arguments by explaining precisely what is meant by the phrase “phenomenal consciousness” and its various synonyms. I then briefly summarize the mind-body problem and articulate the so-called “explanatory gap” therein. Chapter Two looks at the zombie argument (as articulated by David Chalmers, 1996) and finds that the argument itself, as stated, actually has very little to do with defending dualism against physicalism, but rather is ultimately an argument for epiphenomenalism — which, I argue, is untenable. Chapter Three examines Frank Jackson’s knowledge argument against physicalism (1982). Here I show why the argument itself fails to support property dualism, but also why the standard physicalist objections to it fail. I argue that Mary does indeed learn facts about the world upon her release, and that physicalists must face up to this squarely. I then suggest that physicalism (properly understood) is entirely compatible with this admission. Chapter Four examines a kind of rehabilitated version of the zombie argument in the context of a larger discussion about the relation between conceivability and possibility. / Thesis (Master, Philosophy) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-18 13:18:41.928

How can the biological evolution and functions of consciousness be studied? The purpose of this thesis was to determine not only what means of inquiry are available to do so but also how good they are or, more specifically, how promising they are with respect to the research goal of giving a scientifically respectable evolutionary explanation of consciousness. Because no suitable or easily adaptable evaluation system or set of evaluative criteria was available, I constructed a systematic tool for evaluating the promise of means of inquiry. The evaluation tool has three dimensions--relevance, efficacy, and practicality--with two criteria each, which are assessed independently (except for the relevance criteria) and synthesised into dimensional and promise scores. This tool served to evaluate, and advise on, 23 means of inquiry that have been used in the investigation of the evolution of consciousness, including its adaptation status and evolutionary functions. The core of the thesis is formed by the evaluation tool and its application. After establishing the need for an evaluation of means of inquiry in this area and presenting the evaluation tool constructed for this purpose, I apply the tool to arguments that consciousness is an evolutionary adaptation, to general reasoning strategies, and to evolutionary strategies. This thesis core is preceded by a contextual introduction to consciousness and evolutionary theory and by the dismissal of some sceptical positions. It is followed by a comparative review of the evaluation results and an evaluation of the evaluation tool. The main contributions of this research consist of the promise evaluation tool for means of inquiry, which is underpinned by a new evaluative theory and available for use by other researchers; and, through the tool's application, an improved understanding of means of inquiry and recommendations about which of them to use for the present research goal.