Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-97).

Previous research shows that bodily experiences can unconsciously influence perception, judgment, and behavior. However, inconsistency among recent findings in the embodied cognition literature suggests a need for theoretical boundary conditions. While research appears to assume that embodied effects are necessarily implicit (Schnall, 2017), the extant literature has not directly manipulated the role that conscious awareness of bodily states plays in embodied cognition. Dual process theories of social cognition assert that information processing falls along a continuum, from processing that is relatively automatic, effortless, and experiential, to processing that is relatively deliberate, controlled, and rational. Importantly, information processed along the dimensions of this continuum can lead to different outcomes. Thus, if the body influences social cognition in a more implicit manner, experimentally manipulating conscious awareness of a bodily state may lend further insight into when embodiment is attenuated. Six studies tested this possibility in the case of the demonstrated effect of weight sensations on judgments of an abstract idea’s importance (e.g., Ackerman, Nocera, & Bargh, 2010; Jostmann, Lakens, Schubert, 2009). Studies 1 and 2 revealed a curvilinear relationship between increased clipboard weight and ratings of importance such that participants rated a topic as more important when holding a moderately heavy, compared to light, clipboard; however, the importance ratings decreased when the clipboard was very heavy. This curvilinear relationship was not caused by a negative evaluation of the topic or the activation of a different metaphor (burden). In Study 3, ratings of importance increased with a moderately heavy clipboard compared to a light clipboard, but this difference was eliminated by explicitly drawing perceiver's attention to the weight of the clipboard. Study 4 extended the model and showed that even a very heavy clipboard can act as an embodiment of importance when participants are prevented from deliberately processing the weight of the clipboard via a cognitive load manipulation. Study 5 provided limited evidence establishing the role of cognitive motivation in embodiment as measured by need for cognition. However, experimentally manipulating cognitive motivation in Study 6 showed that individuals with higher cognitive motivation were more likely to show the embodied effect when the heft of the clipboard was subtle (i.e., holding a moderately heavy clipboard) whereas those with lower cognitive motivation were more likely to show the embodied effect when the heft of the clipboard was blatant (i.e., holding a very heavy clipboard). Collectively, these studies suggest that embodiment is subject to dual-processes whereby if something in the context draws conscious attention to a stimuli that activates an embodied metaphor, perceivers will no longer use their body as a source of information when processing the stimuli.

Inconsistency among findings in the embodied cognition literature suggests a need for theoretical boundary conditions. The current research proposes that conscious attention of a bodily state can moderate its influence on social judgment. Three studies tested this possibility in the case of the demonstrated effect of weight sensations on judgments of an abstract idea's importance. Studies 1 and 2 showed that participants rated a topic as more important when holding a moderately heavy, compared with light, clipboard. However, when the clipboard was very heavy, participants rated the survey topic as less important compared with when the clipboard was moderately heavy. The differences in importance ratings were not caused by derogation of the topic or the activation of a different metaphor. In Study 3, the importance rating difference between light and moderately heavy clipboards was eliminated by explicitly drawing perceiver's attention to the clipboard's weight. Implications and future directions are discussed.

This paper is a critical essay on the question "Can machines think?", with particular attention paid to the articles appearing in an anthology Minds and Machines, A. R. Anderson editor. The general conclusion of this paper is that those arguments which have been advanced to show that machines can think are inconclusive. I begin by examining rather closely a paper by Hilary Putnam called "Minds and Machines" in which he argues that the traditional mind-body problem can arise with a complex cybernetic machine. My argument against Putnam's is that either there are no problems with computers which are analogous to the ones raised by mental states, or where there are problems with machines, these problems do not have at bottom the same difficulties that human experiences raises. I then continue by showing that a cybernetic machine is an instantiation of a formal system. This leads to a discussion of the relationship between formality and predictability in which I try to show that some types of machine are in principle predictable. In the next section I attempt to prove that any discussion of outward signs of imitative behavior presupposes that some linguistic theory, such as a type reduction, has been substantiated. The force of this argument is that such a theory has not in fact been substantiated. I offer some general theory about the complexity of concept-property relations. Finally I give a demonstration that no test or set of tests can be found that will be logically sufficient for the ascription of the concept "capable of thought." If this is successful, then I have shown that no test can be found, which when a machine is built to pass it, is logically adequate for saying that that .machine can think. This argument is offered as further criticism of the Imitation Game which A. M. Turing proposed as an adequate test for thinking subjects. Besides the specific conclusion that insufficient evidence, has been offered to say that machines can think, this paper offers a more general conclusion that most standard problems have at bottom a linguistic difficulty. However, this general conclusion is a broad speculative one to which the work in this paper, is only a small exemplification and as such reflects mainly the further ambitions of the author. / Arts, Faculty of / Philosophy, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

No description available.

O presente estudo objetiva mostrar ao Cirurgião Dentista, os quesitos necessários para se formar um Odontólogo apto a praticar a sedação inalatória, bem como os itens de segurança e de respaldo legal que deverão compor o seu ambiente de trabalho ao se utiliza desta técnica. O estudo foi fundamentado a partir de revisão de literatura sobre o tema, tendo como metodologia o estilo de Vancouver. A analgesia inalatória pela mistura gasosa de óxido nitroso e oxigênio constitui um excelente instrumento no controle da dor e da ansiedade dos pacientes durante o tratamento odontológico. É importante observar que a técnica de analgesia inalatória pela mistura gasosa de óxido nitroso e oxigênio deve ser realizada por meio de normatização técnica para garantir a eficiência da técnica e evitar transtornos. O roteiro proposto no trabalho visa apresentar as características de segurança e detalhamento das especificações técnicas dos estabelecimentos de assistência odontológica para o emprego da técnica de analgesia inalatória pela mistura gasosa de óxido nitroso e oxigênio. / This study has as objective to suggest a number of propositions in order to prepare and develop a dental office to perform conscious sedation by inhalatory analgesia using nitrous oxide/oxygen mixture. It was based on the revision of literature about the subject, having as methodology the Vancouver style. The conscientious sedation constitutes an excellent instrument in the control of the patient?s anxiety during dental treatment. It also will show to the Dentist the necessary requirements to the training of his personal and himself. It is important to observe that the technique itself must follow normative rules to guarantee its efficiency. The scope considered in the work aims present characteristics of security and detailed specifications to establish dental assistance for the use of conscious sedation by nitrous oxide/oxygen mixture.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references.

Subjects' reported dream recall frequency, dream content and vividness or recall were discussed and examined in relation to sex of the subject and MMPI Conscious Anxiety, Conscious Repression and Ego-strength scores. Fifty-three Utah State University students, who volunteered to participate in a study of dreaming behavior, were administered the MMPI and asked to complete a dream log diary. The dream log required a daily recording of total number of dreams recalled, the number of vividly and vaguely recalled dreams and a rating of each dream in one of four dream content-process categories. Content-process categories included pleasurable, working, conflict and disorganized/frightening dreams. Relationships and possible interaction effects for the variables measured were tested for significance. No significant relationship was found between Conscious Anxiety, Conscious Repression or Ego-strength and dream recall frequency, sex of the subject, percentage of vivid dreams recalled, or percent of dreams recalled in the positive (pleasurable and working dreams) versus negative (conflict and disorganized/frightening) categories. Several significant differences were found, however, between the percentage of dreams reported in dream content-process categories for male subjects when analyzed according to higher-lower MMPI scale score categories and higher-lower dream recall level. Results of subcategory analysis tended to support an interaction between anxiety, repression and dream process consistent with the continuity and adaptive theories of dreaming. Male subjects with higher Conscious Anxiety reported a significantly greater percent of disorganized/frightening dreams. Higher anxiety tended to produce a higher percentage of working dreams as long as repression of threatening material was low enough to permit the recall of more emotion-laden dream processes. There was also a significant interaction between reported precent of pleasurable dreams, recall level and repression, which was explained as possibly indicating that pleasurable dreams may serve as an escape of integrating process for high repression male subjects. Results of analysis for female subjects indicated that higher recall subjects reported a significantly higher percent of disorganized dreams, which is consistent with the salience theory of recall. Recalled dream processes seemed to be not as strongly tied to personality variables for female subjects. Contentless dreams have been proposed in previous research to reflect repression by the subject. Results showed no significant difference between higher and lower repression subjects on the number of contentless dreams reported.

This study originated in the phenomenon that has been observed in the South African Saddle Horse Industry of substantial investments being made over time in the absence of obvious financial or economic reward. A literature study confirmed that, internationally, investment without obvious financial and economic rewards is not unknown and at the same time it was obvious that it is a rarely studied subject. From the literature study it was also evident that this phenomenon occurs where passion and, to a lesser extent, commitment is involved. Economic models on decision making is lacking in perspective on the influence of emotions which were proven to be substantial in an emotionally-laden market, such as the South African Saddle Horse industry. Consumption theory in marketing describes consumption decisions where the consumer is so influenced by emotions that rational influences barely come into play. It is in this context that the study seeks to qualify the investment decisions in the South African Saddle Horse industry by the adaption of consumption theory to investment theory. Research on the indicated strategic phenomenon fits within the critical realism paradigm and is essentially inductive, theory building research. In this case, the adaption of consumer theory as investment theory. Qualifying the influence of emotions in the investment decision – the “why” and “how” questions about a contemporary set of events, over which the researcher has no control – indicates case study as the applicable method of research. In this research, the case study theory is built by generalising case data to prior theory seeking replication or theoretical replication. With prior theory embracing the mentioned consumer theory and case selection dictated by the information, a case study can assist to identify the motivators of the investment decision. Once qualified, the influence of emotions on the investment decision in the mentioned strategic phenomenon can be quantified. Quantifying the influence of emotions on the investment decision leaves two alternatives, the first of which is developing a data set in a statistical survey. However, neuroeconomic findings indicate that opportunity cost comparisons for decisions are supported by our emotional circuitry that is commonly below our conscious awareness. This finding has the direct implication that opportunity cost questions in retrospect do not yield reliable information. The second alternative would be to use dependable historic investment decision data series, such as auction prices. But in the South African Saddle Horse industry, only African Saddle Horse Futurity (ASF) offers any usable investment decision data series, with the AACup being the mother competition in the USA, offering a compatible data series but much more complete and evolved. Therefore, in quantifying the influence of emotions on investment decisions, ASF data and extended AACup auction data is used in an Ordinary Least Squares regression (OLS) analysis and for further calculations. In the literature study it was evident that emotions will be a major influence in investment decisions in the horse industry. This was confirmed by the multiple case study, proving applicability of consumption theory to the investment decision in the South African Saddle Horse industry. The OLS analysis rendered the magnitude of influence of emotions on the investment decision as both prohibitive and irregular on the theoretical determinants of the investment decisions. In all the research done, emotions were unanimously proven to be the determining influence on the investment decision in the South African Saddle Horse industry. But in a free market system where price equates demand and supply, the confirmed influence of emotions in the establishment of price hampers the effective distribution of scarce production resources. In this, the influence of emotions results in a cost to the industry. By manipulating the data set used in the dissertation, an indication of the historic cost of the influence of emotions in the investment decision at the ASF and AACup competitions became apparent. Also, the influence of emotions can be equally crucial in, for example, exploiting economic growth potential. For example, the Saddle Horse industry is a world-wide multimillion dollar industry, with coincidently proven and strong connections with good growth potential to South Africa’s rural areas. These connections contain sustainable development potential to improve the quality of life for many people living in these rural areas. But in order to successfully exploit this potential, more information on emotions as an economic variable is needed in stimulating the industry. In accordance with the incidence of emotions as an influence in decision making, evident in literature and this research, this argument for more information is extendable to numerous other emotionally influenced markets. Therefore, in order to improve reliability of predictions on economic investment and also economic growth, emotions as an influence have to be accounted for. / MSc (Agric), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015