The religious mind and the evolution of religion.

This article summarizes the literature on the religious mind and connects it to archeological and anthropological data on the evolution of religion. These connections suggest a three stage model in the evolution of religion: One, the earliest form of religion (pre-Upper Paleolithic [UP]) would have been restricted to ecstatic rituals used to facilitate social bonding; two, the transition to UP religion was marked by the emergence of shamanistic healing rituals; and, three, the cave art, elaborate burials, and other artifacts associated with the UP represent the first evidence of ancestor worship and the emergence of theological narratives of the supernatural. The emergence of UP religion was associated with the move from egalitarian to transegalitarian hunter-gatherers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Consciousness and the voices of the mind.

Few problems have had as interesting an intellectual trajectory through history as that of the mind and its place in nature. Before 1859, the year that Darwin and Wallace independently proposed natural selection as the basis of evolution, this issue was known as the mind/body problem with its various and sometimes ponderous solutions. But after that pivotal date, it came to be known as the problem of consciousness and its origin in evolution. Now the first thing I wish to stress this afternoon is this problem. It is easy for the average layman to understand. But paradoxically, for philosophers, psychologists, and neurophysiologists, who have been so used to a different kind of thinking, it is a difficult thing. What we have to explain is the contrast, so obvious to a child, between all the inner covert world of imaginings and memories and thoughts and the external public world around us. The theory of evolution beautifully explains the anatomy of species, but how out of mere matter, mere molecules, mutations, anatomies, can you get this rich inner experience that is always accompanying us during the day and in our dreams at night? That is the problem we will consider in this symposium. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Brain mechanisms for consciousness and conscious experience.

In planning the McMaster University Brain and Behaviour Research Programme's 1983 Bauer lecture, it was deemed that a topic in the area of cognitive neuroscience might be suitable, preferably one of a general nature that would be of interest to several disciplines. Consciousness, one of the most perplexing of human issues, requires that we question how the living material of the human brain results in the subjective awareness humankind experiences. Julian Jaynes was asked to present the lecture, which was entitled "Consciousness and the voices of the mind" (see record 2007-08986-001). In this article, George Ojemann discusses the neurological aspects of Jaynes's theory. As a beginning, he makes distinctions between several phenomena included in the term "consciousness." One is to distinguish between an individual and a collective consciousness. The individual consciousness is clearly biologic, for it's gone with the loss of brain function. But a collective consciousness recorded in culture through language, as written or oral tradition, obviously transcends any one individual. This collective consciousness is a sum, a highly variably weighted sum, of individual brain functions, but is no longer dependent on any individual's brain function. It is the collective consciousness that is the source of most of Jaynes's evidence for changes in the individual consciousness. What Ojemann talks about here are the individual biologic brain mechanisms for language and consciousness that underlie the collective consciousness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Images in mind: The evolution of a theory.

Reviews the book, Images in mind: The evolution of a theory by A. Paivio (see record 1991-98882-000). In this review I hope to capture some of the flavour of Images in Mind, in which Allan Paivio traces some of the signal events in the evolution of dual coding theory. I encourage each reader of the review to become a reader of the book. The main reward is a glimpse of the workings of a great mind, but there are practical benefits as well. I am reminded of an interview with Keith Richard of the Rolling Stones. When asked how he came up with so many songs, he replied that he just played through his "Buddy Holly Song Book," and something always came up. Reading papers by Paivio has the same effect on me; I can't read his work without many experiments "coming up." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Play, dreams and imitation in childhood.

Reviews the book, Play, dreams and imitation in childhood by Jean Piaget (see record 1953-01024-000). According to the reviewer, this book is the third of a series of books devoted to the development of rational thought in the child. The first section of the book deals with the development of imitation, the second with the problem of play under which a considerable discussion of dreams is subsumed, and the last section ties these together in a discussion of cognitive representation. To the present reviewer it seems that the material on imitation is the most original contribution, much of the other material having been discussed in various other previous books by Piaget. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Natural theories of mind: Evolution, development and simulation of everyday mindreading.

Reviews the book, Natural theories of mind: Evolution, development and simulation of everyday mindreading edited by Andrew Whiten (see record 1991-97348-000). In recent years there has been a phenomenal growth in interest and research directed at what, has become known as a Theory of Mind ("ToM") and its development. Among the many edited books recently made available on the topic, Whiten's Natural theories of mind is unique in the eclectic, multidisciplinary approach it brings to this vital, yet fledgling area. This interdisciplinary approach, which also includes a chapter by Carrithers placing the development of a theory of mind within the broader context of sociology and anthropology, is at the same lime both the strength of this volume and its limitation. It may be that few will read this book cover-to-cover (not a remarkable criticism for an edited book). Those who do will be given an unusually broad overview of this hot research area and the interdisciplinary context within which the area can best be understood and from which it will most profitably develop. Whiten's collection is therefore recommended both to those who are looking for an entrance into the theory of mind literature and for those already embroiled in the field who are looking for new perspectives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Timescale bias in the attribution of mind.

In this research, the authors found that people use speed of movement to infer the presence of mind and mental attributes such as intention, consciousness, thought, and intelligence in other persons, animals, and objects. Participants in 4 studies exhibited timescale bias--perceiving human and nonhuman targets (animals, robots, and animations) as more likely to possess mental states when those targets moved at speeds similar to the speed of natural human movement, compared with when targets performed actions at speeds faster or slower than the speed of natural human movement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud's models of the mind.

Review of book: Joseph Sandler, Alex Holder, Christopher Dare, Anna Ursula Dreher. Freud's Models of the Mind. Madison, CT: International Universities Press, 1997, xvi + 203 pp. Reviewed by Martin A. Schulman. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Culture and the sequence of steps in theory of mind development.

To examine cultural contrasts in the ordered sequence of conceptual developments leading to theory of mind (ToM), we compared 135 3- to 6-year-olds (77 Australians; 58 Iranians) on an established 5-step ToM scale (Wellman & Liu, 2004). There was a cross-cultural difference in the sequencing of ToM steps but not in overall rates of ToM mastery. In line with our predictions, the children from Iran conformed to a distinctive sequence previously observed only in children in China. In contrast to the case with children from Australia (and the United States), knowledge access was understood earlier than opinion diversity in children from Iran, consistent with this collectivist culture's emphasis on filial respect, dispute avoidance, and acquiring knowledge. Having a sibling was linked with faster overall ToM progress in Australia only and was not related to scale sequences in either culture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Types of hypnotic dreams and their relation to hypnotic depth.

Several types of experiences in response to suggestions to have a dream are described, namely: (1) simply thinking about something; (2) daydreaming; (3) vivid hallucinations, like watching a film; and (4) feeling "bodily located in" a "dream world." In 2 experiments, only a minority of Ss rated their experiences as dreamlike, even when hypnotized. Significant positive relationships were found between the extent to which the experiences were rated as vivid and dreamlike, and 2 measures of hypnotic depth. The variable of whether or not Ss had gone through a hypnotic-induction procedure did not discriminate among types of response. These results illustrate the danger of pseudo-operational definitions of hypnosis that ignore Ss' subjective responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Consciousness and the voices of the mind": Open discussion.

Provides an open discussion of with Julian Jaynes on his article Consciousness and the voices of the mind (see record 2007-08986-001). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freedom and the cognitive mind.

In this speech, the author discusses cognitive needs in behavior, not only in the learning of the rat, but also in the behavior of the professor, with the significance of this factor to questions of academic freedom. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond the group mind: A quantitative review of the interindividual-intergroup discontinuity effect.

This quantitative review of 130 comparisons of interindividual and intergroup interactions in the context of mixed-motive situations reveals that intergroup interactions are generally more competitive than interindividual interactions. The authors identify 4 moderators of this interindividual-intergroup discontinuity effect, each based on the theoretical perspective that the discontinuity effect flows from greater fear and greed in intergroup relative to interindividual interactions. Results reveal that each moderator shares a unique association with the magnitude of the discontinuity effect. The discontinuity effect is larger when (a) participants interact with an opponent whose behavior is unconstrained by the experimenter or constrained by the experimenter to be cooperative rather than constrained by the experimenter to be reciprocal, (b) group members make a group decision rather than individual decisions, (c) unconstrained communication between participants is present rather than absent, and (d) conflict of interest is severe rather than mild. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The measurement of preconscious perception in dreams and images: An investigation of the Poetzl phenomenon.

The primary aim of the study is to "construct a reliable measure of preconscious perception as elicited by the Poetzl technique and then to examine evidence bearing on its validity." The method was essentially the same as used by Poetzl, and there were 27 Ss. Results significantly supported Poetzl's theory that Ss dream about the originally unreported parts of a picture exposed tachistoscopically. In addition there was a correlation of .57 between preconscious recall and peak unpleasantness; this was consistent with Freud's assertion that the neutral or "indifferent" character of preconscious perception permitted it to serve as a "cover" for unconscious ideas which would not otherwise escape dream censorship. 19 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Consciousness and the voices of the mind": Response to the discussants.

In planning the McMaster University Brain and Behaviour Research Programme's 1983 Bauer lecture, it was deemed that a topic in the area of cognitive neuroscience might be suitable, preferably one of a general nature that would be of interest to several disciplines. Consciousness, one of the most perplexing of human issues, requires that we question how the living material of the human brain results in the subjective awareness humankind experiences. Julian Jaynes was asked to present the lecture, which was entitled "Consciousness and the voices of the mind" (see record 2007-08986-001). In this article, Jaynes responds to comments on his lecture by Daniel Dennett (see record 2007-09336-002), Jonathan Miller (see record 2007-09336-003), and George Ojemann (see record 2007-09336-004). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What do i think you're doing? Action identification and mind attribution.

The authors examined how a perceiver's identification of a target person's actions covaries with attributions of mind to the target. The authors found in Study 1 that the attribution of intentionality and cognition to a target was associated with identifying the target's action in terms of high-level effects rather than low-level details. In Study 2, both action identification and mind attribution were greater for a liked target, and in Study 3, they were reduced for a target suffering misfortune. In Study 4, it was again found that action identification and mind attribution were greater for a liked target, but like that for the self or a liked other, positive actions were identified at higher levels than negative actions, with the reverse being true for disliked others. In Study 5, the authors found that instructing participants to adopt the target's perspective did not affect mind attribution but did lead to higher level identifications of the target's actions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental evolution and development: Evidence for secondary representation in children, great apes, and other animals.

Recent interest in the development and evolution of theory of mind has provided a wealth of information about representational skills in both children and animals. According to J. Perner (1991), children begin to entertain secondary representations in the 2nd year of life. This advance manifests in their passing hidden displacement tasks, engaging in pretense and means-ends reasoning, interpreting external representations, displaying mirror self-recognition and empathic behavior, and showing an early understanding of "mind" and imitation. New data show a cluster of mental accomplishments in great apes that is very similar to that observed in 2-year-old humans. It is suggested that it is most parsimonious to assume that this cognitive profile is of homologous origin and that great apes possess secondary representational capacity. Evidence from animals other than apes is scant. This analysis leads to a number of predictions for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sleep, wakefulness, and consciousness.

This paper presents an analysis of some of the major issues concerning the evolutionary theory of sleep and wakefulness proposed by the writer some 2 decades ago. A discussion of the current controversy over the research literature in this area is included. 16 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Making Sense of Self-Conscious Emotion: Linking Theory of Mind and Emotion in Children With Autism.

Self-conscious emotions such as embarrassment and shame are associated with 2 aspects of theory of mind (ToM): (a) the ability to understand that behavior has social consequences in the eyes of others and (b) an understanding of social norms violations. The present study aimed to link ToM with the recognition of self-conscious emotion. Children with and without autism identified facial expressions conscious of self-conscious and non-self-conscious emotions from photographs. ToM was also measured. Children with autism performed more poorly than comparison children at identifying self-conscious emotions, though they did not differ in the recognition of non-self-conscious emotions. When ToM ability was statistically controlled, group differences in the recognition of self-conscious emotion disappeared. Discussion focused on the links between ToM and self-conscious emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)