You Are Here: Pain and its Location

When we consider bodily pain, it seems we are uniquely in the realm of the first person only, with no space for a second person. In this paper, I shall argue that it is in the interplay between the first and second persons, the social dimension of language, that our use of locative spatial terms inherits its rules and constraints. This interplay, in a form of triangulation proposed by Davidson, could provide us with a viable solution to the problem of the location of bodily pain. The solution lies in adopting representationalism while recognizing the limits of the representational system.

Johanna Seibt’s Process Ontology of Categorical Inference: On Nomological Axiomatics and Category Projection

Drawing from a Sellarsian realist-naturalist epistemology, we trace different levels of cognitive hierarchy procedures through which a representational system learns to update its own states and improve its ‘map-making’ capabilities from pre-conscious operations which modulate base-localization functions, to patterns of epistemic revision and integration at the conceptual and theoretical levels, producing a nomological double of its world. We show how ontological theorization becomes diachronically coordinated with and constrained by empirical science, and how the formal-quantitative kernel of scientific theories corresponds to qualitative-conceptual determinations at the structural level. Following Johanna Seibt’s characterization of ontology as a theory of categorial inference, we trace the preservation of inferential semantic structure across ontological theories in relation to model languages and provide provisional indications to coordinate Seibt’s account with a convergent realist assessment of systematic modeling, defining the epistemological conditions for articulating the preservation of formal structure in theories toward a limit-point of enquiry.

‘Why am I still imprisoned in your eyes?’: Re-visioning ‘leftover women’ and the female gaze in Send Me to the Clouds

This article studies how a recent Chinese women’s film Send Me to the Clouds (2019) explores different ways of looking as innovative cinematic strategies of constructing and empowering the precarious female subject against a postsocialist patriarchal ideology that dominates gendered narratives and audio-visual codes of the mainstream Chinese cinema. The film is centred upon a 30-year-old ‘leftover woman’ Sheng Nan’s distressful life experiences and her anger at the prevailing sexism and ageism. Rather than being tamed or domesticated, throughout the film the angry and restless woman is shown to be constantly on the motion, making every effort to experiment with alternative looking relations that seek to destroy the voyeuristic pleasure and disciplinary power of the privileged male gaze, as well as to explore possibilities of creating a self-reflective and critical female gaze. A contextualized critical study of the female authorship and agency on and behind the screen will shed new light on how contemporary Chinese women filmmakers take on ‘concrete and various negotiations’ with the structure of domination and its representational system via ‘their socially and politically conditioned cinematic practice or performance’.

The neural bases of resilient semantic system: evidence of variable neuro-displacement in cognitive systems

The purpose of this study was to explore an important research goal in cognitive and clinical neuroscience: What are the neurocomputational mechanisms that make cognitive systems “well engineered” and thus resilient across a range of performance demands and to mild levels of perturbation or even damage? A new hypothesis called ‘variable neuro-displacement’ suggests that cognitive systems are formed with dynamic, spare processing capacity, which balances energy consumption against performance requirements and can be resilient to changes in performance demands. Here, we tested this hypothesis by investigating the neural dynamics of the semantic system by manipulating performance demand. The performance demand was manipulated with two levels of task difficulty (easy vs. hard) in two different ways (stimulus type and response timing). We found that the demanding semantic processing increased regional activity in both the domain-specific semantic representational system (anterior temporal lobe) and the parallel executive control networks (prefrontal, posterior temporal, and parietal regions). Functional connectivity between these regions was also increased during demanding semantic processing and these increases were related to better semantic task performance. Our results suggest that semantic cognition is made resilient by flexible, dynamic changes including increased regional activity and functional connectivity across both domain-specific and domain-general systems. It reveals the intrinsic resilience-related mechanisms of semantic cognition, mimicking alterations caused by perturbation or brain damage. Our findings provide a strong implication that the intrinsic mechanisms of a well-engineered semantic system might be attributed to the compensatory functional alterations in the impaired brain.

Feminist Practices in Ballet

Despite efforts toward diversity and inclusivity, twenty-first-century ballet continues to invest in narrowly defined aesthetics and traditional systems of knowing. Many critical examinations of ballet have come through the lens of feminist theories, which are useful for revealing the power structures undergirding an art form that highlights gender distinctions in both training and performance. Because feminist theories have been so crucial in revealing ways in which the ballet system works, it is worth exploring how feminist practices might be used to enact systemic change. This chapter shifts the focus from how ballet acts as a representational system to what a feminist ballet practice might do, concentrating on Katy Pyle, artistic director of the queer ballet company Ballez, who reimagines ballet through collaborative, community-minded, and antihierarchical approaches.

Social categorization based on permanent versus transient visual traits in neurotypical children and children with autism spectrum disorder

The present study was designed to test the relative weight of different types of category markers in children’s representations of social and biological kinds. We reasoned that in order to efficiently navigate through the mesh network of overlapping social categories, the representational system dedicated to processing information about social groups should be prepared to flexibly switch between potential ways of categorizing fellow humans. Thus, we hypothesized that children would assign more relevance to transient but symbolic features, such as shirt colour, when categorizing humans than other animal species. Across two experiments, we investigated whether typically developing children as well as children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder would categorize drawings of humans and dogs along a transient or a biologically set, permanent marker. The results show that both groups of children overwhelmingly selected the permanent feature to categorize dogs, however, they were more likely to categorize fellow humans based on transient features. We suggest that this tendency lays the ground for humans’ ability to efficiently represent the complex structure of societies.

Industrial and OSS developers’ profiles: a family of experiments to evaluate a pioneering neuro-linguistic method for preferred representational systems automatic detection

Software projects use mailing lists as the primary tool for collaboration and coordination. Mailing lists can be an important source for extracting behavioral patterns in the software development. A new approach for that is the use of Neurolinguistic theory to determine what is the Preferred Representational cognitive System (PRS) of software engineers in that specific context. Different resources and cognitive channels are used by developers in order to achieve software understanding. An important question on this matter is: What types of representational systems are preferred by software engineers? This paper presents a psychometrically based neurolinguistic method to identify the PRS of software developers. Experimental evaluation of the approach was carried out in three experiments to assess the Preferred Representational System of developers at Industrial and OSS (Apache server and Postgresql) mailing lists. For the OSS projects, the results showed that the PRS scores of the top-committers clearly differ from the general population of the projects. For industry, the experiment showed that the developers indeed have a PRS. Finally, for both scenarios, the qualitative analysis also indicated that the PRS scores obtained are aligned with the developers’ profiles, considering that alignment is essential to effective communication within the team and enhances the development process due to a better software comprehension.

Understanding the Function & Formation of Memory and the Application of Neurolinguistics programing to Reduce Fears, Traumas and Phobias.

This research is based on the idea that a link exists between memories and phobias, fears and traumas and mainly they can be reduced in one’s life by manipulating negative memories, the encoding process, and by using NLP as a therapy and its techniques like the Swish Technique or the Visual-Kinesthetic Dissociation Technique to overcome and remove those very phobias, traumas and fears. Since memory and cognition form an important part of the individual’s life because of the functions it performs the focus of this articles mainly lies surrounding this topic and how NLP can prove to be useful. The encoding process in the memory takes place through different representational systems that are a part of Neuro- Linguistic Programming (NLP). Since NLP lists visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory as a part of this system, an attempt is made to explain how through these systems and its sub modalities (finer distinctions of the representational system) memories are formed and how emotions play a role in determining the retrieval of a particular memory and how that in turn leads to the formation of phobias, irrational fears and traumas like the fear of heights, water, etc or a traumatic event like the death of a loved one due to a disease or accident and in order to achieve all of this secondary researches, data analyses and information tools were used.

Networking Imagery As a Means of Communication in Social Media

During the last decade, new media have become aggregators of visual content which translates socio-cultural meanings, practices of vision and techniques of watching and communication styles in real-time. Nowadays it is possible to analyze a multitude of universes existing on the Internet, diverse in their content, with unique voices and their particular ways of visual self-presentation on a cyber space. With the development of social media, visual practices replace “networking talks”, and these practices fix polyphony, polystylism, and the fragmented nature of modern times, while at the same time being the expression of collective and individual needs. Visual users’ content has acquired a new status: it has turned from a means of representing and documenting events into a means of “pure communicating” with the help of which information is shortened and simplified, and interaction is constructed in line with social expectations and norms. In general, it indicates the ongoing cultural transformations associated with the transition from representational system of culture to presentational online culture. Keywords: online communication, social networks, visuality, media studies

International Comparative Pilot Study of Spatial Skill Development in Engineering Students through Autonomous Augmented Reality-Based Training

Spatial ability is made up of several sub-components, such as the ability to perform mental rotation and object-based transformations. Together with each individual’s attitudes and general skill sets, this specific ability plays an important role in technical professions such as engineering. The components of spatial ability can be enhanced using targeted training or educational programs. This study analyses the levels of spatial skills in first-year engineering students at two universities, one in Spain and one in Peru. The purpose of the study is to establish the extent of symmetry between these study groups in terms of their spatial skills. Initial comparisons indicate that the Peruvian students have a lower level of spatial skill prior to training than their Spanish cohorts. AR-based training delivering representational system content was used with engineering students at both universities to boost spatial abilities. The results obtained indicate the training was effective, as both experimental groups made significant gains in their level of spatial ability. No difference was detected in either experimental group for the variable gender. The comparison of spatial ability gains between both countries is similar, although there is significant difference in the spatial ability component spatial visualization. In this instance, gains in this component were higher amongst the student population in Peru.