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1
Ichino, A. "Imagination in thought and action." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2434/280094.
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In this thesis I ask what the role of imagination is in our representation of the world and interactions with it. A standard answer to this question is that imagination has no direct role: imagination’s proper function is rather to allow us to disengage from reality; its motivating power, if it has any, is basically limited to children’s pretence. I argue that this standard answer is mistaken: imagination’s role is much larger than that. I consider a number of cases – including cases of superstitious and religious actions, or so-called ‘expressive behaviours’ – where we are moved to act by representational states that are not sensitive to real-world evidence, nor integrated in our whole system of beliefs. I argue that at least some degree of sensitivity to evidence and inferential integration are necessary for a state to count as belief; hence the representational states that play the relevant motivating role in the cases I consider cannot be beliefs. I suggest that imagination is the best alternative candidate. This supports an account of imagination according to which its functional profile is the same of belief with respect to emotional and behavioural outputs, while it critically differs from belief with respect to cognitive inputs (and related normative constraints). Imaginings dispose us to act and react in the same ways in which belief do; but they are not (nor ought be) formed and maintained in response to real-world evidence as beliefs are (and ought to be).
On this view, many cognitions that are standardly classified as beliefs – like superstitious, ideological and religious ‘beliefs’ – turn out to be better understood as imaginings. Imagination does not just allow us to ‘escape’ from reality into fictional worlds, but plays a key, direct role in our representation of (and practical engagement with) reality.
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Leask, Nigel. "The politics of imagination in Coleridge's critical thought." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.254248.
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Nyathi, Nceku. "The organisational imagination in African anti-colonial thought." Thesis, University of Leicester, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/4381.
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This thesis seeks to broaden the nature of anti-colonial thinking in organisation theory through a strategy of ‘reading and rediscovery’ of prominent African anti-colonial writers and activists portraying them as serious organisation theorists. By reading these theorists, I show some of the depth and sweep of their thinking, hoping to prompt a new appreciation of them today. To read these figures as organisation theorists opens up organisation theory not just to African thinking and history, but also to a range of organisations that often do not show up in the canon of organisation studies. This allows us to see a colourful organisation theory that reflects multiple realities, a postcolonial critique of organisation development of organisation theory, and opens up the western academy to Africa as subject rather than object. Here is a different consciousness of identity and subjectivity, a virtue made of structures (Nkrumah), a radical change and transformation of the individual and group (Cabral’s bottom-up cultural change), and of organisation and social formation of the state (Du Bois, Padmore, James, Cabral, Fanon). This colourful approach is distinct from current postcolonial organisational analysis and ‘management in Africa’ literatures. I test this thesis by observing a case study of contemporary African thinking on organisation at the most general level of society, ubuntu. Ubuntu today straddles the theory and practice of African cosmology, and the calculating world of private firms in a profit-taking market in South Africa. Can its mixture of theory and practice and political ambition fulfil the hopes of this earlier generation? Finally, this is also a disciplinary project, challenging organisation studies to examine its borders and limits, for I am seeking at a very personal level, as a southern African of Nguni origin, to write myself into the consciousness and praxis of that discipline of organisation theory.
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Huseby, Karen Lynn. "A Theology of Imagination & Creativity." Digital Commons at Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School, 2013. https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/etd/37.
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Diener, Astrid S. "The role of imagination in culture and society : Owen Barfield's early work." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.310186.
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Dixon, Todd Lawrence. "Politics and the educated imagination, the constitutional thought of F.R. Scott." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp03/MQ54702.pdf.
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Trippe, George E. "Active imagination and Christian religious experience: A study in relationship." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1999. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1263.
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The focus of this study is the relationship between Carl Jung's practice of active imagination and Christian religious experience. The research is qualitative, using the heuristic research method as developed by Clark Moustakas. The experience of active imagination is defined and the practice is explained. Consideration is given to its values and benefits. In the heuristic style, the research focusses on the active imagination work of the researcher and four research participants. The active imagination case material of the five participants is summarised and depictions of their material are included which identify the nature, essence, and meaning of their experiences. The broad spectrum of Christian religious experience is explored with particular attention to the contributions of James and Kelsey. The experience of discernment is highlighted and distinctions between "spiritual" and "religious" are considered. Jung's theories of religious experience are identified using the work of Chapman, and the differences and similarities between active imagination and Christian religious experience are examined.
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Gold, Ian. "Picture, process, and pattern :." Thesis, McGill University, 1987. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=66148.
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Plant, Daniel. "The aesthetic will : time, transcendence and the transcendental imagination in romantic and existential thought." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 2013. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/the-aesthetic-will(9d67a569-8346-463f-b377-dd6155e11158).html.
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This thesis, argues for the theological viability of Coleridge’s ontological insight into artworks and natural phenomena as aesthetically intimative of transcendence. However this finding is dependent on a critical analysis of Coleridge’s work, separating poetical insights from a systematic context which works against their theological promise. This Coleridgean analysis is in turn dependent, philosophically, upon a critical examination of a variety of Kantian and post-Kantian texts, through which is derived an account of pre-conceptual imaginative process, as related to a Bergsonian account of time considered as an organically non-calculable structure, in light of a Kierkegaardian theological norm. I discern a tension running through Coleridge’s work between the insights of the poet and the ambitions of the post-Kantian metaphysician. I argue that this tension is subversive of Coleridge’s underlying religious and poetic motivations. Through an analysis of Coleridge’s thought in both its systematic and less formal, aesthetic tendencies, I extricate his claim for the aesthetic intimation of transcendence through nature and art from the post-Kantian systematic conceptuality through which Coleridge is often led to distort it, in a countervailing drive towards systematically complete explanation. The thought of Kierkegaard will serve to illumine the ethico-aesthetic dynamics of Coleridge’s account of the appropriation of transcendent insight, conceived as an event of the dawning of religious truth as a conceptually indeterminate imaginative process, which as such, is only accessible to an imaginative and participative receptivity on the part of the aesthetic subject. A similar, imaginative ethos is discerned in the aesthetic positions of Coleridge and Kierkegaard; an attentive humility in openness to the potential manifestation of genuinely creative alterity. Through this thesis, the theological claim is advanced, in a new way, that in the eyes of Christian faith, an intimation of transcendence can be interpreted as a glimpse of the everyday world as created, an encounter with the familiar in its own ecstatic otherness.
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Abroon, Fazel. "Ontological unity and empirical diversity in Shelley's thought : with reference to Ibn Arabi's theory of imagination." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1998. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3949/.
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The key to Shelley's thought system lies in understanding that the thing and its opposite, the idea and its contrary, are brought together simultaneously. Shelley tries to resolve in one way or another the contradiction between transcendentalism and immanence, essentialism and socialism, and finally thought and object. He makes the unity of life his manifesto and yet does not deny the diversity of beings. The ontological clearly has a place within his system and nonetheless the phenomena are considered epistemological divisions, non-essential and insubstantial. He believes in the existence of a comprehensive sign system with no transcendent meaning and yet speaks of an absolute incomprehensibility of a transcendent being which defies words and signs. In short, beings for him are only relationships with no essence, and existence is still one essence in which none of these relations holds true. In harnessing the contraries Shelley's thought cannot be categorised as reductionist, dialectical, or deconstructionist. The logic he follows denies neither of the two opposites nor does it link them dialectically through accepting a third element, but resolves the opposition through a shift of perspective. Existence is both transcendent and immanent, essential and relational, and comprehensive and ineffable. This dissertation attempts to show that from such a perspective the rhetorical or deconstructive coincides with the grammatical or the metaphysical. Although the opposition set by the deconstructionists between the rhetorical and the grammatical readings is assumed by Shelley to exist between the metaphorical and the literal, nevertheless he accepts them as two epistemes; the ontological remains existing but unreadable, and the text is only its expression.
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Buchanan, Travis Walker. "Truth incarnate : story as sacrament in the mythopoeic thought and fiction of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/7860.
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The thesis is organized as two sections of two chapters each: the first section establishes a theoretical framework of a broad and reinvigorated Christian sacramentality within which to situate the second—an investigation of the theories and practice of the mythopoeic art of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien in this sacramental light. The first chapter acknowledges the thoroughgoing disenchantment of modernity, an effect traced to the vanishing of a sacramental understanding of the world, and then explores the history of the sacramental concept that would seek to be reclaimed and reconceived as a possible means of the re-enchantment of Western culture such as in the recent work of David Brown. An appreciative critique of Brown's work is offered in chapter two before proposing an alternative understanding of a distinctly Christian and reinvigorated sacramentality anchored in the Incarnation and operating by Transposition. A notion of sacramental vision is developed from the perceptual basis in its classic definitions, and a sacramental understanding of story is considered from a theological perspective on the infinite generativity of meaning in texts, along with recent theories of affect and affordance. The second half of the thesis expounds the views of mythopoeia held by Lewis and Tolkien in order to show how they are not only compatible with but lead to a sacramental understanding of story as developed in part one, with mythopoeia affording the recovery of a potentially transformative vision of reality, awakening it into focus in distinctly Christian ways (chapter three). The final chapter demonstrates how their mythopoeic theories are exemplified in their art, examining specific ways Till We Have Faces and The Lord of the Rings afford the recovery of a potentially transformative vision of various themes central to them. In closing it is suggested that such a sacramental understanding of story may contribute to the re-enchantment of Western culture, not to mention the re-mythologization and re-envisaging of Christianity, whose significance in these regards has been hitherto mostly unrecognized.
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Strohminger, Margot. "Knowledge of modality by imagining." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/6351.
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Assertions about metaphysical modality (hereafter modality) play central roles in philosophical theorizing. For example, when philosophers propose hypothetical counterexamples, they often are making a claim to the effect that some state of affairs is possible. Getting the epistemology of modality right is thus important. Debates have been preoccupied with assessing whether imaginability—or conceivability, insofar as it's different—is a guide to possibility, or whether it is rather intuitions of possibility—and modal intuitions more generally—that are evidence for possibility (modal) claims. The dissertation argues that the imagination plays a subtler role than the first view recognizes, and a more central one than the second view does. In particular, it defends an epistemology of metaphysical modality on which someone can acquire modal knowledge in virtue of having performed certain complex imaginative exercises.
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Major, Richard John Charles. "Reforming the imagination : Protestant dogma in English literary thought and practice from the Elizabethan Settlement to the Civil Wars." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1991. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:5d7d6b72-4ee8-4379-8fe7-f87f43643fa0.
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This is a study of some literary aspects of English thinking during the eighty years from Elizabeth's Settlement of religion to the Civil Wars. The central thesis is that there is a shift in the images the English Protestant mind uses for its own acquisition of knowledge: from images of public and visible entities, lit by the ubiquitous sunlight of authority and reason, to images of direct cognisance by the self, lit by internal Promethean light. As this image of inner light is primarily an image of reading, there is an imaginative, and thus exegetical, identification of the inspired reader with the meaning or Voice' within the text. This identification is exploited by the more radical Protestants, the party in favour of further reform, to rebut the negative aspersions of scepticism, and the positive aspersions of Catholic polemic; especially in poetry that means to vindicate the truths of Protestant dogma, which is notionally read from the Bible, by replicating and extending the experience of inspired reading. Protestants are ambivalent about the legitimacy of such 'divine' literature, but nevertheless Nosce teipsum, New Atlantis, Sidney's Arcadia, Paradise Lost and even Robinson Crusoe are shown to employ this Protestant mode of inspired defence. In the first of three parts, English Reformation uses of the word imagination are distinguished, and the Protestant faculty of inspiration is shown to be a function of the secondary imagination. Part II discusses the Protestant ambivalence about human artifice on the edge of Scripture; such artifice is necessary to make the Bible work as Protestantism wants, but its existence compromises the Bible's character as a self-sufficient and self-interpreting oracle. This dilemma is demonstrated in the actions of English iconoclasm, and in English attitudes to illustrations of the Bible, Bible translation, and authoritative exegesis. In Part III, this same ambivalence is apparent in the theory and practice of literature, as evidenced by the writings of Jewel, Whitaker, Sidney, Greville, Hooker, Bacon, Sir John Davies, and Milton.
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Ryan, P. J. "The Greek analogical imagination in the mystical interpretation of scripture: a study directed to aspects of the thought of Gregory of Nyssa." Thesis, Online version, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1312952.
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Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)<br>Two of the most notable characteristics of the Church of Alexandria in the patristic period are the allegorical interpretation of Scripture and the development of Mystical Theology. The question naturally arises whether their presence together in Alexandria was simply a coincidence, or whether one was dependent on the other. It was this question which prompted the thesis. in the course of the enquiry it was necessary to examine allegory as such and the unique use of it in the Church of Alexandria. This led also to a study of typology and the different approaches to exegesis among the Churches. It seems to me that the mysticism of Alexandria is due to three influences: 1. There is a mystical element in Neoplatonism which is traditional and goes back beyond Plato. ; 2. There is the influence of the mystery religions and their use of symbol, symbolic language and allegory to keep the mystery shrouded. ; In the tradition of these mysteries, the allegorical method itself was regarded as a secret gnosis. 3. The allegorical method allowed this tradition to be read into Christian revelation. These points form the basic outline of the thesis.
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Ryan, P. J. "The Greek analogical imagination in the mystical interpretation of scripture : a study directed to aspects of the thought of Gregory of Nyssa /." Online version, 1985. http://bibpurl.oclc.org/web/30741.
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Parthemore, Joel E. "Concepts enacted : confronting the obstacles and paradoxes inherent in pursuing a scientific understanding of the building blocks of human thought." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2011. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/6954/.
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This thesis confronts a fundamental shortcoming in cognitive science research: a failure to be explicit about the theory of concepts underlying cognitive science research and a resulting failure to justify that theory philosophically or otherwise. It demonstrates how most contemporary debates over theories of concepts divide over whether concepts are best understood as (mental) representations or as non-representational abilities. It concludes that there can be no single correct ontology, and that both perspectives are logically necessary. It details three critical distinctions that are frequently neglected: between concepts as we possess and employ them non-reflectively, and concepts as we reflect upon them; between the private (subjective) and public (inter-subjective) aspects of concepts; and between concepts as approached from a realist versus anti-realist perspective. Metaphysical starting points fundamentally shape conclusions. The main contribution of this thesis is a pragmatic, meticulously detailed, and distinctive account of concepts in terms of their essential nature, core properties, and context of application. This is done within the framework of Peter Gärdenfors' conceptual spaces theory of concepts, which is offered as a bridging account, best able to tie existing theories together into one framework. A set of extensions to conceptual spaces theory, called the unified conceptual space theory, are offered as a means of pushing Gärdenfors' theory in a more algorithmically amenable and empirically testable direction. The unified conceptual space theory describes how all of an agent's many different conceptual spaces, as described by Gärdenfors, are mapped together into one unified space of spaces, and how an analogous process happens at the societal level. The unified conceptual space theory is put to work offering a distinctive account of the co-emergence of concepts and experience out of a circularly causal process. Finally, an experimental application of the theory is presented, in the form of a simple computer program.
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Craveiro, António Manuel Balazeiro Cascão. "O hipercorpo-tecnologias da carne : do culturista ao cyborg." Master's thesis, Instituições portuguesas -- UP-Universidade do Porto -- -Faculdade de Ciências do Desporto e de Educação Física, 2000. http://dited.bn.pt:80/29212.
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Barone, Rossano. "A cognitive model of the roles of diagrammatic representation in supporting unpractised reasoning about probability." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2016. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/61658/.
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Cognitive process accounts of the advantages conferred by diagrams in problem solving and reasoning have typically attempted to explain an idealised user or a reasoning system that has equivalent to practised knowledge of the task with the target representation. The thesis investigates the question of how diagrams support users in the process of solving unpractised problems in the domain of probability. The research question is addressed by the design and analysis of an empirical study and cognitive model. The main experiment required participants (N=8) to solve a set of unpractised probability problems presented by combined text and diagram. Think-aloud and eye-movement protocols together with given solutions were used to infer the content and process of problem interpretation, solution interpretation and task execution strategies employed by participants. The data suggested that the diagram was used to facilitate problem solving in three different ways by: (a) supporting sub-problem identification, (b) supporting prior knowledge of diagrammatic sub-schemes used for interpreting a solution and (c) supporting the process of interpreting and testing the specific meaning of given problem instructions and self-generated solution instructions. These empirical data were used to develop cognitive models of canonical strategies of the three identified phenomena: • Sub-problem identification advantages are accounted for by proposing that the spatial semantics of diagrams coupled with competences of the visual-spatial processing system and opportunities for demonstrative interpretation strategies increase the probability of goal-relevant data being made available to central cognition for further processing. • Framing advantages are accounted for by proposing that represented diagrammatic sub-schemes (e.g. part-whole portions, icon-arrays, 2D containers etc.) facilitate access to existing prior knowledge used to frame, derive, and reason about information analogically within that scheme. • Advantages in instruction interpretation are related to the specificity of diagrams which support the opportunity to demonstratively test and evaluate the referential meaning of an instruction. The cognitive model also investigates and evaluates assumptions about the prior knowledge for solving unpractised probability problems; a representational scheme for addressing the co-ordination of sub-goals; a deictic problem representation to support online processing of environmental information, a meta-cognitive processing scheme to address self-argumentation and intention tracking and visual and spatial competences to address the requirements of diagrammatic reasoning. The implications of the cognitive model are discussed with regard to existing accounts of diagrammatic reasoning, probability problem solving (PPS), and unpractised problem solving.
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Heaver, Becky. "Psychophysiological indices of recognition memory." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2012. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/39455/.
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It has recently been found that during recognition memory tests participants' pupils dilate more when they view old items compared to novel items. This thesis sought to replicate this novel ‘‘Pupil Old/New Effect'' (PONE) and to determine its relationship to implicit and explicit mnemonic processes, the veracity of participants' responses, and the analogous Event-Related Potential (ERP) old/new effect. Across 9 experiments, pupil-size was measured with a video-based eye-tracker during a variety of recognition tasks, and, in the case of Experiment 8, with concurrent Electroencephalography (EEG). The main findings of this thesis are that: - the PONE occurs in a standard explicit test of recognition memory but not in “implicit” tests of either perceptual fluency or artificial grammar learning; - the PONE is present even when participants are asked to give false behavioural answers in a malingering task, or are asked not to respond at all; - the PONE is present when attention is divided both at learning and during recognition; - the PONE is accompanied by a posterior ERP old/new effect; - the PONE does not occur when participants are asked to read previously encountered words without making a recognition decision; - the PONE does not occur if participants preload an “old/new” response; - the PONE is not enhanced by repetition during learning. These findings are discussed in the context of current models of recognition memory and other psychophysiological indices of mnemonic processes. It is argued that together these findings suggest that the increase in pupil-size which occurs when participants encounter previously studied items is not under conscious control and may reflect primarily recollective processes associated with recognition memory.
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McClelland, Thomas William. "Self-representationalism and the Russellian ignorance hypothesis : a hybrid response to the problem of consciousness." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2012. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/41547/.
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This thesis aims to provide a compelling and distinctive response to the Problem of Consciousness. This is achieved by offering a bipartite analysis of the epistemic gap at the heart of that problem, and by building upon the hypothesis that the apparent problem is symptomatic of our limited conception of the physical. Chapter 1 introduces the problem. The key question is whether phenomenal consciousness is onticly dependent on the physical, or onticly independent of it. There are powerful arguments for the Primitivist view that consciousness is independent of the physical. These arguments rest on the apparent epistemic gap between the physical and the phenomenal. I propose that this apparent gap must be understood as a composite of two deeper conceptual gaps pertaining to the subjective character and qualitative character of consciousness respectively. The ‘–tivity gap' claims that physical states are objective, phenomenal states are subjective and that there is no entailment from the objective to the subjective. The ‘–trinsicality gap' claims that physical properties are extrinsic (structural), that phenomenal qualities are intrinsic (non-structural) and that there is no entailment from the extrinsic to the intrinsic. After refining the case for Primitivism, I consider the compelling reasons for rejecting Primitivism in favour of Physicalism. The challenge posed by the Problem of Consciousness is to resolve this antinomy between Primitivism and Physicalism. In Chapter 2 I consider standard responses to the problem. The failings of these positions lead me to introduce three criteria that an adequate response must satisfy. I reject the view that Primitivism can be salvaged, and hold that a satisfactory response to the problem must protect Physicalism. I reject standard ‘Type-A' responses according to which there is no epistemic gap between the physical and the phenomenal, and argue that a satisfactory response cannot deny the manifest reality of phenomenal consciousness. Finally, I reject ‘Type-B' responses according to which the epistemic gap does not entail ontic distinctness. I hold that if Physicalism is true, the entailment from the physical facts to the phenomenal facts must be knowable a priori for an epistemically ideal subject. Chapter 3 evaluates a non-standard Type-A response to the Problem of Consciousness which promises to satisfy all three criteria. According to Stoljar's Epistemic View (EV), consciousness only seems inexplicable in physical terms because we have a limited conception of the physical. I argue that EV should be supported iff two demanding challenges can be met: the Relevance Condition requires adequate reason to believe that unknown physical properties could address the –tivity gap and the –trinsicality gap. The Integration Condition requires adequate reason to believe that there is a specific blind-spot in our current conception of the physical that is plausibly occupied by properties that perform the requisite explanatory role. To satisfy these conditions, the advocate of EV must make positive claims about the content of our proposed ignorance. In Chapter 4 I argue that EV stands or falls with the plausibility of the Russellian Ignorance Hypothesis (RIH). According to RIH, we have no concepts of the intrinsic properties of physical entities, and those intrinsic properties are integral to the physical explanation of consciousness. I argue that we are indeed conceptually ignorant of intrinsic physical properties. I also argue that RIH meets the Integration Condition, and goes some way to satisfying the Relevance Condition. RIH plausibly undermines the –trinsicality gap by showing that some physical properties are intrinsic, though they are beyond our current conception. The apparent gap is then an illusion resulting from the fact that all known physical properties are extrinsic. RIH fails, however, to address the –tivity gap. I conclude that no version of EV can offer a full response to the Problem of Consciousness. In Chapter 5 I explore an entirely different kind of response to the Problem of Consciousness. Representationalism claims that consciousness is explicable in terms of intentional properties, and that intentional properties are explicable in terms of physical properties. I argue that standard Representationalist proposals are unable to account for the qualitative character of conscious states, and diagnose this failure in terms of the –trinsicality gap. However, the prospects for a Representationalist account of subjective character are more promising. Specifically, Kriegel's Self-Representationalism holds that a mental state is a phenomenal state in virtue of suitably representing itself. I argue that this proposal plausibly addresses the –tivity gap. RIH and Self-Representationalism each deal with one of the two apparent conceptual gaps between the physical and the phenomenal, but not the other. In Chapter 6 I develop a hybrid proposal that combines the best of both positions. The ‘Neo-Russellian Ignorance Hypothesis' (NRIH) claims that a mental state is a phenomenal state at all in virtue of suitably representing itself, and has its qualitative character in virtue of the intrinsic physical properties involved in its implementation. I expand this claim and defend it against a number of potential criticisms. I also explore the relationship between its two components, suggesting that they are each founded on a common epistemic insight. I argue that NRIH successfully addresses the –tivity and –trinsicality gaps and, moreover, that it provides a compelling account of why consciousness appears to be inexplicable in physical terms. I conclude that NRIH offers a powerful response to the Problem of Consciousness that successfully undermines the case for Primitivism. Furthermore, I conclude that NRIH has substantial advantages over competing attempted responses, and offers the best possible way of capitalising on the insights of EV and Representationalism.
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De, Obeso Orendain Alberto. "Cognitive modelling of complex problem solving behaviour." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2014. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/48917/.
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In the universe of problems humans face every day there is subset characterized by a salient dynamic component. The FireChief task (Omodei & Wearing 1995) is a fire-fighting computer simulation that can be characterized as the acquisition of interactive skills involving fast-paced actions cued by external information. This research describes the process followed to create a cognitive model of this complex dynamic task where full experimental control is not available. The cognitive model provides a detailed description of how cognition and perception interplay to produce the interactive skill of fighting the fire. Several artefacts were produced by this effort including a dynamic task fully compatible with ACT-R, a tool for analysing the data, and a cognitive model whose features enable the replication of several aspects of the empirical data. A key finding is that good performance is linked to an effective combination of strategic control with attention to changing task demands, reflecting time and care taken in informing and effecting action. The contributions of this work towards our understanding of complex problem solving are the methodological approach to the creation of the model, the design patterns embedded in the model (which are a reflection of the cognitive demands imposed by the nature of the task) and mainly an explanation of how skill, described in terms of strategy use, is acquired in complex scenarios. This study also provides a deeper understanding of the interactions observed in the Cañas et al. (2005) dataset, including a computational realisation of how cognitive inflexibility occurs.
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Downey, Adrian. "Radical sensorimotor enactivism." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2017. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/67116/.
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In this thesis I develop a novel approach to conscious perception, which I label “radical sensorimotor enactivism” (RSE). In chapter one, I explain how the development of RSE is guided by the tenets of activity and knowledge-how. In chapter two, I outline and explain RSE. Throughout the thesis, I will pit RSE against cognitivist accounts of conscious perception and argue that RSE is to be preferred. In chapters three and four, I highlight two problems facing cognitivist accounts of conscious perception which RSE avoids. I argue that cognitivist accounts of conscious perception face the ‘hard problem of perceptual consciousness', whilst RSE can provide a phenomenologically plausible deflation of this problem. I next explain why cognitivist accounts are incapable of providing a satisfactory explanation of split-brain syndrome. Then, I argue that RSE can provide a parsimonious explanation of this syndrome. Theories predicated on activity and knowledge-how are often rejected for being incapable of accounting for the brain's role in conscious perception. In chapter five, I argue that RSE can account for the brain's role by adopting a non-representational version of predictive processing (PP). Moreover, I argue that the resultant account improves upon cognitivist alternatives. Then, in chapter six, I argue that even representational explanations of PP can be subsumed within RSE by accepting fictionalism about their representational posits. Consequently, I conclude that RSE cannot be objected to for failing to account for the brain's role in conscious perception. Finally, in chapter seven, I discuss ‘non-veridical' experiences. Accounts like RSE are often rejected because it is thought they are incapable of explaining the existence of these phenomena. I explain how the existence of such phenomena is wholly compatible with the truth of RSE. Thus, I conclude that RSE should not be rejected solely on the basis that non-veridical experiences exist.
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Maxwell, Tricia Lesley. "Factors affecting the representation of objects in distributed attention." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2011. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/7478/.
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Our phenomenological experience of what we see around us is of an accurate representation. However, such information is widely distributed in the brain so necessitates that some form of co-ordination of this information takes place to enable a coherent view of the world. The most prominently researched theory is Feature Integration Theory (Treisman, 1993). This proposes that accurate binding is dependent on the current spatial distribution of attention. Individual objects compete for attention via activity in a master map of locations with competition being modulated by grouping processes. When attention is distributed, features are randomly selected and a bound object can be perceived to be located at any position within the attentional window. However, there is evidence to suggest that in distributed attention, coarse location information is available and two alternative proposals have been put forward. The first suggests that it is the information from a unitary feature that can determine the perceived location of a bound object (Tsal & Lavie, 1988) and the second proposes that the information from all contributing features is averaged to provide the location information (Ashby et al, 1996). One way to determine which model best represents feature integration is to investigate the contribution each feature makes to the perceived location of a bound object by using the illusory conjunction paradigm in which an object is formed when the visual system binds together individual features from items located in different parts of the display. Results indicated that in briefly presented displays, perception can be subject to tritan-like shifts in colour space. No support for spatial averaging or for the random rule was found. Rather, there was a strong indication that the perceived location of illusory objects was sourced from a single feature supporting the unitary rule.
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Finnegan, Eimear. "Strategies for overcoming gender stereotypes in cognitive representations." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2014. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/48914/.
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Gender stereotypes are activated spontaneously and unintentionally when certain role nouns are read. For example, people expect a builder to be male and a beautician to be female. Such gender inferences lead to processing difficulties when violations of stereotypical gender occur. The aim of this thesis was to devise strategies aimed at overcoming the activation of gender stereotype biases in English. Across nine studies, a variety of stereotype reduction strategies were investigated in conjunction with a judgement task, devised by Oakhill, Garnham and Reynolds (2005). This judgement task asked participants to decide, without deliberation, whether two terms presented onscreen could refer to one person. In the absence of a stereotype-reduction training, participants consistently showed evidence of succumbing to stereotype biases on stereotype incongruent pairings (e.g. Builder/ Mother) compared to stereotype congruent pairings (e.g. Builder/ Father). However, accuracy and response time performance to these incongruent pairings were found to significantly improve from pre-training levels to post-training levels through the use of stereotype reduction strategies such as providing participants with performance-related feedback (Experiment 1, Experiment 3), social consensus feedback (Experiment 4), combined social and accuracy feedback (Experiment 6) and counter-stereotype pictures (Experiment 8). A number of individual difference measures were also administered with the behavioural tasks. These explored whether individual differences in levels of ambivalent sexism, attitudes towards sexist language, sex role perception, and, among others, sexist pronoun use could moderate performance on the judgement task. The results from these additional tasks are described in Chapter 5. This thesis provides further evidence for the malleability of stereotype biases and delineates specific strategies through which stereotype biases can be overcome, to ultimately result in lower levels of stereotype endorsement.
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Levy, Patrick Simon Moffett. "Phenomenology and sleep." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2016. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/65659/.
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This thesis identifies, in Nancy's The Fall of Sleep, a crucial critique of phenomenology. A criticism that demarcates, or limits, phenomenology in declaring: “There is no phenomenology of sleep”. Taking-up this challenge, we consider a number of ways that phenomenologists have, and could, approach sleep. Our thesis, however, does not simply offer possible responses to the problem but also finds, in these answers, important insights into the essence of the charge itself. Sleep and phenomenology are found to be mutually de-limiting – each binds the other, whilst offering foundational insights into its counterpart. Fundamentally, we bring phenomenologies of sleep, as opposed to simply phenomenology, into dialogue with this, Nancean, critique of phenomenology and with Nancy's account of sleep itself. We describe the distinctly different slumbering interpretations of sleep present, and conspicuously absent, in the work of: Husserl, Heidegger, and Levinas. Part I, after initially elaborating the challenge, presents a direct Husserlian counter, via a recent reconstituting of Husserl's late notes on sleep. The strengths and weaknesses of this phenomenological investigation sharpens the problem of sleep and leads us to pull back from consciousness-centred accounts. Part II, in contrast, develops our own hypothetical Heideggerian answer. This Part, the longest, uses Heidegger's existential and comparative analytics to ask ‘Does Dasein sleep?' This question reveals internal ambiguities of sleep – positioned between existence, life, and death. Part III withdraws from Heideggerian thinking through Levinas's incisive, and early, interpretation of sleep. This Levinasian retracting opens the possibility of returning to Nancy's challenge and corresponding description of sleep. Now this radical account is located in relation to, and in communication with, the somnological-phenomenological findings we have awakened in our thesis. The thesis ends by indicating a possible, future, return back from sleep to phenomenology – a dream, still hazy from sleep, of a somnolent phenomenology.
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Nilsson, Simon. "The neuropsychopharmacology of reversal learning." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2013. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/45215/.
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Reversal learning deficits are a feature of many neuropsychiatric disorders, most notably schizophrenia. These deficits could be due, in part, to altered ability to dissipate either or both associations of previous positive (perseverance) and negative (learned non-reward) valence. Studies reported in this thesis developed an egocentric maze task and a visuospatial operant task for separate assessments of spatial reversal learning, perseverance and learned non-reward in mice. These tasks were subsequently used to assess the cognitive causes for altered performance after manipulations to brain systems recognised to be involved in reversal learning and relevant for human psychopathology, with a specific focus on schizophrenia. NMDA receptor (NMDAr) antagonism through acute phencyclidine did not affect reversal learning in the operant task, but caused general impairments in the maze task. Orbitofrontal (OFC) lesioned mice showed perseverative impairments in the operant task. Mice treated with the 5-HT2C receptor (5-HT2CR) antagonist SB242084 and 5-HT2CR KO mice showed facilitated reversal learning and decreased learned nonreward in the operant task. In the maze task, SB242084 decreased perseverance but increased learned non-reward, while 5-HT2CR KO mice showed perseverance and discrimination learning deficits. The final experimental chapter investigated the effect of SB242084 on touch-screen visual reversal learning in the rat. SB242084 retarded learning in this task. These studies demonstrate that previously non-reinforced associations can be of considerable importance in tasks of cognitive flexibility. The studies also show that the NMDAr, the 5-HT2CR, and the OFC, are involved in reversal learning and can modulate mechanisms related to both perseverance and learned non-reward. Moreover, in reversal learning, few effects of manipulations affecting PFC-functioning, or activity at the NMDAr and 5-HT2CR, generalise across the procedures in the visuospatial, egocentric spatial, and visual domains.
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Berens, Samuel Charles. "The roles of hippocampal and neocortical learning mechanisms in the human brain." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2016. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/64771/.
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Contemporary models of declarative memory state that when initially learned, all novel information is encoded by the hippocampal system before being consolidated or transformed to depend on neocortical structures subserving semantic memory. Based on observations with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), this thesis presents evidence that novel associations may be directly encoded by the semantic system in humans. While the hippocampus is often involved in information processing at the early stages of learning, the semantic system is seen to encode associative memory traces in the first instance (chapter 2). Furthermore, it is proposed that the hippocampus is not involved in learning when associative information is gradually accumulated across a series of ambiguous events. This is characteristic of cross-situational learning (xSL) which allows for the acquisition of word-object associations (i.e. nouns) during infancy. It is shown that xSL is not well accounted for by a prominent model of contextual learning - the temporal context model (chapter 3). Additionally, fMRI data suggest that neocortical structures rather than components of the hippocampal system are preferentially involved in xSL compared to traditional methods of training (chapter 4). Finally, it is suggested that rapid hippocampal learning mechanisms rely on specialised neuronal-microglial interactions. The administration of a microglial inhibitor (minocycline) was found to modulate hippocampal function and bias its use when other learning systems would have been more advantageous (chapter 5). Collectively, these findings suggest that the hippocampal system is specialised for rapidly encoding information that is explicitly provided, yet may not be recruited when associative information is collated across ambiguous events. At the same time, the neocortical semantic system may be able to learn new information at faster rates than previously thought. As such, it is hypothesised that amnestic patients may be able to acquire some forms of declarative material if presented in an appropriate manner.
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Young, Jeremy Chi-Ying. "Cognitive and brain structural effects of long-term high-effort endurance exercise in older adults : are there measurable benefits?" Thesis, University of Sussex, 2014. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/51605/.
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Age-related decline in cognitive performance and brain structure can be offset by increased exercise. Little is known, however, about the cognitive and brain structural consequences of long-term high-effort endurance exercise. In a cross-sectional design, we recruited older adults who had been engaging in high-effort endurance exercise over at least twenty years, and compared their cognitive performance and brain structure with a non-sedentary control group similar in age, sex, education, IQ, depression levels, and other lifestyle factors. We hypothesized that long-term high-effort endurance exercise would protect against the age-related decline in memory, attention, and brain structure. Our findings, in contrast to previous studies, indicated that those participating in long-term high-effort endurance exercise, when compared without confounds to non-sedentary control volunteers, showed no differences on measures of speed of processing, executive function, incidental memory, episodic memory, working memory, or visual search. On measures of prospective memory, long-term exercisers performance suggested a self-imposed increase in effort, which did not impact on ability to complete the PM task. In complex attention tasks, they displayed a differential strategy to controls. Structurally, long-term exercisers only displayed higher diffuse axial diffusivity, an index of axonal integrity, than controls, but this did not correlate with any cognitive differences.
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Abdul, Rahman Siti Soraya. "Learning programming via worked-examples : the effects of cognitive load and learning styles." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2012. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/38517/.
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This research explored strategies for learning programming via worked-examples that promote schema acquisition and transfer. However, learning style is a factor in how much learners are willing to expend serious effort on understanding worked-examples, with active learners tending to be more impatient of them than reflective learners. It was hypothesised that these two learning styles might also interact with learners' cognitive load. The research proposed a worked-example format, called a Paired-method strategy that combines a Structure-emphasising strategy with a Completion strategy. An experiment was conducted to compare the effects of the three worked-examples strategies on cognitive load measures and on learning performance. The experiment also examined the degree to which individual learning style influenced the learning process and performance. Overall, the results of the experiment were inconsistent. In comparing the effects of the three strategies, there were significant differences in reported difficulty and effort during the learning phase, with difficulty but not effort in favour of the Completion strategy. However no significant differences were detected in reported mental effort during the post-tests in the transfer phase. This was also the case for the performance on the post-tests. Concerning efficiency measures, the results revealed significant differences between the three strategy groups in terms of the learning process and task involvement, with the learning process in favour of the Completion strategy. Unexpectedly, no significant differences were observed in learning outcome efficiencies. Despite this, there was a trend in the data that suggested a partial reversal effect for the Completion strategy. Moreover, the results partially replicated earlier findings on the explanation effect. In comparing the effects of the two learning styles, there were no significant differences between active and reflective learners in the three strategy groups on cognitive load measures and on learning performance (nor between reflective learners in the Paired-method strategy and the other strategies). Finally, concerning efficiency measures, there was a significant difference between active learners in the three strategy groups on task involvement. Despite all these, effect sizes ranging from a medium to large suggested that learning styles might have interacted with learners' cognitive load.
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Jungmann, Manuela. "Embodied creativity : a process continuum from artistic creation to creative participation." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2011. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/7374/.
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This thesis breaks new ground by attending to two contemporary developments in art and science. In art, computer-mediated interactive artworks comprise creative engagement between collaborating practitioners and a creatively participating audience, erasing all notions of a dividing line between them. The procedural character of this type of communicative real-time interaction replaces the concept of a finished artwork with a ‘field of artistic communication'. In science, the field of creativity research investigates creative thought as mental operations that combine and reorganise extant knowledge structures. A recent paradigm shift in cognition research acknowledges that cognition is embodied. Neither embodiment in cognition nor the ‘field of artistic communication' in interactive art have been assimilated by creativity research. This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine the embodied cognitive processes in a ‘field of artistic communication' using a media artwork called Sim-Suite as a case study research strategy. This interactive installation, created and exhibited in an authentic real-world context, engages three people to play on wobble-boards. The thesis argues that creative processes related to Sim-Suite operate within a continuum, encompassing collaborative artistic creation and cooperative creative participation. This continuum is investigated via mixed methods, conducting studies with qualitative and quantitative analysis. These are interpreted through a theoretical lens of embodied cognition principles, the 4E approaches. The results obtained demonstrate that embodied cognitive processes in Sim-Suite's ‘field of artistic communication' function on a continuum. We give an account of the creative process continuum relating our findings to the ‘embedded-extended-enactive lens', empirical studies in embodied cognition and creativity research. Within this context a number of topics and sub-themes are identified. We discuss embodied communication, aspects of agency, forms of coordination, levels of evaluative processes and empathetic foundation. The thesis makes conceptual, empirical and methodological contributions to creativity research.
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Anderson, Hazel Patricia. "Synaesthesia, hypnosis and consciousness." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2015. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/54236/.
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For people with synaesthesia, a percept or concept (inducer) triggers another experience (concurrent) which is usually in a different modality. The concurrent is automatic, and in the case of certain types of synaesthesia also consistent, however the relationship between the inducer and concurrent is not fully understood and shall be investigated in this thesis from different perspectives. The first is using hypnosis to suggest synaesthesia-like phenomenological experiences to participants, and measuring behavioural responses to see whether they behave in a similar manner to developmental synaesthetes. Results from hypnotic; 1) grapheme-colour (GC) synaesthesia; 2) motion-sound synaesthesia; suggest that phenomenological experiences similar to developmental synaesthesia can be experienced by highly susceptible participants, but is not associated with the same behaviour as developmental synaesthetes. Developmental GC synaesthetes were tested to determine whether a grapheme presented preconsciously binds with the concurrent colour to the extent that it influences behaviour or evokes the phenomenology of colour. Two techniques were used, gaze-contingent substitution (GCS) and continuous flash suppression (CFS). Using GCS, it was shown that although digits can be primed preconsciously, they don't bind with their concurrent colour to influence behaviour. Nevertheless, many synaesthetes still experienced colours though they didn't necessarily match the primed digit. CFS experiments showed that the colour of a grapheme's concurrent, or whether the grapheme is presented in the correct or incorrect colour for that synaesthete, doesn't influence the time for conscious perception of a grapheme, even though colour words presented in the correct colour are perceived faster than those in the wrong colour. Phenomenological differences were compared to the behavioural measures using questionnaires modified using factor analysis (the R-RSPA and R-ISEQ). Overall, inducers must be seen consciously for them to bind with the concurrent, and experiencing the phenomenology of synaesthesia is not sufficient to behave like a synaesthete.
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Lancaster, Claire. "Apolipoprotein ε4 and attentional control : understanding the trajectory of cognitive ageing from mid-life". Thesis, University of Sussex, 2018. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/73536/.
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The greatest genetic factor in how well we age cognitively is Apolipoprotein E (APOE), a single nucleotide polymorphism with three allelic variants: epsilon-2, epsilon-3 and epsilon-4 (hereafter ε2, ε3, ε4). The ε4 allele is associated with an increased risk of cognitive disadvantage in later life, however, the effects of this variant are not isolated to old-age, with some studies reporting cognitive advantages in youth. This thesis investigates the influence of APOE ε4 on cognition from mid-adulthood, a point in the lifespan when the detrimental effects of this allele may be emerging. This thesis begins with a systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature to-date, and suggests attention may be sensitive to ε4 differences in mid-adulthood, however, effects of the allele are not consistently shown, perhaps due to methodological limitations including the use of insensitive neuropsychological batteries (Chapter 1). Next, behavioural paradigms providing a sensitive index of both selective (Chapter 2) and executive attention (Chapter 3), suggest many attentional processes are intact in mid-age (45-55 years) ε4 carriers. Subtle deficits, however, are apparent on prospective memory (PM) and Stroop-switch paradigms, indicating a goal maintenance disadvantage. In addition, a proxy of cognitive reserve was found to moderate the effects of ε4 on executive attention in mid-adulthood (Chapter 4). Follow-up research used paradigms that target the distinct processes supporting focal and non-focal PM to interrogate the profile of change observed in mid-age ε4 carriers, identifying a profile of disadvantage consistent with that observed in pathological ageing (Chapter 5). PM, however, was not found to differentiate ε4 carriers in older individuals at heightened risk of converting to dementia (Chapter 6). Collectively, this research provides evidence for a profile of accelerated ageing in ε4 carriers, with subtle disadvantages apparent in executive attention by the end of the 5th decade.
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Borsari, Alexandra. "L'impossible retour à la Nature : analyse du fantasme de retour à la nature et mise en lumière des structures archaïques de l'imaginaire contemporain (Europe occidentale)." Thesis, Paris Est, 2010. http://www.theses.fr/2010PEST0070.
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Le fantasme de retour à la nature, entendu comme un retour à une matrice originelle a surtout pris la forme, en Occident, d'une recherche d'un paradis perdu ou d'un retour à un âge d'or.La première partie vise à illustrer la permanence de ce fantasme avec l'approche de quelques manifestations ayant traversé les âges. Ces expressions du fantasme de retour à la nature sont présentées en deux grandes thématiques : le rapport à l'altérité radicale avec les figures du barbare et du sauvage depuis la haute Antiquité jusqu'au premier voyage de Christophe Colomb dans le chapitre 1, puis la quête d'un monde meilleur avec les millénarismes chrétiens dans le chapitre 2. Le chapitre 3 est, quant à lui, consacré à l'évocation des traces préhistoriques de ce fantasme et, en particulier, aux conséquences de la fracture néolithique.La deuxième partie s'intéresse à l'identité du fantasme de retour à la nature et à sa fonction dans les imaginaires. En Occident, ce fantasme a donné naissance à un paradis terrestre permettant la synthèse de trois fantasmes fondamentaux : jeunesse éternelle, facilité et perfection. Cet aspect du fantasme est abordé dans le chapitre 5. La question de l'existence d'un imaginaire primordial est également approchée de même que les problèmes soulevés par l'élaboration d'une théorie générale de l'imaginaire, cette fois dans les chapitres 4 et 6.La troisième partie cherche à mettre au jour l'origine de ce fantasme : à savoir, sa généalogie évolutive. L'homme bénéficie d'un niveau de sécurité dont nul autre animal ne semble profiter. Homo sapiens doit ainsi son apparition et son essor à sa capacité à se soustraire à l'arbitraire du monde sauvage. Gain de l'évolution, cette liberté de l'être humain signifie son expulsion irréversible de la nature et pourrait être à l'origine du fantasme fondateur de retour à la nature. Le chapitre 7 s'intéresse plus particulièrement à la recherche de l'ailleurs, tandis que le chapitre 8 est focalisé sur les notions de transformation et de maîtrise du monde et le chapitre 9 sur la question de la liberté<br>In the West, the fantasy of returning to nature, understood as a return to an original matrix, has mainly taken the form of a search for a lost paradise or a return to a golden age.The first part aims at illustrating the persistence of this fantasy with the examination of some of its expressions. These expressions are presented along two major lines: the relationship to radical otherness with the figures of the savage and the barbaric since ancient times, up to the first Christopher Columbus' journey in Chapter 1, and the quest for a better world with the Christian millenniums in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 is devoted to the evocation of this prehistoric fantasy, and in particular, the consequences of the Neolithic divide.The second part focuses on the identity of the fantasy of returning to nature and its function in collective imagination. In the West, this fantasy has given birth to the search for an earthly paradise, as the synthesis of three fundamental fantasies: eternal youth, easy life, and perfection. This aspect of the fantasy is discussed in Chapter 5. The question of the existence of a primary imagination is also discussed, as well as the issues raised by the development of a general theory of imagination, in Chapters 4 and 6.The third part seeks to uncover the origin of this fantasy: namely, its genealogy over time. Human beings have reached a level of security from which no other animal seems to benefit. Homo sapiens owe their origin and evolution to their ability to protect themselves from the arbitrariness of the wilderness. The freedom human beings have gained through evolution goes along with their irreversible expulsion from nature and could be the source of the fantasy of returning to nature. Chapter 7 deals specifically with the call for an elsewhere, Chapter 8 is focused on the notions of transformation and mastery of the world, and Chapter 9 on the question of freedom
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De, Scalzi Marika. "An embodied approach to language comprehension in probable Alzheimer's Disease : could perceptuo-motor processing be a key to better understanding?" Thesis, University of Sussex, 2013. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/47190/.
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One of the central tenets of the embodied theory of language comprehension is that the process of understanding prompts the same perceptuo-motor activity involved in actual perception and action. This activity is a component of comprehension that is not memory–dependent and is hypothesized to be intact in Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Each article in this thesis is aimed at answering the question whether individuals with probable AD, healthy older adults and younger adults show differences in their performance on tests where perceptual and motoric priming take place during language comprehension. The second question each article asks is whether language comprehension in AD can be facilitated by the specific use of this perceptual and motoric priming. Article I examines whether the way individuals with pAD represent verbs spatially matches the way healthy older and younger adults do, and how stable these representations are. It also explores in what way spatial representations may relate to verb comprehension, more specifically, whether representations matching the norms translate into a better quality of verb comprehension. Article II tests the interaction between the verbs' spatial representations taking place during comprehension and perceptual cues - compatible and incompatible to the representations - in order to investigate whether individuals with pAD show differences in susceptibility to perceptual cues, compared to healthy older and younger participants. The second aim of this article is to explore in what way performance on a word-picture verification task can be affected, with reference to the fact that in previous studies on young participants, both priming and interference have resulted from the interaction of linguistic and perceptual processing. Article III explores the Action Compatibility Effect (ACE) (Glenberg & Kaschak, 2002) with the aim of finding out whether the ACE exists for volunteers with pAD and whether it can facilitate language comprehension. The order of presentation of language and movement is manipulated to establish whether there is a reciprocal relationship between them. This information could be crucial in view of possible applications to individuals with pAD. These articles test, for the first time, the effects of the manipulation of the perceptuo-motor component during language comprehension in individuals with pAD; they are intended as a methodological exploration contributing to a better understanding of the potential of embodiment principles to support language comprehension changes associated with pAD. Embodiment effects need to be studied further with a view to putting them to use in either clinical or real-life applications.
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Chang, Acer Yu-Chan. "The role of predictive processing in conscious access and regularity learning across sensory domains." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2017. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/70234/.
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To increase fitness for survival, organisms not only passively react to environmental changes but also actively predict future events to prepare for potential hazards within their environment. Accumulating evidence indicates that the human brain is a remarkable predictive machine which constantly models causal relationships and predicts future events. This ‘predictive processing' framework, a prediction-based form of Bayesian inference, states that the brain continuously generates and updates predictions about incoming sensory signals. This framework has been showing notable explanatory power in understanding the mechanisms behind both human behaviour and neurophysiological data and elegantly specifies the underlying computational principles of the neural system. However, even though predictive processing has the potential to provide a unified theory of the brain (Karl Friston, 2010), we still have a limited understanding about fundamental aspects of this model, such as how it deals with different types of information, learns statistical regularities and perhaps most fundamentally of all what its relationship to conscious experience is. This thesis aims to investigate the major gaps in our current understanding of the predictive processing framework via a series of studies. Study 1 investigated the fundamental relationship between unconscious statistical inference reflected by predictive processing and conscious access. It demonstrated that predictions that are in line with sensory evidence accelerate conscious access. Study 2 investigated how low level information within the sensory hierarchy is dealt with by predictive processing and regularity learning mechanisms through “perceptual echo” in which the cross-correlation between a sequence of randomly fluctuating luminance values and occipital electrophysiological (EEG) signals exhibits a long-lasting periodic (~100ms cycle) reverberation of the input stimulus. This study identified a new form of regularity learning and the results demonstrate that the perceptual echo may reflect an iterative learning process, governed by predictive processing. Study 3 investigated how supra-modal predictive processing is capable of learning regularities of temporal duration and also temporal predictions about future events. This study revealed a supramodal temporal prediction mechanism which processes auditory and visual temporal information and integrates information from the duration and rhythmic structures of events. Together these studies provide a global picture of predictive processing and regularity learning across differing types of predictive information.
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Lush, Peter J. I. "The sense of agency in hypnosis and meditation." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2018. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/73686/.
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The sense of agency is the experience of being the initiator of our intentional actions and their outcomes. According to higher order thought theory, a representation becomes conscious when there is a higher order state about it. Thus conscious experience, including that of intentions, is metacognitive. The experience of involuntariness characteristic of hypnotic responding may be attributable to the formation and maintenance of inaccurate metacognitive higher order states of intending. Conversely, the practice of Buddhist mindfulness meditation may develop accurate metacognition, including higher order states of intending. Highly hypnotisable people and mindfulness meditators may therefore occupy two ends of a spectrum of metacognitive ability with regard to unconscious intentions. The presented research investigated predicted trait differences in cognitive tasks which directly or indirectly reflect metacognition of intentions: the timing of an experience of an intention to move and the compressed time interval between a voluntary action and its outcome, known as intentional binding. As an implicit measure of sense of agency, intentional binding was also employed to investigate the veridicality of reports of the experience of involuntariness in hypnotic responding. Additionally, while hypnosis presents a unique opportunity to investigate reliable changes in agentic experience, existing hypnosis screening instruments are time consuming and present a barrier to wider adoption of hypnosis as an instrument for studying consciousness. Here a revised, time-efficient hypnosis screening procedure (the SWASH) is presented. Consistent with predictions, highly hypnotisable groups reported later awareness of motor intentions than less hypnotisable groups and meditators earlier awareness than non-meditators. In an intentional binding task, high hypnotisables showed less binding of an action-outcome toward an action (outcome binding) than low hypnotisables and meditators more outcome binding than non-meditators. Outcome binding was reduced in post-hypnotic involuntary action compared to voluntary action. It is proposed that intentional binding is driven by a cue combination mechanism and that these differences reflect varying precision of motor intention related information in reported timing judgements. The SWASH was found to be a reliable hypnosis screening instrument.
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Armstrong, Anna-Marie. "Unconscious processing at the subjective threshold : semantic comprehension?" Thesis, University of Sussex, 2014. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/51557/.
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Our thoughts and behaviours can sometimes be influenced by stimuli that we are not consciously aware of having seen. For example, the presentation of a word that is blocked from entering conscious visual perception through masking can subsequently influence the cognitive processing of a further target word. However, the idea that unconscious cognition is sophisticated enough to process the semantic meaning of subliminal stimuli is controversial. This thesis attempts to explore the extent of subliminal priming. Empirical research centering on subjective methods of measuring conscious knowledge is presented in a series of three articles. The first article investigates the subliminal priming of negation. A series of experiments demonstrates that unconscious processing can accurately discriminate between two nouns beyond chance performance when subliminally instructed to either pick or not pick a given noun. This article demonstrates not only semantic processing of the instructional word, but also unconscious cognitive control by following a two-word subliminal instruction to not choose the primed noun. The second article investigates subliminal priming of active versus passive verb voice by presenting a prime sentence denoting one of two characters as either active or passive and asking which of two pictorial representations best matches the prime. The series of experiments demonstrates that overall, participants were able to identify the correct image for both active and passive conditions beyond chance expectations. This article suggests that individuals are able to process the meaning of word combinations that they are not aware of seeing. The third article attempts to determine whether subliminal processing is sophisticated enough to allow for the activation of specific anxieties relating to relationships. Whilst the findings reveal a small subliminal priming effect on generalised anxiety, the evidence regarding the subliminal priming of very specific anxieties is insensitive. The unconscious is shown in these experiments to be more powerful than previously supposed in terms of the fine grained processing of the semantics of word combinations, though not yet in terms of the fine grained resolution of emotional priming.
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Semmens-Wheeler, Rebecca. "The contrasting role of higher order awareness in hypnosis and meditation." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2013. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/45311/.
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Two key questions underpin the research presented here. Firstly, how does altered higher order awareness contribute to hypnotic experience? Secondly, how do meditation and hypnosis differ in terms of the role of higher order awareness? These questions are addressed here in the form of four papers. In the first paper I review the literatures of hypnosis and meditation in order to consider the similarities and differences between meditation and hypnosis in terms of the role of attentional skill and the neural underpinnings of each. I then draw conclusions regarding the contrasting role of higher order awareness and metacognition in meditation and hypnosis. Paper two explores higher order awareness in hypnosis by comparing the effects of alcohol, compared to placebo, on hypnotisability and associated frontal lobe executive functioning. Paper three compares meditation and hypnosis by investigating differences in higher order thoughts, mindfulness, absorption and perceptual encoding style as revealed by self-report measures. The final paper takes a broader look at higher order awareness and its relation to the experience of agency and involuntariness in hypnotic suggestion using a Libet type paradigm.
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Ugland, Carina C. O. "Resistance to extinction in human fear learning, an ERP investigation of procedural and fear relevance effects on conditioned responding." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2011. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/6960/.
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In human fear conditioning 'resistance to extinction' occurs when the removal of the aversive outcome fails to produce a reduction in conditioned responding. This phenomenon is important to understanding the persistence of anxiety disorders such as phobias. The research presented in this thesis examines factors that promote the acquisition and maintenance of learned fear response and attempts to differentiate between different explanations of the resistance to extinction phenomenon. To investigate the impact of different conditioning procedures (evaluative or classical conditioning) on the durability of the conditioned response (CR), event-related potential (ERP) methodology was employed. In addition, the role of the fear-relevance of the conditioned stimulus (CS), in supporting the acquisition and resistance to extinction of the CR, was explored. Evidence suggested that extinction effects are likely to reflect procedural differences in conditioning rather than different underlying learning processes. Extinction effects were dissociable across procedures, supporting the role of the type of unconditioned stimulus (US) in explaining past demonstrations of extinction when responses were indexed by physiological measures. Verbally transmitted, threat information heightened aversive US-expectancies and fear beliefs without the need for conditioning. Additionally, fear-beliefs were reduced without the need for extinction training when positive information was provided. Contrary to Davey's (1997) expectancy bias model, the results do not support the hypothesis that verbal information interacts with direct contingency experience to create fear responses; instead, information appears to be a direct pathway to fear. ERP measures for fear responses did not echo the effects of verbal information and contingency on fear-beliefs. However, the comparability of our ERP data, to other research using physiological measures of response, is discussed regarding the number of trials required to calculate the average ERP response. Due to averaging over a large number of trials the ERP measure may not be sensitive to fluctuations in response that may be dependent on information or contingency manipulations. In conclusion our data suggests the importance of verbal information as a pathway to fear and the role of cognitive factors in the prevention and treatment of fears.
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Loader, Paul. "The retreat from alienation in cognitive science." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2013. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/45317/.
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This thesis examines the relevance of Hegelian-Marxian theory to modern day philosophy of cognitive science. It is suggested that certain key Hegelian-Marxian ideas and themes, such as 'externalization', 'praxis' and 'dialectics', have parallels in modern day cognitive science and that, in some instances a direct connection can be traced from Marxian theory to recent cognitive science, via intermediaries such as Vygotsky, Merleau-Ponty and Levins & Lewontin. It is also suggested that the overarching trajectory of cognitive science is one that can be usefully understood in Marxian terms as a 'retreat from alienation.' Taking this as one's starting point enables one to unify otherwise disparate perspectives under a single banner. In addition it provides one with a means of evaluating individual accounts, such as Varela, Thompson and Rosch's 'Embodied Mind' and Clark and Chalmers' 'Extended Mind'. Conversely, some recent cognitive scientific accounts, such as Kirsh & Maglio's work on 'epistemic action', offer further illumination of ideas that are ambiguously expressed in Marxian theory.
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Zulkifli, Putri Afzan Maria Binti. "Applying pause analysis to explore cognitive processes in the copying of sentences by second language users." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2013. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/45933/.
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Pause analysis is a method that investigates processes of writing by measuring the amount of time between pen strokes. It provides the field of second language studies with a means to explore the cognitive processes underpinning the nature of writing. This study examined the potential of using free handwritten copying of sentences as a means of investigating components of the cognitive processes of adults who have English as their Second Language (ESL). A series of one pilot and three experiments investigated possible measures of language skill and the factors that influence the quality of the measures. The pilot study, with five participants of varying English competence, identified copying without pre-reading to be an effective task and ‘median' at the beginning of words to be an effective measure. Experiment 1 (n=20 Malaysian speakers) found jumbled sentences at the letter and word levels to effectively differentiate test-taker competence in relation to grammatical knowledge. Experiment 2 (n=20 Spanish speakers) investigated the jumbling effects further, but found that participants varied their strategy depending on the order of the sentence types. As a result, Experiment 3 (n= 24 Malaysian speakers) used specific task instructions to control participant strategy use, so that they either attended to the meaning of the sentences, or merely copied as quickly as possible. Overall, these experiments show that it is feasible to apply pause analysis to cognitively investigate both grammar and vocabulary components of language processing. Further, a theoretical information processing model of copying (MoC) was developed. The model assists in the analysis and description of (1) the flow of copying processes; (2) the factors that might affect longer or shorter pauses amongst participants of varying competence level; and (3) sentence stimuli design.
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Rosetti, Sciutto Marcos Francisco. "Exploration of human search behaviour : a multidisciplinary perspective." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2011. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/7425/.
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The following work presents an exploration of human search behaviour both from biological and computational perspectives. Search behaviour is defined as the movements made by an organism while attempting to find a resource. This work describes some of the principal procedures used to record movement, methods for analysing the data and possible ways of interpreting the data. In order to obtain a database of searching behaviour, an experimental setup was built and tested to generate the search paths of human participants. The test arena occupied part of a football field and the targets consisted of an array of 20 golf balls. In the first set of experiments, a random and regular distribution of targets were tested. For each distribution, three distinct conspicuity levels were constructed: a cryptic level, in which targets were painted the same colour as the grass, a semi-conspicuous level in which targets were left white and a conspicuous condition in which the position of each target was marked by a red flag, protruding one metre from the ground. The subjects tested were 9-11 year old children and their search paths were collected using a GPS device. Subjects did not recognise the spatial cues regarding the way targets were spatially distributed. A minimal decision model, the bouncing search model, was built based on the characteristics of the childrens search paths. The model produced an outstanding fit of the children's behavioural data. In the second set of experiments, a new group of children were tested for two new distributions obtained by arranging the targets in patches. Again, children appeared unable to recognise spatial information during the collection processes. The children's behaviour once again produced a good match with that of the bouncing search model. This work introduces several new methodological aspects to be explored to further understand the decision processes involved when humans search. Also, it illustrates that integrating biology and computational science can result in innovative research.
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Goller, Aviva Idit. "Perceptual abnormalities in amputees : phantom pain, mirror-touch synaesthesia and referred tactile sensations." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2012. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/39679/.
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It is often reported that after amputation people experience "a constant or inconstant ... sensory ghost ... faintly felt at time, but ready to be called up to [their] perception" (Mitchell, 1866). Perceptual abnormalities have been highlighted in amputees, such as sensations in the phantom when being stroked elsewhere (Ramachandran et al., 1992) or when observing someone in pain (Giummarra and Bradshaw, 2008). This thesis explored the perceptual changes that occur following amputation whist focusing on pain, vision and touch. A sample of over 100 amputees were recruited through the National Health Service. Despite finding no difference in phantom pain based on physical amputation details or nonpainful perceptual phenomena, results from Paper 1 indicated that phantom pain may be more intense, with sensations occurring more frequently, in amputees whose pain was triggerinduced. The survey in Paper 2 identified a group of amputees who in losing a limb acquired mirror-touch synaesthesia. Higher levels of empathy found in mirror-touch amputees might mean that some people are predisposed to develop synaesthesia, but that it takes sensory loss to bring dormant cross-sensory interactions into consciousness. Although the mirror-system may reach supra-threshold levels in some amputees, the experiments in Paper 3 suggested a relatively intact mirror-system in amputees overall. Specifically, in a task of apparent biological motion, amputees showed a similar, although weaker, pattern of results to normalbodied participants. The results of Paper 4 showed that tactile spatial acuity on the face was also largely not affected by amputation, as no difference was found between the sides ipsilateral and contralateral to the stump. In Paper 5 cross-modal cuing was used to investigate whether referred tactile sensations could prime a visually presented target in space occupied by the phantom limb. We conclude that perception is only moderately affected in most amputees, but that in some the sensory loss causes normally sub-threshold processing to enhance into conscious awareness.
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Guida, Michael. "Birds, bombs, silence : listening to nature during wartime and its aftermath in Britain, 1914-1945." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2018. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/75136/.
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Leganes, Fonteneau Mateo. "Attentional, hedonic and interoceptive correlates of implicit processes in addiction : a learning perspective." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2019. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/81901/.
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Chorley, Paul. "The influence of dopamine on prediction, action and learning." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2012. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/39650/.
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In this thesis I explore functions of the neuromodulator dopamine in the context of autonomous learning and behaviour. I first investigate dopaminergic influence within a simulated agent-based model, demonstrating how modulation of synaptic plasticity can enable reward-mediated learning that is both adaptive and self-limiting. I describe how this mechanism is driven by the dynamics of agentenvironment interaction and consequently suggest roles for both complex spontaneous neuronal activity and specific neuroanatomy in the expression of early, exploratory behaviour. I then show how the observed response of dopamine neurons in the mammalian basal ganglia may also be modelled by similar processes involving dopaminergic neuromodulation and cortical spike-pattern representation within an architecture of counteracting excitatory and inhibitory neural pathways, reflecting gross mammalian neuroanatomy. Significantly, I demonstrate how combined modulation of synaptic plasticity and neuronal excitability enables specific (timely) spike-patterns to be recognised and selectively responded to by efferent neural populations, therefore providing a novel spike-timing based implementation of the hypothetical ‘serial-compound' representation suggested by temporal difference learning. I subsequently discuss more recent work, focused upon modelling those complex spike-patterns observed in cortex. Here, I describe neural features likely to contribute to the expression of such activity and subsequently present novel simulation software allowing for interactive exploration of these factors, in a more comprehensive neural model that implements both dynamical synapses and dopaminergic neuromodulation. I conclude by describing how the work presented ultimately suggests an integrated theory of autonomous learning, in which direct coupling of agent and environment supports a predictive coding mechanism, bootstrapped in early development by a more fundamental process of trial-and-error learning.
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Laurence, Sarah. "The effect of familiarity on face adaptation." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2013. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/47140/.
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Face adaptation techniques have been used extensively to investigate how faces are processed. It has even been suggested that face adaptation is functional in calibrating the visual system to the diet of faces to which an observer is exposed. Yet most adaptation studies to date have used unfamiliar faces: few have used faces with real world familiarity. Familiar faces have more abstractive representations than unfamiliar faces. The experiments in this thesis therefore examined face adaptation for familiar faces. Chapters 2 and 3 explored the role of explicit recognition of familiar faces in producing face identity after-effects (FIAEs). Chapter 2 used composite faces (the top half of a celebrity's face paired with the bottom half of an unfamiliar face) as adaptors and showed that only recognised composites produced significant adaptation. In Chapter 3 the adaptors were cryptic faces (unfamiliar faces subtly transformed towards a celebrity's face) and faces of celebrity's siblings. Unrecognised cryptic and sibling faces produced FIAEs for their related celebrity, but only when adapting and testing on the same viewpoint. Adaptation only transferred across viewpoint when a face was explicitly recognised. Chapter 4 demonstrated that face adaptation could occur for ecologically valid, personally familiar stimuli, a necessary pre-requisite if adaptation is functional in calibrating face processing mechanisms. A video of a lecturer's face produced FIAEs equivalent to that produced by static images. Chapters 5 and 6 used a different type of after-effect, the face distortion after-effect (FDAE), to explore the stability of our representations for personally familiar faces, and showed that even representations of highly familiar faces can be affected by exposure to distorted faces. The work presented here shows that it is important to take facial familiarity into account when investigating face adaptation effects, as well as increasing our understanding of how familiarity affects the representations of faces.
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Mealor, Andrew D. "Conscious and unconscious : passing judgment." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2013. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/45262/.
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The extent to which conscious and unconscious mental processes contribute to our experiences of learning and the subsequent knowledge has been subject to great debate. Dual process theories of implicit learning and recognition memory bear many resemblances, but there are also important differences. This thesis uses subjective measures of awareness to explore these themes using the artificial grammar learning (AGL) and remember/know (R/K) procedures. Firstly, the relationship between response times associated with intuition and familiarity based responding (conscious judgment of unconscious structural knowledge) compared to rule and recollection based responding (conscious structural knowledge) in AGL were found to be strikingly similar to remembering and knowing; their R/K analogues. However, guessing (unconscious judgment knowledge) was also distinct from intuition and familiarity based responding. Secondly, implicit learning in AGL was shown to occur at test, which would not be expected in R/K. Finally, wider theories of cognition, unconscious thought and verbal overshadowing, were shown to have measurable effects on AGL and R/K respectively. The approach used in this thesis shows the merits of both in-depth analysis within a given method combined with the synthesis of seemingly disparate theories. This thesis has built upon the important distinction between conscious and unconscious structural knowledge but also suggests the conscious-unconscious division for judgment knowledge may be as important. Implicit learning and recognition memory tasks differ in the kinds of mental processes that subjective measures are sensitive toward; particularly so in situations where judgment knowledge is unconscious. Different theories and methods divide nature in different ways; the conscious-unconscious judgment distinction may prove an important one.
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Lopes, Antonio de Liboa Lustosa. "ENTRE A COLONIALIDADE E A LIBERTAÇÃO: UMA ANÁLISE DESCOLONIAL DOS DISCURSOS DAS E SOBRE AS CEB S." Universidade Metodista de São Paulo, 2010. http://tede.metodista.br/jspui/handle/tede/568.
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Previous issue date: 2010-09-17<br>Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior<br>Esta tese é uma abordagem dos discursos das e sobre as Comunidades Eclesiais de Base com uma análise de recorte descolonial. O objetivo principal é identificar e mostrar a existência de dois tipos de discursos no interior das Ceb s, sendo um dito e outro não-dito, demonstrando a relevância da experiência concreta para a construção de um discurso mais realista e coerente ao modelo de práxis que as Ceb s propõem. Assim, o problema que a tese tem como objeto é que o discurso supostamente único é na verdade um discurso enunciado enquanto outro discurso foi silenciado. Daí que a não percepção dos dois discursos é indício de que um tipo de discurso é apresentado como o enunciado verdadeiro referente às Ceb s. A partir disto, foram propostos como objetivos específicos identificar os temas fundamentais que aparecem nos discursos da base e dos discursos dos assessores, problematizar estes discursos no cotejamento entre si e demonstrar a relevância da diferença de lugares na tipificação do discurso. A tese segue a formulação de três hipóteses. A hipótese principal é que é possível que o discurso enunciado pelos assessores como referente às Ceb s tenha silenciado o outro discurso não-dito, mas vivido pelo povo da base. Em nível secundário, uma hipótese é de que é possível que subjacente ao discurso apresentado como se fosse único, existam diferenças ligadas ao lugar donde falam os atores e que, por sua vez, influenciam o modo como compreendem a história. Outra hipótese secundária é de que é possível que a colonialidade do poder e do saber esteja presente nos discursos sobre as Ceb s, pois a percepção de discursos distintos é já um indício de crítica que não acede ao apresentado de forma hegemônica como sendo único existente. Para isto, a tese está organizada em quatro capítulos: no primeiro é apresentado o discurso dos assessores, com a identificação e problematização dos temas fundamentais emergentes, no segundo é feito o mesmo com o discurso da base; já no terceiro capítulo são apresentados os conceitos que formam o referencial teórico para a análise e no quarto é feita propriamente a análise descolonial dos discursos.
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Helfenstein, Mara Juliane Woiciechoski. "Juízo político em Hannah Arendt." reponame:Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFRGS, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10183/13822.
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Esta dissertação apresenta a concepção de juízo político de Hannah Arendt. Afastando-se de uma leitura ortodoxa dos textos kantianos, Arendt vislumbra no juízo reflexionante estético de Kant a estrutura do juízo político. Em um constante diálogo com a obra kantiana a autora se apropria de vários conceitos, tanto conceitos constantes na Crítica da faculdade do juízo, que é a obra que ela afirma conter a verdadeira filosofia política de Kant, como conceitos de outras importantes obras kantianas. No decorrer deste texto, quando entendemos que ocorre uma apropriação conceitual buscamos situar minimamente o conceito no contexto da obra kantiana para compreendermos a concepção e o gesto interpretativo de Arendt. Através da análise de seus escritos mostramos como ela compreende o modo de funcionamento da faculdade humana de julgar os eventos políticos, por meio da exposição e discussão dos principais conceitos envolvidos em sua teoria. Assim, apresentamos as condições de possibilidade do juízo representadas pelas faculdades da imaginação e do senso comum, bem como as duas perspectivas pelas quais essa faculdade se manifesta no mundo público, o juízo do ator e o juízo do espectador. Depois, analisamos a conexão entre as faculdades de pensamento e juízo para extrair as implicações éticas da faculdade humana de julgar. Estas reflexões são uma tentativa de compreender como, para Arendt, opera a faculdade de julgar; por que ela considera esta faculdade a mais política das habilidades espirituais do homem, e qual é a relevância política desta atividade do espírito.<br>This dissertation presents the conception of Hannah Arendt’s political judgment. Moving away from an orthodox reading of Kantian texts, Arendt glimpses in the aesthetic reflective judgment of Kant, the structure of the political judgment. In one constant dialogue with Kantian Work the author appropriates several concepts, as concepts constant in the Critique of judgment, which is the Work that she affirms that contains the true Kant’s political philosophy, as concepts of other important Kantian Works. In elapsing of this text, when we understand that a conceptual appropriation occurs, we try to situate the concept in the context of the Kantian Work to understand Arendt’s conception and the interpretation gesture. Through the analysis of her writings we show as she understands the way of functioning of the human faculty to judge the political events, by the exposition and debate of the main involved concepts in her theory. So, we present the conditions of judgment possibility represented by the faculties of the imagination and the common sense, as well as the two perspectives for which manifests this faculty in the public world, the judgment of the actor and the judgment of the spectator. After that, we analyze the connection between the faculties of thought and judgment to extract the ethical implications of the human faculty to judge. These reflections are an attempt to understand how does the faculty of judge operate for Arendt; why does she consider this faculty the most political of men’s mental abilities, and what is the politic relevance of this spirit’s activity.