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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Aug 2018Grounded theories of cognition claim that concept representation relies on the systems for perception and action. The sensory-motor grounding of abstract concepts... (Review)
Review
Grounded theories of cognition claim that concept representation relies on the systems for perception and action. The sensory-motor grounding of abstract concepts presents a challenge for these theories. Some accounts propose that abstract concepts are indirectly grounded via image schemas or situations. Recent research, however, indicates that the role of sensory-motor processing for concrete concepts may be limited, providing evidence against the idea that abstract concepts are grounded via concrete concepts. Hybrid models that combine language and sensory-motor experience may provide a more viable account of abstract and concrete representations. We propose that sensory-motor grounding is important during acquisition and provides structure to concepts. Later activation of concepts relies on this structure but does not necessarily involve sensory-motor processing. Language is needed to create coherent concepts from diverse sensory-motor experiences.This article is part of the theme issue 'Varieties of abstract concepts: development, use and representation in the brain'.
Topics: Cognition; Concept Formation; Feedback, Sensory; Humans; Language; Learning; Models, Psychological
PubMed: 29915000
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0132 -
Topics in Cognitive Science Jul 2018To explain how abstract concepts are grounded in sensory-motor experiences, several theories have been proposed. I will discuss two of these proposals, Conceptual... (Review)
Review
To explain how abstract concepts are grounded in sensory-motor experiences, several theories have been proposed. I will discuss two of these proposals, Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Situated Cognition, and argue why they do not fully explain grounding. A central idea in Conceptual Metaphor Theory is that image schemas ground abstract concepts in concrete experiences. Image schemas might themselves be abstractions, however, and therefore do not solve the grounding problem. Moreover, image schemas are too simple to explain the full richness of abstract concepts. Situated cognition might provide such richness. Research in our laboratory, however, has shown that even for concrete concepts, sensory-motor grounding is task dependent. Therefore, it is questionable whether abstract concepts can be significantly grounded in sensory-motor processing.
Topics: Concept Formation; Humans; Metaphor; Psychological Theory
PubMed: 29214726
DOI: 10.1111/tops.12311 -
Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton,... 2014Abstract shape analysis abstract shape analysis is a method to learn more about the complete Boltzmann ensemble of the secondary structures of a single RNA molecule.... (Review)
Review
Abstract shape analysis abstract shape analysis is a method to learn more about the complete Boltzmann ensemble of the secondary structures of a single RNA molecule. Abstract shapes classify competing secondary structures into classes that are defined by their arrangement of helices. It allows us to compute, in addition to the structure of minimal free energy, a set of structures that represents relevant and interesting structural alternatives. Furthermore, it allows to compute probabilities of all structures within a shape class. This allows to ensure that our representative subset covers the complete Boltzmann ensemble, except for a portion of negligible probability. This chapter explains the main functions of abstract shape analysis, as implemented in the tool RNA shapes. RNA shapes It reports on some other types of analysis that are based on the abstract shapes idea and shows how you can solve novel problems by creating your own shape abstractions.
Topics: Algorithms; Computational Biology; Nucleic Acid Conformation; RNA; RNA Folding; Thermodynamics
PubMed: 24639162
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-62703-709-9_11 -
The Hastings Center Report Nov 2017In one way or another, several pieces in the November-December 2017 of the Hastings Center Report reflect an insistence on turning away from abstractions to learn how a...
In one way or another, several pieces in the November-December 2017 of the Hastings Center Report reflect an insistence on turning away from abstractions to learn how a whole community understands a problem at issue-how a community understands what's at stake in individuals' autonomous choices, how a community understands the results of a clinical trial, how a community understands, and generates and adjusts, medical standards. In the lead article, Kayte Spector-Bagdady and colleagues argue that, given extensive research showing that electronic fetal monitoring during childbirth offers very little benefit to the mother and child, a mechanism is needed to ensure that the medical standard of care is based on the right kinds of considerations. The core claim of the second article, by Laura Bothwell and Aaron Kesselheim, is that adaptive-trial designs are premised on the idea that trial designs should be maximally persuasive to the medical community. In the third article, Frederick Zimmerman argues that a richer understanding of autonomy makes it possible to see that public health is more frequently compatible with autonomy than is commonly recognized. A supplement to the issue contains a special report that explores what "just reproduction" means "in the face of multifarious understandings of both justice and autonomy and in light of increasingly complex and costly reproductive technologies."
Topics: Biomedical Research; Cardiotocography; Diffusion of Innovation; Humans; Malpractice; Public Health; Research Design
PubMed: 29171052
DOI: 10.1002/hast.776 -
Abstract concepts and emotion: cross-linguistic evidence and arguments against affective embodiment.Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Feb 2023How are abstract concepts such as 'freedom' and 'democracy' represented in the mind? One prominent proposal suggests that abstract concepts are grounded in emotion....
How are abstract concepts such as 'freedom' and 'democracy' represented in the mind? One prominent proposal suggests that abstract concepts are grounded in emotion. Supporting this 'affective embodiment' account, abstract concepts are rated to be more strongly positive or more strongly negative than concrete concepts. This paper demonstrates that this finding generalizes across languages by synthesizing rating data from Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese, Croatian, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish and Spanish. However, a deeper look at the same data suggests that the idea of emotional grounding only characterizes a small subset of abstract concepts. Moreover, when the concreteness/abstractness dimension is not operationalized using concreteness ratings, it is actually found that concrete concepts are rated as more emotional than abstract ones. Altogether, these results suggest limitations to the idea that emotion is an important factor in the grounding of abstract concepts. This article is part of the theme issue 'Concepts in interaction: social engagement and inner experiences'.
Topics: Humans; Emotions; Linguistics; Language; Concept Formation; Asian People
PubMed: 36571116
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0368 -
South African Family Practice :... May 2024No abstract available.
No abstract available.
Topics: Humans; Suicide, Assisted; Euthanasia
PubMed: 38832383
DOI: 10.4102/safp.v66i1.5948 -
Journal of the National Comprehensive... Aug 2023For patients with resected stage III colon cancer, 6 months of adjuvant fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy has been the standard of care. The IDEA collaboration aimed...
BACKGROUND
For patients with resected stage III colon cancer, 6 months of adjuvant fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy has been the standard of care. The IDEA collaboration aimed to evaluate whether 3 months of adjuvant chemotherapy was noninferior to 6 months. Despite failing to meet its primary endpoint, the subgroup analyses demonstrated noninferiority based on regimen and treatment duration when a risk-stratified approach was used.
PATIENTS AND METHODS
To evaluate the impact of the results of the IDEA collaboration, we evaluated adjuvant chemotherapy prescribing practice patterns, including planned adjuvant treatment regimen and duration from January 1, 2016, to January 31, 2021. The time period was selected to evaluate chemotherapy prescribing patterns prior to the abstract presentation of the IDEA collaboration in June 2017 and after full manuscript publication in March 2018.
RESULTS
A total of 399 patients with stage III colon cancer who received adjuvant chemotherapy were included in the analysis. A significant increasing trend for use of 3 months of adjuvant chemotherapy was observed after presentation of the IDEA abstract (P<.001). A significant change in CAPOX (capecitabine/oxaliplatin) prescribing was also observed, increasing from 14% of patients prior to presentation of the IDEA abstract to 48% after presentation (P<.001). Comparing 3 months of CAPOX with 6 months of FOLFOX (fluorouracil/leucovorin/oxaliplatin), 3 months of CAPOX use also steadily increased over time (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.28; 95% CI, 1.20-1.37; P<.001). Among subgroups of interest, no differences in adoption of CAPOX were observed. The adoption of 3 months of CAPOX was similar in patients with low-risk cancer (aOR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.17-1.37) and those with high-risk cancer (aOR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.16-1.47).
CONCLUSIONS
Despite the IDEA collaboration failing to demonstrate noninferiority of 3 months' duration of adjuvant therapy compared with 6 months, the findings have influenced practice prescribing patterns, favoring CAPOX and a shorter duration of planned adjuvant treatment.
Topics: Humans; Fluorouracil; Oxaliplatin; Disease-Free Survival; Neoplasm Staging; Colonic Neoplasms; Capecitabine; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols; Leucovorin
PubMed: 37549913
DOI: 10.6004/jnccn.2023.7028 -
Artificial Intelligence Mar 2015Within the last decade, abstract argumentation has emerged as a central field in Artificial Intelligence. Besides providing a core formalism for many advanced... (Review)
Review
Within the last decade, abstract argumentation has emerged as a central field in Artificial Intelligence. Besides providing a core formalism for many advanced argumentation systems, abstract argumentation has also served to capture several non-monotonic logics and other AI related principles. Although the idea of abstract argumentation is appealingly simple, several reasoning problems in this formalism exhibit high computational complexity. This calls for advanced techniques when it comes to implementation issues, a challenge which has been recently faced from different angles. In this survey, we give an overview on different methods for solving reasoning problems in abstract argumentation and compare their particular features. Moreover, we highlight available state-of-the-art systems for abstract argumentation, which put these methods to practice.
PubMed: 25737590
DOI: 10.1016/j.artint.2014.11.008 -
Psychological Research Nov 2022This video is a proof of concept that ideas from embodied cognition can be used to understand how the brain and cognitive systems deal with very abstract concepts. The...
This video is a proof of concept that ideas from embodied cognition can be used to understand how the brain and cognitive systems deal with very abstract concepts. The video teaches regression to the mean using three ideas. The first idea is directly related to embodied cognition: abstract concepts are grounded in perceptual, motor, and emotional systems by using successive levels of grounding within an extended procedure. The second idea is that this sort of grounding often requires formal instruction: a teacher needs to develop the sequence in which the concepts are grounded and the methods of grounding. That is, at least some abstract concepts are unlikely to be learned through an individual's unstructured interactions with the world. The third idea is that humans are hyper-social, thus making formal instruction possible. To the extent that the viewer learns the abstract concept of regression to the mean, then the video demonstrates how an embodied theory of abstract concepts could work.
Topics: Humans; Concept Formation; Learning; Cognition; Brain; Emotions
PubMed: 34468857
DOI: 10.1007/s00426-021-01576-5 -
Psychoanalytic Inquiry Nov 2013The concept of mentalizing has captured the interest and imagination of an astonishing range of people-from psychoanalysts to neuroscientists, from child development...
The concept of mentalizing has captured the interest and imagination of an astonishing range of people-from psychoanalysts to neuroscientists, from child development researchers to geneticists, from existential philosophers to phenomenologists-all of whom seem to have found it useful. According to the Thompson Reuter maintained Web of Science, the use of the term in titles and abstracts of scientific papers increased from 10 to 2,750 between 1991 and 2011. Clinicians in particular have enthusiastically embraced the idea, and have put it to innovative use in their practices. Mentalization-based treatment (MBT)-making mentalizing a core focus of therapy-was initially developed for the treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in routine clinical services delivered in group and individual modalities. Therapy with mentalizing as a central component is currently being developed for treatment of numerous groups, including people with antisocial personality disorder, substance abuse, eating disorders, and at-risk mothers with infants and children (A. Bateman & Fonagy, 2011). It is also being used with families and adolescents, in schools, and in managing social groups (Asen & Fonagy, 2011; Fonagy et al., 2009; Twemlow, Fonagy, & Sacco, 2005a, 2005b). In this article, we focus on MBT in the treatment of BPD.
PubMed: 26157198
DOI: 10.1080/07351690.2013.835170