Do the arguments for God cohere? An analysis of inter-argument relations and the application of Thagard’s model of explanatory coherence

We use the coherent model for L band radar remote sensing of soya bean fields. Analytic methods and Monte Carlo simulations are used. The novel feature of the analytic model consists of introducing mutual exclusion functions to eliminate the overlap effects of branches in the former branching model. To validate the new results, Monte Caro simulations are also used by generating samples of soya bean fields and calculating the scattered field for each sample. The Monte Carlo simulations are in good agreement with proposed analytic model. Backscattering coefficients are illustrated for a variety of scenarios with varying VWC and soil moisture conditions. The results show that HH are significantly different based on the coherent model versus that of the distorted Born approximation or first order radiative transfer model. The results are compared with experimental data measured at SMAPVEX 12 field campaign in both the absolute values of backscattering as well as the polarization ratio between VV and HH.

Reports an error in "Comparing theories with the Ising model of explanatory coherence" by Maximilian Maier, Noah van Dongen and Denny Borsboom (Psychological Methods, Advanced Online Publication, Mar 02, 2023, np). In the article, the copyright attribution was incorrectly listed, and the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license disclaimer was incorrectly omitted from the author note. The correct copyright is "© 2023 The Author(s)," and the omitted disclaimer is below: Open Access funding provided by University College London: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0). This license permits copying and redistributing the work in any medium or format, as well as adapting the material for any purpose, even commercially. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2023-50323-001.) Theories are among the most important tools of science. Lewin (1943) already noted "There is nothing as practical as a good theory." Although psychologists discussed problems of theory in their discipline for a long time, weak theories are still widespread in most subfields. One possible reason for this is that psychologists lack the tools to systematically assess the quality of their theories. Thagard (1989) developed a computational model for formal theory evaluation based on the concept of explanatory coherence. However, there are possible improvements to Thagard's (1989) model and it is not available in software that psychologists typically use. Therefore, we developed a new implementation of explanatory coherence based on the Ising model. We demonstrate the capabilities of this new Ising model of Explanatory Coherence (IMEC) on several examples from psychology and other sciences. In addition, we implemented it in the R-package IMEC to assist scientists in evaluating the quality of their theories in practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

We investigate the twist properties of the ten-parameter family of partially coherent general anisotropic Gaussian Schell model (AGSM) beams passing through first-order optical systems. By utilizing the generalized Huygens-Fresnel diffraction integral for asymmetric first-order optical systems, the explicit twist expressions for the principal axes of intensity distribution, transverse coherence distribution and the principal curvatures of phase front in the cross-spectral density function of AGSM beams are obtained. In some special cases when the beams are the twist Gaussian Schell-Model, Gaussian Schell-Model, Li-Wolf and Gori-Guattari beams, our results reduce to well known expressions. It is shown that, under some conditions, although the ten parameters are all not zero and any one of the intensity distributions, transverse coherence distribution and the phase front has its independent principal axis, the beam spot does not twist when the beam passing through free-space. As a result, special partially coherent beams called the twisted-free ten-parameter family of partially coherent general anisotropic Gaussian Schell model (TF-AGSM) beams are introduced and their properties are discussed.

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 29(3) of Psychological Methods (see record 2025-28068-002). In the article, the copyright attribution was incorrectly listed, and the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license disclaimer was incorrectly omitted from the author note. The correct copyright is "© 2023 The Author(s)," and the omitted disclaimer is below: Open Access funding provided by University College London: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0). This license permits copying and redistributing the work in any medium or format, as well as adapting the material for any purpose, even commercially.] Theories are among the most important tools of science. Lewin (1943) already noted "There is nothing as practical as a good theory." Although psychologists discussed problems of theory in their discipline for a long time, weak theories are still widespread in most subfields. One possible reason for this is that psychologists lack the tools to systematically assess the quality of their theories. Thagard (1989) developed a computational model for formal theory evaluation based on the concept of explanatory coherence. However, there are possible improvements to Thagard's (1989) model and it is not available in software that psychologists typically use. Therefore, we developed a new implementation of explanatory coherence based on the Ising model. We demonstrate the capabilities of this new Ising model of Explanatory Coherence (IMEC) on several examples from psychology and other sciences. In addition, we implemented it in the R-package IMEC to assist scientists in evaluating the quality of their theories in practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

This paper presents a human reliability analysis method of cooperative redundancy in support of diagnosis. We use a particular redundancy on which a diagnosis function is realized jointly by interacting human and automated controllers. The proposed cooperative redundancy supports a retrospective and experiential failure location function. It integrates an automated controller, based on several points of view: on a list of possible system failures, on a model of coherence between points of view, and on different operations such as focusing on or excluding components or cancellation of a previous operation. A particular dialogue interface is specified for an industrial case to join the human and automated controllers' reasoning, in order to optimize their mutual understanding when making inferences on failures. Such a cooperative redundancy is analyzed with a discrete human reliability approach in order to evaluate its efficiency. This new approach is a conditional, multi-objective probabilistic method which takes into account two types of constraints: constraints based on human behavior, e.g., the time consuming human reasoning, and constraints regarding the system being diagnosed, e.g., the quality of the diagnosis. It is based on different modes of reasoning: the normal mode, the degraded mode, the failed mode, and the success mode. Both normal and degraded modes concern the human behavior dependent constraints. The outputs of both modes are either the success mode if system dependent constraints are satisfied, or the failed mode if not. The cooperative redundancy for diagnosis support is applied to the phone network troubleshooting, and experimental results are analyzed by using the defined analysis method. Conclusions have shown the feasibility of applying cooperative redundancy to diagnosis support. However, even if this cooperative redundancy improves the quality of the diagnosis, future researchers have to improve this redundancy in order to reduce the average delay to make a diagnosis.

Harmony, explanatory coherence and the debate between the reticular theory and neuron theory of nerve cell structure: ECHO’s resolution of a quiet revolution

Flower patterning is determined by a complex molecular network but how this network functions remains to be elucidated. Here, we develop an integrative modeling approach that assembles heterogeneous data into a biologically coherent model to allow predictions to be made and inconsistencies among the data to be found. We use this approach to study the network underlying sepal development in the young flower of Arabidopsis thaliana. We constructed a digital atlas of gene expression and used it to build a dynamical molecular regulatory network model of sepal primordium development. This led to the construction of a coherent molecular network model for lateral organ polarity that fully recapitulates expression and interaction data. Our model predicts the existence of three novel pathways involving the HD-ZIP III genes and both cytokinin and ARGONAUTE family members. In addition, our model provides predictions on molecular interactions. In a broader context, this approach allows the extraction of biological knowledge from diverse types of data and can be used to study developmental processes in any multicellular organism.

Based on the mathematical analysis of band transmission signal coherent detection theory and mud pressure DPSK signal modulation process, by establishing the coherent detection mathematical model of mud pressure DPSK signal, this paper studies the practicability of broadband mud pressure DPSK signal coherent detection. By analyzing the noise impact on input signal parameter of demodulation system, based on probabilistic statistics theory and coherent demodulation mathematical model, the bit error rate and antinoise ability of mud pressure DPSK signal is studied. Theoretical analysis and numerical simulation indicate that, by adding arc cosine and derivation segment to basic demodulation process, the coherent demodulation effect of mud pressure DPSK signal is satisfied, but the demodulation process is more complex than conventional communication system. Theoretical analysis shows that mud pressure DPSK signal has the same theatrical bit error rate as conventional communication binary phase shift keying (2PSK) signal, but due to the difference of signal demodulation means, the reconstruction of rotary valve control pulse will be affected seriously by the derivate of vertical component of the noise within frequency band, causing that the antinoise ability of mud pressure DPSK signal demodulation system is far lower than 2PSK signal system, and numerical calculation shows that the actual bit error rate is far higher than latter; so under the condition of large carrier frequency, to obtain relative small actual bit error rate and relative larger information transmission rate, the mud pressure DPSK signal input signal-to-noise ratio should be raised as far as possible.

Until now, there have been many reports concerning the generation and propagation of partially coherent beams due to their less influencing ability in turbulent atmosphere and random media. Of particular interest, a Gaussian-Schell model beam has been widely chosen as a special example of partially coherent beam, since its spatial coherence degree is dependent on position only through the difference between the two position vectors. In the scalar domain, many coherent models have been well studied such as Gaussian and multi-Gaussian Schell-model sources, Bessel-Gaussian and Laguerre-Gaussian Schell-model sources and so on. Based on the theory for devising genuine cross-spectral density matrices for a stochastic electromagnetic beam, several scalar models have been also extended to the electromagnetic domain. In recent years, the propagation of partially coherent beams with spatially varying and non-uniform correlations has become a hot topic, because of their interesting characteristics such as locally sharpened and laterally shifted intensity maxima. In one of our previous studies, we have experimentally investigated the generation of non-uniformly correlated partially coherent beams. However, to the best of our knowledge, so far, there has been no investigation on the generation of non-uniformly correlated stochastic electromagnetic beams. In this paper, we theoretically and experimentally investigate the generation of non-uniformly correlated stochastic electromagnetic beams. Based on the relation between phase correlation and optical coherence, we investigate the 22 cross-spectral density matrix and the coherence distribution of the non-uniformly correlated stochastic electromagnetic beam we generated. It is shown that the coherence degree between two points in the generated beam depends not only on the distance between them, but also on the distances between the points and the center of the beam. In experiment, we use the Matlab rand function to generate a random phase pattern with uniform distribution. The modulation magnitudes of different positions are different and follow an inverse Gaussian distribution in position. Dynamic phase patterns are created from a series of random grey-scale images. Two phase-only liquid crystal spatial light modulators are employed to display computer-generated dynamic phase patterns and modulate the two orthogonally polarized components of the incident coherent light, respectively, and generate a stochastic electromagnetic beam. We measure the correlation distribution of the generated beam in Young's two-pinhole experiment. It is shown that the experimental observations are in agreement with our theoretical analyses. Other kinds of non-uniformly correlated stochastic electromagnetic beams can also be obtained by this approach. Non-uniformly correlated stochastic electromagnetic beams may have some applications in optical manipulation and free-space optical communication.

A model is presented of how people construct coherent representations of others. It integrates work on knowledge representations with Kintsch's construction-integration model of discourse comprehension and Thagard's model of explanatory coherence. A major claim is that parallel constraint satisfaction processes, fundamental to connectionist modeling, play a major role in the development of coherent representations. Several topics are examined: (a) the role of making goal inferences in trait inferences, (b) how people combine apparently inconsistent traits to arrive at a coherent impression, and (c) how this parallel process model can account for findings that have been given a serial interpretation in Trope's two-stage model of dispositional inference and Gilbert's work on cognitive busyness. It is argued that this model provides a more parsimonious but broader explanation for attributions than alternatives.

This article studies the impact of explanatory coherence on the evaluation of explanations. Tested were 4 principles of P. Thagard's (1989) model for evaluating the coherence of explanations. Study I showed that Ss preferred explanations that accounted for more data (breadth) and that were simpler (simplicity or parsimony). Study 2 demonstrated that Ss thought an explanation was stronger when it could, in turn, be explained. Study 3 showed that the evaluation of explanations is comparative, affected by the availability of good alternatives. These results were then successfully simulated using Thagard's connectionist implementation of his model of explanatory coherence. The data and the simulation, taken together, strongly support the model

This chapter shows that belief revision about global warming can be modeled by a theory of explanatory coherence that has previously been applied to many cases of scientific belief change. We present a computer simulation of how current evidence supports acceptance of important conclusions about global warming on the basis of explanatory coherence. In addition, we explain resistance to these conclusions using a computational model of emotional coherence, which shows how political and economic goals can bias the evaluation of evidence and produce irrational rejection of claims about global warming. Finally, we argue that explanatory coherence gives a better account of belief revision than major alternatives including logicist and Bayesian theories.

The coherence of independent reports provides a strong reason to believe that the reports are true. This plausible claim has come under attack from recent work in Bayesian epistemology. This work shows that, under certain probabilistic conditions, coherence cannot increase the probability of the target claim. These theorems are taken to demonstrate that epistemic coherentism is untenable. To date no one has investigated how these results bear on different conceptions of coherence. I investigate this situation using Thagard’s ECHO model of explanatory coherence. Thagard’s ECHO model provides a natural representation of the evidential significance of multiple independent reports.

LANGUAGE, VOLUME 73, NUMBER 4 (1997) More generally, this is an informative and comprehensive introduction to the particular problems faced by Indian ELT, which are unlikely to be anticipated by ELT specialists from other countries. [Shravan Vasishth, Ohio State University.] Linguistics: An introduction to language and communication. 4th edn. By Adrian Akmajian, Richard A. Demers , Ann K. Farmer, and Robert M. Harnish. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995. Pp. xiv, 577. This is the latest edition of a well used and respected introductory linguisücs text. The authors follow the basic organization of the third edition. 'The structure of human language', part 1, includes the topics of morphology, phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, language variation, and language change. 'Communication and cognitive science', part 2, comprises pragmatics, psychology of language (speech production and comprehension), language acquisition , and language and the brain. The comprehensiveness of the volume, particularly with respect to the cognitive science and language use sections, permits it to serve as a basic text for courses with diverse foci, from straightforward introductory linguistics to communications and psycholinguistics. Since the text contains more material than even the most ambitious instructor could hope to cover in a semester, the authors suggest a number of modular formats, selecting particular chapters to be tailored to the goals of the course. There is much to like about the new edition. The authors use an inductive pedagogical approach that invites students to examine language as an object of inquiry, taking as much space as needed to build important linguistic intuitions. Students are initiated into the reasoning and methodologies that linguists use in formulating theories and making inferences from data. The authors employ a fairly elevated register , with unapologetic use of technical terms which are always well-defined and illustrated. Tables and figures are pertinent and not overused. One perennial problem in writing linguistic texts remains the choice of which version of a theory to present: One wishes to be as current as possible so as to show the advances of the discipline to fullest advantage and at the same time to leave students, the majority of whom will not continue in linguistics, with a coherent model having reasonable explanatory power. The authors have chosen to present theories that are well-established, if not cutting-edge, that serve to demonstrate the requirements of a viable linguistic theory. Thus the authors present distinctive feature theory and foot-based prosody as their phonological models, with an advanced section on tone contour. To illustrate syntactic models, they present transformational theory, with an advanced section on X-bar theory. A choice that pleases me less is the strong focus on English examples, to the near exclusion of those from other languages. The authors are fully cognizant of this decision, arguing that their intention is to encourage linguistic intuitions in a largely Englishspeaking audience. A counter to this position is that first, a linguistics course may well provide the only opportunity for the college population to be exposed to the vast though diminishing range of linguistic diversity, particularly of non-European languages. Second, many of the intuitions we wish to foster can be strengthened, not by examining English in evercloser detail, but by noting the contrast between an English linguistic strategy and a very different one that marks the same concept. [Marcia Haag, University of Oklahoma.] The phonology of German. By Richard Wiese. (The phonology of the world's languages, ed. by Jacques Durand.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Pp. x, 351. This, the fourth volume in Durand's ambitiously titled series, aims to be 'a thorough and in-depth survey of the phonological system ofpresent-day [standard ] German ... as it is spoken . . most frequently and directly in the northern parts of (former East and West) Germany' , and an 'application of recent theories and models ... to the German language!,] ... a guide to and critical discussion of the standard literature . . . [with] emphasis on both empirical coverage and on theoretical argumentation and analysis' (1); it is intended for phonologists and tertiary-level teachers and students of German alike. Wiese argues that traditional descriptive tools lead to potentially contradictory accounts depending on whether one proceeds from phonetic observation or overall systemic requirements, motivating his choice of a...

LANGUAGE, VOLUME 73, NUMBER 4 (1997) More generally, this is an informative and comprehensive introduction to the particular problems faced by Indian ELT, which are unlikely to be anticipated by ELT specialists from other countries. [Shravan Vasishth, Ohio State University.] Linguistics: An introduction to language and communication. 4th edn. By Adrian Akmajian, Richard A. Demers , Ann K. Farmer, and Robert M. Harnish. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995. Pp. xiv, 577. This is the latest edition of a well used and respected introductory linguisücs text. The authors follow the basic organization of the third edition. 'The structure of human language', part 1, includes the topics of morphology, phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, language variation, and language change. 'Communication and cognitive science', part 2, comprises pragmatics, psychology of language (speech production and comprehension), language acquisition , and language and the brain. The comprehensiveness of the volume, particularly with respect to the cognitive science and language use sections, permits it to serve as a basic text for courses with diverse foci, from straightforward introductory linguistics to communications and psycholinguistics. Since the text contains more material than even the most ambitious instructor could hope to cover in a semester, the authors suggest a number of modular formats, selecting particular chapters to be tailored to the goals of the course. There is much to like about the new edition. The authors use an inductive pedagogical approach that invites students to examine language as an object of inquiry, taking as much space as needed to build important linguistic intuitions. Students are initiated into the reasoning and methodologies that linguists use in formulating theories and making inferences from data. The authors employ a fairly elevated register , with unapologetic use of technical terms which are always well-defined and illustrated. Tables and figures are pertinent and not overused. One perennial problem in writing linguistic texts remains the choice of which version of a theory to present: One wishes to be as current as possible so as to show the advances of the discipline to fullest advantage and at the same time to leave students, the majority of whom will not continue in linguistics, with a coherent model having reasonable explanatory power. The authors have chosen to present theories that are well-established, if not cutting-edge, that serve to demonstrate the requirements of a viable linguistic theory. Thus the authors present distinctive feature theory and foot-based prosody as their phonological models, with an advanced section on tone contour. To illustrate syntactic models, they present transformational theory, with an advanced section on X-bar theory. A choice that pleases me less is the strong focus on English examples, to the near exclusion of those from other languages. The authors are fully cognizant of this decision, arguing that their intention is to encourage linguistic intuitions in a largely Englishspeaking audience. A counter to this position is that first, a linguistics course may well provide the only opportunity for the college population to be exposed to the vast though diminishing range of linguistic diversity, particularly of non-European languages. Second, many of the intuitions we wish to foster can be strengthened, not by examining English in evercloser detail, but by noting the contrast between an English linguistic strategy and a very different one that marks the same concept. [Marcia Haag, University of Oklahoma.] The phonology of German. By Richard Wiese. (The phonology of the world's languages, ed. by Jacques Durand.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Pp. x, 351. This, the fourth volume in Durand's ambitiously titled series, aims to be 'a thorough and in-depth survey of the phonological system ofpresent-day [standard ] German ... as it is spoken . . most frequently and directly in the northern parts of (former East and West) Germany' , and an 'application of recent theories and models ... to the German language!,] ... a guide to and critical discussion of the standard literature . . . [with] emphasis on both empirical coverage and on theoretical argumentation and analysis' (1); it is intended for phonologists and tertiary-level teachers and students of German alike. Wiese argues that traditional descriptive tools lead to potentially contradictory accounts depending on whether one proceeds from phonetic observation or overall systemic requirements, motivating his choice of a...