Hidden Goal Research Articles

Doktryna polityczna Jarosława Kaczyńskiego i Donalda Tuska

The paper reconstructs the doctrine of Jarosław Kaczyński and Donald Tusk. The main research methods are constructivism, the comparative and factorial methods. The main distinguishing features of the concept of political doctrine are the strategic goal, the hidden goal and the means to achieve these goals. In conclusion, the author tries to highlight the differences in the approach to the doctrine of both politicians.

Slogans as an integral part of educational discourse: Two examples

Slogans in education have been the subject of critical analysis – at least in the context of philosophy of education – for more than half a century. Some of these slogans are no longer relevant or frequently used, while their analyses and explanations are still an appropriate theoretical basis for understanding new educational slogans. One of these theoretical findings – given by the French philosopher Reboul – that still holds true is that educational slogans almost always try to conceal themselves in educational discourse, that is, to present themselves not as slogans but as something else: educational principles, evidence, factual or rational obviousness. They are mostly words or expressions with ambiguous meaning. Although they can contain an informative element, their abressence is not to inform or explain but rather to persuade or to make us act in a specific way. Usually, they serve the cause of different educational theories. Yet they do so in a rather specific way, as the hidden goal or function of educational slogans in educational discourse is to legitimise or disqualify a certain educational doctrine or practice. The more effective and persuasive the slogans are in this regard, the greater the danger is that they will increasingly replace thinking. The only way that slogans will not determine our thinking is to think about slogans, to take them as an incentive to think and not as a substitute for it. In this article, after a very brief review of the theoretical explanations of the slogans and a mention of some well-known slogans in education, some elements for an analysis of two less known and interlinked contemporary slogans (‘We are the university’ and ‘The university is not an enterprise, knowledge is not a commodity’) related to the critique of the still influential neoliberal ideology in higher education are given.

Resilient allocentric reorientation following transfer from the inside to the outside of an arena.

In two virtual spatial-navigation experiments, participants were trained to find a hidden goal that was located adjacent to one of the right-angled corners of a cross-shaped virtual environment. The location of the goal was defined solely with respect to the geometry of the environmental structure. Training trials started from a single central start location (Experiment 1) or from multiple start locations over 2, 4, or 16 training trials (Experiment 2). Following training, participants were placed onto the outside of the same environment and asked to again find the hidden goal (which, unbeknown to participants, was removed) during a single test trial. The results from both experiments revealed that participants spent more time searching in regions on the outside of the environment that were closest to the location where the hidden goal was positioned during the previous training stage. In contrast, participants spent very little time searching in regions whose visual appearance matched those regions that contained the hidden goal during training. These results reproduce the findings from previous research which supports the idea of an allocentric encoding of the shape of the environment during navigation and further implies that this encoding is relatively resilient to manipulations that might be expected to undermine it.

SOCIALIAI ORIENTUOTAS VIETNAMO BUDIZMAS POKOLONIJINĖJE PERSPEKTYVOJE

The aim of this article is to reveal the origin of the socially engaged Vietnamese Buddhism and the methods by which this religious practice operated within the socie­ty during the presidency of Ngo Dinh Diem. This article is based on the phenomenon of socially engaged Buddhism through the ideas of postcolonial discourse theorists. The resistance from colonialism through manifestations is an important moment in the history of each state that has regained its independence. This article develops the idea that the history of Vietnam’s independence and modernization is closely linked to the expression of socially engaged Buddhism, which made the resistance move­ment united and effective. The end of the Second World War, which marked the decline of colonialism and made it possible for Vietnam to become an independent state, in which the freedom of religion was guaranteed, was perceived differently in the southern region of the country. The Head of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, widely known as a marionette of France and the US, is a politician who continued to repress Buddhists. During his presidency, Buddhism had gained a rather new, socially active form, which had mobilized the society – both the monks and the laypeople – and influenced it over the political situation in the country. The aim of this paper is to get acquainted with the phenomenon of socially oriented Buddhism in Vietnam, to understand the conditions that led to its emergence, and to reveal the methods by which this form of Buddhism opposed colonial manifestations in the postcolonial perspective. During the first years of the Vietnam War and the Ngo Dinh Diem regime, the non-political goal of socially engaged Buddhism was to protect the people from suffering; however, the Ngo Dinh Diem presidency was marked by the continuation of the colonial model, which encouraged Buddhists to become a visible political power. Although Buddhist protests were of extreme risk and had cost lives, these people, who had a purely religious freedom and incentive rights, became a movement that was characterized by a deeper, hidden goal – a struggle against the postcolonial policy that the US had exerted in Asian countries. Socially engaged Buddhism can be judged by its ability to adapt to existing social challenges. Although the defense of religious symbols and rights in Vietnam during the Diem years was the main objective, the further goals became politically motiva­ted. They were linked to the liberation of a society from colonialism; thus, it can be argued that Vietnamese Buddhism, which began as a struggle for religious rights and later became a political ideology, also marked the process of modernizing a sovereign state. It has become a world-class movement with the aim to remove the spread of pro-Western ideas in Vietnam.

Hippocampal development and the dissociation of cognitive-spatial mapping from motor performance

The publication of a recent article in F1000Research has led to discussion of, and correspondence on a broader issue that has a long history in the fields of neuroscience and psychology. Namely, is it possible to separate the cognitive components of performance, in this case spatial behavior, from the motoric demands of a task? Early psychological experiments attempted such a dissociation by studying a form of spatial maze learning where initially rats were allowed to explore a complex maze, termed "latent learning," before reinforcement was introduced. Those rats afforded the latent learning experience solved the task faster than those that were not, implying that cognitive map learning during exploration aided in the performance of the task once a motivational component was introduced. This form of latent learning was interpreted as successfully demonstrating that an exploratory cognitive map component was acquired irrespective of performing a learned spatial response under deprivation/motivational conditions. The neural substrate for cognitive learning was hypothesized to depend on place cells within the hippocampus. Subsequent behavioral studies attempted to directly eliminate the motor component of spatial learning by allowing rats to passively view the distal environment before performing any motor response using a task that is widely considered to be hippocampal-dependent. Latent learning in the water maze, using a passive placement procedure has met with mixed results. One constraint on viewing cues before performing a learned swimming response to a hidden goal has been the act of dynamically viewing distal cues while moving through a part of the environment where an optimal learned spatial escape response would be observed. We briefly review these past findings obtained with adult animals to the recent efforts of establishing a "behavioral topology" separating cognitive-spatial learning from tasks differing in motoric demands in an attempt to define when cognitive-spatial behavior emerges during development.

A CUT VIEW CONCERNING THE ECONOMICAL TRANSFORMATION GENERATED BY THE WEALTH TAX: SEIZURE FOR BAHTIYAR HAN

The most important output of Wealth Tax Law implemented to point the excessive profits gained via black market and monopoly as target in eliminating the shortages caused by the money supply shortages and high inflation rates in Turkey during World War II was that this law generated an economical transformation. The classification of the taxpayers as G (Non-muslims), M (Muslims), D (Proselyte) and E (Foreigners), the inclination towards real estates owners and merchants in tax assessment, tax collection made mostly in Istanbul caused a problematic table in terms of taxation principles. 87 per cent of all taxpayers in Turkey was non-muslims and 54 per cent was in Istanbul. 68 per cent of the taxes accrued in Turkey was accrued in Istanbul and 70 per cent of the taxes collected in the country was paid in Istanbul. It can be clearly seen in this table that this tax could not realise the principle of universality and equality and that the hidden goal was to realize the economical transformation. In this study, the outputs of the economical transformation generated by the Wealth Tax Law will be analyzed in terms of Turkification of the economy. Although the target of reducing the money supply and decreasing the inflation rates were not accomplished via Wealth Tax Law, the economical transformation, which was the primary goal of the law, was realized. In this study it will be focused in the role of SEE’s and public organizations in the sales and seizures made due to Wealth Tax. The seizure of Bahtiyar Han’s possessions by the Soil Products Office will be analyzed. This case deserves to be discussed and analyzed in terms of showing the mentality of the economical transformation and of the role of the public organizations in this period.

A consistent but non-coincident visual pattern facilitates the learning of spatial relations among locations

Human participants searched in a dynamic three-dimensional computer-generated virtual-environment open-field search task for four hidden goal locations arranged in a diamond configuration located in a 5 × 5 matrix of raised bins. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: visual pattern or visual random. All participants experienced 30 trials in which four goal locations maintained the same spatial relations to each other (i.e., a diamond pattern), but this diamond pattern moved to random locations within the 5 × 5 matrix from trial to trial. For participants in the visual pattern group, four locations were marked in a distinct color and arranged in a diamond pattern that moved to a random location independent of the hidden spatial pattern from trial to trial throughout the experimental session. For participants in the visual random group, four random locations were marked with a distinct color and moved to random locations independent from the hidden spatial pattern from trial to trial throughout the experimental session. As a result, the visual cues for the visual pattern group were consistent but not coincident with the hidden spatial pattern, whereas the visual cues for the visual random group were neither consistent nor coincident with the hidden spatial pattern. Results indicated that participants in both groups learned the spatial configuration of goal locations and that the presence of consistent but noncoincident visual cues facilitated the learning of spatial relations among locations.

The Art and Discipline of Formative Reading: Revisiting Holy Scripture with Humble Receptivity

This article will show that lectio divina or the formative reading of Holy Scripture goes beyond exegetical-critical methods and fosters in the heart of every reader a more personal-reflective approach. This approach serves as a directive source guiding our faith and formation journey. Formative readers by definition desire to grow in spiritual self-knowledge and to allow the communications they receive to touch and transform their lives, if God so wills. Two requirements for formative reading will be explained herein: its meditative or contemplative components and its applicative dimensions. Both facets of this discipline lead to a dynamic encounter with sacred words. We are to read the Bible and the literature of spirituality in such a way that the texts we imbibe will help us to tune into the inner life form or direction meant for us by God from eternity. Essential to this article is also a description of the difference between informational and formational reading. While there is a time and place for both, one way should not be substituted or forgotten in favor of the other. In short, the integration of head and heart, of inspiration and incarnation, is the hidden goal of formative reading.

No evidence that consistent auditory cues facilitate learning of spatial relations among locations

Human participants searched in a dynamic three-dimensional computer-generated virtual-environment open-field search task for four hidden goal locations arranged in a diamond configuration located in a 5×5 matrix of raised bins. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: Consistent or Inconsistent. All participants experienced 30 trials in which four goal locations maintained the same spatial relations to each other (i.e., a diamond pattern), but this diamond pattern moved to random locations within the 5×5 matrix from trial-to-trial. For participants in the Consistent group, each goal location within the pattern always provided a unique and consistent auditory cue throughout the experimental session. For participants in the Inconsistent group, the same distinct auditory cues were provided for each goal location; however, the locations of these auditory cues within the pattern itself were randomized from trial-to-trial throughout the experimental session. Results indicated that participants in both groups learned the spatial configuration of goal locations, but the presence of consistent auditory cues did not facilitate the learning of spatial relations among locations.

Overshadowing between landmarks on the touchscreen and in arena with pigeons.

The role of generalization decrement in spatial overshadowing was evaluated using a landmark-based spatial search task in both a touchscreen preparation (Experiment 1a) and in an Automated Remote Environmental Navigation Apparatus (ARENA, Experiment 1b). A landmark appeared as a colored circle among a row of eight (touchscreen) or six (ARENA) potential locations. On overshadowing trials, Landmark X was located two positions away from a hidden goal, while another landmark, A, was in the position between X and the goal. On control trials, Landmark Y was positioned two locations away from the goal but without a closer landmark. All subjects were then tested with separate trials of A, X, Y, and BY. Testing revealed poor spatial control by X relative to A and Y, thereby replicating the spatial overshadowing effect. Spatial control by Y was similar when tested in compound with novel landmark (BY) and on trials of Y alone. Thus, overshadowing in a small-scale environment does not appear to be due to a process of generalization decrement between training and testing.

Orientation of lizards in a Morris water-maze: roles of the sun compass and the parietal eye

The present study examined for the first time whether a Morris water-maze can be used to explore compass and other orientation mechanisms in the ruin lizard Podarcis sicula. In the open field, during sunny days, lizards were individually trained to swim from the center of the water maze onto a hidden platform (the goal), positioned at the periphery of the maze in a single compass direction. The goal was invisible because it was placed just beneath the water surface and the water was rendered opaque. The results showed that lizards learn to swim directly towards the hidden goal under the sun in the absence of visual feature cues. We further examined whether the observed orientation response would be due to lizards learning the spatial position of the goal relative to the sun's azimuth, i.e. to the use of a time-compensated sun compass. Lizards reaching learning criteria were subjected to 6 h clock-shift (fast or slow), and tested for goal orientation in the Morris water-maze. Results demonstrated that the learned orientation response is mediated by a time-compensated sun compass. Further investigations provided direct evidence that in ruin lizards an intact parietal eye is required to perform goal orientation under the sun inside a Morris water-maze, and that other brain photoreceptors, like the pineal or deep brain photoreceptors, are not involved in orientation.

Between-cue associations influence searching for a hidden goal in an environment with a distinctive shape.

In Experiment 1 rats had to escape from a kite-shaped pool by swimming to a submerged escape platform in a right-angled corner. The two walls creating this corner were white and the two walls creating the opposite, incorrect, right-angled corner were black. The rats were then trained in a square pool with two white walls forming one corner and two black walls forming the opposite corner. The platform was in the white corner for a consistent group and the black corner for an inconsistent group. A test in an entirely white kite revealed a stronger preference for the correct than the incorrect corner in the consistent but not the inconsistent group. This outcome is attributed to the formation of associations between geometric cues, provided by the shape of the pool, and the color of the walls. The results were replicated in a second experiment in which the walls of the test pool were the same color as the incorrect corner during initial training.

Evidence against integration of spatial maps in humans: generality across real and virtual environments

A real-world open-field search task was implemented with humans as an analogue of Blaisdell and Cook's (Anim Cogn 8:7-16, 2005) pigeon foraging task and Sturz, Bodily, and Katz's (Anim Cogn 9:207-217, 2006) human virtual foraging task to 1) determine whether humans were capable of integrating independently learned spatial maps and 2) make explicit comparisons of mechanisms used by humans to navigate real and virtual environments. Participants searched for a hidden goal located in one of 16 bins arranged in a 4 x 4 grid. In Phase 1, the goal was hidden between two landmarks (blue T and red L). In Phase 2, the goal was hidden to the left and in front of a single landmark (blue T). Following training, goal-absent trials were conducted in which the red L from Phase 1 was presented alone. Bin choices during goal-absent trials assessed participants' strategies: association (from Phase 1), generalization (from Phase 2), or integration (combination of Phase 1 and 2). Results were inconsistent with those obtained with pigeons but were consistent with those obtained with humans in a virtual environment. Specifically, during testing, participants did not integrate independently learned spatial maps but used a generalization strategy followed by a shift in search behavior away from the test landmark. These results were confirmed by a control condition in which a novel landmark was presented during testing. Results are consistent with the bulk of recent findings suggesting the use of alternative navigational strategies to cognitive mapping. Results also add to a growing body of literature suggesting that virtual environment approaches to the study of spatial learning and memory have external validity and that spatial mechanisms used by human participants in navigating virtual environments are similar to those used in navigating real-world environments.

Preexposure effects in the spatial domain: Dissociation between latent inhibition and perceptual learning.

In 4 experiments, rats were given intermixed or blocked preexposure to an array of landmarks that subsequently defined the location of a hidden goal in a Morris pool task. Previous research has shown that intermixed preexposure to pairs of adjacent landmarks retards learning whereas preexposure to individual landmarks facilitates subsequent learning (J. Prados, V. D. Chamizo, & N. J. Mackintosh, 1999). Accordingly, in Experiment 1, intermixed and blocked preexposure to pairs of adjacent landmarks was found to retard learning. In Experiment 2, however, a scheduling effect was found: Rats given intermixed preexposure to the individual landmarks learned faster than rats given blocked or no preexposure. Experiment 3 showed that intermixed (but not blocked) preexposure to pairs of landmarks resulted in a facilitatory effect when preexposure and test were carried out in different contexts. Experiment 4 replicated within a single experiment the main results observed in Experiments 1 and 3. This pattern of results suggests that intermixed preexposure engages learning processes other than latent inhibition that facilitate subsequent learning of the navigation task.

Further evidence that rats rely on local rather than global spatial information to locate a hidden goal: Reply to Cheng and Gallistel (2005).

Naive male Hooded Lister rats (Rattus norvegicus) were required to find a submerged platform in a right-angled corner between a long and a short wall of a pool in the shape of an irregular pentagon. Tests in a rectangular pool revealed a preference for the corners that corresponded with the correct corner in the pentagon. These findings indicate that rats identified the correct corner in the pentagon by local cues. They contradict the suggestion that rats navigate by moving in a particular direction relative to the principal axis of the shape of their environment.

Allothetic orientation and sequential ordering of places is impaired in early stages of Alzheimer's disease: corresponding results in real space tests and computer tests

Spatial disorientation and learning problems belong to the integral symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD). A circular arena for human subjects (2.9 m diameter, 3 m high) was equipped with a computerized tracking system, similar to that used in animals. We studied navigation in 11 subjects diagnosed with early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD), 27 subjects with subjective problems with memory or concentration, and 10 controls. The task was to locate one or several unmarked goals using the arena geometry, starting position and/or cues on the arena wall. Navigation in a real version and a computer map view version of the tests yielded similar results. The AD group was severely impaired relative to controls in navigation to one hidden goal in eight rotated positions. The impairment was largest when only the cues on the wall could be used for orientation. Also, the AD group recalled worse than controls the order of six sequentially presented locations, though they recalled similarly to controls the positions of the locations. The group with subjective problems was not impaired in any of the tests. Our results document the spatial navigation and non-verbal episodic memory impairment in the AD. Similar results in real and map view computer tests support the use of computer tests in diagnosis of cognitive disturbances.

Navigational ability in the domestic fowl (Gallus gallus domesticus)

Little is known about the navigational abilities of domestic fowl. The question of how chickens represent and orient in space becomes relevant when they are kept in non-cage systems. Since the sun is known to be the dominant spatial organiser in other diurnal bird species, we started our investigation of the chicken’s spatial abilities by subjecting them to a food-searching task with the sun as the only consistent visual cue. In an additional experiment we tried to rule out the use of auditory cues in finding a food reward.Eight ISA Brown chicks were housed in outdoor pens. A separate test arena comprised an open-topped, opaque-sided wooden octagon (2m wide and 1.5m high). Eight goal boxes with food pots were attached to each of the arena sides; a wooden barrier inside each goal box prevented the birds from seeing the food pot before entering. After habituation we tested during five daily 5min trials whether the chicks were able to find food in a systematically allocated goal direction. Food residue in every foot pot controlled for the use of olfactory cues and no external landmark cues were visible. Every day each box was unpredictably moved to a randomly assigned side of the arena and the side to face north was also randomly allocated, to prevent the chicks from using cues other than the sun’s position. Circular statistics were used to determine whether birds moved in a non-random direction and if so, if they significantly oriented goalwards. The results showed that seven of the eight birds moved significantly in the goal direction. It seems likely that the chicks used the sun to orient. Due to weather constraints only four chicks received the same treatment on a new location, to rule out the use of auditory cues. Two of these four chicks significantly moved in the goal direction.The results from our experiments show that domestic chicks use spatial memory to orient towards a hidden goal. Moreover, their orientation is most likely to be based on sun cues opening up the possibility that the sun compass may dominate even in this ancestrally predominantly ground-living forest bird.

Effects of fimbria-fornix lesions on rats’ use of intramaze stimuli in the water maze

In order to examine the role of the hippocampus in spatial learning, fimbria-fornix-lesioned (FF) rats and control rats were trained in a water maze enclosed in black curtains. In the condition with stimuli, two objects of different appearance were hung on the water surface as intramaze stimuli. The hidden goal and two objects formed a triangle, and their spatial relationship was kept constant throughout the training. For the condition without stimuli, the two stimuli were removed. In the condition with stimuli, the control group solved the task faster than the FF group. Analysis of navigational strategy indicated that the control group used both the place strategy and the response strategy, whereas the FF group used only the response strategy. In the condition without stimuli, the performance of both groups was similar, with both groups solving the task using only the response strategy. These results suggest that the hippocampus plays an important role in utilization of the spatial relationships among intramaze stimuli.

No evidence for cognitive mapping in rats

Abstract. The popular assumption that mammals possess cognitive mapping abilities, that is that they are able to organize mentally a kind of global-view-from-above puzzle made of subsets of landmarks that are locally perceptible from given ground-level places, has never been demonstrated. Water maze experiments were designed to test this assumption in rats, Rattus norvegicus. Although they were given ample opportunity to build a cognitive map during the preceding training trials, the rats proved unable to navigate accurately towards a hidden goal, an escape platform, during the tests in which they were given no opportunities to use any other orientation mechanism. Although such results may not constitute definite proof against cognitive mapping in rats, they question its existence. In previous experiments purporting to show cognitive mapping, the animals may have used simpler orientation mechanisms. The results of this study suggest that, at least, the a priori assumption that mammals are capable of cognitive mapping should be abandoned.