Dissertations / Theses: 'Human mind'

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Torberger, Fredrik. "MIND-WANDERING – A Human Condition." Thesis, Högskolan i Skövde, Institutionen för biovetenskap, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-10388.

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Mind-wandering was until recently not a mainstream topic of research. The aim of this literature review is to present current views on the definition of mind-wandering and how the phenomenon is experienced. Furthermore, it gives an account of the implications of mind-wandering on cognitive performance, as well as its neurological correlates. In addition, the methods used to study mind-wandering are reviewed.The study of mind-wandering reveals a highly frequent phenomenon with practical consequences on a broad scale, both disruptive and supportive to goal-related behaviour and wellbeing in general. Originating from the default network, and its regions related to representations of self, memory, Theory of Mind, empathy and creativity, mind-wandering is hypothesized to be a function for planning one’s future life. Suggested further research concerns how mind-wandering can be countered, detected from the outside and whether it alters the physical feature of the brain.

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Amory, Carolyn Timmsen. "Human vocality monody, magic, and mind /." Diss., Online access via UMI:, 2009.

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3

Uings, David John. "Mind, meaning and miscommunication." Connect to e-thesis, 2008. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/355/.

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Thesis (M.Phil.) - University of Glasgow, 2008.
M.Phil. thesis submitted to the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, University of Glasgow, 2008. Includes bibliographical references. Print version also available.

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Booth, Kelvin Jay. "Animal mind, human mind : George H. Mead, animality and the evolution of embodied cognition /." Available to subscribers only, 2008. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1559848221&sid=9&Fmt=2&clientId=1509&RQT=309&VName=PQD.

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5

朱曉海 and Hsiao-hai Sherman Chu. "Xun Zi's concepts of human nature and mind." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1993. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31233077.

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Mnozhynska, R. V. "Grigory Skovoroda on the human mind and education." Thesis, Izdevniecība "Baltija Publishing", 2021. https://er.knutd.edu.ua/handle/123456789/18541.

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7

Disque, J. Graham, and Clifton W. Mitchell. "Mind-Body Approaches to Supervision." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2003. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/2814.

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8

Hempinstall, Susan. "Computational Model of Human Memory." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/35096.

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Theories of Extended Mind have evolved in waves to reach the present state of disagreement with regard to whether or not external artefacts become part of the mind when used for memory purposes. A four-step approach has been used to address and resolve this disagreement. First, a new component for models of mind which provides a saliency function is provided. This saliency function corresponds to computational elements found necessary in large mainframe computer systems for handling rich data environments. Second, there is introduced a Computational Model of Memory containing the new component which models the operation of human memory. The Computational Model of Memory contains four interoperative elements including the new component, short-term memory, long-term memory, and a cross-reference associator. Third, the work of Marcin Milkowski is drawn upon to obtain a general method of assessing a computational model’s well-formedness, and the method is applied to prove the adequacy of the Computational Model of Memory. According to Milkowski’s schema, the model satisfies most criteria for a well-formed computational model, including in particular a separation between conceptual elements of the model, and constitutive elements of the model, which while explicitly related, are required to subsist at separate logical conceptual levels. Fourth, the Computational Model of Memory is applied to outstanding arguments in Extended Mind to clarify and resolve several of these arguments. The model serves to highlight where the nature of the disagreement depends upon a category error of reference, and further resolves a key disagreement by demonstrating that the mind may treat external artefacts as an alternative realizable constitutive element of short-term and long-term memory.

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9

Hoff, Thomas. "Mind design : steps to an ecology of human-machine systems." Doctoral thesis, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology Management, 2003. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:no:ntnu:diva-49.

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We have, within the last years, witnessed horrifying tragedies within the transportation domain. Planes fall down, trains crash, boats sink, and car accidents are one of the most frequent causes of death throughout the world.

What is more, technology seems also to fail in settings that are more mundane. In his book "the trouble with computers: Usefulness, usability, and productivity", T.K. Landauer shows that the productivity has, within the western world, decreased by about 50% from the period 1950-1973 to the period from 1973 to 1993, and claims that this effect is mostly due to the introduction of technology. Even closer to home, technology is still anxiety provoking for most people. One of many everyday observations to support this fact can be seen at the airports. Have you wondered why most people line up, even for hours, without daring to go near the automatic check-in machines?

What has become of the grandiose promises from the heydays of artificial intelligence? What happened to the mind-machines of Newell and Simon? Where is HAL 9000? The distance between the massive technology positivism observed in the west, and the contemporary role of technology in the society, is, I believe, one of the largest paradoxes of our time.

What is particularly interesting to note, is that the parody of the AI of the 60s, seems to be recycled every now and again, both within entertainment, the financial world, and within academia. At the turn of the century, we have seen the popularity of movies like The Matrix, we have seen high hopes become sober reality at NASDAQ, and the reductionism of Newell and Simon is alive and well, in disguise of the magic buzzword connectionism. Universities around the world are now buying MRI – scanners on the thousands. We are, yet again (!), on the verge of discovering the mysteries of the mind.

The slogan "Vorsprung Durch Technic" used by Audi displays something that lies deep within the western mind, namely the tendency to define ourselves and our culture in terms the inherent qualities of technology; precision, logic, rationality, reliability, punctuality, determination and power. Technology is, in many respects, the totem of the western culture. Maybe this thesis should have been about Techno-Totemism. But it is not.

This thesis, on the other hand, attempts to explore what technology might have looked like, had it not been for techno-totemism, i.e. the prevailing idea within western culture and sciences, that humans are literally machines. This notion makes engineers design technological products as if humans actually were machines, or worse imperfect machines. The imperfect machine metaphor leads directly to the notion of "human error", which is often used in a particularly stupid fashion.

In this work I lean, on the contrary, on aspects of human cognition that are not machine-like whatsoever, and advocate a change in design focus, from an emphasis on technology to an emphasis on ecology. I have attempted to present my programme positively; that is, to give indications on how, in practical, real life settings, such an approach might be carried out. At certain points, however, it has been necessary to point out the difference of my approach from the traditional cognitive-based Human Factors tradition, to make my points explicit. I apologize to cognitivists and human factors specialists for occasionally making a straw man of their theory. There are many excellent contributions made by these traditions, which are not reflected in this thesis.

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Burgess, Scott Anthony. "The human body-soul complex in Plato's Timaeus." Thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.683195.

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Gerow, Lynn Ellen. "Children's understanding of human biology /." view abstract or download file of text, 2000. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p9963444.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-113). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users. Address: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p9963444.

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12

Huddleson, Michael. "Resolving Conflicts within the Mind: Internal Warfare in Non-Human Primates." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2012. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/philosophy_theses/122.

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This thesis explores the implications of non-human primates’ propensity to hyperbolically discount the future. Hyperbolic discounting occurs when small, near-term rewards are preferred over larger rewards that are realized at a future point in time, but these preferences do not hold when the choice between long term and short term rewards is made at a time far removed from when the choice produces rewards-- i.e., at a time when the payoff of the choice is distant. I discuss two mutually exclusive models that attempt to explain why non-human primates hyperbolically discount: the cognitivist and the behaviorist model. I then present evidence that supports the cognitivist model and undermines the behaviorist model. I then argue that a “War of Interests” (WOI) occurs within the non-human primate mind. I explain this WOI model, discuss its philosophical implications, and then conclude with a general theory of the non-human primate mind.

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13

Smith, Kevin Scott. "Mind, might, and mastery human potential in metaphysical religion and E.W. Kenyon /." Lynchburg, Va. : Liberty University, 2009. http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu.

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14

Collier, Mark David. "Newton of the mind : an examination of Hume's science of human nature /." Diss., Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 1999. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p9935469.

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15

Martin, Scott Graham. "Mind mapping in the middle school science classroom." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 2003. http://www.tren.com.

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16

Sankey, Derek Ernest. "Prioritising personal synoptic understanding in education." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2000. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10020356/.

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17

Kenadjian, C. Glenn. "A problem with recent materialistic theories of mind." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1991. http://www.tren.com.

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18

Nowell, April. "The archaeology of mind : standardization and symmetry in lithics and their implications for the study of the evolution of the human mind /." Ann Arbor : UMI dissertation services, 2000. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb400871619.

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19

Augustsson, Linus. "Design with Virtual Reality in Mind." Thesis, Högskolan på Gotland, Institutionen för speldesign, teknik och lärande, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-254500.

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This paper features an analysis of how some games are better designed for virtual reality than others and what we can learn from the games that work better to improve those that do not work as well. The thesis will briefly go through some of the problems in working with virtual reality. Data was collected by letting ten participants play four different games with the Oculus Rift and then answer questions related to their experience with these said games. Did the game cause the feeling of discomfort or create a sense of presence and did the game somehow break that presence? Based on the collected data and the analysis, the results indicate that some types of games work better than others for virtual reality, but that some design decisions can carry over to other games, granted with some effort, but that it is better if a game is created with virtual reality in mind from the start of the development.
Denna uppsats presenterar en analys om hur vissa spel är bättre designade för virtuell verklighet än andra och vad vi kan lära oss från spel som fungerar bättre för att förbättra de spel som inte fungerar lika bra. Uppsatsen kommer också behandla vissa problem som uppkommer när man arbetar med virtuell verklighet. Data samlades in genom att låta tio deltagare spela fyra olika spel med hjälp av Oculus Rift och sedan svara på några frågor relaterade till deras erfarenhet av dessa spel. Skapade spelen en känsla av obehag eller skapades en känsla av närvaro i spelvärlden och bröt spelet någonsin den med närvaron? Baserat på insamlad data och analys, indikerar resultatet på att vissa typer av spel fungerar bättre än andra för upplevelser i virtuella verkligheter, men att vissa designval kan överföras till andra spel, dock genom viss arbetsinsats, men att det är bättre om ett spel skapas med virtuell verklighet i åtanke från början av utvecklingen.

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20

Mott, Natasha Liane. "An investigation into the effects of right hemisphere brain damage on human communication." Thesis, Brunel University, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.340842.

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21

Yaldir, Hulya. "Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Rene Descartes on the mind and body problem." Thesis, University of Reading, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.301933.

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22

Perez-Cespedes, Martin. ""A Journey from the Mind to the Soul" Museum of the Human Body." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/42665.

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The inspiration for the development of this project - The Museum for the Human Body in Georgetown, Washington D.C. - was based on a study of the anatomy of movement and its Relationship to space. â A Journey from the mind to the soul’ is the connective experience linking the spaces of the project (body, mind and soul). This study is inspired by ideas from the early Chinese, Egyptian and Aristotelian philosophies as well as the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci in searching for the â sensus communis' as the location of the soul within the body.
Master of Architecture

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23

Molobe, Absalom Mosabeni. "The diary of Hammanskraal : open space : free - mind." Diss., Pretoria : [s.n.], 2008. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11272008-154322.

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24

Rebello, J. P. "Unconscious reasons : the explanation of human actions and the idea of an unconscious mind." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.375984.

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25

Baker, Chris L. (Chris Lawrence). "Bayesian Theory of Mind : modeling human reasoning about beliefs, desires, goals, and social relations." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/73768.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, 2012.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 127-139).
This thesis proposes a computational framework for understanding human Theory of Mind (ToM): our conception of others' mental states, how they relate to the world, and how they cause behavior. Humans use ToM to predict others' actions, given their mental states, but also to do the reverse: attribute mental states - beliefs, desires, intentions, knowledge, goals, preferences, emotions, and other thoughts - to explain others' behavior. The goal of this thesis is to provide a formal account of the knowledge and mechanisms that support these judgments. The thesis will argue for three central claims about human ToM. First, ToM is constructed around probabilistic, causal models of how agents' beliefs, desires and goals interact with their situation and perspective (which can differ from our own) to produce behavior. Second, the core content of ToM can be formalized using context-specific models of approximately rational planning, such as Markov decision processes (MDPs), partially observable MDPs (POMDPs), and Markov games. ToM reasoning will be formalized as rational probabilistic inference over these models of intentional (inter)action, termed Bayesian Theory of Mind (BToM). Third, hypotheses about the structure and content of ToM can be tested through a combination of computational modeling and behavioral experiments. An experimental paradigm for eliciting fine-grained ToM judgments will be proposed, based on comparing human inferences about the mental states and behavior of agents moving within simple two-dimensional scenarios with the inferences predicted by computational models. Three sets of experiments will be presented, investigating models of human goal inference (Chapter 2), joint belief-desire inference (Chapter 3), and inference of interactively-defined goals, such as chasing and fleeing (Chapter 4). BToM, as well as a selection of prominent alternative proposals from the social perception literature will be evaluated by their quantitative fit to behavioral data. Across the present experiments, the high accuracy of BToM, and its performance relative to alternative models, will demonstrate the difficulty of capturing human social judgments, and the success of BToM in meeting this challenge.
by Chris L. Baker.
Ph.D.

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Kim, Katherine Jihyun. "Haunted Mind and Matter: The Human Will and Haunting in Nineteenth-Century British Literature." Thesis, Boston College, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/3839.

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Thesis advisor: Judith Wilt
This project argues that the concept of haunting pervaded Victorian society, imagination, and thought and reflected anxieties regarding destabilized conceptions of the self and the world. It spans the nineteenth century from Mary Shelley to Henry James in order to claim that the living can invite and employ haunting in ways useful to self discovery or recovery. Rather than view haunting as a primarily one-directional relationship in which the haunter imposes itself on the haunted, I suggest that haunting can be invoked by the haunted in order to integrate new perspectives, conceptions, information, and situations vital to advancing self-perception and understandings of the surrounding world. Consequently, this study introduces a term I call "hauntedness," which amounts to the state of feeling or being haunted. Through this word, I hope to confer greater agency to the notion of being haunted than the more passive, acted-upon "to be haunted" can sometimes convey. Haunted Mind and Matter employs concepts from Jacques Derrida's Specters of Marx and "Différance" to complicate the question of haunting and enter the critical debate about Victorian haunting in particular. The works of Derrida and critics like Julian Wolfreys, following Sigmund Freud, reveal haunting as not restricted to bonds with spectral ghosts; it exists in every person and discourse. Using the term "haunt" in a multifaceted, flexible manner can challenge notions of the self and what is human through biological, social, and other constructs. The introduction examines Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, in my view an inverted ghost story, to exemplify this text's employment of the term "hauntedness." The project then explores uses of terms related to haunting in texts in which mental, historical, and social haunting are infused with strong gothic and Romantic imagery: Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847), Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend (1864-65), George Eliot's Middlemarch (1871), and Henry James' The Turn of the Screw (1898). I claim that these works both reveal the powerful presence of haunting in Victorian thought and society and show characters generating productive, reverberating uses for the haunting they experience in order to progress into the future. Haunted Mind and Matter demonstrates what the lens of haunting can reveal about character and social context in fiction
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: English

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27

Shain, Cory Adam. "Language, time, and the mind: Understanding human language processing using continuous-time deconvolutional regression." The Ohio State University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1619002281033782.

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HARRIS, BROOKE PRESTON. "UNION OF MIND AND BODY: A PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACH TO AUGMENT THE HUMAN SPATIAL EXPERIENCE." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1053447001.

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Harris, Brooke P. "Union of mind and body a philosophical approach to augment the human spatial experience /." Cincinnati, Ohio : University of Cincinnati, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=ucin1053447001.

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Dodd, Graham Douglas, and mikewood@deakin edu au. "Toward a broader appreciation of human motion in education." Deakin University. School of Social and Cultural Studies in Education, 2003. http://tux.lib.deakin.edu.au./adt-VDU/public/adt-VDU20051017.115722.

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Motion is a fundamental activity for the healthy functioning human organism. Its importance, however, is increasingly de-valued in Western cultures as they speed toward adopting technologies and virtual experiences as adjuncts to, and even replacements for7 traditional educational structures and processes that involve physical activity. Organised and reflective experience of human motion is becoming increasingly marginalised in teaching methodologies and learning programs in educational institutions at all levels around the globe. This inquiry sets out to gain a greater understanding of why people and human motion become disconnected, particularly during periods of formal education. A central question and two sub-questions form the basis of the inquiry. The central question asks why human motion is not valued and more utilised in education. In particular, why do learning areas that directly represent involvement with human motion, such as physical education, continually struggle in education programs. It directs the investigation to focus on the causes rather than the symptoms of the disuse and devaluation of human motion in Australian education. The two sub-questions split the praxis of the study. The first seeks to understand how the causes of devaluation work in the educational context lo affect the lack of acknowledgement; and the second considers ways to counter the disuse of human movement in education programs. To address these questions, the research focuses on rebutting the notion of a mind-body dualism. Rather, it seeks to better understand how humans learn and function as monists - integrated beings, acquiring self-knowledge in their 'world of being' in which bodily and emotional experiences, and reasoning are inextricably intertwined. I have approached this qualitative research as an ethnographic sociologist examining the issues from a critical high modernist perspective in order to demonstrate the pervading influence in Australian education of strong beliefs and values from the era of Enlightenment. Narrative analysis of 'memoir' in the form of self-defining memories was selected to gain a sensibility of the connectedness between human emotion, motion and reasoning in the lived experiences of students in three primary and three secondary schools across Years 2-12. An opportunity for human movement to be more valued and utilised in emerging educational frameworks that have life knowledge, dispositions and capabilities at their core is identified. The inquiry proposes a conceptualisation of human motion in education for new times characterised by the need for people to develop personal resources and strong positive identities in order to cope with a world of rapid change and uncertainty.

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Fisher, Matt. "Mind as creative organization : the nature and development of human cognition as a creative process /." Title page, abstract and table of contents only, 2004. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ARM/09armf5331.pdf.

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Isdra, Záchia Eduardo. "Subsistent Parts: Aquinas on the Hybridism of Human Souls." Thèse, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/24114.

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In this dissertation, I argue for the philosophical consistency of Aquinas’ hybrid view of human souls - that is, the idea that human souls, and only human souls, are at once substantial forms and subsistent things. I contend that the best way to understand the ontological status of human souls according to Aquinas is by means of the concept of ‘subsistent parts’. Since Aquinas characterizes souls as parts of substances, I propose a mereological analysis of the different types of part in Aquinas, and I conclude that souls should be seen as metaphysical parts of substances. An influential contemporary view holds that Aquinas’ doctrine is inconsistent on the grounds that nothing could be an abstract (form) and a concrete (subsistent) at the same time. I respond to this view by denying the widespread notion that substantial forms are purely abstract entities. I hold that the best way to make sense of Aquinas’ twofold approach to human souls is by saying that substantial forms possess an element of concreteness which is accounted for by the fundamental relationship between form and being. Finally, I address the question of taxonomy: how can we classify Aquinas’ view of the soul-body relation in light of the concepts that are currently used in philosophy of mind. I argue that the notion of a subsistent part entails the concept of ‘part-dualism’, which I present as standing midway between substance-dualism and nonreductive materialism, and also as being ontologically richer than property-dualism. I conclude this dissertation with a refutation of the idea championed by some prominent scholars that the existence of the soul is sufficient for the existence of the person.

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Bäckström, Ingrid. "Bodies, current vehicles, or embodied agents? : An anthropological study of the human body and the human condition in an age of Transhumanism." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för kulturantropologi och etnologi, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-426400.

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Transhumanism is a philosophy and a contemporary movement dedicated to improving the human condition in various ways. This thesis explores how the transhumanist movement contributes to the contemporary conceptualization or reconceptualization of the human body and the human condition. Furthermore, this thesis discusses three transhumanist key concepts, namely Mind Uploading, Cryonics, and the Primo Posthuman, and how these ideas might affect the research participants’ understanding and enactment of the human body and the human condition. By relying on ethnographic methods, including semi-structured interviews and participant observations from a 12-week fieldwork in Arizona, the ethnographic material is then discussed with the use of Annemarie Mol’s body multiple theory. In addition to this, the material is also analyzed with literature discussing the three main themes of this thesis, namely the re-conceptualization of the body, the mind, and body dualism, and the redefinition of death and the dying body. The ethnographic material and the accounts made from the research participants illustrate that the body is enacted and understood as insufficient and fragile, cartesian, a current vehicle readable and quantifiable through numbers and graphs, and a body whose mind can be uploaded into a computational substrate by the transhumanist community. It also describes how the body can be enacted as alive, an anatomical object, and a body with agency and personhood. Furthermore, the thesis concludes that the transhumanist movement contributes to the contemporary conceptualization and reconceptualization of the human body and the human condition by enacting multiple bodies as well as discussing and imagining new possible human conditions and human bodies. Lastly, this thesis does not only address important anthropological questions regarding ontology and the enactment of the human body. It also discusses relevant questions about humans and technology, as well as questions regarding death and imagination.

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Hoekenga, Barbara Christine. "Mind over machine : what Deep Blue taught us about chess, artificial intelligence, and the human spirit." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/42144.

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Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Humanities, Graduate Program in Science Writing, 2007.
"September 2007."
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-49).
On May 11th 1997, the world watched as IBM's chess-playing computer Deep Blue defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match. The reverberations of that contest touched people, and computers, around the world. At the time, it was difficult to assess the historical significance of the moment, but ten years after the fact, we can take a fresh look at the meaning of the computer's victory. With hindsight, we can see how Deep Blue impacted the chess community and influenced the fields of philosophy, artificial intelligence, and computer science in the long run. For the average person, Deep Blue embodied many of our misgivings about computers becoming our new partners in the information age. For researchers in the field it was emblematic of the growing pains experienced by the evolving field of AI over the previous half century. In the end, what might have seemed like a definitive, earth-shattering event was really the next step in our on-going journey toward understanding mind and machine. While Deep Blue was a milestone - the end of a long struggle to build a masterful chess machine - it was also a jumping off point for other lines of inquiry from new supercomputing projects to the further development of programs that play other games, such as Go. Ultimately, the lesson of Deep Blue's victory is that we will continue to accomplish technological feats we thought impossible just a few decades before. And as we reach each new goalpost, we will acclimate to our new position, recognize the next set of challenges before us, and push on toward the next target.
by Barbara Christine Hoekenga.
S.M.in Science Writing

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Eppinette, Franklin Matthew. "Bodiless exultation? transhumanism and embodiment /." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 2004. http://www.tren.com.

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Rogers, Gordon H. (Gordon Hartt) Carleton University Dissertation Geography. "Mutation, mind and epistemology; an examination of the concept of territoriality in humans as an informational and evolutionary phenomenon." Ottawa, 1992.

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Beighley, Steven M. "Non-Cooperative Communication and the Origins of Human Language." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2011. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/philosophy_theses/95.

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Grice (1982) and Bar-On and Green (2010) each provide 'continuity stories' which attempt to explain how a human-like language could emerge from the primitive communication practices of non-human animals. I offer desiderata for a proper account of linguistic continuity in order to argue that these previous accounts fall short in important ways. I then introduce the recent evolutionary literature on non-cooperative communication in order to construct a continuity story which better satisfies the proposed desiderata while retaining the positive aspects of the proposals of Grice and Bar-On and Green. The outcome of this project is a more tenable and empirically investigable framework chronicling the evolution of human-like language from communicative abilities currently found in non-human animals.

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Lee, Yongwoon. "The concept of the human mind presented in the three letters of Gregory of Nazianzus against Apollinarians." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1997. http://www.tren.com.

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Medlow, Sharon. "Mechanisms of mental causation an examination of the theories of Anomalous Monism and Direct Realism with regard to their proposals concerning the causal role of human mentality in the natural world /." Connect to full text, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/678.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2004.
Title from title screen (viewed 14 May 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Psychology, Faculty of Science. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

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Cloyd, Tristan Dane. "(r)Evolution in Brain-Computer Interface Technologies for Play: (non)Users in Mind." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/25221.

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This dissertation addresses user responses to the introduction of Brain-Computer Interface technologies (BCI) for gaming and consumer applications in the early part of the 21st century. BCI technology has emerged from the contexts of interrelated medical, academic, and military research networks including an established computer and gaming industry. First, I show that the emergence and development of BCI technology are based on specific economic, socio-cultural, and material factors, and secondly, by utilizing user surveys and interviews, I argue that the success of BCI are not determined by these contextual factors but are dependent on user acceptance and interpretation. Therefore, this project contributes to user-technology studies by developing a model which illustrates the interrelations between producers, users, values, and technology and how they contribute to the acceptance, resistance, and modification in the technological development of emerging BCI technologies. This project focuses on human computer interaction researchers, independent developers, the companies producing BCI headsets, and neuro-gadget companies who are developing BCI's for users as an alternative interface for the enhancement of human performance and gaming and computer simulated experience. Moreover, BCI production and use as modes of enhancement align significantly with social practices of play which allows an expanded definition of technology to include cultural dimensions of play.
Ph. D.

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Ferreira, Maria da Piedade Aldinhas de Freitas. "Embodied emotions." Doctoral thesis, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculadade de Arquitetura, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/14117.

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McCardell, Elizabeth Eve. "Catching the ball: constructing the reciprocity of embodiment." Thesis, McCardell, Elizabeth Eve (2001) Catching the ball: constructing the reciprocity of embodiment. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2001. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/189/.

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This interdisciplinary dissertation is a study of the ways in which we sensually embody and experience ow world. It is a metaphilosophical account that begins within orporeality; indeed, it is suggested that this is the place where the philosophic urge is argued, elaborated, and reflected upon. While many studies of embodiment tend to focus upon the body as object, cultural artefact, or text for cultural inscription, the approach used in this dissertation is with the incarnation (the making flesh) of interaction in particular socio-physical milieux. The shift is thus from investigation of bodies to bodying, from noun form to transitive verb of incorporealization. This shift is felt necessary in order to better understand the so-called dualisms of traditional Western philosophic thought: mindbody, self-other, self-world, nature-culture, etc., and Tantric inspired Eastern philosophies of self-all relationality. It will be suggested, taking the lead from Leder (1990), that these apparent dualisms are not so much add-ons to philosophies of being, but arise in the experiential body itself. This dissertation endeavours to rethink certain givens of everyday life, such as perception of time and space, place, enacted memory, having empathic feelings for others, and so on, from within bodily experience and occidental-oriental philosophies of being. Certain neurological disorders are examined for their way of deconstructing elements required to construct a meaningful incarnated life-world. The process of embodiment is not only what the body is, but what it does. My construction of what is necessary for embodiment studies therefore considers bodily praxes (cultural and individual), as well as the sensual, sensate experiences arising in the body. The image of a ball game is evoked in various ways throughout the dissertation not only because it well describes the dense layers of interaction and an emergent sense of bodiliness, but it also illustrates reciprocity and situatedness. This thesis is intended to contribute to the health sciences as well as cultural studies. It draws upon the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty, J. J. Gibson's ecological psychology, neurological studies and case histories, and the Eastern tradition of Tantrism in its Mahayanist Buddhist and Taoist forms.

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McCardell, Elizabeth Eve. "Catching the ball : constructing the reciprocity of embodiment /." McCardell, Elizabeth Eve (2001) Catching the ball: constructing the reciprocity of embodiment. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2001. http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/189/.

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This interdisciplinary dissertation is a study of the ways in which we sensually embody and experience ow world. It is a metaphilosophical account that begins within orporeality; indeed, it is suggested that this is the place where the philosophic urge is argued, elaborated, and reflected upon. While many studies of embodiment tend to focus upon the body as object, cultural artefact, or text for cultural inscription, the approach used in this dissertation is with the incarnation (the making flesh) of interaction in particular socio-physical milieux. The shift is thus from investigation of bodies to bodying, from noun form to transitive verb of incorporealization. This shift is felt necessary in order to better understand the so-called dualisms of traditional Western philosophic thought: mindbody, self-other, self-world, nature-culture, etc., and Tantric inspired Eastern philosophies of self-all relationality. It will be suggested, taking the lead from Leder (1990), that these apparent dualisms are not so much add-ons to philosophies of being, but arise in the experiential body itself. This dissertation endeavours to rethink certain givens of everyday life, such as perception of time and space, place, enacted memory, having empathic feelings for others, and so on, from within bodily experience and occidental-oriental philosophies of being. Certain neurological disorders are examined for their way of deconstructing elements required to construct a meaningful incarnated life-world. The process of embodiment is not only what the body is, but what it does. My construction of what is necessary for embodiment studies therefore considers bodily praxes (cultural and individual), as well as the sensual, sensate experiences arising in the body. The image of a ball game is evoked in various ways throughout the dissertation not only because it well describes the dense layers of interaction and an emergent sense of bodiliness, but it also illustrates reciprocity and situatedness. This thesis is intended to contribute to the health sciences as well as cultural studies. It draws upon the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty, J. J. Gibson's ecological psychology, neurological studies and case histories, and the Eastern tradition of Tantrism in its Mahayanist Buddhist and Taoist forms.

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Horowitz, Alexandra C. "The behaviors of theories of mind, and a case study of dogs at play /." Diss., Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 2002. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3056917.

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Brooks, David. "Completing the partial mind : the (im)perfection of the human condition in the later poetry of W.B. Yeats /." Title page only, 1995. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09AR/09arb8728.pdf.

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Cavalheiro, Andrea de Moraes. "Alma e corpo: um estudo sobre mente, sofrimento e deficiência." Universidade de São Paulo, 2016. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8134/tde-13032017-110139/.

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Esta tese é um estudo sobre a mente, a alma ou o espírito humano para entender o sofrimento. Entre as questões interdependentes estão o corpo, a materialidade e o simbólico. A deficiência é o objeto empírico de reflexão. Apontamos a mente enquanto: razão, em suas operações (filosófica, científica, prática e artística); desejos e sensações. Explicamos que o sofrimento e a felicidade são da ordem da mente. O sofrimento são condicionamentos mentais irracionais, que geram perturbações, ações e consequências equivalentes. São pedidos de inteleção. Descrevemos quatro deles: medo, desejo irracional, orgulho e carência. A felicidade é a ausência de sofrimento, uma mente em paz, obtida através da lapição de si. Explicamos que deficiência não é sofrimento. Detalhamos a razão científica em suas operações para definir o real, seja interno ou externo à mente (identificar indícios, dividir complexidades e fazer hipóteses e constatações). Para tanto, utilizamos comparações entre a medicina medieval e a moderna. Tratamos da materialidade, do corpo, da matéria orgânica viva, que também possui racionalidade. Explicamos o patológico, a anomalia e sua relação com a deficiência. Por fim, detalhamos o simbólico, o âmbito dos conteúdos mentais e seus compartilhamentos. Tratamos da distinção entre natureza e cultura e da criação do real. Mostramos operações do sofrimento na interação. Abordamos a explicação social da deficiência. Descrevemos conformações histórico-sociológicas que associam deficiência a: sofrimento e compaixão, abordando as Santas Casas de Misericórdia e escolas católicas para surdos e cegos; doença e anomalia, abordando a medicina moral, a degenerescência, a eugenia, o ensino dos anormais e a reabilitação; construção social, abordando os direitos humanos, o ativismo e a academia. Os principais interlocutores da tese são Descartes, Aristóteles, São Tomás de Aquino, Canguilhem, Lévi-Strauss e Geertz.
This thesis is a study of the mind, the soul or human spirit to understand suffering. Among the related issues are the body, the materiality and the symbolic. Disability is the empirical object for this analysis. We understand the mind as: reason, in its operations (philosophical, scientific, artistic and practical); desires and sensations. We explain that suffering and happiness are in the order of the mind. The suffering are irrational mental conditionings, which generate disturbances, actions and similar consequences. They are requests for intellection. We describe: fear, irrational desire, pride and shame. We explain that disability is not suffering. We detail the scientific reason in its operations to set the real, whether internal or external to the mind (to identify trace elements, to part complexities and to make hypotheses and conclusions). Therefore, we use comparisons between medieval and modern medicine. We reflect upon the materiality, the body, the living organic matter, which also has rationality. We explain the pathological, the anomaly and its relation to disability. Finally, we detail the symbolic, the scope of mental contents and their shares. We deal with the distinction between nature and culture and the creation of reality. We show the suffering operations in the interaction. We analyse the social explanation of disability. We describe historical-sociological conformations that link disability to: suffering and compassion, addressing the catholic brotherhoods for charity and schools for the deaf and blind; disease and anomaly, addressing the moral medicine, degeneracy, eugenics, the teaching of abnormal and rehabilitation; social construction, addressing human rights, activism and academic. Our main theoretical support are Descartes, Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, Canguilhem, Lévi-Strauss and Geertz.

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Lanman, Jonathan Andrew. "A secular mind : towards a cognitive anthropology of atheism." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2010. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:99ae030b-5f3a-4863-abf2-2f63eb8b4150.

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This thesis presents descriptive and explanatory accounts of both non-theism, the lack of belief in the existence of supernatural agents, and strong atheism, the moral opposition to such beliefs on the grounds that they are both harmful and signs of weak character. Based on my fieldwork with non-theist groups and individuals in the United States, United Kingdom, and Denmark, an online survey of over 3,000 non-theists from over 50 countries, and theories from both the social and cognitive sciences, I offer a new account of why nations with low economic and normative threats produce high levels of non-theism. This account is offered in place of the common explanation that religious beliefs provide comfort in threatening circumstances, which I show to be both anthropologically and psychologically problematic. My account centres on the role of threats, both existential and normative, in increasing commitment to ingroup ideologies, many of which are religious, and the important role of witnessing displays of commitment to religious beliefs in producing such beliefs in each new generation. In environments with low levels of personal and normative threat, commitment to religious ideologies decreases, extrinsic reasons for religious participation decrease, and superstitious actions decrease. Given the human tendency to believe the communications of others to the extent that they are backed up by action, such a decrease in displays of commitment to religious beliefs leads to increased non-theism in the span of a generation. In relation to strong atheism, I document a correlation, both geographical and chronological, between strong atheism and the presence of religious beliefs and demands in the public sphere. I then offer an explanation of this correlation based on the effects of threats against a modern normative order characterized by philosopher Charles Taylor as a system of mutual benefit and individual liberty.

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Dillon, Andrew, and Cliff McKnight. "Never mind the theory, feel the data: Observations on the design of hypertext-based user interfaces." Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/106012.

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This item is not the definitive copy. Please use the following citation when referencing this material: Dillon, A. and McKnight, C. (1995) Never mind the theory, feel the data: Observations on the design of Hypertext-based User Interfaces, In W. Schuler, J. Hannemann and N. Streitz (eds.) Designing User Interfaces for Hypermedia, Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 117-125. Introduction: In the present paper we will seek to place the design of hypermedia-based user interfaces in the appropriate context of user-centred system design. In so doing we will outline what we believe to be the major methodological issues. As this will indicate, we view hypermedia design as essentially no different from any other kind interface design in terms of process and problem. Hence the methodological issues for hypermedia interfaces need to be seen as design problems rather than cognitive scientific ones. In this vein, we argue for a data-driven approach to design that seeks theoretical insight at the methodological and process level of design rather than the user level.

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Reiter, Andrea M. F., Philipp Kanske, Ben Eppinger, and Shu-Chen Li. "The Aging of the Social Mind - Differential Effects on Components of Social Understanding." Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2017. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-230884.

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Research in younger adults dissociates cognitive from affective facets of social information processing, rather than promoting a monolithic view of social intelligence. An influential theory on adult development suggests differential effects of aging on cognitive and affective functions. However, this dissociation has not been directly tested in the social domain. Employing a newly developed naturalistic paradigm that disentangles facets of the social mind within an individual, we show multi-directionality of age-related differences. Specifically, components of the socio-cognitive route – Theory of Mind and metacognition – are impaired in older relative to younger adults. Nevertheless, these social capacities are still less affected by aging than factual reasoning and metacognition regarding non-social content. Importantly, the socio-affective route is well-functioning, with no decline in empathy and elevated compassion in the elderly. These findings contribute to an integrated theory of age-related change in social functioning and inform interventions tailored to specifically reinstate socio-cognitive skills in old age.

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Pavani, Sara Natsuki. "Memes inside and outside the Internet - how digital entertainment mirrors the human psyche." Bachelor's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2017. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/14187/.

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The essay sets out to explain how the meme-sharing mechanism on the Internet is the reflection of human psyche. Starting from Richard Dawkins’ definition of meme, the analysis focuses on the search of what make Internet memes go viral, with the supporting theories of Richard Brodie about the effect of memes on human mind and Limor Shifman’s studies about memes in digital culture. Having described the elements of adaptability, accessibility, belonging, exclusivity, nonsense, irony, cuteness, contrast, surprise, political incorrectness, and stereotype, meme genres such as image macros, videos and photoshop-edited pictures are analyzed across the spectrum of such factors. The result is subsequently compared to the ones obtained by Shifman in 2014, in order to find common elements to outline a spreading pattern. The third and last section focus on the effects of memes on human brain, starting from Brodie’s “button pushing” theory, which refers to many mechanisms such as “repetition”, “cognitive dissonance”, and “creating value” that trigger humans’ most basic instincts. By comparing such theory with Shifman’s about memes providing freedom of expression, the suggested solution concentrate on raising awareness the real potential of memes among people and providing them the means to make memes work for a more conscious society.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Human mind'

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