Roberto Casati, Achille Varzi (2020). A Slow Impossible Mirror Picture. Perception, doi:10.1177/0301006620967882

Abstract
A new type of impossible picture is presented and described. The picture involves an object along with its reflection in a plane mirror, delivering two apparently irreconcilable views of the object itself when seen simultaneously in its flesh and in the mirror. Contrary to other, more familiar impossible pictures, its interpretation requires explicit reasoning about the represented reality. It is a slow impossible picture.

Salvatore Florio, David Nicolas (2020). Plurals and Mereology. Journal of Philosophical Logic. doi:10.1007/s10992-020-09570-9

Abstract
In linguistics, the dominant approach to the semantics of plurals appeals to mereology. However, this approach has received strong criticisms from philosophical logicians who subscribe to an alternative framework based on plural logic. In the first part of the article, we offer a precise characterization of the mereological approach and the semantic background in which the debate can be meaningfully reconstructed. In the second part, we deal with the criticisms and assess their logical, linguistic, and philosophical significance. We identify four main objections and show how each can be addressed. Finally, we compare the strengths and shortcomings of the mereological approach and plural logic. Our conclusion is that the former remains a viable and well-motivated framework for the analysis of plurals.

Ava Guez, Hugo Peyre, Franck Ramus (2020). Sex differences in academic achievement are modulated by evaluation type. Learning and Individual Differences, 83–84, 101935. doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2020.101935

Abstract
Studies on sex differences in academic skills have often reported diverging results depending on the type of evaluation used, with girls typically obtaining better school grades and results at national examinations, and boys scoring higher at standardized tests. In this paper, we provide a framework for better understanding and interpreting these differences, integrating previously established factors that affect variations in the gender gap across evaluation types: writing skills, stakes, self-discipline and grading bias. We apply this framework to a dataset containing the results of 23,451 French students in three evaluations characterized by different combinations of these factors: teacher evaluations, national examinations, and standardized tests. We find that, overall, girls show lower performance than boys in mathematics and higher in French. However, this main effect is modulated by evaluation type: relative to boys, girls over-perform in teacher evaluations and under-perform in standardized achievement tests, compared to national examinations. These effects are larger in mathematics than in French. These results offer new insights regarding the extent to which writing skills, stakes, self-discipline and grading bias may influence the observed gap.

Mauricio de Jesus Dias Martins, Nicolas Baumard (2020). The rise of prosociality in fiction preceded democratic revolutions in Early Modern Europe. PNAS, 10.1073/pnas.2009571117

Abstract
The English and French Revolutions represent a turning point in history, marking the beginning of the modern rise of democracy. Recent advances in cultural evolution have put forward the idea that the early modern revolutions may be the product of a long-term psychological shift, from hierarchical and dominance-based interactions to democratic and trust-based relationships. In this study, we tested this hypothesis by analyzing theater plays during the early modern period in England and France. We found an increase in cooperation-related words over time relative to dominance-related words in both countries. Furthermore, we found that the accelerated rise of cooperation-related words preceded both the English Civil War (1642) and the French Revolution (1789). Finally, we found that rising per capita gross domestic product (GDPpc) generally led to an increase in cooperation-related words. These results highlight the likely role of long-term psychological and economic changes in explaining the rise of early modern democracies.

Jonathan F. Kominsky, Lewis Baker, Frank C. Keil & Brent Strickland (2020). Causality and continuity close the gaps in event representations. Mem Cogn, 10.3758/s13421-020-01102-9

Abstract
Imagine you see a video of someone pulling back their leg to kick a soccer ball, and then a soccer ball soaring toward a goal. You would likely infer that these scenes are two parts of the same event, and this inference would likely cause you to remember having seen the moment the person kicked the soccer ball, even if that information was never actually presented (Strickland & Keil, 2011, Cognition, 121[3], 409–415). What cues trigger people to "fill in" causal events from incomplete information? Is it due to the experience they have had with soccer balls being kicked toward goals? Is it the visual similarity of the object in both halves of the video? Or is it the mere spatiotemporal continuity of the event? In three experiments, we tested these different potential mechanisms underlying the "filling-in" effect. Experiment 1 showed that filling in occurs equally in familiar and unfamiliar contexts, indicating that familiarity with specific event schemas is unnecessary to trigger false memory. Experiment 2 showed that the visible continuation of a launched object’s trajectory is all that is required to trigger filling in, regardless of other occurrences in the second half of the scene. Finally, Experiment 3 found that, using naturalistic videos, this filling-in effect is more heavily affected if the object’s trajectory is discontinuous in space/time compared with if the object undergoes a noticeable transformation. Together, these findings indicate that the spontaneous formation of causal event representations is driven by object representation systems that prioritize spatiotemporal information over other object features.

François Recanati (2020). Langage, discours, pensée. Fayard, College de France, coll. "Leçons inaugurales", ISBN 978-2-213-71715-9.

Abstract
François Recanati offre un panorama de la philosophie analytique, et plus spécifiquement du sous-domaine qui en a longtemps constitué le cœur : la philosophie du langage, dans l’évolution de laquelle il discerne trois grandes phases. La première phase a donné naissance à la sémantique formelle, et la seconde à la pragmatique, deux disciplines qui ont profondément renouvelé la linguistique. La troisième phase, correspondant à la période actuelle, voit la philosophie du langage fusionner avec la philosophie de l’esprit au sein d’une théorie générale des représentations qui renoue avec le projet peircien d’une théorie générale des signes.

Frédérique de Vignemont (2020). Un homme augmenté mais à quel prix ? In Bénédicte Boyer-Bévière and Isabelle Moine-Dupuis (Eds). L’humain en transformation. Entre transhumanisme et humanité (pp 23-30)

Abstract
Pour que le transhumanisme devienne une hypothèse scientifique et non plus seulement une idéologie, il est nécessaire d’analyser le fonctionnement du cerveau humain. La recherche en neurosciences a révélé une certaine plasticité cérébrale, mais ces résultats n’impliquent pas l’absence totale de restriction sur les formes et le degré que les changements du cerveau peuvent prendre. Dans l’économie cérébrale, tout a un prix et l’augmentation de certaines capacités ne pourront se faire qu’au détriment d’autres. Cet article s’interroge sur la plausibilité du fantasme associé au transhumanisme à la lumière des limites fondamentales de l’esprit humain.

AGENDA

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Ailleurs à PSL

Sophie Cohen-Bodénès et Guilhem Marion, doctorants aux Laboratoire des Systèmes Perceptifs, en collaboration avec Rémi Mermet post-doctorant au Laboratoire Pays Germaniques de l'ENS organisent dans le cadre de la Chaire BEAUTÉ (S) PSL-L'OREAL le séminaire Jeunes Chercheurs dont l'objectif est d'offrir une réflexion collective et interdisciplinaire sur la question de la beauté, et toutes les thématiques afférentes. La première session aura lieu en ligne le 10 décembre de 16h à 18h avec Fleur Hopkins (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) "Monstres et merveilles dans l'imaginaire merveilleux-scientifiques : hybrides, chimères et hommes-bricolés". Découvrez le programme.

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