The Aperture of Consciousness

"The Aperture of Consciousness" proposes a comprehensive model of consciousness as an evolving, reflexive architecture of framing. Moving beyond static theories of mind, it formalizes the dynamic processes of drift, collapse, and resonance, through which cognitive structures navigate complexity, maintain coherence, and undergo transformation. Consciousness is framed not as a substance, but as an adaptive aperture: a self-sensing topology capable of recursive modulation. Drawing on neuroscience, cognitive science, philosophy of mind, and systems theory, the book outlines a Reflexive Resonance Theory (RRT) that models cognition within dynamic epistemic spaces. It also explores applications to education, therapy, artificial intelligence, and cultural evolution, proposing that the future of intelligence lies in the conscious co-architecture of meaning. This work invites philosophers, scientists, and reflexive practitioners to engage with consciousness not as a fixed property, but as a living aperture through which the universe comes to know itself

Third-party punishment, vigilante justice, or karma? Understanding the dynamics of interpersonal and cosmic justice

People around the world both engage in both interpersonal punishment and expect supernatural punishment of wrongdoers. That is, people will impose costs and withhold benefits from transgressors, and they expect bad things to happen to transgressors more often than to good people. Evolutionary theories have proposed that both interpersonal and supernatural justice beliefs result from similar motivations, cognitive mechanisms, and cultural evolutionary processes that bind human beings into cooperative groups. To explore these ideas, three preregistered studies (N = 3,430) investigated situational factors and individual differences that shape reactions to interpersonal and supernatural justice. Perceived appropriateness of both interpersonal justice and supernatural justice depended on recipients’ past moral actions, with more positive impressions when antisocial actions and bad outcomes befell previously antisocial victims. However, third-party interpersonal punishment was viewed far more negatively than interpersonal reprimands or supernatural punishments, especially when the potential punisher was unaware of the victim’s past transgressions. Explicit belief in karma significantly moderated perceptions of harmful outcomes not caused by human agents, but karma belief was largely unrelated to perceptions of harm caused by humans. Together, results reveal distinct factors that predict judgments about interpersonal punishment and karmic punishments, and provide insight into the distinct dynamics of interpersonal and supernatural justice

Universal Beauty of Abstract Art Predicted by Deep Neural Networks

Why do certain artworks captivate us all? Despite the subjective nature of aesthetic experience, certain visual patterns evoke remarkably consistent beauty judgments across individuals and cultures. Using crowdsourced behavioral data across Western and East Asian cultures, we show that aesthetic ratings of well-controlled abstract paintings – artwork without explicit semantic references – are highly stable across people. We hypothesize that this consistent aesthetic perception arises from computational processes linked with perceived beauty during feedforward visual processing. To test this, we used pre-trained deep neural networks (DNNs) to predict perceived beauty in these paintings. Our findings reveal that efficient coding, reflected in reduced network activation level, predicts perceived beauty and emerges early in the cascade of visual processing, which is later complemented by mid-level beauty-related pattern matching. Combined, these findings uncover key neural computations underlying aesthetic perception, suggesting that perceived beauty may be evolutionarily rooted in energy-efficient sensory processing

‘Who has police on their side they’ll win’: police-religion nexus in lay explanations for police’s actions in Delhi riots 2020.

Much psychological research has examined the role of authority and police in conflicts and riots where the police is directly a target for the rioters. Further, much of this research has examined issues in WEIRD and settings of the Global North. In this paper, I examine the role of police in riots between two social groups in India: the 2020 Hindu-Muslim Delhi riots. I offer a discursive psychological examination of lay accounts of users' comments to news coverage of these riots. The analysis shows that users first oriented to and mobilized a readily known understanding that policing is biased and affiliated to Hindus over Muslims. Second, users developed and negotiated the possible affiliation of police to Hindu groups by pointing to contingent and routinized practices of both police and Muslims. Last, users offered routinized descriptions of Muslims as violent in justifying police actions. Findings show that users could interchangeably treat the police and Hindu groups in dealing with Muslims. Overall, policing was evaluated in terms of a religious groundswell of meanings and perceptions of relations between social groups and the State

Coaching and NLP: Knowledge of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) ‎and Using the Application of Its Techniques in Coaching for Progress in ‎Various Personal and Professional Fields

This paper examines the integration of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) with coaching to foster personal and professional growth. NLP is a method focused on understanding and reprogramming the mind and subconscious through verbal and non-verbal communication patterns, offering individuals the tools to reshape behaviors, beliefs, and emotional responses. The study reviews the historical development of NLP, its theoretical underpinnings, and key concepts such as perceptual channels (visual, auditory, sensory, and rational) and the Dilts pyramid, which outlines six levels of change: environment, behavior, capabilities, beliefs and values, identity, and spirituality. Coaching, a collaborative relationship, is presented as a powerful tool in which a trained coach applies NLP strategies to help clients achieve defined objectives. Essential coaching competencies, including building trust, active listening, and ethical practices, are discussed. The paper also explores various NLP techniques—such as visualization, reframing, conditioning, and mental imagery—and their applications in addressing anxiety, procrastination, negative thought patterns, self-doubt, and confidence-building. Additional areas of focus include memory enhancement, financial goal setting, and emotional regulation. While the practical benefits of NLP in coaching are emphasized, the study also highlights NLP’s classification as a pseudoscientific approach, underscoring the need for more empirical research to substantiate its claims. Overall, combining NLP with coaching is presented as a robust, adaptable framework for enabling meaningful personal transformation, offering clients actionable tools to overcome challenges and achieve sustained success in diverse aspects of life

Hipótese da Disfunção de Engajamento Receptor-Fármaco como Mecanismo para a Refratariedade Psicofarmacológica

Apresentaremos de forma clara e concisa a hipótese: que a refratariedade a agonistas e antagonistas em psicofarmacologia pode, em alguns casos, decorrer não apenas de mecanismos clássicos como downregulation ou polimorfismos genéticos, mas de um fenômeno funcional em que o receptor neuronal “rejeita” ou impede o engajamento e internalização do agonista ou fármaco. Essa rejeição configuraria um novo alvo terapêutico em casos de transtornos mentais resistentes ao tratamento

Six-Year-Olds Use an Intuitive Theory of Attention to Infer What Others See, Whom to Trust, and What They Want

Understanding the relationship between seeing and knowing is fundamental to social cognition. While research demonstrates that even infants grasp basic aspects of this relationship, prior work often treats perceptual access and knowledge as equivalent (e.g., "if you see it, you know it"). In reality, their connection is richer: more complex objects require longer to encode, and agents’ looking patterns often reveal how well they have encoded something and how much they want it. Across three experiments, we investigated whether children understand these nuances. In Experiment 1, we found that by age six, children expect more objects to require longer looking times. In Experiment 2, children inferred that agents who looked longer were more likely to form accurate representations of what they observed. In Experiment 3, children reasoned that agents who looked longer at an object were more likely to want it. Together, these findings suggest that by age six, children develop an intuitive theory of attention, enabling them to make sophisticated inferences about others' mental states based on looking behaviors

Bridging the gap: predicting the critical window at intake in contingency management

Contingency management (CM) is a psychosocial treatment used to improve a number of socially significant behaviors. Its efficacy has been demonstrated many times over in a variety of treatment contexts, and efforts to demonstrate its effectiveness are underway at the state level. Development of useful predictive modeling has lagged far behind other technological advancements in methodology for improving treatment outcomes. Based on these other technological advancements it is well known that modifying treatment parameters (e.g., incentive magnitude) can result in better treatment outcomes, yet, to my knowledge, no studies have relied on predictive models to provide additional supports to those who may not be successful under default treatment parameters. In the present paper I propose and validate a framework for predicting early success in CM treatment using a large CM dataset consisting of over 800 participants. Within that framework I develop models to predict CM treatment outcomes using only data from intake questionnaires and the prediction of early treatment success. The best performing model for predicting early treatment success achieved a receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (ROC-AUC) score of 0.83. Using that model I predicted continuous abstinence of at least 8 and at least 12, with ROC-AUC scores of 0.81 and 0.77 respectively

Guided Recall of Positive Autobiographical Memories Increases Anticipated Pleasure and Psychological Resources, and Reduces Depressive Symptoms: A Replication and Extension of a Randomized Controlled Trial of Brief Positive Cognitive‐Reminiscence Therapy

Reminiscence-based interventions focus on recalling autobiographical memories and reflective reasoning to develop a healthy and adaptive view of oneself and one’s life. This study aimed to replicate the effects of a three-session, group-based, positive-memory version of cognitive-reminiscence therapy (CRT) on psychological resources and mental well-being and extend the findings to anticipated pleasure. The participants (N=75, Mage= 43.7 (SD= 16.7), 60% females) were randomised to CRT or control group. Anticipated pleasure, psychological resources (schemas of positive self-esteem, self-efficacy, meaning in life, optimism), mental well-being (depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms) and theorised change processes (automatic negative thoughts, awareness of narrative identity) were assessed. Relative to the control group, the CRT group reported significantly higher anticipated pleasure (d=0.76-0.93) and psychological resources of self-esteem, self-efficacy, and optimism (d’s=0.58-0.99) at post-CRT and follow-up, and lower depressive symptoms post-CRT and at follow-up (d=0.56–0.67). Findings on meaning in life and negative automatic thinking were partially replicated. This study replicates findings of the effectiveness of this intervention for improving psychological resources such self-worth, confidence and optimism and depressive symptoms, and indicates additional effects on anticipated pleasure. CRT may serve as a standalone intervention, or as an adjunct ‘memory booster’ for interventions focused on future thinking and related anticipated reward

Subjective valuation as a domain-general process in creative thinking

Is a talented painter also a proficient writer? The ongoing discourse on whether creativity operates through domain-general or domain-specific mechanisms has led to challenges in our understanding of the creative process. Prior research suggests that creativity comprises two phases: idea generation and evaluation. A recent framework has proposed that the evaluation phase involves a valuation process which occurs upstream of the selection of an idea. In this framework, the value assigned to an idea, i.e., how much one likes an idea, energizes its production and drives its selection. While the role of valuation has been demonstrated in verbal semantic creativity, its domain generality remains to be tested. In this study, we assessed whether valuation is a domain-general or domain-specific process. Seventy-three participants engaged in three creativity tasks (producing semantic associations, alternate object uses, and drawings) followed by rating tasks. Using computational modeling, we found that a consistent valuation mechanism governs idea valuation across different domains. Specifically, the same value function and value parameters were shared across the evaluation of word associations, object uses and drawing completions. These findings advance our understanding of the evaluation phase of creativity, portraying the valuation component as inherently domain-general. Identifying such core components of creative ideation contributes to elucidating the cognitive mechanisms underlying creativity and provides empirical support for including valuation as a core process in creativity