Culture and Cancer

Genetic mechanisms, since they broadly involve information transmission, should be translatable into information dynamics formalism. From this perspective we reconsider the adaptive mutator, one possible means of 'second order selection' by which a highly structured 'language' of environment and development writes itself onto the variation upon which evolutionary selection and tumorigenesis operate. Our approach uses recent results in the spirit of the Large Deviations Program of applied probability that permit transfer of phase transition approaches from statistical mechanics to information theory, generating evolutionary and developmental punctuation in what we claim to be a highly natural manner

Consciousness: A Simple Information Theory Global Workspace Model

The asymptotic limit theorems of information theory permit a concise formulation of Bernard Baars' global workspace/global broadcast picture of consciousness, focusing on how networks of unconscious cognitive modules are driven by the classic 'no free lunch' argument into shifting, tunable, alliances having variable thresholds for signal detection. The model directly accounts for the punctuated characteristics of many conscious phenomena, and derives the inherent necessity of inattentional blindness and related effects

Driver Distraction by Advertising: Genuine Risk or Urban Myth?

Drivers operate in an increasingly complex visual environment,and yet there has been little recent research on the effects this might have on driving ability and accident rates. This paper is based on research carried out for the Scottish Executive’s Central Research Unit on the subject of external-to-vehicle driver distraction. A literature review/meta-analysis was carried out with a view to answering the following questions: is there a serious risk to safe driving caused by features in the external environment, and if there is, what can be done about it? Review of the existing literature suggests that, although the subject is under-researched, there is evidence that in some cases overcomplex visual fields can distract drivers and that it is unlikely that existing guidelines and legislation adequately regulate this. Theoretical explanations for the phenomenon are offered and areas for future research highlighted. likely to be distracting? Contemporary advertisements, forexample, are increasingly eye-catching, provocative and ‘explicit’. Does this have an effect on driving capability, and if so, what can we do about it

Addiction and the New Psychology

A look at the 'New Psychology' (Embodied, Discursive, Situated, and Distributed Cognition) to see what relevance it has to the 'addiction debate'

Information Processing Models: Benefits and Limitations

This paper looks at the three main information processing models from the point of view of researchers in confidential human factors databases. It explores conceptual problems with two of these information processing models, and goes on to explore possible advantages of adopting a ‘connectionist’ paradigm. Links between connectionism and ‘situated cognition’ are demonstrated. Practical work carried out using a connectionist/situated cognition model is described, and the way in which the ‘situatedness’ of discourse can influence the kind of data that can be collected is discussed. Finally it is argued that more emphasis should be placed in ergonomics on sociation, situatedness and embodiment, and that this might help to deal with problems faced in creation and interrogating databases: especially as regards the creation of coherent and reliable ‘coding taxonomies’