Concept Acquisition and Experiential Change

Many have held the Acquisition of Concepts Thesis (ACT) that concept acquisition can change perceptual experience. This paper explains the close relation of ACT to ADT, the thesis that acquisition of dispositions to quickly and reliably recognize a kind of thing can change perceptual experience. It then states a highly developed argument given by Siegel (2010) which, if successful, would offer strong support for ADT and indirect support for ACT. Examination of this argument, however, reveals difficulties that undermine its promise. Distinctions made in this examination help to clarify an alternative view that denies ADT and ACT while accepting that long exposure to a class of materials may induce changes in phenomenology that lie outside perceptual experience itself

Papineaus konzeptualer Dualismus und die Intuition der Gewissheit

As part of a defense of a physicalist view of experiences, David Papineau (2002) has offered an explanation for the intuition that properties found in experiences are distinct from neural properties. After providing some necessary background, I argue that Papineau’s explanation is not the best explanation of the distinctness intuition. An alternative explanation that is compatible with dualism is offered. Unlike Papineau’s explanation, this alternative does not require us to suppose that the distinctness intuition rests on fallacious reasoning. Relations of the alternative explanation to representationalism and to cases of genuine property identity are discussed.Défendant le point de vue physicaliste de l’expérience, David Papineau (2002) propose une explication à l’intuition que les propriétés contenues dans les expériences se distinguent des propriétés nerveuses. Après avoir présenté quelques éléments de contexte, je soutiens que l’hypothèse de Papineau n’est pas la meilleure pour expliquer l’intuition de la distinction. Il existe une explication alternative, compatible avec le dualisme. A la différence de celle de Papineau, cette explication ne demande pas de supposer que l’intuition de la distinction soit fondée sur un raisonnement fallacieux. Le débat porte sur les rapports de cette explication alternative avec le représentationalisme et les cas de l’identité des propriétés innées.Im Rahmen seiner Verteidigung der physikalistischen Sichtweise der Erfahrung bot David Papineau 2002 die Erklärung an, dass bei der Intuition die erfahrungsmäßigen Eigenschaften anders geartet seien als neuronale Eigenschaften. Nach einer Schilderung des notwendigen Kontextes vertritt der Autor die These, dass Papineaus Erklärung zur Intuition der Gewissheit nicht die beste sei. Angeboten wird eine alternative, mit dem Dualismus kompatible Erklärung. Im Unterschied zu Papineaus Standpunkt setzt diese Alternative nicht die Annahme voraus, dass die Intuition der Gewissheit auf trugschlüssigen Gedankengängen beruhe. Es wird das Verhältnis der angeführten alternativen Sichtweise zum Repräsentationalismus sowie zu Fällen erörtert, in denen eine Identität angeborener Eigenschaften vorliegt

Island closure feasibility study power analysis results for Dassen and Robben islands

The power analysis for penguin responses to fishing around Dassen and Robben islands has been completed. Response variables considered are chick condition, active nest proportion, fledging success, chick growth, foraging path length, and foraging trip duration. Although complete results are given here only for the first two of these variables, overall there are clear indications regarding the residual variances associated with these variables. Those variances are now estimable for Dassen and Robben islands with sufficient reliability to allow a decision on whether an experimental closure programme could yield definitive conclusions regarding the impact of fishing close to island colonies on penguin demographics within a realistic time span. Thus the purpose of the feasibility study has been achieved and the study can be concluded, with the island closure experiment commenced for these two islands. Definitive results from the experiment can be expected for both islands with about 2–4 years’ additional data

Robustness of the penguin population model estimator

The robustness of an estimator may be investigated by assuming that the “true” operating model is in fact different (for example, a constant may have a different value or a key relationship may have a different functional form to that assumed by the estimator). Data generated from this “reality” are then fitted using the estimator. The distributions of the results are then compared to the corresponding “true” values of the operating model

Island closure feasibility study power analysis

This paper indicates how it is planned to extend the general linear model (GLM) analyses by Robinson (2013) to estimate the power of the Island Closure Experiment. Statistical power reflects the probability that an experiment will detect an effect if it exists

Results of an alternative pelagic biomass series for the relationship with penguin adult survival

A key component of the Robben Island penguin population model (Robinson and Butterworth 2011a,b) is the relationship between annual penguin adult survival and the abundance of small pelagic fish. This is of primary importance as it enables one to produce penguin population projections based on different future small pelagic abundance levels. The sardine and anchovy OMPs may then be designed to take into account the risk to penguins of reaching a low pelagic abundance level

Penguin population models for Robben Island

As an initial illustrative exercise, a population model for Robben Island penguins, which includes dependency of reproductive success and survival rate on pelagic fish abundance, is fitted to moult count information for the colony. The results indicate a strong dependence of adult penguin survival rate on sardine abundance west of Cape Agulhas. However, the logistic transformation used to ensure respect of biological constraints on these demographic parameters leads to some problems in extending the approach to Bayesian estimation. Further work will explore use of the beta distribution and the incorporation of further data for the penguin population in the fitting process

Comments on the benefit to penguins of fishing restrictions around Robben Island predicted by Weller et al. Robben Island penguin model simulations

The following comments relate to results in a recent publication (Weller et al., 2014) that are pertinent to the discussions of the Island Closure Task Team, specifically the impact of fishing around Robben Island on the penguin population. Three scenarios were explored in that paper, each starting with 3500 adult penguins

GLMs relating penguin demographics to pelagic catches close to islands and to pelagic abundance

Earlier GLM analyses of the impact of pelagic fishing in the vicinities of Robben and Dassen Islands on the dynamics of penguins breeding on those islands are extended to cover a wider set of data series, and to consider relationships involving sardine and anchovy separately as well as together. This in turn allows the estimation of the change in penguin population growth rate to be expected from suspending pelagic fishing in the vicinities of these islands. Interpretation of results is confounded by poor precision which is a consequence of the shortness of the time series. Likely the most that could be said with some confidence is that the results of the analyses do not support the hypothesis that suspending fishing around Robben and Dassen Islands would enhance penguin reproductive success there