36. Logic: How to Do it Wrong

To the mind that\u27s yet to be enhanced by some strains of modern thought, the above quote probably comes across as amusing, but useless. After all, who would deny something as basic as the law of non-contradiction or the basic laws of logic? If saying My roommate annoys me is no different than saying My roommate doesn\u27t annoy me, then how can we ever say anything meaningful? Moreover, the very act of denying non-contradiction assumes the law to be true. Yet, some argue that our brains, like our opposable thumbs and other body parts, evolved not to perfect our logic, but to optimize our survival. According to these thinkers, when early man moved up in the world from hunter-gatherers to the African Delta, survival of the fittest favored those who learned to cooperate to grow crops, raise families, and breed domestic animals. Thus, our brains evolved to foster domesticity, rather than think through logically rigorous legal or scientific or philosophical arguments

05.15: Logic - Recognizing Fallacies

Taken with kind permission from the book Why Brilliant People Believe Nonsense by J. Steve Miller and Cherie K. Miller

35. Logic: Common Fallacies

In the last chapter we discussed passages where bright individuals with PhDs violated common fallacies. Even the brightest among us fall for them. As a result, we should be ever vigilant to keep our critical guard up, looking for fallacious reasoning in lectures, reading, viewing, and especially in our own writing. None of us are immune to falling for fallacies. Until doctors come up with an inoculation against fallacies, I suppose the next best thing is to thoroughly acquaint ourselves with the most common fallacies. I chose the following fallacies by comparing a dozen or so university sites that list what they consider the most common fallacies that trip up students

The Effects of Acute Stress on Learning and Decision Making

This item is only available electronically.The current body of literature pertaining to the effects of acute stress on learning and decision making is limited. Research has found that acute stress can impact either positively or negatively on learning and decision making. The aim of the following study was to further expand on the effects of acute stress on learning, reversal learning and decision making. Participants (N = 40) were required to complete the State Scale of the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) in order to assess their stress reactivity, as this has frequently been overlooked in previous studies. In order to assess the potential effects of inducing acute stress on learning, reversal learning and decision making, participants completed two tasks that required them to learn stimulus-response mappings and make rapid decisions based on their acquired knowledge. One of the tasks was completed under threat of sudden bursts of unpleasant noise, while the other was completed in safe conditions. The results suggest that there is no difference in learning or reversal learning between stress responders and non-responders. However, contrary to previous research, stress was found to significantly enhance reversal learning in both responders and non-responders. Further exploratory analyses revealed that stress responders had significantly increased reaction times, when making high conflict decisions during the threat condition. In contrast, nonresponders had significantly decreased reaction times. These findings indicate a relationship between acute stress and reversal learning and decision making. In addition, the findings provide insight into how individuals may differ in their application of knowledge while under stress, depending on whether they react to the stress manipulation. Keywords: Acute Stress, Anxiety, Decision Making, High Conflict; Decisions, Learning, Non-Responders, Responders, Reversal Learning, State Anxiety, Threat Condition.Thesis (B.PsychSc(Hons)) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 201

05.13: Logic - Common Fallacies

Taken with kind permission from the book Why Brilliant People Believe Nonsense by J. Steve Miller and Cherie K. Miller

37. Logic: Recognizing Fallacies

I often read comments on blog posts or articles or Facebook discussions which accuse the writer of committing a specific logical fallacy and thus declaring the argument thoroughly debunked, typically with an air of arrogant finality. While the debunker may feel quite smug, intelligent participants consider him quite sophomoric.*text annotation indicator In reality, he\u27s typically failed to even remotely understand the argument, much less apply the fallacy in a way that\u27s relevant to the discussion. Surely this fallacy deserves a proper name and should be listed with other fallacies. Thus I\u27ll define The Fallacy Fallacy as Improperly connecting a fallacy with an argument, so that the argument is errantly presumed to be debunked

First Complete Genome Sequence of Corynebacterium riegelii.

Here, we report the first complete genome sequence of Corynebacterium riegelii strain PUDD_83A45, isolated from the urine of a patient with urinary tract infection. The genome measured 2.56 Mb and contained no plasmid