We examined the finding that aesthetic evaluations are more similar across observers for representational images than for abstract images. It has been proposed that a difference in convergence of observers' tastes is due to differing levels of shared semantic associations (Vessel & Rubin, 2010). In Experiment 1, student participants rated 20 representational and 20 abstract artworks. We found t...

Black and Brown students at JHU were, continue to be, disproportionately impacted by surveillance architecture security technology built into the campus environment. Protest messaging including “shut down plantation, cancel Hopkins private police!” “surveillance won’t give us safety” touch on impact of these small forms violence experienced marginalized students, yet frequently disregarded perp...

Abstract Predictive processing theories are increasingly popular in philosophy of mind; such process often gain support from the Free Energy Principle (FEP)—a normative principle for adaptive self-organized systems. Yet there is a current and much discussed debate about conflicting philosophical interpretations FEP, e.g., representational versus non-representational. Here we argue that these di...

It has been shown previously that liking and valence of associations in response to artworks show greater convergence across viewers for representational than for abstract artwork. The current research explored whether the same applies to the semantic content of the associations. We used data gained with an adapted unique corporate association valence measure, which invited 24 participants to g...

Damage to the hippocampus and medial temporal (MT) structures can lead to anterograde amnesia and may also impair latent learning, in which prior exposure to cues affects their subsequent associability. Normally, latent learning may reflect both representational and attentional mechanisms. Prior work has suggested that individuals with MT amnesia have specific deficits in representational proce...