Mental model theory (Johnson-Laird & Byrne, 1991) is a dominant theory in human deductive reasoning studies. There are two other classes of theories that deal with human deduction: formal rules theories and content-specific rules theories. This paper begins with a few basic assumptions of the mental model theory, especially those according to which difficulty of inference is proportional to the...

The stigma of mental illness—the negative attitudes toward and rejection of the mentally ill— is a topic that has received increasing attention in recent years. The President's Commission on Mental Health (1978) recommended that a task force be established to help reduce stigma, to improve public understanding of mental illness, to assist former patients in the community, and to encourage the m...

This article provides an overview of psychiatric and mental health research on religion. First, conceptual models of religion and of mental health used throughout this literature are described. Second, published empirical research in this fi eld is summarized, including fi ndings from epidemiologic, clinical, and social and behavioral investigations. Third, promising theoretical perspectives fo...

Assertions of set membership, such as Amy is an artist, should not be confused with those of set inclusion, such as All artists are bohemians. Membership is not a transitive relation, whereas inclusion is. Cognitive scientists have neglected the topic, and so we developed a theory of inferences yielding conclusions about membership, e.g., Amy is a bohemian, and about non-membership, Abbie is no...

It is generally accepted that there is something special about reasoning by using mental images. The question of how it is special, however, has never been satisfactorily spelled out, despite more than thirty years of research in the post-behaviorist tradition. This article considers some of the general motivation for the assumption that entertaining mental images involves inspecting a picture-...

As an alternative to Hebb’s theory, mental life is described in terms of Sherrington’s synapses, habits, and William James’s notion of the stream of thought. The theory accounts for the major organic states, such as waking, sleep, and hypnotic trance; for states of general sensitivity; and for the following aspects of the stream of thought: thought objects with their fringes; acquainting (conce...

This paper proposes a new theory to account for the effects of underload on performance. Malleable attentional resources theory posits that attentional capacity can change size in response to changes in task demands. As such, the performance decrements associated with mental underload can be explained by a lack of appropriate attentional resources. These proposals were explored in a driving sim...

background following the tenets of world polity and innovation diffusion theories, i focus on the coercive and mimetic forces that influence the diffusion of mental health policy across nations. international organizations’ mandates influence government behavior. dependency on external resources, namely foreign aid, also affects governments’ formulation of national policy. and finally, mounting...