harnad@mind.UUCP (03/12/87)
The following are the the abstracts of two forthcoming articles on which BBS
[Behavioral and Brain Sciences -- An international, interdisciplinary
Journal of Open Peer Commentary, published by Cambridge University Press]
invites self-nominations by potential commentators.
(Please note that the editorial office must exercise selectivity among the
nominations received so as to ensure a strong and balanced cross-specialty
spectrum of eligible commentators. The procedure is explained after
the abstract.)
-----
Abstract #1:
THE ANOMALY CALLED PSI: RECENT RESEACH AND CRITICISM
J. Palmer & K.R. Rao
Institute of Parapsychology
Durham NC 27708
Over the past hundred years a number of scientific investigators
claim to have adduced experimental evidence for "psi" phenomena --
the apparent ability to receive information shielded from the
senses and to influence systems outside the sphere of motor
activity. A report of one series of highly significant psi
experiments and the objections of critics are discussed in some
depth in this BBS target article. It is concluded that the possibility
of sensory cues, machine bias, cheating by subjects and experimenter
error or incompetence cannot reasonably account for the significant
results. In addition, less detailed reviews of the experimental
results in several broad areas of psi research indicate that psi
results are statistically replicable and that significant patterns
exist across a large body of experimental data. For example, a wide
range of research seems to converge on the idea that because ESP
"information" seems to behave like a weak signal that must compete
for the information-processing resources of the organism, a
reduction of ongoing sensory-motor activity may facilitate ESP
detection. Such meaningful convergence of results suggests that psi
phenomena may represent a unitary, coherent process whose nature
and compatibility with current physical theory has yet to be
determined. The theoretical impliations and potential practical
applications of psi could be significant irrespective of the small
magnitude of psi effects in laboratory settings.
# # # # #
Abstract #2:
PARAPSYCHOLOGY: SCIENCE OF THE ANOMALOUS OR SEARCH FOR THE SOUL?
James E. Alcock
Department of Psychology
Glendon College
York University
Toronto, Ontario
Although there has been over a hundred years of formal empirical
inquiry, parapsychologists have clearly failed to produce a single
reliable demonstration of "paranormal" or "psi" phenomena. Although
many parapsychological research projects have been carried out
under what have been described as well-controlled conditions, this
does not by itself make a science, for until it can be demonstrated
that paranormal phenomena really exist, there is no subject matter
around which a science can develop. Indeed, parapsychologists have not
even succeeded in developing a reasonable definition of paranormal
phenomena that does not involve some aspect of mind/body dualism.
Moreover, parapsychology has developed several priniciples (such as
the experimenter effect) which can be used to explain away failures,
and the use of these principles contributes to making psi-hypotheses
unfalsifiable.
The "anything goes" attitude in parapsychology, which seems to lend
credence to virtually any "paranormal" claim, serves to weaken the
credibility of parapsychological endeavors in the eyes of critics.
This general willingness to suspend credulity is another indication
that parapsychology is more than the quest to explain anomalous
experiences, as is claimed. Parapsychological inquiry reflects the
attempt to establish the reality of a nonmaterial aspect of human
existence rather than a search for explanations of anomalous phenomena.
-----
This is an experiment in using the Net to find eligible commentators
for articles in the Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS), an
international, interdisciplinary journal of "open peer commentary,"
published by Cambridge University Press, with its editorial office in
Princeton NJ.
The journal publishes important and controversial interdisciplinary
articles in psychology, neuroscience, behavioral biology, cognitive science,
artificial intelligence, linguistics and philosophy. Articles are
rigorously refereed and, if accepted, are circulated to a large number
of potential commentators around the world in the various specialties
on which the article impinges. Their 1000-word commentaries are then
co-published with the target article as well as the author's response
to each. The commentaries consist of analyses, elaborations,
complementary and supplementary data and theory, criticisms and
cross-specialty syntheses.
Commentators are selected by the following means: (1) BBS maintains a
computerized file of over 3000 BBS Associates; the size of this group
is increased annually as authors, referees, commentators and nominees
of current Associates become eligible to become Associates. Many
commentators are selected from this list. (2) The BBS editorial office
does informal as well as formal computerized literature searches on
the topic of the target articles to find additional potential commentators
from across specialties and around the world who are not yet BBS Associates.
(3) The referees recommend potential commentators. (4) The author recommends
potential commentators.
We now propose to add the following source for selecting potential
commentators: The abstract of the target article will be posted in the
relevant newsgroups on the net. Eligible individuals who judge that they
would have a relevant commentary to contribute should contact the editor at
the e-mail address indicated at the bottom of this message, or should
write by normal mail to:
Stevan Harnad
Editor
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
20 Nassau Street, Room 240
Princeton NJ 08542
(phone: 609-921-7771)
"Eligibility" usually means being an academically trained professional
contributor to one of the disciplines mentioned earlier, or to related
academic disciplines. The letter should indicate the candidate's
general qualifications as well as their basis for wishing to serve as
commentator for the particular target article in question. It is
preferable also to enclose a Curriculum Vitae. (This self-nomination
format may also be used by those who wish to become BBS Associates,
but they must also specify a current Associate who knows their work
and is prepared to nominate them; where no current Associate is known
by the candidate, the editorial office will send the Vita to
approporiate Associates to ask whether they would be prepared to
nominate the candidate.)
BBS has rapidly become a widely read read and highly influential forum in the
biobehavioral and cognitive sciences. A recent recalculation of BBS's
"impact factor" (ratio of citations to number of articles) in the
American Psychologist [41(3) 1986] reports that already in its fifth year of
publication (1982) BBS's impact factor had risen to become the highest of
all psychology journals indexed as well as 3rd highest of all 1300 journals
indexed in the Social Sciences Citation Index and 50th of all 3900 journals
indexed in the Science Citation index, which indexes all the scientific
disciplines.
Potential commentators should send their names, addresses, a description of
their general qualifications and their basis for seeking to comment on
this target article in particular to the address indicated earlier or
to the following e-mail address:
{allegra, bellcore, seismo, rutgers, packard} !princeton!mind!harnad
harnad%mind@princeton.csnet
[Subscription information is available from Harry Florentine at
Cambridge University Press: 800-221-4512]
--
Stevan Harnad (609) - 921 7771
{bellcore, psuvax1, seismo, rutgers, packard} !princeton!mind!harnad
harnad%mind@princeton.csnet harnad@princeton.ARPAkent@xanth.UUCP (03/17/87)
I would like to register an objection to BBS, Inc. conducting their for-profit business over this publicly funded network. With the present tension over the rising costs of net usage, such abuse of the purpose of the net is especially unwelcome now. My tax and tuition money can be put to better use. -- Kent Paul Dolan, "The Contradictor", 25 years as a programmer, CS MS Student at ODU, Norfolk, Virginia, to find out how I was supposed to be doing this stuff all these years. 3D dynamic motion graphics a specialty. Work wanted. Unemployment is soooo nice though...I never have to disclaim anything! UUCP : kent@xanth.UUCP or ...seismo!decuac!edison!xanth!kent CSNET : kent@odu.csnet ARPA : kent@xanth.cs.odu.edu Voice : (804) 587-7760 USnail: P.O. Box 1559, Norfolk, Va 23501-1559 Wisdom: "Peace in mankind's lifetime. Why leave a whole universe unexplored?"
kent@xanth.UUCP (Kent Paul Dolan) (03/19/87)
In article <707@xanth.UUCP> [I wrote]: > >I would like to register an objection to BBS, Inc. conducting their for-profit >business over this publicly funded network. With the present tension over the >rising costs of net usage, such abuse of the purpose of the net is especially >unwelcome now. My tax and tuition money can be put to better use. There have been enough intemperate responses by mail, questioning my intellect, professionalism, or good sense, in response to my objection to use of this newsgroup for commercial purposes, that it seems there are several people using this group who have not yet bothered to read the rules. I didn't make these rules up, I am not the authority on them, and complaining to me won't do a bit of good. I have a very quick hand for the delete command in my mail system ;-) I quote at length: -> How to Use USENET Effectively [...] [written by:] -> Matt Bishop [...] -> Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science -> Mail Stop 230-5 -> NASA Ames Research Center -> Moffett Field, CA 94035 [...] -> In one sense it has become worse; -> as more articles are posted to the network, -> phone costs and system loads averages increase, -> and system administrators require USENET administrators to cut back -> or eliminate newsgroups and -> to transmit news only at night -> (which means long propagation delays). -> In short, -> everyone who has anything to do with administering any USENET site -> is very concerned about the future of USENET, -> both in general -> and at his own site. [...] -> Many of the rules you will read address this concern. -> The fear that USENET may collapse is not a bogeyman, -> but very real. -> We hope it will not collapse, -> and the rules below outline some ways to prevent problems -> and increase the likelihood -> that enough sites will remain on USENET to keep it alive. -> There is no central authority that can force you to follow them, -> but by doing so you will help keep USENET a valuable resource -> to the computer community. [...] -> Reposting announcements of products or services is flatly forbidden. [^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ] -> Doing so may convince other sites to turn off your USENET access. Now I have been overwhelmed with repeated announcements of offers of publication of commentaries by BBS, a for-profit publication. A single announcement is within the rules, but what has been going on here is quite explicitly covered by the above, and the penalties to the malefactors, and to the rest of us, are spelled out in simple English. Please DO NOT complain to me about this. I can't do anything about it, I wouldn't if I could, and I completely agree with these rules, anyway. Talk to the folks whose efforts make the net work, if you think that this way to make a buck using the net deserves sanctification because it serves some good end. I don't agree. I think it clutters the net, and I know it annoys me. -- Kent Paul Dolan, "The Contradictor", 25 years as a programmer, CS MS Student at ODU, Norfolk, Virginia, to find out how I was supposed to be doing this stuff all these years. 3D dynamic motion graphics a specialty. Work wanted. Unemployment is soooo nice though...I never have to disclaim anything! UUCP : kent@xanth.UUCP or ...seismo!decuac!edison!xanth!kent CSNET : kent@odu.csnet ARPA : kent@xanth.cs.odu.edu Voice : (804) 587-7760 USnail: P.O. Box 1559, Norfolk, Va 23501-1559 Wisdom: "Peace in mankind's lifetime. Why leave a whole universe unexplored?"
harnad@mind.UUCP (Stevan Harnad) (03/19/87)
In article <719@xanth.UUCP> kent@xanth.UUCP (Kent Paul Dolan) wrote: > -> Reposting announcements of products or services is flatly forbidden. > [^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ] > Now I have been overwhelmed with repeated announcements of offers of > publication of commentaries by BBS, a for-profit publication. A single > announcement is within the rules... Neither BBS nor its publisher, Cambridge University Press, is for-profit. There have been no repostings; some background information is included for unfamiliar readers. Each announcement is a different abstract (there are about 20 per year). The abstracts and calls for commentaries fall in the same category as other announcements of meetings, conferences, articles, calls for papers on the net. No "products" or "services" or sales are involved. Nonprofit academic journals are not a "business." -- Stevan Harnad (609) - 921 7771 {bellcore, psuvax1, seismo, rutgers, packard} !princeton!mind!harnad harnad%mind@princeton.csnet harnad@princeton.ARPA harnad@mind.Princeton.EDU
mark@mimsy.UUCP (Mark Weiser) (03/20/87)
In article <719@xanth.UUCP> kent@xanth.UUCP (Kent Paul Dolan) writes: >In article <707@xanth.UUCP> [I wrote]: >> >>I would like to register an objection to BBS, Inc. conducting their for-profit >>business over this publicly funded network. >-> Reposting announcements of products or services is flatly forbidden. > [^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ] Reposting is not the same as posting--I have seen only a single BBS posting per commentary request, and sometimes several requests per posting, which is nice of them. In any case, I guess I don't understand why BBS asking for commentary on their articles is announcing a product or service, except very indirectly. (They can hardly ask for commentary without saying a *little* about the journal.) But otherwise it seems to me to be very analogous to conference announcements, which also solicit people to submit things to them. An advantage of the BBS postings over conference announcements is that they give a real abstract of a paper, so you can learn a little about current research. Although BBS may be, strictly speaking, profit making, their primary purpose is dissemination of scholarly work. And you can always read the BBS in your library, making them no money at all. I like the BBS postings, I think they are quite within the spirit of the net, they serve to open the BBS commentaries to something wider than the "word-of-mouth" which prevailed before, and I would like to see them continue. -mark -- Spoken: Mark Weiser ARPA: mark@mimsy.umd.edu Phone: +1-301-454-7817 After May 1, 1987: weiser@xerox.com
rapaport@sunybcs.UUCP (03/31/87)
>But otherwise it seems to me to be >very analogous to conference announcements, which also solicit >people to submit things to them. > >I like the BBS postings, I think they are quite within the spirit >of the net, they serve to open the BBS commentaries to something >wider than the "word-of-mouth" which prevailed before, and I would >like to see them continue. ======================================================================== I wholeheartedly agree. William J. Rapaport Assistant Professor of Computer Science Co-Director, Graduate Group in Cognitive Science Dept. of Computer Science, SUNY Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260 (716) 636-3193, 3180 uucp: ..!{allegra,boulder,decvax,mit-ems,nike,rocksanne,sbcs,watmath}!sunybcs!rapaport csnet: rapaport@buffalo.csnet bitnet: rapaport@sunybcs.bitnet