Kuhn＇s Notion of Theory Choice and the Dual-Process Theory of Cognition

In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn claimed that theory choice is a conversion experience and depends upon the personality or psychology of the individual scientist making the choice. Critics charged Kuhn with an irrational and a relativistic position concerning theory choice, arguing he advocated a subjective instead of an objective approach to how scientists choose one theory over another and thereby undercut epistemic accounts for the generation of scientific knowledge. In response to critics Kuhn insisted that his approach, although subjective, was still rational in that the criteria----vomposed of epistemic values--determining theory choice operate both objectively and subjectively. Recent work in cognitive neuropsychology, particularly in the dual-process theory of cognition, supports Kuhn＇s notion of theory choice. In this paper, I initially discuss Kuhn＇s approach to theory choice, along with criticism of it and his response to the criticism, followed by an examination of the dual-process theory of cognition. I then explore the application of dual-process theory to Kuhn＇s notion of theory choice, especially in terms of a historical case study from the biomedical sciences. I finally discuss briefly the implications of the dual-process theory for contemporary philosophy of science.

A Causal Configuration Analysis of Payment Decision Drivers in Paid Q&A

Purpose:This paper examines factors of payment decision as well as the role each factor plays in casual configurations leading to high payment intention under systematic and heuristic information processing routes.Design/methodology/approach:Based on heuristic-systematic model(HSM),we propose a configurational analytic framework to investigate complex casual relationships between influencing factors and payment decision.In line with this approach,we use fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis(fsQCA)to analyze data crawled from Zhihu.com.Findings:The number of previous consultations is a necessary element in all five equivalent configurations which lead to high intention in payment decision.The heuristic processing route plays a core role while the systematic processing route plays a peripheral role in payment decision-making process.Research limitations:Research is limited in that moderating effect of professional fields has not been considered in the framework.Practical implications:Configurations in results can assist managers of knowledge communities and paid Q&A service providers in the management of information elements to motivate more payment decision.Originality/value:This paper is one of the few studies to apply HSM theory and fsQCA method with respect to the payment decision in paid Q&A.

Simple Adaptive Filtering Scheme to Improve Measurement Accuracy of Gyroscope on Angular Motion Base

The objective of this work is to improve the measurement accuracy of a gyroscope on a angular motion base with a simple adaptive filter scheme.Two main topics are highlighted in this work.The first topic is to show building a dual-process model employed for the conventional Kalman filter.The second topic is to show developing a modified noise adaptive algorithm when measurement noise and process noise are unknown.The experimental results are presented to show that the simple adaptive filtering scheme outperforms the other conventional scheme in this paper in terms of noise reduction.