psych2030_assignment 3 ++
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joke from psyc2030 research methods -objective of paper --- from learning APA 5th formattingTRANSCRIPT
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Running head: TRANSCENDENTAL COGNITIVE QUALITY
Level of Cognitive Complexity and Abstraction of a Transcendental Being
Conrad H. Ng
York University
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Abstract
This study analyzes the power of transcendental being. The hypothesis includes Can God
create a thought that can not be understood. Jesus of the Christian religion participated in
the study while there remain doubts about the truth of the participant’s identity. The
participant completes a 30 trial study of generating and abstracting premises which were
recorded and analyzed by a super computer. The results show massive power in both
abstraction and universalization of the generated premises abilities. However, the result
suggests a limit in the English language for cognitive ability as well as a limit in the
study’s identification of a non deceitful transcendental being. This study nevertheless
provides evidence for the transcendental being as both powerfully developmental and
regressive.
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Level of Cognitive Complexity and Abstraction of a Transcendental Being
The notion of monotheism has mainly been a Western concept (Gerrard et al
2005) While many cultures and religions continue to challenge monotheism, one premise
and contradiction has plague the monotheistic ideal since the question was first proposed
by Simpson, “Can God microwave a burrito so hot that even he can not eat it?” (Simpson,
2005, 1) As suggested by Maldini and Nesta (2003) this basic question has the potential
for putting known metaphysical as well as metapsychological reality, knowledge and
order into doubt. Since, Donald and Duck (as cited in Simpson, 2005) has suggested that
the basic diet of God does not consists of burritos; the question proposed by Simpson
cannot be tested. However, it has been suggested that God thinks and may process some
cognitive ability which maybe tested psychologically (Donald, Duck and Simpson,
2006).
This research hopes to provide some understanding of the proposed question by
examining; can God think similar to those of human minds? And can God think with
such complexity that the thoughts itself becomes incoherent, even to God? This basic
hypothesis may provide a better understanding concerning the nature of divine order and
power, therefore this research may re-align current metaphysical and metapsychological
contradictions within our understanding and scientific paradigm. This research examines
God’s, Jesus’, cognitive ability by counting the number of cognitive complex thoughts
generated and the number of abstraction possible. These cognitive abilities are
operationalize by counting the numbers of linked premises generated verses the numbers
of conclusions form from the generated linked premises within a given timeframe.
Perhaps once and for all the questions of, “Can God microwave a burrito so hot that even
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he can not eat it?” (Simpson, 2005, 1) and; is God’s cognitive ability similar to the human
mind? (Donald et al, 2006) maybe answered.
Method
Participant
Figure 1 showed the poster used in the universal search for Jesus which was
placed at major churches around the world. Participant was given the choice of the
experiment and that the world wide search would be called off pending a response for the
experiment. The participant was male and appeared to be in his thirties however he was
recorded to be 2007 years old at the time of the experiment. Upon recruitment and
explanation of the experimental procedures, participant was also informed that he may
drop out at anytime during the experiment and still be compensated with fifty Canadian
dollars.
Procedure
The experiment was performed on Earth at York University, Canada, at a constant
room temperature of twenty-four degrees Celsius. The participant claiming to be Jesus
was also tested by a local Reverend in bible knowledge and was asked to turn water into
beer in order to ensure identity of the participant. One super computer which has infinite
computational power made by NOMAC incorporated model number 1348c along with a
software call DCPC version 1.15a was specially formulated by NOMAC was used to
count the number of and determine the validity of the participant’s premises and
concluding statements. In this particular experiment, it was logical to use infinity as the
measurement unit since the participant was thought to have great abilities. This
experiment attempted to use a double blind procedure and requires at least one research
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lab assistant to ensure the validity of the data and to reduce researcher bias during
analyses. A second set of randomly allocated data set was also created by the super
computer and the sets of data were analyzed by two different researchers. The real data
set was announced by the super computer after the researchers completed their analyses.
In a thirty-two trials experiment, the participant was first asked to type up in the English
language as many coherent premises as he can into the super computer within ten
seconds. A premise was defined as a proposition supporting or helps to support a
conclusion. The second task for the participant was to enter into the same super computer
as many concluding statements from his previous premises as possible within ten
seconds. A concluding statement was defined as the last main division of a discourse,
containing a summing up of the points and a statement. The participant should be able to
sum up all of his premises into the least possible number of concluding statements. These
two sets of data were then compared and scored in the number of abstraction of premises
into concluding statements.
Results
For this experiment, we obtained the mean numbers of premises generated and the
mean numbers of concluding statements abstracted. Table 1 presents, for both number of
premises generated and the numbers of concluding statements abstracted, the degrees of
freedom, the means and the standard errors.
The mean difference in the number of premises and number of abstraction was
highly significant, t(30) = 6.002 p < .05. In order to determine the validity of the dataset
the Spearman’s rho was calculated. However, there was no significance Spearman’s rho
correlation, r(32) = -.41 p < .82. Figure 2 presents a scatter plot of each set of results,
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which may explain the resulting lack of correlation.
Discussion
The study results show that the participant processes similar cognitive ability
when compare to human beings at premise generation and premise abstraction however
this ability are at a greater magnitude. While this study might reaffirm the hypothesis of
Donald, Duck and Simpson (2006) that God thinks and processes some cognitive ability
similar to that of human mind; the participating transcendental being shows that he
cannot always create a thought that he can abstract and therefore may not understand his
own thoughts at some levels. Rather there appears to be some cognitive dissonance
among some of the samples as the abstraction became more numerous than the previous
number of premises. This study may provide some hint to Simpson’s initial question
concerning, “Can God microwave a burrito so hot that even he can not eat it?” (Simpson,
2005, 1) Logic deduce that God might be able to microwave a burrito so hot that even he
cannot eat it at times since Jesus, a God, both created abstraction and universalization of
his past thoughts. This study has profound metaphysical and meta-psychological
implication on the nature of transcendental beings and humans alike as the results seem to
suggest a both a developmental and a recessive transcendental being.
Yet, it is still uncertain concerning the nature of this research’s generalizability.
For example, the research suggests that God may be capable of eating the microwave
burrito at times yet it might not correlate that gods of other cultures would be capable of
similar abilities. This research however at parts reaffirms divine status within the western
religious world and the unbound cognitive psychological nature of divine power since the
participant performed these task in the infinity scale. Yet, this study also provide some
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evidence for transcendental cognitive stability since there was a significant finding that
complex thoughts are generally broken down while there was a lack of instructions
followed. Since, pre-existing knowledge of the difference in gender does not exist. This
research may not be generalize onto the female population of goddesses since the
participant is a male. The implication of this study will however remain within the divine
realm which is as hypothesize excludes Buddhism (Maldini & Nesta, 2003).
Alternative explanation for the results might question the computational limits of
both the hardware and software while there may have been a mix-up in the data
collecting, storage and retrieval process. However, this is not the case since the computer
is capable of infinite computation. Another explanation may be cause by a limit in the
English language as a tool for cognitive abilities and philosophical logic. The cognitive
ability of God/gods might not overlap in all aspect of the mind and therefore the study
might have exclude aspects of divine, non-human, abilities. However, this is the best
method we know thus far. Temperature might be a factor in the difference between
different cognitive sources of transcendental beings since it has been scientifically
suggested by Graham and Schambaugh (1997) that hell is exothermic while heaven is
endothermic. This experiment remains at a constant of twenty four degrees Celsius which
might explain a difference in cognitive ability due to temperature since twenty four
degrees Celsius may not the normal temperature of a transcendental being of heaven or
hell. Another possible weakness of this experiment maybe from the knowledge that God
is a timeless being (Maradona and Pele, 2000). It might not be possible for God to have a
limited calculable number of infinity as data. It might be suggest that the participant was
simply holding back his generative ability. However, Jesus is a being of truth and justice.
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Unlike the premises of the Great Aristotle for mortals, divine truth maybe
virtuous but it does not require development nor regression. Truth belong to the
set of the abstract; which is most pure and abstract can not be destroy nor created.
It exist for because i. (Maradona and Pele, 2000).
Jesus might not have participated in the experiment since the generated data might
instead represent another transcendental being, the Devil, who is attempting to spread bad
publicity for other divine beings. The Devil is also known to process great power that is
beyond human limits. The inability of humans to grasp divine concepts and divine reality
remains a puzzle however this study provide evidence that some form of transcendental
being might be at interaction with our mortal world. We have only touch on the question
of if it can ever be answer, If transcendental being eats burrito; “Can transcendental being
microwave a burrito so hot that even it can not eat it?” (Simpson, 2005, 1) At the moment
from the data of this study, the answer is possibly.
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References
Donald, D., Duck, D., & Simpson, H. (2006). Alternative to Transcendental Eating
Habits. Journal of Transcendental Philosophy, 15, 507-523. Retrieved May 28,
2007, from Blackwell database.
Gerrard, S., Gigs, R., Henry, T., Pirlo, A., Terry, J., & Zidane, Z. (2005). Western
Thoughts and World Religion. Journal of Religious Psychology, 56, 56-67.
Graham, T., & Schambaugh. (1997). Is Hell Exothermic or Endothermic? Inbox Humor.
Retrieved April 1, 2007, from
http://www.pinetree.net/humor/thermodynamics.html
Maldini, P., & Nesta, C. (2003). Eastern Religious Thoughts. Journal of Anthropology,
67, 1-10.
Maradona, D., & Pele, E. (2000). Gods of Football. In D. Beckham & J. Edwards (Eds.),
The Creation of Gods by Social Cultivation (115-116). Lala Land, Dreamworld:
Dreamworks.
Simpson, H. (2005). Philosophy of Homer Simpson (2nd
ed.). Toronto: Pearson
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Author Note
Conrad H. Ng, Department of Psychology, York University.
I thank Dr. Heather Jordan, Professor of Psychology at York University, for her
many detailed guidelines concerning the APA format.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Conrad H. Ng, 55
Crazy Road, ONT A1A2A2.
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Table 1
Mean and Standard Error of Generative Complexity and Abstraction
df Mean Standard Deviation
Linked Premises Generated 15 77.8 15.0
Abstracted Conclusions 15 53.0 17.8
p < .05
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Figure Caption
Figure 1. Poster for recruitment and world wide search for Jesus.
Figure 2. Dataset of number of linked premises generated and the numbers of
conclusions form from the generated linked premises.
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Premises Concluding statements
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