Analysis of deficits in cognitive flexibility

by | Apr 17, 2021 | Psychology

Neurobiology: Critical analysis of DEFICITS IN COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY INDUCED BY CHRONIC UNPREDICTABLE STRESS ARE ASSOCIATED WITH IMPAIRED GLUTAMATE NEUROTRANSMISSION IN THE RAT MEDIAL PREFRONTAL CORTEX

Authors publish research for a variety of reasons, most importantly to disseminate their findings. Readers of published work should not simply take the authors data and interpretation at face value. Rather, readers should learn to critically evaluate the journal articles before agreeing with the data and interpretation.

A critical analysis of a paper is a way for readers to systematically identify both the strengths and weaknesses of the research article in order to assess the usefulness and validity of research findings. The goal of this exercise is to help you to develop your critical analysis skills and your scientific writing skills. For each critical analysis you write (you are expected to write 3!), you will write a brief (500 word maximum) report.

There are several different approaches to conducting a critical analysis.
I have outlined several approaches that you could take below. This is not an exhaustive list and so you should feel free to use other approaches to the critique if you see fit. Do NOT try to take all of the approaches in a single analysis.

  1. Identify the hypothesis and the rationale for the hypothesis. Outline the argument that the authors make to justify the hypothesis (es) they have for the experiment. Further, are their weaknesses in their argument? Lastly, is the experiment addressing a significant problem? Why or why not?
  2. Briefly describe the experimental design. How does this design allow the authors to address the hypothesis (es)?

a. Are there limitations to the design? If so, what are some of the limitations?

  1. What are the results? Moreover, how does each experiment address the hypotheses? Are there any experiments that don’t address the hypothesis, if so, what are they? Are their limitations to the data analysis?
  2. Identify the conclusions? Are these conclusions justified? What are the limitations?
    a. Are there alternative interpretations of the results? Explain.
  3. In the discussion, identify statements that are speculation/interpretation? Also, identify statements that are “fact”? Lastly, how did you delineate between these two types of statements?

Sample Solution

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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