Logic feels so good-I like it! Evidence for intuitive detection of logicality in syllogistic reasoning

When people evaluate syllogisms, their judgments of validity are often biased by the believability of the conclusions of the problems. Thus, it has been suggested that syllogistic reasoning performance is based on an interplay between a conscious and effortful evaluation of logicality and an intuitive appreciation of the believability of the conclusions (e.g., Evans, Newstead, Allen, & Pollard, 1994). However, logic effects in syllogistic reasoning emerge even when participants are unlikely to carry out a full logical analysis of the problems (e.g., Shynkaruk & Thompson, 2006). There is also evidence that people can implicitly detect the conflict between their beliefs and the validity of the problems, even if they are unable to consciously produce a logical response (e.g., De Neys, Moyens, & Vansteenwegen, 2010). In 4 experiments we demonstrate that people intuitively detect the logicality of syllogisms, and this effect emerges independently of participants' conscious mindset and their cognitive capacity. This logic effect is also unrelated to the superficial structure of the problems. Additionally, we provide evidence that the logicality of the syllogisms is detected through slight changes in participants' affective states. In fact, subliminal affective priming had an effect on participants' subjective evaluations of the problems. Finally, when participants misattributed their emotional reactions to background music, this significantly reduced the logic effect.

Power back-off behaviour of high-efficiency power-combining Class-E amplifier

Power back-off performances of the modified power-combining Class-E amplifier under different amplitudemodulation schemes such as envelope elimination and restoration (EER) and envelope tracking (ET) are experimentally assessed in this paper. The modified output load network adopting three-harmonic terminations technique eliminates the need for additional lossy filtering section in the transmitter chain. Small dc-feed inductances rather than massive RF chokes as in the classic Class-E amplifier are used so as to increase the modulation bandwidth and therefore improve the linearity of the EER transmitter. High efficiency over a wide dynamic range using amplitude modulation through drain-voltage control (EER) was achieved and this agrees well with the Class-E theoretical prediction. When the PA was used within the ET scheme, an increase of average drain efficiency of as high as 40% with respect to the CW excitation was obtained for a multi-carrier input signal with 12dB peak-to-average power ratio. © 2011 Institut fur Mikrowellen.

High-efficiency low-voltage-stress Class-EF PA with extended maximum operating frequency

The Class-EF power amplifier (PA) introduced recently has a peak switch voltage much lower than the well-known Class-E PA. However, the value of the transistor output capacitance at high frequencies is typically larger than the required Class-EF optimum shunt capacitance. As a result, softswitching operation that minimizes power dissipation during OFF-to-ON transient cannot be achieved at high frequencies. A novel Class-EF topology with transmission-line load network proposed in this paper allows the PA to operate at much higher frequencies without trading the other figures of merit. Closed-form formulations are derived to simultaneously satisfy the Class-EF impedances requirement at fundamental frequency, all even harmonics, and the first two odd harmonics as well as to provide matching to 50O load. © 2011 Institut fur Mikrowellen.