Spinoza claimed that to understand a proposition is already to accept it as true; rejecting a falsehood requires a second, separate effort that can be disrupted. Descartes denied this: for him, comprehension and assent are independent. Study 1 set out to decide between them.
In this classroom replication you play the role of the subject. You will learn a small fragment of an invented “Hopi” vocabulary, occasionally have your processing interrupted by a tone, and then sit an identification test. Your anonymous responses are added to the class aggregate for discussion.
Part I: Vocabulary. Twenty trials. Each pairs an invented word with an English noun and labels the pairing TRUE or FALSE. On some trials a tone will sound and you must respond to it at once.
Part II: Identification. For each pairing, was it true, false, never seen, or seen but with no signal?