Three Dogmas of Normativity

In this article, I identify and critically examine 3 dogmas of normativity that support a commonly accepted ‘Passivist View' of rational agency. I raise some questions about these dogmas, suggest what we should believe in their place, and moot an alternative ‘Activist View' of what it is to be a rational agent that grows out of rejection of the 3 dogmas. Underwriting the dogmas and the Passivist View, I suggest, is a deeply held but mistaken assumption that the normative domain is fundamentally akin to the nonnormative domain. Once we allow that the normative may be fundamentally unlike the nonnormative in certain key ways, a shift in our thinking about what it is to be rational becomes possible. I end by considering some implications of this paradigm shift in rationality from the passive to the active for various applied matters.     

Look-ahead content balancing method in variable-length computerized classification testing

Content balancing is one of the most important issues in computerized classification testing. To adapt to variable-length forms, special treatments are needed to successfully control content constraints without knowledge of test length during the test. To this end, we propose the notions of ‘look-ahead’ and ‘step size’ to adaptively control content constraints in each item selection step. The step size gives a prediction of the number of items to be selected at the current stage, that is, how far we will look ahead. Two look-ahead content balancing (LA-CB) methods, one with a constant step size and another with an adaptive step size, are proposed as feasible solutions to balancing content areas in variable-length computerized classification testing. The proposed LA-CB methods are compared with conventional item selection methods in variable-length tests and are examined with different classification methods. Simulation results show that, integrated with heuristic item selection methods, the proposed LA-CB methods result in fewer constraint violations and can maintain higher classification accuracy. In addition, the LA-CB method with an adaptive step size outperforms that with a constant step size in content management. Furthermore, the LA-CB methods generate higher test efficiency while using the sequential probability ratio test classification method.     

Positron brain imaging--normal patterns and asymmetries

Regional brain physiology was investigated in 11 normal resting right-handed subjects using positron emission tomography. Cerebral blood flow was studied in all subjects. Cerebral oxygen metabolism was studied in six subjects, and cerebral glucose metabolism was also studied in one subject. In five subjects, physiological activity was higher in left frontotemporal regions than right. These findings may be related to structural cerebral asymmetries or to activation of brain language centers.     

The Body Esteem of Hmong and Caucasian Young Adults

This study investigated race and gender differences among 73 Hmong American and 80 Caucasian American college students. Racial differences were found only among the women, with Hmong women holding more positive attitudes toward weight concern body items and expressing less interest in changing these body items than Caucasian women. There were no gender differences among the Hmong, and the gender differences among Caucasians involved weight concern. Increased body mass was correlated with negative body attitudes among Caucasian and Hmong women and among Hmong men, whereas increased body mass was correlated with positive upper-body attitudes among Caucasian men.     

Contrasting off-line segmentation decisions with on-line word segmentation during reading

In two experiments, we investigated the correspondences between off-line word segmentation and on-line segmentation processing during Chinese reading. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to read sentences which contained critical four-character strings, and then, they were required to segment the same sentences into words in a later off-line word segmentation task. For each item, participants were split into 1-word segmenters (who segmented four-character strings as a single word) and 2-word segmenters (who segmented four-character strings as 2 two-character words). Thus, we split participants into two groups (1-word segmenters and 2-word segmenters) according to their off-line segmentation bias. The data analysis showed no reliable group effect on all the measures. In order to avoid the heterogeneity of participants and stimuli in Experiment 1, two groups of participants (1-word segmenters and 2-word segmenters) and three types of critical four-character string (1-word strings, ambiguous strings, and 2-word strings) were identified in a norming study in Experiment 2. Participants were required to read sentences containing these critical strings. There was no reliable group effect in Experiment 2, as was the case in Experiment 1. However, in Experiment 2, participants spent less time and made fewer fixations on 1-word strings compared to ambiguous and 2-word strings. These results indicate that the off-line word segmentation preferences do not necessarily reflect on-line word segmentation processing during Chinese reading and that Chinese readers exhibit flexibility such that word, or multiple constituent, segmentation commitments are made on-line.