How internal can you get?

This paper examines Laurence BonJour's defense of internalism inThe Structure of Empirical Knowledge with an eye toward better understanding the issues which separate internalists from externalists. It is argued that BonJour's Doxastic Presumption cannot play the role which is required of it to make his internalism work. It is further argued that BonJour's internalism, and, indeed, all other internalisms, are motivated by a Cartesian view of an agent's access to her own mental states. This Caretsian view is argued to be untenable, and, accordingly, so is internalism.     

Analysis of periodic data using Walsh functions

Data often contain periodic components plus random variability. Walsh analysis reveals periodicities by fitting rectangular functions to data. It is analogous to Fourier analysis, which represents data as sine and cosine functions. For many behavioral measures, Fourier transforms can produce spurious peaks in power spectra and fail to resolve separable components. Walsh analysis is superior for strongly discontinuous data. The strengths and weaknesses of each transform are discussed, and specific algorithms are given for the newer Walsh technique.     

Sensible reasoning in two tasks: Rule discovery and hypothesis evaluation

The hypothesis testing skills of undergraduates were measured in two tasks: the 2-4-6 rule discovery task in which students generate and assess hypotheses, and a hypothesis evaluation task, which requires only the assessment of hypotheses. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 show that the students consistently employed a disconfirmation strategy when assessing hypotheses, but employed a counterfactual inference strategy when they also were required to generate the hypotheses. The results of Experiment 3 suggest that the selection of the hypothesis testing strategy reflected a balance between the logical requirements of the task and the desirability of possible outcomes. Taken together, the findings support a more consistent picture of human rationality across tasks, and suggest alternatives to accounts of confirmation bias.     

Some social features of cognition

This paper describes and assesses a number of dispositions which are instrumental in allowing us to take on the opinions of others unselfconsciously. It is argued that these dispositions are in fact reliable in the environments in which they tend to come into play. In addition, it is argued that agents are, by their own lights, justified in the beliefs they arrive at as a result of these processes. Finally, these processes are argued to provide a basis for rejecting the claim that fixation of belief is radically holistic.     

Epistemic normativity

This paper examines the source and content of epistemic norms. In virtue of what is it that epistemic norms have their normative force? A semantic approach to this question, due to Alvin Goldman, is examined and found unacceptable. Instead, accounts seeking to ground epistemic norms in our desires are argued to be most promising. All of these accounts make epistemic norms a variety of hypothetical imperative. It is argued that such an account may be offered, grounding our epistemic norms in desire, which nevertheless makes these imperatives universal. The account is contrasted with some recent work of Stephen Stich.     

Cognitive-behavioral treatment of agoraphobia: paradoxical intention vs self-statement training

Twenty-six agoraphobics were randomly assigned to either Paradoxical Intention (PI) or Self-Statement Training (SST) which consisted of 12 weekly 90-min group sessions with 4–5 patients per group. Major assessments were carried out at pre-treatment, 6th week and 12th week of treatment, and at 1- and 6-month follow-ups. Measures included clinical ratings of severity of condition, phobia, anxiety and depression. Furthermore, a behavioral test was administered during which changes in subjective units of discomfort and cognitions were assessed. The results indicated statistically-significant improvement over time with both treatments. ANCOVAs performed revealed superior effects on several agoraphobia measures for the PI condition at post-treatment. However, by the 6-month follow-up assessment, the groups were equivalent due to marked improvement during the follow-up phase in the SST condition. Cognitive changes were marked by a decrease in self-defeating statements without concomitant increase in coping statements. These results and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Parent-Offspring and Sibling Adoption Analyses of Parental Ratings of Temperament in Infancy and Childhood

A first step toward understanding the etiology of personality is to investigate the relative impact of genetic and environmental factors using twin and adoption designs. Twin studies of infants and young children indicate substantial genetic influence for parental ratings of temperament in the preschool years. Adoption studies, however, have not previously been reported during the early years of life. We present parent-offspring comparisons for temperament (emotionality, activity, sociability, and impulsivity) for adopted and nonadopted children yearly from 1 to 7 years of age and their biological, adoptive, and nonadoptive parents. Also presented are correlations for adoptive and nonadoptive siblings when each child was 1, 2, 3, and 4 years of age. In contrast with twin results, little evidence is found for genetic influence. The average correlation between biological parents and their adopted-away children for data averaged over the 7 years is only .03. Similarly, the average parent-offspring correlation in nonadoptive families (.08) is no greater than in adoptive families (.12). Results for nonadoptive and adoptive siblings also indicate little genetic influence. The difference between the twin and adoption results may be due to environmental effects or to nonadditive genetic variance.     

The development of children's action memory: When do actions speak louder than words?

Summary Although acting consistently has been found to improve memory, the reasons for this are unclear. In this investigation, we tested whether acting improves recall by integrating separate elements within an action into an organized whole and whether this process may be strategic. First graders, fourth graders, and college-aged adults listened to, acted out, or watched the performance of action-object phrases and then verbally reported or enacted the phrases. Phrases composed of transitive verbs were expected to be integrated more by action than phrases composed of intransitive verbs, and consequently recalled better, especially by the younger children. Recall increased between first and fourth grades, suggesting that some aspects of action memory may be strategic; however, there was no evidence that acting improves recall by means of integration. The pattern of results suggested that the nature of an action's outcome may contribute to the enactment effect.     

Brain transections selectively alter ingestion and behavioral activation in neonatal rats

Food-deprived neonatal rats actively ingest milk that is infused into their mouths through intraoral cannulas. This ingestion is accompanied by behavioral activation. The involvement of various brain regions in ingestion and activation was examined by making transections along the neuraxis from the olfactory bulbs to the anterior pons in 2-day-old rats. Following a 24-hr deprivation period, a series of oral milk infusions was given, and milk intake and activity were measured. Intake was severely reduced only in animals with diencephalic transections. Cuts in front of or behind the diencephalon resulted in normal or slightly decreased intake. In contrast, activity tended to decline as the level of the transection became more caudal. Thus ingestion and its accompanying behavioral activation could be separated neuroanatomically. These results suggest that two brain mechanisms are involved in the ingestive response of the infant rat, one in the diencephalon and another caudal to the mesencephalon. However, behavioral activation appears less discretely organized, involving most of the neuraxis.