Psychological relations and psychophysical scales: On the status of “direct” psychophysical measurement

Arguments, originally developed some fifteen years ago, concerning the sort of “direct” psychophysical measurement advocated by S. S. Stevens are reproduced here in order to facilitate access by a wider audience. Considerations of measurement theory, biological adaptation, perceptual invariance, and neurophysiological noise, as well as various empirical results, suggest (a) that it is primarily the relations—particularly the ratios—between stimulus magnitudes and not the individual magnitudes themselves that are represented within the organism and, accordingly, (b) that “direct” psychophysical measurement, by itself, uniquely determines neither a psychological magnitude of any one stimulus nor a psychophysical law relating such psychological magnitudes to corresponding physical magnitudes. What such measurement can uniquely determine, evidently, is a psychological parameter characterizing each sensory continuum.     

Influence and development: Two basic paradigms of education

The article discusses two basic paradigms of western educational theory, namely the concept of “influence” and the concept of “development”. Two historical contextes are analyzed, John Locke's theory of human learning and Jean-Jacques Rousseau's theory of natural development. Both theories are rejected in favour of a position beyond “influence” and “development”. This position of a theory of education (Erziehung) is marked with the term “moral communication”.     

Reclaiming Quine’s epistemology

Central elements of W. V. Quine’s epistemology are widely and deeply misunderstood, including the following. He held from first to last that our evidence consists of the stimulations of our sense organs, and of our observations, and of our sensory experiences; meeting the interpretive challenge this poses is a sine qua non of understanding his epistemology. He counted both “This is blue” and “This looks blue” as observation sentences. He took introspective reports to have a high degree of certainty. He endorsed outright Hume’s “skeptical” argument concerning induction. His naturalized epistemology is simply naturalistic, or scientific, epistemology stripped of the project of rational reconstruction, and is thoroughly normative. Quine was unconditionally a scientific philosopher who took our theories to be answerable ultimately to our perceptual experiences (sensations)—and conditionally an empiricist, empiricism being a scientific theory that has no competitors worthy of the name. I attempt to make all of this clear, and conclude by offering a concise formulation of his epistemology.     

La fonction argumentative des marques de la langue

The present paper reports a set of experimental studies concerning the comprehension of French argumentative operators and connectives. The first part is a presentation of the theoretical framework, the methodological problems and some of the most general results. Experiments were carried out in the perspective of the linguistic theory of argumentation developed by Anscombre and Ducrot. According to this theory, a number of devices in language are mainly defined by their argumentation function, i.e. by the types of discursive sequences and conclusions they involve. Three categories of such devices were examined: (1) operators like “presque” (almost), “à peine” (hardly), “au moins” (at least), etc. which give an argumentative orientation to the statement; (2) co-orientation connectives, like “même” (even), which relate two statements oriented towards the same conclusion; (3) counter-orientation connectives, like the concessive ones (“mais” (but), “quand même” (even so), etc.), which relate two statements oriented towards opposite conclusions. The data shed light on issues such as: What is the nature of the relationship between the informative and argumentative functions of different operators? Is there a hierarchical relation between the argumentative processes of “co-orientation” and “counter-orientation”? What is the role of negation in the processing of argumentative sequences? The second part of the paper focuses specifically on the study of how 8 and 10 year-old children process “counter-oriented” statements. Five concessive connectives were studied: “mais”, “pourtant”, “quand même”, “même si”, “bien que”. The test was composed of two successive completion tasks: in one task the children had to choose the relevant context of complex sentences involving concessive connectives; in the other task they had to choose their relevant conclusion. Main results show a clear evolution in the performance of children between 8 and 10, suggesting that concessive strategies are not completely mastered at the age of 8. Differences among the concessive connectives studied were brought out: the item “quand même” obtained much better results than the other items with 8-year-old subjects; statements with “mais” seemed to be better processed in the conclusion task than in the context task, especially by 10-year-old subjects. These results are compared with other data obtained in some of the numerous studies on the production and comprehension of concessive connectives in various languages, and discussed from the point of view of argumentative theory.     

Causes of young children's confusion of same and different

Three experiments are reported that explore 3-year-olds' and adults' understanding of the words, same and different. In the first, 3-year-olds selected a bead that was “the same color as” or “a different color from” a target bead. In the second, 3-year-olds selected a bead that was “the same in some way as” or “different in some way from” a target bead. Contrary to results reported previously, the majority of consistent responders chose a bead identical with the target in response to the different instruction in both experiments. The rates of both incorrect different responding and incorrect same responding were greater in Experiment II than in Experiment I. In Experiment III, adults chose objects that were “the same as” or “different from” a target; unlike the children, they never chose a target-identical object in response to different instructions. It is argued that children and adults treat same and different differently, and that children's task performance is influenced by three factors: semantic, pragmatic, and nonlinguistic.     

Studying radical organizational innovation through grounded theory

The main aim of this article is to study the social processes occurring during the implementation of radical organizational innovation. Our aim is to understand the nature of the development of radical innovation by identifying the social processes, that are taking place. The perspective for the analysis stems from “grounded theory” as a generative and inductive analytical strategy (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). An in-depth case study was thoroughly analysed. A total of 14 indepth interviews were conducted with key informants selected according to “theoretical sampling” criteria. The systematic use of the “constant comparative method” allowed us to differentiate grounded theories leading to a “conceptual saturation” of the categories generated from the empirical data. Results show the emergence of two basic processes, “learning” and “adaptation”, during the development of radical innovation. A “grounded” theory concerning the development of radical innovation is proposed, emphasizing the organization's selfregulating capacity for learning and adapting. Our results describe innovation as an adaptable response that causes disorder in terms of “a creative tension in the system”. Finally, the methodological implications of grounded theory are discussed with regard to the study of radical innovation. The requisites and limitations observed in using grounded theory are outlined.     

Ein „now moment“ unter der Lupe

This paper is based on the publications of Daniel Stern’s Process of Change Study Group, which contain new hypotheses concerning the analytical process and how it works. The various stages in the system proposed by this group (“moving along”—”now moment”—”moment of meeting”) are illustrated by a case history with regard to relevant aspects of the transference and with special emphasis on the observed countertransference. The hypothesis used to explain the detailed “now moment” and “moment of meeting” is based on psychoanalytical considerations. This process is analyzed with reference to the concepts of “reparative regression” or “regression for the sake of recognition”, progression and regression, fulguration, and creativity, autonomy, and intimacy.     

Extending Holland's theory to adult women

The potential of Holland's theory for use in the vocational guidance of adult women depends in part on more validity data with regard to the conceptual meaningfulness of the constructs. This study reports the findings of a correlative analysis between scores on Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI), which measures the six “styles”, and selected scales on four criterion tests predicted in advance to be related to the VPI. The findings for this sample of adult women indicate strong evidence for the validity of the Intellectual, Conventional and Enterprising “styles”, but questions are raised with regard to the meaningfulness of the Realistic, Social, and Artistic types.     

Use of first person pronouns as a function of increased objective self-awareness and performance feedback

A recent integrating formalation in social psychology, the Duval-Wicklund theory of “objective self-awareness,” has the core assumption that attention focused on the self is always aversive and, hence, avoided. While faced with either a TV camera or a mirror, and after they had received false feedback concerning their creativity, 98 undergraduates guessed at the meaning of foreign language pronouns, the unobtrusive dependent measure of the direction of the focus of attention. The standard Duval-Wicklund effect was replicated—more attention to self, that is, more first-person pronouns—in the “camera” or “mirror” than in the “no camera” or “no mirror” conditions. However, within the camera or mirror conditions, avoidance of self-focused attention occurred only after negative feedback.     

Classes,collections, and distinctive features: Alternative strategies for solving inclusion problems

This study analyzed the strategies that children ages 5 through 8 years used on two modified versions of Inhelder and Piaget's (The early growth of logic in the child. New York: Norton, 1964) class inclusion task. In two experiments, children were tested on Wilkinson's (Cognitive Psychology, 1976, 8, 64–85) “percept” inclusion task in which distinctive features marked both supraordinate and subclasses. It was hypothesized that children who fail standard Piagetian inclusion tasks succeed on the “percept” task by counting and comparing mutually exclusive features rather than using features as markers for classes and subclasses. The hypothesis was supported by children's performances on “percept” tasks in which solutions based on feature counting conflicted with solutions based on consideration of class inclusion relations. In two other experiments, children answered part-whole and part-part comparison questions in which both terms were described as classes and/or subclasses, or in which one of the two terms was described as a collection (e.g., a bunch of grapes). These experiments contrasted Markman and Seibert's (Cognitive Psychology, 1976, 8, 561–577) “organization” hypothesis that the greater psychological integrity of collections facilitates reasoning on part-whole comparison problems with the hypothesis that the faciltative effect results from the “large number” connotation of collective nouns. Results on collection problems in which parts were described as collections supported the “large number” hypothesis. Results were discussed in terms of their implications for Piaget's theory.     

Soteriological dimensions in the work of Heinz Kohut

A framework of theological inquiry is utilized to illuminate soteriological dimensions implicit in Heinz Kohut's psychology of the self as expressed in his most recent work,The Restoration of the Self. Kohut's new formulations involve the unfolding of a saving approach that through its broad application seeks to overcome “the psychological danger that puts the psychological survival of modern Western man into the greatest jeopardy.” The theological inquiry employed asks: What is the essential nature of man? How has man fallen away from his essential self? By what means is he to be saved from his broken condition? Kohut's implicit and explicit “answers” are summarized by dealing with four cardinal issues in his book: definitions of the self: the relationship of a psychology of the self to other psychologies; theory concerning the selfs structure, development, and restoration; and the centrality of the empathic response.     

“I can Almost Remember it Now”: Between Personal and Collective Memories of Massive Social Trauma

This article explores the psycho-social space between autobiographical and collective memory concerning massive social traumas. It is conceptualized that there is a third type of memory image, termed “my-their.” Individuals appear to “remember” autobiographical memories of elder family members, even though they could not, either because they were born after the trauma happened or because the autobiographers were extremely young at the time of the experience. These emotional “memories” furthermore connect to collective memories of social traumas of ethnic/national groups. Examples from memories of the Holocaust and al Naqba are examined. Furthermore, the roles that “my-their” memory images can play in peace building and reconciliation are discussed.     

The topological inventions of life: From the specialization of multicellular colonies to the functioning of the vertebrate brain

The evolution of biological (intermediary) complexity strongly depends upon the information‐processing advantages it confers to cells and organisms. As a matter of fact, highly complex biological structures such as the cellular signaling system and the vertebrate nervous system have been evolved in order to inform the living system about its surround, subsequently orienting the internal, productive activities. The evolutionary success of these types of informational structures ("infostructures") exemplifies that, almost universally, the “bit” may act as a successful substitute for the “joule”. Recent molecular biology research on cellular signaling systems has disclosed their amazing information‐processing sophistication and the crucial role they play in the formation and functioning of the vertebrate brain. In the neurosciences, duality theory has highlighted the way in which the cortical maps and the cerebral substructures of the vertebrate brain are “topologically” integrated in order to perform an adaptive information‐processing. The development of comprehensive conceptualizations relating brain processing and intracellular processing may well be a strategic step in the development of a vertical “information science”.     

A theory of careers encounters sex: Reply to Holland (1976)

This paper is the third in a series beginning with a report (by the authors) of research on the application of Holland's theory of careers to women and men. Holland's response, “The Virtues of the SDS …” is considered, in particular, research he cites on the effect of the Self-Directed Search (SDS) on counselees and his advocacy of raw score reports of personality patterns. The widely divergent career options suggested to men and women by SDS raw scores are noted and misunderstandings concerning the implications of Holland's assessment procedures for his theory are discussed. Holland's defense of raw score reports of personality characteristics is found wanting, especially in light of the support provided for his theory by normed scores.     

Contradictory Information: Too Much of a Good Thing

Both I and Belnap, motivated the “Belnap-Dunn 4-valued Logic” by talk of the reasoner being simply “told true” (T), and simply “told false” (F), which leaves the options of being neither “told true” nor “told false” (N), and being both “told true” and “told false” (B). Belnap motivated these notions by consideration of unstructured databases that allow for negative information as well as positive information (even when they conflict). We now experience this on a daily basis with the Web. But the 4-valued logic is deductive in nature, and its matrix is discrete: there are just four values. In this paper I investigate embedding the 4-valued logic into a context of probability. Jøsang’s Subjective Logic introduced uncertainty to allow for degrees of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty. We extend this so as to allow for two kinds of uncertainty—that in which the reasoner has too little information (ignorance) and that in which the reasoner has too much information (conflicted). Jøsang’s “Opinion Triangle” becomes an “Opinion Tetrahedron” and the 4-values can be seen as its vertices. I make/prove various observations concerning the relation of non-classical “probability” to non-classical logic.     

Speech timing of grammatical categories

A series of experiments was performed to determine how the duration of a word spoken in a sentence is influenced by: (1) the grammatical category to which it belongs, and (2) the position of the word in a constituent. Experiment I contained Noun-Verb homophones (e.g. “I saw the coach…” — noun; “I saw him coach…” — verb), in sentences matched for phonetic environment and stress pattern. Results support the notion that Nouns are longer than Verbs in typical sentences. Experiment II, however, demonstrated that the duration of Noun-Verb homophones in matched clause-final position is approximately equal. Experiment III contained transitive and intransitive Verbs in matched sentences. The results of Experiments II and III provided support for a lengthening account based on constituent-final position, while ruling out an account based on a debatable deletion site. Results of Experiment IV generalized the account of constituent-final lengthening for Nouns and Verbs to additional major categories, by comparing the duration of the phrase-initial Adjective two with the phrase-final Adverb too. Finally, Experiment V tested the distinction between minor and major categories. Results demonstrated that the Preposition to is shorter than the Adjective two by approximately 50 percent. Taken in sum, these findings indicate that it is sufficient to make a binary distinction between major and minor categories for purposes of a theory of speech timing and speech synthesis. Durational effects traditionally ascribed to differences within the class of major categories can be accounted for solely in terms of constituent boundaries, already required in the theory to account for three other classes of phenomena.     

Ideal learning machines

We examine the prospects for finding “best possible” or “ideal” computing machines for various learning tasks. For this purpose, several precise senses of “ideal machine” are considered within the context of formal learning theory. Generally negative results are provided concerning the existence of ideal learning-machines in the senses considered.     

Gender and Deviance: A Comparison of College Students in Japan and the United States

Although evidence abounds in American criminology that young males are more prone to deviance than females, relatively little is known about the magnitude of the gender gap in deviance across cultures. Drawing on the literature concerning “risk taking” in power-control theory and on theory and research concerning cultural variability in “uncertainty avoidance,” we offer a rationale for predicting that the gender differences in levels of deviance are less among Japanese youth than Americans. Among Japanese, the level of male deviance should be closer to that of females because “uncertainty avoidance” is a strong component of Japanese culture that affects socialization of both males and females. Analysis of identical survey data from college students in Japan and the United States provides strong support for our argument.     

Bildung – A construction of a historyof philosophy of education

The paper examines the “prehistory” in the 18th century of the theory of Bildung. Pedagogical historiography commonly traces the theory back to the influence of Anthony Ashley Cooper, third Earl of Shaftesbury, who is held to be the founder of the concept of “innere Bildung; on the grounds that Shaftesbury’s concept of “inward form” was translated into German as Bildung. The study focuses on the reception of Shaftesbury’s writings in the German-speaking realm in the 17th century in order to discover the contexts of discourse in which this reception took place and to find out what significance the various discourses had for the formulation of a German “theory of Bildung.” What is revealed are varied influences of a religious, literary theory, and aesthetics nature that give indications as to why the construct of Bildung has remained diffuse and excessive in the German tradition up to the very present. It is also shown that the concept, in comparison to other discourses, found its way into the pedagogical discourse relatively late, which may be another reason for the difficulties that the German theory of Bildung continues to present to the science of pedagogy.