Goldman On Knowledge As True Belief

Alvin Goldman contends that, in addition to the familiar sense or use of the term “knowledge” according to which knowledge is at least true justified belief, there is a weaker yet strict sense or use of the term “knowledge” according to which knowledge amounts to nothing more than information-possession or mere true belief. In this paper, I argue that Goldman has failed to show that there is such a weaker sense, and that, even if he had shown this, he has not shown that this putative weaker sense is a strict one by his own criterion for strictness.     

The Common Topic in Aristotle’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Rhetoric</Emphasis>: Precursor of the Argumentation Scheme

In the present article I attribute to the common topic in the Rhetoric a two-fold suggestive function and a guarantee function. These three functions are possible because this type of topic, while often quite abstract, nevertheless contains thought-steering, substantial terms, and formulates a generally empirical or normative endoxon. Assuming that according to Aristotle an enthymeme has at least two premises, it would appear that a common topic is the abstract principle behind the often implicit major premise. This means that the topic may be regarded as the – generalizing – if-then statement in a modern argumentation scheme. Therefore it should be possible to see the enthymemes of Rhetoric 2.23 as a combination of a logical argument form (which can usually be reconstructed as modus ponens) and an argumentation scheme – even though we may not attribute this idea to Aristotle himself.     

Exploring the effects of a youth enrichment program on academic motivation and engagement

This study explores the effects of a youth enrichment program on academic motivation and engagement. Fifty-three students aged 14–16 years participated in the Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment (RYPEN). Embedded within the program were workshops revolving around the Student Motivation and Engagement Wheel [Martin (2003a). How to motivate your child for school and beyond. Sydney: Bantam] and strategies aimed at enhancing students’ academic motivation and engagement. Motivation was measured using the Student Motivation and Engagement Scale [Martin (2001). Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling 11, 1–20; Martin (2003b) Australian Journal of Education, 14, 34–49] at the outset of the program, towards the end of the program, and again 6–8 weeks later. Data showed that there were gains on key facets of students’ motivation by the end of the program – gains that were sustained 6–8 weeks later. These gains were demonstrated by boys and girls. Moreover, when compared to a larger weighted sample (2769 high school students), by Time 2 and also by Time 3, significant declines in motivation had been reversed and any pre-existing advantages or parallel strengths of the RYPEN sample over the weighted sample were maintained. Five facets of the program proposed to have contributed to its effectiveness are: the optimistic expectations held by adults, the program’s focus on mastery, the climate of cooperation and the ensuing sense of belonging, the positive relationships that developed amongst students and between students and adults, and embedding school-related elements within a broader enrichment program. Each of these is discussed.     

Reliability of heterosocial skills measurement with sex offenders

The heterosocial skills of 79 sex offenders were assessed using two self-report inventories, the Social Anxiety and Distress Scale (SAD) and the S-R Inventory of Anxiousness (SRI). In addition, staff members rated the offenders on modified versions of the SAD and the Heterosocial Skills Behavior Checklist for Males (HSB). Twenty-one offenders were also videotaped during a brief interaction with a female confederate. The tapes were rated using the HSB. All ratings and videotapings were conducted twice within a two-week period. The two self-report scales showed good test-retest reliability (r=.88) and correlatedr=.63 with each other. However, the SAD correlated significantly with the Crowne-Marlowe Social Desirability Scale and showed significant change from first to second administrations. The SRI showed less reactivity to social desirability and changed less over time. The staff ratings showed higher test-retest (r=.72–.76) than interrater (r=.36–.43) reliability. They correlatedr=–.56 with each other and did not show a significant relationship to the Crowne-Marlowe. However, both staff-ratings changed significantly from test to retest. Inspection of correlations between staff and self-report measures indicated that these instruments may be strongly affected by rater variance. Different measures completed by the same person correlated higher than the same measure completed by different persons. The HSB showed high levels of interrater agreement (90–100%) and split-half reliability (r=.95–.97). However, test-retest reliability was poor for the overall score and for the category measuring form of conversation. Categories measuring voice and affect were moderately reliable over time (r=.53–.74). However, the voice category scores changed substantially from first to second videotaping. On almost all measures used in this study, the sex offenders' scores were similar to those derived from normal populations. Only the category measuring affect on the HSB seemed to differentiate this group from normals.     

Social epistemology and the aim(s) of education

In Knowledge in a Social World (1999) Alvin Goldman has defended a ‘veritistic’ or truth-oriented, monistic account of the aim of education. In particular, he argued that the inculcation of true belief constitutes the ultimate goal of education, with other educational activities having only instrumental value insofar as they aid in this goal. In contrast, Harvey Siegel has defended a pluralistic alternative, on which the critical capacity for sustaining rational belief represents an independent, non-instrumental epistemic end of education. I argue that while some of Siegel's objections represent challenges to the sufficiency of Goldman's veritistic model, his alternative account fails to recognise the necessity of truth as an educational goal. This therefore commits Siegel to an unsatisfying pluralism regarding the ideal aim of education. Crucially, this disagreement hinges on two very different ways of understanding the nature of rationality: as instrumental or as epistemic. On Goldman's instrumentalist view, rationality merely involves the ordering of one's means to the end of true belief. However, Kelly (2003) has raised significant counterexamples against the instrumentalist view, and I adapt these to the case of the epistemic ends of education. I thus defend a non-pluralistic account of the ultimate end of education as involving knowledge in the ‘strong’ sense. This, I argue, overcomes the objections raised against Goldman and Siegel's accounts, and better accords with the notion of an ideal characterisation of the aim of education.     

The reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the brief infant–toddler social emotional assessment (BITSEA)

In this study the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the brief infant–toddler social emotional assessment (BITSEA) were investigated in a community sample. The sample consisted of 462 children (mean age: 24.60 ± 7.93 [12–42] months) who had applied to Turkish health centers for immunization. Both parents completed the BITSEA; mothers completed the child behavior checklist 2/3 (CBCL). Internal consistencies of the BITSEA–problem (P) and competence (C) scales were good to excellent (Cronbach's α = 0.82 and 0.72, respectively). Interrater reliability between parents and test–retest reliability were good. BITSEA/P scores were significantly correlated with CBCL internalizing, externalizing and total problem scores (p < 0.001). Maternal BITSEA/P cutpoint scores revealed that 30.6% of male toddlers and 28.6% of females were in the subclinical range and 13.1% of males and 17.6% of females were in clinical range. Results reveal that the Turkish version of BITSEA is a reliable, valid and simply applicable instrument for screening social, emotional and behavioral problems among toddlers. Clinical validation of the BITSEA/C and BITSEA/P is warranted.     

Inverting Intentional Content

Critics of wide functionalism havetraditionally sought to attack the theory byexposing weaknesses in its account of the qualitative content of experience. Widefunctionalist theories of intentionalcontent, however, were spared philosophicalscrutiny. I propose that wide functionalistaccounts of the intentional content are equallysusceptible to attack. I will attempt todemonstrate this by enlisting thefunctionalist's old foe from the qualia wars –the inverted spectrum hypothesis – in a newway. If the argument is sound, not only will Ihave shown that the inverted spectrumhypothesis may have more use than philosophicalliterature recognizes, I will have also exposeda weakness in a dominant philosophical theory:the wide functionalist theory of intentionalcontent.     

Cronbach’s α, Revelle’s β, and Mcdonald’s ω<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis></Subscript>: their relations with each other and two alternative conceptualizations of reliability

We make theoretical comparisons among five coefficients—Cronbach’s α, Revelle’s β, McDonald’s ω_h, and two alternative conceptualizations of reliability. Though many end users and psychometricians alike may not distinguish among these five coefficients, we demonstrate formally their nonequivalence. Specifically, whereas there are conditions under which α, β, and ω_h are equivalent to each other and to one of the two conceptualizations of reliability considered here, we show that equality with this conceptualization of reliability and between α and ω_h holds only under a highly restrictive set of conditions and that the conditions under which β equals ω_h are only somewhat more general. The nonequivalence of α, β, and ω_h suggests that important information about the psychometric properties of a scale may be missing when scale developers and users only report α as is almost always the casePreparation of this article was supported by the Patricia M Nielsen Research Chair of the Family Institute at Northwestern UniversityWe thank Lewis R. Goldberg, Win Hill, Dan McAdams, Tony Z. Tang and especially Roderick P. McDonald for their comments on earlier drafts of portions of this articleThis revised article was published online in August 2005 with the PDF paginated correctly.     

Observer-Relative Chances In Anthropic Reasoning?

John Leslie presents a thought experiment to show that chances are sometimes observer-relative in a paradoxical way. The pivotal assumption in his argument – a version of the weak anthropic principle – is the same as the one used to get the disturbing Doomsday argument off the ground. I show that Leslie's thought experiment trades on the sense/reference ambiguity and is fallacious. I then describe a related case where chances are observer-relative in an interesting way. But not in a paradoxical way. The result can be generalized: At least for a very wide range of cases, the weak anthropic principle does not giverise to paradoxical observer-relative chances. This finding could be taken to give new indirect support to the doomsday argument.     

Test–Retest Reliability of Dominic Anxiety and Depression Items Among Young Children

Assessing anxiety and depressive symptoms through direct interviewing of young children has been found to be particularly difficult utilizing standard interview methods. Test–retest reliability of selected anxiety and depression items from the revised Dominic (Valla, Bergeron, Bidaut-Russell, St-Georges, & Gaudet, 1997), a cartoon-based questionnaire based on DSM diagnostic criteria, was investigated among two geographically diverse samples (Los Angeles and St. Louis; N = 37). Overall, kappas were higher for the anxiety items than for the depression items. In both cities the sample included clinic and non-clinic cases of African-American, Hispanic/Latino, and Caucasian children age 6–8; kappas for the anxiety and depression items were higher among the clinic cases than for the community cases. Given the need for psychometrically sound measures for culturally diverse samples of children, this initial report suggests that the use of selected Dominic items holds promise as a cartoon-based assessment of young children.     

Heterosexual adolescents’ and young adults’ beliefs and attitudes about homosexuality and gay and lesbian peers

Reports on the school climate for gay and lesbian students in the United States suggest that negative attitudes toward gay and lesbian individuals are quite common in adolescence. Very little research, however, has investigated adolescents’ sexual prejudice from a developmental perspective. In this study, 10th- (N = 119) and 12th- (N = 145) grade adolescents and college-aged young adults (N = 86) completed a questionnaire assessing their beliefs and attitudes about homosexuality, their comfort with gay and lesbian students, and their judgments and reasoning regarding the treatment of gay or lesbian peers in school. Results indicate that middle adolescents (14–16) are more likely than older adolescents (16–18) and young adults (19–26) to exhibit sexual prejudice related to social interaction with gay and lesbian peers. Interestingly, however, age-related differences in beliefs about whether homosexuality was right or wrong were not found. These findings provide evidence for age-related differences in some aspects of sexual prejudice but not others and underscore the importance of using multiple measures in assessing the development of this type of prejudice.     

Is gerontology a branch of astrology? The role of advanced age in scientific explanation

Although gerontologists have been troubled by meta-scientific problems such as the proper definition of their discipline, the nature of time and age, and the lack of a nonarbitrary distinction between the old and the not old [e.g., Baltes & Goulet (1970) In Life-span developmental psychology (pp. 4–23). New York: Academic Press; Birren (1959) In Handbook of aging and theindividual (pp. 3–42). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; McKee (1982) Philosophical foundations of gerontology. New York: Human Sciences Press; Reese & Overton (1970) In Life-span developmental psychology (pp. 116–149). New York: Academic Press; Wohlwill (1970) Psychological Review, 77, 49–647], philosophers of science have paid little attention to the meta-scientific problems of gerontology. In this paper some philosophical problems in gerontology are examined through an analysis of the nature of scientific explanation. An argument is presented that claims that gerontology avoids many of the meta-scientific problems associated with time and advanced chronological age because these terms will tend to be obviated or “screened off” in scientific explanations in gerontology.     

Recognition Memory for Faces: Reliability and Validity of the Warrington Recognition Memory Test (RMT) in a Neurological Sample

In response to critiques regarding the psychometric limitations of the Warrington Recognition Memory Test for faces (RMT-F), the current study was conducted to examine the test-retest reliability and validity of the measure in a neurological sample. Forty adult outpatients, ages 35–81, were administered the RMT-F as part of their diagnostic exam. A second evaluation was conducted after an average interval of 7 months (range = 2–20 months). Results yielded a Pearson reliability coefficient of 0.81 (p < .001), indicating a clinically satisfactory index of stability. Correlations with other measures were conducted to examine convergent and divergent validity. Results indicate that the facial component of the RMT has adequate reliability for patients with established neurological disease, shows moderate correlations with other measures of complex visuospatial function, and shows no significant correlation with measures of verbal reasoning, visual problem-solving, or verbal fluency. These findings provide additional support for the clinical efficacy of this instrument for use in a diverse neurological patient sample.     

Analyzing feature distinctiveness in the processing of living and non-living concepts in Alzheimer’s disease

The conceptual structure account (CSA) is a model specifying the role of the living and non-living domain dichotomy in the structure of semantic memory. According to this model, feature distinctiveness and the perceptual–functional inter-correlation of concepts are assumed to play a major role in impairing the ability to discriminate between living and non-living concepts in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The hypothesis was tested in this study by using naming and sorting tasks traditionally considered as assessing distinctiveness, and a property verification task where distinctiveness and perceptual–functional inter-correlation were objectively controlled against norms especially created for this purpose. Alzheimer’s patients (n = 59) with minimal, mild or moderate dementia and normal elderly adults (n = 31) participated in the study. Overall, the findings did not support the CSA predictions. They revealed a distinctiveness effect on response accuracy with shared features dominating distinctive features regardless of domain. They also revealed more difficulties in the tasks involving effortful processes. The results stress the need to consider both cognitive demands of tasks and structural aspects of knowledge in the evaluation of semantic memory in AD.     

Validation of the Preschool and Early Childhood Functional Assessment Scale (PECFAS)

Efforts to determine the prevalence of serious emotional disturbance in preschool-aged children have been hampered by the lack of a validated measure. The Preschool and Early Childhood Functional Assessment Scale (PECFAS) is a multi-dimensional measure that assesses the psychosocial functioning of children aged 3–7 years. The concurrent validity and reliability of the PECFAS were assessed in a sample of 30 preschool-aged children in a large Head Start program in Ventura, California. PECFAS ratings based on in-depth interviews were significantly related to parental ratings that the children had mental health problems, psychiatric diagnoses, teacher ratings of the child's need for mental health evaluations, teacher ratings of behavior problems on a standardized screening inventory (DIAL-R), and actual referrals for mental health evaluations. Interrater reliability for the total PECFAS score was high (r = .90) as was internal consistency of the five subscales (alpha = .86). Using the PECFAS scores as a standard, the weighted prevalence of serious emotional disturbance in this West Coast Head Start program was 17%, at the lower end of the current estimated rate of SED for older children in low income samples (18–26%).     

Counterfactual Reasoning for Regretted Situations Involving Controllable Versus Uncontrollable Events: The Modulating Role of Contingent Self-Esteem

We report a study that examined the modulating impact of contingent self-esteem on regret intensity for regretted outcomes associated with controllable versus uncontrollable events. The Contingent Self-Esteem Scale (e.g., Kernis & Goldman, 2006) was used to assess the extent to which a person’s sense of self-worth is based on self and others’ expectations. We found that there was an influence of self-esteem contingency for controllable but not for uncontrollable regret types. For controllable regret types individuals with a high contingent (i.e., unstable) self-esteem reported greater regret intensity than those with a low contingent (i.e., stable) self-esteem. We interpret this finding as reflecting a functional and adaptive role of high contingent self-esteem in terms of mobilizing the application of counterfactual reasoning and planning mechanisms that can enable personal expectations to be achieved in the future.     

Drawing the boundary between low-level and high-level mindreading

The philosophical world is indebted to Alvin Goldman for a number of reasons, and among them, his defense of the relevance of cognitive science for philosophy of mind. In Simulating minds, Goldman discusses with great care and subtlety a wide variety of experimental results related to mindreading from cognitive neuroscience, cognitive psychology, social psychology and developmental psychology. No philosopher has done more to display the resourcefulness of mental simulation. I am sympathetic with much of the general direction of Goldman’s theory. I agree with him that mindreading is not a single system based on a single mechanism. And I admire his attempt to bring together the cognitive neuroscientific discovery of mirror system phenomena and the philosophical account of pretense within a unique theoretical framework of mental simulation. To do so, Goldman distinguishes two types of mindreading, respectively, based on low-level and high-level simulation. Yet, I wonder in what sense they are really two distinct processes. Here, I will confine myself largely to spelling out a series of points that take issue with the distinction between low-level and high-level mindreading.     

Schizotypal personality traits and prediction of one's own movements in motor control: what causes an abnormal sense of agency?

Background. Positive schizophrenic symptoms, especially passivity phenomena, including auditory hallucinations, may be caused by an abnormal sense of agency, which people with schizotypal personality traits also tend to exhibit. A sense of agency asserts that it is oneself who is causing or generating an action. It is possible that this abnormal sense of self-agency is attributable to the abnormal prediction of one’s own movements in motor control. Method. We conducted an experiment using the “disappeared cursor” paradigm in which non-clinical, healthy participants were required to click on a target using an invisible mouse cursor. Prediction error was defined as the distance between the target and the click point. Results. The results showed that schizotypal personality traits, but not depressive or anxious traits, were correlated with deficits in predicting movements of the subjects’ left hand. In particular, auditory hallucination proneness had the strongest relationship with movement prediction error. In this report, we also discuss the error tendency (overestimations or underestimations of one’s own movements). Conclusions. This finding is in accordance with the idea that passivity phenomena or proneness may be caused by the abnormal prediction of one’s own actions or movements.     

The Beliefs About Medication Scale: Development, Reliability, and Validity

The purpose of the study was to develop and evaluate a psychometrically sound health belief measure, the Beliefs About Medication Scale (BAMS) that can be used with adolescent chronic illness populations whose prescribed treatment includes oral medication. One hundred and thirty-three adolescents (age 11–18 years) with asthma (n = 60), HIV (n = 31), or inflammatory bowel disease (n = 42) completed the BAMS and, along with their parent, a self-report medication interview. A confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized subscales of Perceived Threat, Positive Outcome Expectancy, Negative Outcome Expectancy, and Intent to Adhere to treatment. The subscales evidenced good internal consistency and 3-week test-retest reliability. Univariate and multivariate analyses demonstrated that the health belief constructs accounted for 22% of the variance in medication adherence beyond demographic and illness characteristics. The study provides preliminary evidence of the reliability and validity of a theoretically based measure of health beliefs for adolescents. The BAMS may be a useful tool to evaluate the psychological barriers to adherence that place teenagers at risk for nonadherence.