What makes a girl (or a boy) popular (or unpopular)? African American children's perceptions and developmental differences

Open-ended questions were used to obtain narrative accounts of what makes a girl (or a boy) popular (or unpopular) at school. The participants were 489 African American students in Grades 1, 4, and 7 recruited from high-risk inner-city neighborhoods. Appearance and self-presentation were mentioned the most in Grades 4 and 7. Prosocial characteristics were especially relevant for popularity in Grade 1, as were studentship in Grade 4 and peer affiliations in Grade 7. Deviant behaviors were nominated for popularity more frequently in Grade 7 than in the younger grades and more for boys' popularity than for girls'. The mean deviance scores were negative in all grade levels, suggesting a normative peer culture. Male groups in Grade 7 showed significant homophily in reports of deviant behaviors.     

The Kantian mentalism of Johannes Kinker (1764–1845)

Johannes Kinker (1764–1845) who tried to promote Kantian philosophy in different ways, was also interested in the phenomenon of language. His general language theory is presented in Inleiding eener Wijsgeerige Algemeene Theorie der Talen, published in 1817. An impression of that theory is given in this paper. Some important questions arise, viz. whether Kinker was influenced by others; whether his theory was an original one and what the place of the theory is in the linguistic situation of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century.     

Familiarity-connected or stress-based contagious yawning in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris)? Some additional data

The present short note aimed at further exploring data from a recent study showing socially modulated auditory contagious yawning in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris). Two independent observers further extended the analysis of all video recordings made in the previous study and coded both the number of yawns performed by the dogs and the frequencies or durations of stress-related behaviors exhibited throughout the presentation of familiar and unfamiliar yawns. By showing no significant difference between conditions in the frequencies or durations of the coded behaviors, nor any association between the number of yawns and the frequencies or durations of stress-related behaviors, results raised doubt on the stress-induced yawn hypothesis, thus supporting social modulation. The exact mechanism underlying contagious yawning, however, needs further research.     

Which Is Better: Simultaneous or Sequential Choice?

The term "diversification bias" refers to the tendency for people to take more variety when choosing several items simultaneously than when choosing them sequentially. In this article, we investigate whether this really is a bias by measuring evaluations of sets chosen simultaneously or sequentially. In Experiment 1 participants made two choices between audio tracks for consecutive consumption. Participants liked low-variety sets most and were more likely to choose high-variety sets in simultaneous choice. In Experiment 2 participants chose between three gambles which varied in the probability of winning and their expected value. Again, simultaneous choices seemed worse than sequential ones: The simultaneous-choice groups took far more low expected value gambles than did sequential-choice subjects and rated their enjoyment as lower. We conclude that simultaneous choice often leads to outcomes that are worse than sequential choice and discuss the circumstances when this is likely to be true.     

Which Comes First: Consciousness or Aspartate Receptors?

This paper is a critique of Karl Jansen's hypothesis that near-death and ketamine experiences are caused by blockade of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors. An assumption that consciousness and its alterations are merely the product of neuronal activity is only one of many possible beliefs about reality. An alternative, which can be verified through one's own direct experience, is that consciousness is always a subject and body is only its object. The objects come and go; consciousness remains.     

How Is the Kantian or Confucian Metaphysics Applicable to Human Dignity—Response to Wang Xiaowei

Using the opportunity of responding to Wang’s critiques, this short article clarifies a number of important points related to the topic of human dignity. It argues that, only in moving beyond his a priori reasoning by assuming humans to be rational agents can the Kantian theory of dignity be applied to actual humans; only in taking our moral potential as a recommended way of human self-identification can the is-ought dichotomy be resolved; only in respecting human dignity can punishment be justified; and only from its function in shaping our visions and attitudes can a teleological metaphysics be helpful.     

Are human embryos Kantian persons?: Kantian considerations in favor of embryonic stem cell research

One argument used by detractors of human embryonic stem cell research (hESCR) invokes Kant's formula of humanity, which proscribes treating persons solely as a means to an end, rather than as ends in themselves. According to Fuat S. Oduncu, for example, adhering to this imperative entails that human embryos should not be disaggregated to obtain pluripotent stem cells for hESCR. Given that human embryos are Kantian persons from the time of their conception, killing them to obtain their cells for research fails to treat them as ends in themselves. This argument assumes two points that are rather contentious given a Kantian framework. First, the argument assumes that when Kant maintains that humanity must be treated as an end in itself, he means to argue that all members of the species Homo sapiens must be treated as ends in themselves; that is, that Kant regards personhood as co-extensive with belonging to the species Homo sapiens. Second, the argument assumes that the event of conception is causally responsible for the genesis of a Kantian person and that, therefore, an embryo is a Kantian person from the time of its conception. In this paper, I will present challenges against these two assumptions by engaging in an exegetical study of some of Kant's works. First, I will illustrate that Kant did not use the term "humanity" to denote a biological species, but rather the capacity to set ends according to reason. Second, I will illustrate that it is difficult given a Kantian framework to denote conception (indeed any biological event) as causally responsible for the creation of a person. Kant ascribed to a dualistic view of human agency, and personhood, according to him, was derived from the supersensible capacity for reason. To argue that a Kantian person is generated due to the event of conception ignores Kant's insistence in various aspects of his work that it is not possible to understand the generation of a person qua a physical operation. Finally, I will end the paper by drawing from Allen Wood's work in Kantian philosophy in order to generate an argument in favor of hESCR.     

To Hook Up or Date: Which Gender Benefits?

Hooking up on college campuses has become more frequent than dating in heterosexual sexual interaction. Analysis of the relative benefits and costs associated with dating and hooking up suggest that women benefit more from dating while men benefit more from hooking up. U.S students (150 women, 71 men) at a midsized southeastern university indicated preferences for dating and hooking up across a number of situations and indicated the perceived benefits and risks associated with each. As hypothesized, in most situations women more than men preferred dating and men more than women preferred hooking up. Both genders perceived similar benefits and risks to dating and hooking up; differences provided insight into the sexual motives of college women and men.     

Which One Triggers the Other? Technological or Social Innovation

The term innovation has sometimes been used as a synonym for technological innovation until the concept of social innovation attracted academic attention. Since then, these two types of innovation have been investigated individually. It can be claimed that, despite the great importance of social innovation studies, technological innovation studies received more attention. In addition, there are limited studies that have examined technological and social innovation together. The aim of this study was to examine the causal relationship between technological and social innovations. The impact of entrepreneurial characteristics on social innovation was also analyzed. This study was based on a comprehensive field study including 767 university students from 10 universities from different regions of Turkey. Regression analyses and structural equation modeling confirmed that social and technological innovation were related to one another, and both were correlated with a particular constellation of personal characteristics.     

Learning to Time (Let) or Scalar Expectancy Theory (Set)? A Critical Test of Two Models of Timing

Two theories of timing, scalar expectancy theory (SET) and learning to time (LeT), make substantially different assumptions about what animals learn in temporal tasks. In a test of these assumptions, pigeons learned two discriminations: On Type 1 trials, they learned to choose a red key after a 1-s signal and a green key after a 4-s signal; on Type 2 trials, they learned to choose a blue key after a 4-s signal and a yellow key after a 16-s signal. Then, two psychometric functions were obtained by presenting them with intermediate durations (1 to 4 s and 4 to 16 s). The two functions did not superpose, and most bisection points were not at the geometric mean of the training stimuli (contra SET); for most birds, the function for Type 2 trials was to the left of the function for Type 1 trials (contra LeT). Finally, the birds were exposed to signals ranging from 1 to 16 s and given a choice between novel key combinations (e.g., red vs. blue). The results with the novel key combinations were always closer to LeT's than to SET's predictions. Observations of the birds' behavior also suggest that, more than being a mere expression of an internal clock, behavior constitutes the clock.     

Nonconceptualism,Hume’s Problem,and the Deduction

Lucy Allais seeks to provide a reading of the Transcendental Deduction of the Categories which is compatible with a nonconceptualist account of Kant’s theory of intuition. According to her interpretation, the aim of the Deduction is to show that a priori concept application is required for empirical concept application. I argue that once we distinguish the application of the categories from the instantiation of the categories, we see that Allais’s reconstruction of the Deduction cannot provide an answer to Hume’s problem about our entitlement to use a priori concepts when thinking about the objects of empirical intuition. If the Deduction is to provide a response to Hume, Allais’s interpretation must be rejected.     

What Do Teachers Want (from Psychoanalysts)?

From his thirty-year perspective as both a psychoanalyst and teacher educator, the author reviews the programs described by Farley and Manning, Sklarew, and Kusché and Greenberg. He assesses their relationship to Freud's vision and to the needs and wants of current teachers.     

How images may or may not represent flowers: picture–object correspondence in bumblebees (Bombus impatiens)?

Studies of bee cognition frequently use two-dimensional stimuli referred to as floral patterns, and yet how bees perceive pictorial representations is not known. An investigation of bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) picture–object correspondence was undertaken according to the theory of Fagot et al. (Picture perception in animals. Psychology Press Ltd, East Sussex, pp 295–320, 2000) that pictures and objects may be confused, perceived as independent or equivalent. In three experiments, bumblebees were given discrimination training and unrewarded testing in a radial maze. In the first experiment, preferences between artificial flowers and photographs of those flowers revealed a significant learned preference for the stimulus rewarded during training: no confusion following training. In the second experiment, bees did transfer learning from artificial flowers to photographs: some commonality between an object and photograph was perceived. In the third experiment, bees spontaneously generalized a learned preference for one artificial flower to its silhouette, but only for one of two flowers used in training. No generalization was obtained to drawn images. Some transfer between image and object is exhibited, likely by low-level feature matching, but transfer is poor with degraded images, cautioning against extrapolation of picture-based responding to natural correspondents. Despite evidence that bees exhibit some transfer while retaining discrimination, it is likely that the observed response is due to generalization more akin to confusion than true equivalence. Furthermore, although 2D patterning cues (line, edge and shade) provide discriminable cues for bees between 2D stimuli, it is not here supported that such features are perceived as equivalent to the intended floral structures.     

Consciousness or the Physical Universe – Which Came First?

Historically, many have seen the intelligibility of the physical universe as showing that it is somehow ultimately dependent upon conscious intelligent pre‐existing being – ‘God’. Today, however, many believe that modern advances in our scientific understanding of the origins and nature of the universe, and of the conscious intelligent beings it contains, render God, as Laplace said, an ‘unnecessary hypothesis’. This article considers whether the findings of modern science do indeed diminish the plausibility of belief in a creator God. Or, on the contrary, whether there are features of current scientific understanding which may reasonably be thought to support the belief that conscious intelligent being pre‐existed the physical universe and caused it to be. In short: can science reasonably be thought to support the view that consciousness created the physical universe rather than that the physical universe created consciousness?