THE WIDENING WORLD OF FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT: COMMENTS ON FOUR MANUALS AND BEYOND

An escalating number of materials have been published recently on the topic of functional assessment and assessment‐based behavioral interventions. We review four manuals that purport to provide practical guidance for conducting functional assessment. An examination of these manuals yields encouraging evidence that the field of behavioral support has made notable progress in adopting a functional (behavior‐analytic) approach to unwanted behaviors. The content of the manuals, considered in the context of emerging perspectives in behavioral support, suggests a number of important issues and directions that should be addressed by future functional assessment research and practice.     

THE LIMITS OF PRAGMATISM AND THE LIMITS OF REALISM

Abstract. I argue here for a limited version of pragmatism—called conceptual pragmatism—that recognizes that conceptual systems are to be evaluated according to their usefulness for helping us get around in the world. Once a conceptual system is in place, however, the truth of sentences is a matter of both empirical tit and coherence with the rest of our knowledge. The error of critical realists is to fail to take into account the limited conceptual relativity that is to be expected on the basis of conceptual pragmatism. The conceptual realist thesis applies equally in science and theology.     

WITTGENSTEIN'S LATER PICTURE "THEORY" OF MEANING

Recently, commentators such as Kenny and Hacker have disagreed about whether Wittgenstein's early picture theory of meaning is at all compatible with his later theory of "meaning-as-use". Arguing in favor of their compatibility, Kenny finds that meaning-as-use supplements, rather than rivals the earlier conception of meaning:     

COMMENTS ON EGER'S "A TALE OF TWO CONTROVERSIES"

Abstract. This commentary on Martin Eger's "A Tale of Two Controversies" focuses on three criticisms: first, the shifting status of the claims of creationism in the article; second, new developments in moral philosophy which run counter to Eger's discussion; and third, the inadequate treatment of pedagogical and curricular principles.     

CICERO, AMBROSE, AND AQUINAS "ON DUTIES"OR THE LIMITS OF GENRE IN MORALS

To compose a Christian book on exemplary Christian living, Ambrose appropriates and criticizes Cicero's book on “duties,”De officiis. In many passages within the moral part of his Summa of Theology, Thomas Aquinas incorporates quotations from both Cicero and Ambrose. Comparison of the three texts raises issues about the relation of genres to terms, arguments, rules, and ideals in religious teaching. Genre becomes a useful category for analyzing religious rhetoric only when it is conceived as a set of persuasive or pedagogical relations below a text's surface disposition.     

一般性注意资源限制对返回抑制的影响

通过探讨视空间和语义通道内的注意资源的限制对IOR的影响的4个实验,来验证“IOR的低级成分不受注意资源限制的影响和IOR的高级成分受注意资源限制的影响”的假设。实验1A和1B的结果表明,在基于空间位置的简单检测任务中,IOR的低级成分既不随语义通道内注意资源的减少而消减,也不随空间通道内注意资源的减少而消减。实验2A和2B结果表明,在基于客体特性的辨别任务中,IOR的高级成分既随语义通道内注意资源的减少而消减,又随空间通道内注意资源的减少而消减。因此,辨别任务中的IOR受一般性注意资源的限制。同时,实验结果还表明,IOR的高级成分对空间通道内的注意资源的需求要高于对语义通道内注意资源的需求