Risk Dilution: Or,How to Run a Minimal-Risk HIV Challenge Trial

Bioethicists broadly agree that there is a limit to the level of net risk that biomedical research may permissibly impose on participants, even in cases where the potential of that research to improve the health of the population health would be great. Although some may permissibly volunteer to take on some degree of pro-social risk, no one, not even a willing volunteer, may ever be outright sacrificed for others. One might think this perspective, if correct, makes it effectively impossible to study interventions with high intrinsic risks. But I describe a method – risk dilution – by which an extremely high-risk intervention can nonetheless be effectively studied in the context of an acceptably low-risk trial. I then defend risk dilution from objections.     

Frames of Reference in Self-Reports of Health,Well-Being,Fatigue, and Pain: a Qualitative Examination

Self-reports in survey research can be affected by internal comparison standards, or Frames of Reference (FoRs), that people apply when making their ratings. The goal of this study was to determine which FoRs people naturally use when rating their health, subjective well-being, fatigue, and pain. We further examined whether FoRs varied by content domain and age group. One hundred adults from a community sample of the US general population participated in individual semi-structured qualitative interviews. Participants provided self-report ratings on two of the four content domains and were then systematically queried about FoRs. Interview responses were summarized and coded into broad FoR categories. Four broad FoR categories emerged: References to (1) Other People, (2) an Earlier Time in Life, (3) an Important Event in the Past, and (4) a Hypothetical Situation. FoRs were reported in the majority (80.5%) of responses and multiple FoRs were reported in 34% of responses. The reporting of FoRs was evident for all domains, but was more prevalent for well-being compared to pain. References to a Hypothetical Situation were only mentioned in the well-being and health domains. For health, references to Other People were more frequently reported at older compared to younger ages. Our results extend prior work by demonstrating that participants’ reporting of FoRs is evident in ratings of various content domains. They further suggest that a limited number of FoRs are used and that their identification holds promise for understanding and controlling systematic group differences in FoRs.     

返回抑制的空间、视网膜和客体参照系

返回抑制是指当刺激出现在先前注意过的位置(或客体)时,人们的加工效率降低的一种抑制性注意机制。该注意机制对个体有适应性价值,它能够降低注意返回先前注意过的位置(或客体)的概率(PosnerCohen,1984),从而提高视觉采样(或搜索)的效率(Klein,1988)。返回抑制的参照系是返回抑制领域的重要理论问题。先前研究发现返回抑制的参照系可以是视网膜、空间和客体。本文介绍了返回抑制参照系研究的实验范式以及相关的行为、脑损伤及神经影像发现。此外,本文还就未来研究的方向和应该注意的问题进行了探讨。     

怎样说出你的道理——寻找中医学的现代语言

中医学以阴阳五行学说为基础,用比类取象和直觉顿悟的方式解释医理,而西医学以解剖、生理、病理等学科为基础,用演绎和归纳推理的方式解释医理,较前者更有说服力.中医学语言束缚了中医学的发展和推广,有必要用现代语言说出中医学的实用性和有效性.     

Frames of Reference and Antecedentless Anaphora in Spanish Conversation

This study examines native Spanish speakers’ use of anaphoric pronouns and null subjects in conversational discourse in the absence of coreferential antecedents. It also considers the adequacy of Gundel et al.’s proposal  (Language 69(2):274–307, 1993) that the cognitive status “in focus” corresponds with speakers’ use of minimal referring expressions (i.e., unstressed pronouns and zeros). Analysis of naturally occurring Spanish conversation shows how the felicitous use and interpretation of non-canonical (antecedentless) anaphoric pronouns and null subjects are possible due to the activation of underlying cognitive frames that are shared by the interlocutors. Furthermore, the speaker’s mention of a referent, dubbed a “neighborhood antecedent” by Langacker (Conceptual grouping and pronominal anaphora, in: Fox (ed) Studies in anaphora, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996), and the information “filled in” over the course of the conversation on account of the activation of relevant cognitive frames, both license and disambiguate the non-canonical anaphoric relations.     

The Immorality of Modal Realism,Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let the Children Drown

Philosophical Studies -     

Frames of Reference in Quantity Estimations by Groups and Individuals

The superiority of group performance over performance of the average individual is relatively greater on world knowledge tasks than on quantity estimation tasks. Previous research on quantity estimations has involved judgments without an explicit frame of reference. We propose that a frame of reference converts a quantity estimation into a world knowledge inference by embedding the estimation in a larger cognitive structure. Individuals first estimated 30 pairs of quantities, such as the length of the Ohio River and the length of the Arkansas River, given either 2 statements as a frame of reference (the Mississippi River is 2340 miles long; the Colorado River is 1450 miles long), 1 of these statements as a frame of reference, or no frame of reference. Then they made the same 30 pairs of estimations again as 3-person groups or as individuals under the same frame-of-reference conditions. As predicted, group estimations were more accurate than individual estimations, both group and individual estimations were more accurate with either a 2-statement or a 1-statement frame of reference than without a frame of reference, and the frame of reference improved group estimations relatively more than individual estimations.     

Age Effects of Frames of Reference in Self-Reports of Health,Well-Being,Fatigue and Pain

Self-reports of health and well-being are central for population monitoring, so it is paramount that they are measured accurately. The goal of this study was to examine the impact of age on the use of the comparison standards or frames of reference (FoRs) in self-reports of health, life-satisfaction, fatigue, and pain, and to determine if the age-health outcome associations were affected by age differences in FoRs. Respondents (n = 2000) selected from the U.S. general population self-rated their life-satisfaction and health outcomes. Following this, they were asked to indicate if they used any comparisons (FoRs) when making their rating and the direction of these comparisons (upward, lateral or downward). Analyses examined (a) whether age groups differed in the type and direction of FoRs, and (b) whether age patterns in health, life-satisfaction, fatigue, and pain were altered when FoRs were statistically controlled. Compared to middle-aged and older people, younger respondents were more likely to compare themselves with other people when self-rating their health and life-satisfaction. They were also more likely to use a hypothetical situation when evaluating their pain and fatigue. Younger participants used lateral comparisons less often and downward comparisons more often than middle-aged and older participants. When these age differences in FoRs were statistically controlled, the observed age patterns in self-reported health outcomes were somewhat reduced. The results show that people of different ages use different FoRs when self-reporting their life-satisfaction and health outcomes.

     

Space in Hand and Mind: Gesture and Spatial Frames of Reference in Bilingual Mexico

Speakers of many languages prefer allocentric frames of reference (FoRs) when talking about small-scale space, using words like “east” or “downhill.” Ethnographic work has suggested that this preference is also reflected in how such speakers gesture. Here, we investigate this possibility with a field experiment in Juchitán, Mexico. In Juchitán, a preferentially allocentric language (Isthmus Zapotec) coexists with a preferentially egocentric one (Spanish). Using a novel task, we elicited spontaneous co-speech gestures about small-scale motion events (e.g., toppling blocks) in Zapotec-dominant speakers and in balanced Zapotec-Spanish bilinguals. Consistent with prior claims, speakers’ spontaneous gestures reliably reflected either an egocentric or allocentric FoR. The use of the egocentric FoR was predicted—not by speakers’ dominant language or the language they used in the task—but by mastery of words for “right” and “left,” as well as by properties of the event they were describing. Additionally, use of the egocentric FoR in gesture predicted its use in a separate nonlinguistic memory task, suggesting a cohesive cognitive style. Our results show that the use of spatial FoRs in gesture is pervasive, systematic, and shaped by several factors. Spatial gestures, like other forms of spatial conceptualization, are thus best understood within broader ecologies of communication and cognition.     

Time Travel and Changing the Past: (Or How to Kill Yourself and Live to Tell the Tale)

According to the prevailing sentiment, changing the past is logically impossible. The prevailing sentiment is wrong. In this paper, I argue that the claim that changing the past entails a contradiction ultimately rests upon an empirical assumption, and so the conclusion that changing the past is logically impossible is to be resisted. I then present and discuss a model of time which drops the empirical assumption and coherently models changing the past. Finally, I defend the model, and changing the past, against objections.     

Polarized Norms and Social Frames of Reference: A Test of the Self-Categorization Theory of Group Polarization

Self-categorization theory (Turner, 1985; Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987) explains group polarization as conformity to a polarized norem which defines one's own group in contrast to other groups within a specific social context. Whether the ingroup norm is polarized or not depends on the social comparative context within which the ingroup defines itself. It was predicted from self-categorization theory that an ingroup confronted by a risky outgroup will polarize toward caution, an ingroup confronted by a caution outgroup will polarize toward risk, and an ingroup in the middle of the social frame of reference, confronted by both risky and cautious outgroups, will not polarize but will converge on its pretest mean. Our experiment adopted a modified version of the risky-shift paradigm, in which subjects gave pretest, posttest, and group consensus recommendations on three choice dilemma item-types (risky, neutral, or risky). The frame of reference was manipulated by confronting the ingroup with an outgroup lying on one or the other side, or both sides, of the ingroup distribution. This procedure was successful in producing a polarized theoretical ingroup norm in the appropriate conditions. Subjects' posttest opinions converged on their estimations of the consensual ingroup position, which in turn was polarized or not in line with the theoretical norm. There was some evidence that the degree of behavioral convergence and estimations of the ingroup consensus were a partial function of the extent to which subjects identified the group. There was also the usual main effect for item-type: Subjects converged on a norm polarized toward risk on risky items and toward caution on catious items. The results are consistent with self-categorization theory.     

How Congregations Can and Do Use the Internet,with Special Reference to Social Action

ABSTRACT

Congregations increasingly use the Internet as a fast, very low cost, versatile means for communication within the organization, to reach out to people unacquainted with the congregation or the denomination, and as a vast information resource. Congregational insights gained in the course of using the Internet are based on a survey of some 43 congregations, an analysis of websites, and the author's experiences. Critical considerations in congregational website design are discussed. How congregations cope with lack of universal access to the Internet, privacy issues, and derogatory uses of the Internet are reported. The Internet proves particularly useful for identifying and mounting a rapid response to social action issues as they arise.