Reply to Schumm's argument that ending the gay ban will morally "injure" some service members

Schumm does not explain why moral injuries that would ensue from serving alongside peers who utter the words "I am gay" warrant protection in federal law.     

From <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pintele Yid to Racenjude</Emphasis>: Chaim Zhitlovsky and racial conceptions of Jewishness

The Russian Jewish intellectual, Chaim Zhitlovsky (1865–1943), a leading architect of secular Jewish culture and thought, was a central figure in the progressive Jewish intelligentsia of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In an essay written in 1927, Yidn un Yiddishkayt (Jews and Jewishness), he sought to define the secular essence of what he calls Yiddishkayt. This essay is not the first in Zhitlovskys long publicistic career in which he searches for new, secular definitions of Jewish identity and culture. But this essay differs, since it is marked by Zhitlovskys use of contemporary social scientific notions of race and racial traits to conceptualize what he believes constitutes Jewishness in a non-religious context, along with his adoption of the mystical Jewish concept of the pintele yid, the theory of an innate Jewishness embodied by a Jewish spark. Zhitlovskys desire to craft a truly secular theory of Jewish identity led him ironically to accept models of Jewish identity at odds with his stated larger vision. In turning to contemporary racial theory, as well as long nurtured mystical models of Yiddishkayt, Zhitlovsky reveals the wide range of ideological discourses that led him to innovative and controversial notions of modern Jewish identity.     

Dimensionality of the Beck Youth Inventories With Child Psychiatric Outpatients

The Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Disruptive Behavior, and Self-Concept Inventories of the Beck Youth Inventories of Emotional and Social Impairment (J. S. Beck, A. S. Beck, & J. Jolly, 2001) were administered to 150 female and 150 male outpatients who were 7–12 years old and matched by sex as to whether they were diagnosed with anxiety, mood, adjustment, or attention-deficit and disruptive behavior disorders to determine whether each inventory represented distinct symptom dimensions. Horns parallel analyses (J. L. Horn, 1965) found that the Anxiety, Depression, and Disruptive Behavior Inventories were unidimensional, but that the Anger and Self-Concept Inventories were each composed of two underlying dimensions. Iterated principal-factor analyses indicated that the Anger Inventory represented Affective and Cognitive dimensions, whereas the Self-concept Inventory reflected Self-Esteem and Competency dimensions. However, the overall pattern of results was discussed as supporting the current practice of scoring each inventory as a summative scale for clinical assessment purposes.     

Response speeding mediates the contributions of cue familiarity and target retrievability to metamnemonic judgments

Metamnemonic judgments are influenced by the retrievability of the target memory in question, but also by the familiarity of the cue used to elicit such judgments. However, there have been few suggestions as to what factors mediate the influence of these different sources of information on metamnemonic judgments. In this experiment, I examined the interactions between prediction time pressure and variables that promote either cue familiarity or target retrievability. The data reveal that target retrievability plays a larger role than does cue familiarity in fostering predictions of future recall made under unpressured conditions, but that cue familiarity influences predictions that are speeded. This pattern is interpreted by analogy with recognition memory: Mnemonic evidence based on familiarity is more impervious to the demands of time pressure than are the products of deliberative retrieval. Several explanations for this effect are suggested.     

Using Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB) measures of self- and social perception to give interpersonal meaning to symptoms: anxiety as an exemplar

Current symptom-based diagnosis, although important, lacks theoretical underpinning that might give meaning to psychiatric symptoms. The structural analysis of social behavior (SASB) fills this void, operationalizing interpersonal theory for investigation of relational aspects of psychopathology. To provide an example of how SASB may be utilized to this end, participants with (n = 40) and without (n = 40) uncontrollable worry and anxiety completed SASB Intrex Questionnaires to explore self-perceptions and perceptions of strangers in a social interaction task. Based on SASB principles and past research on familial factors in childhood anxiety, it was hypothesized that self- and other perceptions would discriminate participant groups along the lines of disrupted and normal attachment. To demonstrate the versatility of SASB, analyses incorporated indexes of varying specificity. Largely, results supported predictions, suggesting the sensitivity of SASB Intrex to assess social perceptions even in a first-meeting context, extending its known possible uses.     

A unified model for perceptual learning

Perceptual learning in adult humans and animals refers to improvements in sensory abilities after training. These improvements had been thought to occur only when attention is focused on the stimuli to be learned (task-relevant learning) but recent studies demonstrate performance improvements outside the focus of attention (task-irrelevant learning). Here, we propose a unified model that explains both task-relevant and task-irrelevant learning. The model suggests that long-term sensitivity enhancements to task-relevant or irrelevant stimuli occur as a result of timely interactions between diffused signals triggered by task performance and signals produced by stimulus presentation. The proposed mechanism uses multiple attentional and reinforcement systems that rely on different underlying neuromodulators. Our model provides insights into how neural modulators, attentional and reinforcement learning systems are related.     

Do psychosocial and study skill factors predict college outcomes? A meta-analysis

This study examines the relationship between psychosocial and study skill factors (PSFs) and college outcomes by meta-analyzing 109 studies. On the basis of educational persistence and motivational theory models, the PSFs were categorized into 9 broad constructs: achievement motivation, academic goals, institutional commitment, perceived social support, social involvement, academic self-efficacy, general self-concept, academic-related skills, and contextual influences. Two college outcomes were targeted: performance (cumulative grade point average; GPA) and persistence (retention). Meta-analyses indicate moderate relationships between retention and academic goals, academic self-efficacy, and academic-related skills (ps =.340,.359, and.366, respectively). The best predictors for GPA were academic self-efficacy and achievement motivation (ps =.496 and.303, respectively). Supplementary regression analyses confirmed the incremental contributions of the PSF over and above those of socioeconomic status, standardized achievement, and high school GPA in predicting college outcomes.     

Index of suspicion: feeling not believing

Throughout the U.S., state laws require professionals who work with children to report cases of suspected child abuse to child protection services. Both practically and conceptually, however, significant problems arise from a lack of clarity regarding the threshold that has been set for reporting. Specifically, there is no consensus as to what constitutes reasonable suspicion, and little direction for how mandated reporters should gauge their legal and professional responsibilities when they harbor suspicion. In this paper we outline the context of the problem, discuss the nature and scope of its conceptual underpinnings, and offer recommendations for moving towards a concrete, practical solution.     

A cognitive tool to diagnose predominantly inattentive ADHD behavior

Poor performance on tests of reading comprehension could be the result of weak word-recognition skills, inconsistent attention (ADD), or a combination of the two. Identifying the source of the reading disability (RD) reliably has been difficult because inconsistent attention interferes with reading and weak word recognition skill makes attention wander. The situation is further complicated by the fact that there are no objective diagnostic tests for ADD (Breggin, 1998; Diller, 1998). We proposed a new model of differential diagnosis of ADHD-I/RD and field-tested its utility in two studies. The new diagnostic procedure utilizes intra-individual differences seen in the performance of at-risk learners on tasks related to reading that vary in the degree of sustained attention required for successful performance. The hypothesis is that children whose attention is inconsistent would perform more poorly on tests such as listening comprehension, which require sustained attention, than on tests such as reading comprehension, which are more tolerant of inattention. Such differences will not be seen in the test scores of children who have only a reading disability because their performance on reading tests is determined more by the difficulty level of the tests than by the sensitivity of the tests to attention. The validity of this new model was evaluated by determining the relationship between differences seen in the scores of tests that differ in their attention requirement and the degree of inconsistency in sustained attention as measured by Conners' CPT. The results of the two studies indicate this to be a viable approach. The results of the second study are presented in this report.     

Senior capstone design and ethics: A bridge to the professional world

A senior level capstone design experience has been developed and offered with a particular emphasis on many of the professional issues raised in Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) Engineering Criterion IV. The course has sought to develop student awareness of the ethical foundation of the engineering profession, the global and societal framework within which engineers practice, and the environmental impact on engineering. The capstone design course also focused upon improving the technical communications skills of the graduating senior class with both extensive instruction in writing and multiple workshops dealing with the art of making an effective oral presentation. The effectiveness of the design course was assessed using Kirkpatrick’s model for evaluating training programs. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the “Ethics and Social Responsibility in Engineering and Technology” meeting, New Orleans, 2003.