Constructions: a new theoretical approach to language

A new theoretical approach to language has emerged in the past 10-15 years that allows linguistic observations about form-meaning pairings, known as 'constructions', to be stated directly. Constructionist approaches aim to account for the full range of facts about language, without assuming that a particular subset of the data is part of a privileged 'core'. Researchers in this field argue that unusual constructions shed light on more general issues, and can illuminate what is required for a complete account of language.     

Answering the Ethical Question

Many philosophers have attempted to answer the ‘ethical question’: can the ethical value of an artwork ever contribute to its aesthetic value, and if so, how? In this paper, I consider a methodological question that arises out of this discussion: should attempts to address the ethical question use analytic tools found in contemporary philosophical literature, art criticism, or some combination of the two? I concur with arguments proposed elsewhere, which suggest that art criticism has an important role to play in addressing the ethical question. However, I argue that any fruitful attempt to answer the question must defend some particular way of understanding the ethical value of artworks, which suggests that we should address what I label the ‘art question’: what is the role and importance of art? This question, I suggest, is one with which philosophers can usefully engage. This division of labour offers a way forward in addressing this important issue.     

Bimodal and trimodal multisensory enhancement: effects of stimulus onset and intensity on reaction time

Manual reaction times to visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli presented simultaneously, or with a delay, were measured to test for multisensory interaction effects in a simple detection task with redundant signals. Responses to trimodal stimulus combinations were faster than those to bimodal combinations, which in turn were faster than reactions to unimodal stimuli. Response enhancement increased with decreasing auditory and tactile stimulus intensity and was a U-shaped function of stimulus onset asynchrony. Distribution inequality tests indicated that the multisensory interaction effects were larger than predicted by separate activation models, including the difference between bimodal and trimodal response facilitation. The results are discussed with respect to previous findings in a focused attention task and are compared with multisensory integration rules observed in bimodal and trimodal superior colliculus neurons in the cat and monkey.     

Intersensory facilitation in the motor component?

Summary In the bimodal detection task the observer must respond as soon as a signal is presented in either of two modalities (e.g., a tone or a flash). A typical finding is a facilitation of reaction time for redundant signal trials, that is, when both signals are presented simultaneously or with a short delay. Models advanced for this effect imply either statistical facilitation (separate activation) or intersensory facilitation (coactivation). This paper reports a study investigating whether part of the facilitation can be accounted for by coactivation in the motor component. An analysis of the distributions of reaction time differences between left and right hand responses from a double response paradigm gave some evidence in favor of this hypothesis. In particular, our data suggest a u-shaped functional dependence of the amount of facilitation in the motor component on the interstimulus interval.     

The Unity of Language

This paper identifies the founding project of traditional philosophy of language as an attempt to unify the diversity and individuality of spoken language in order to produce a transpersonal intelligibility. The supposed necessary truth that we cannot directly understand what others say which underlies such a project is exposed as a willful avoidance of the discourse of others typical of masculine styles of communication.     

Factors influencing continuation in a behavioral therapy

One hundred and forty-seven depressed women who either completed, dropped-out of or refused a 10-week, self-control, group therapy program were compared on: demographic variables, depression indices, depression theory-related performances, personality variables and attitudes about therapy. Compared with treatment Completers, treatment Refusers presented a more acute crisis, reported a rapid onset of depression, had experienced fewer prior depressive episodes and were most likely to receive a diagnosis of situational (reactive) depression. Results also indicated that individuals of higher SES and those who endorsed expectancies congruent with the offered treatment rationale were most likely to continue in treatment.     

Homework and achievement: Explaining the different strengths of relation at the elementary and secondary school levels

Four explanations were tested for why the correlation between homework and achievement is weaker in elementary school than secondary school. Eighty-two teachers answered questions about their homework practices, and their responses were related to their students' achievement test scores. No evidence was found to suggest the weaker correlation in elementary school associated with a restricted variation in amounts of homework in early grades nor that teachers assigned more homework to poor-performing classes. Evidence did suggest that teachers in early grades assigned homework more often to develop young students' management of time, a skill rarely measured on standardized achievement tests. Also consistent with this hypothesis, elementary school teachers were more likely to use homework to review class material and to go over homework in class, while secondary school teachers more often used homework to prepare for and enrich class lessons. Finally, there was weak evidence that young students who were struggling in school took more time to complete homework assignments.     

The correlates of phone-in frequency, duration and the number of suggesdtions made in live supervision

The relationship between the parameters of live supervisory phone-ins and particular supervisory and therapy processes were examined in this study. The frequency of phone-ins and the number of suggestions made by supervisors were associated with specific therapist, supervisor and client behaviours. Less frequent phone-ins (five or fewer per session) were associated with greater client cooperation, greater supervisor collaboration and, surprisingly, less therapist collaboration with clients. There was also a trend for client cooperation to occur more frequently following phone-ins in which four or more suggestions were made. The duration of phone-in events was not significantly associated with the supervisory and therapy processes examined in this study.