The Complexity of Justice - A Challenge to the 21st Century

The author discusses two questions, the relation between liberalism and democracy, and the relation between ethics, morality and law. As to the first question, she argues that neither liberalism nor democracy are merely formal. Roughly spoken, it can be said that liberalism stands for negative liberties, whereas democracy stands for positive ones. She observes a non-contingent tension between the ethos of liberalism (personal freedom) and the ethos of democracy (equality; majority rule). It is the task of morality to maintain and restore the balance between these two kinds of ethos. As to the second question, she is worried about the balance between law (legal regulation), ethics, and morality. On the one hand, abolishing legal regulations would amount to abolishing the freedom of the moderns. On the other hand, the substitution of legal regulations for ethical regulations would lead to a similar result: the end of the freedom of the moderns through the homogenisation of life. In the former case, personal support, charity, magnanimity, and caring would get lost, while in the latter there would be no escape from community pressure towards uniformity.     

Stopping rule use during information search in design problems

Information search is critical in most decision-making tasks. An important aspect of information search is the stopping rule used by the decision maker to terminate information acquisition. Decision-making problems may be usefully decomposed into design problems and choice problems. The distinction is critical because the goals of stopping behavior in the two types of problems are quite different. In design problems, the focus is on the sufficiency of information obtained for problem structuring and generating alternatives, while choice problems focus on convergence toward a solution. While previous research has studied stopping behavior in choice problems, the present research is concerned with stopping rule use during information search in design problems. To build theory in this area, we conducted two experiments. In the first, we presented professional systems analysts with an information search problem in a systems development context and asked them to gather information for a proposed system. Protocols of the search sessions were analyzed, and stopping rules used and information gathered by the analysts were identified. Results indicated that the use of certain stopping rules resulted in greater quantity and quality of information gathered. Additionally, stopping rule use, rather than analyst experience, accounted for the quantity and quality of information elicited. Finally, stopping rule use differed between more experienced and less experienced analysts. To apply our findings about stopping rules from the first experiment, we performed a second experiment in which we investigated stopping rule use in a consumer information search task on the world wide web. Results indicated the use of the same stopping rules as in the first experiment, although in different proportions. Implications for information search theory and practice are discussed.     

Poor performance on cognitive tasks in depression: Doing too much or not enough?

Depressed people perform poorly on cognitive tasks. It is unclear whether these deficits are due to decreased devotion of task-related resources or to increased attention to non-task-related information. In the present study, we examined the degree to which depressed and healthy adults displayed pupillary motility that varied at the frequency of presented stimuli on a cognitive task, which we interpreted as task-related processing, and at other frequencies, which we interpreted as reflecting intrinsic processing. Depressed participants made more consecutive errors than did controls. More pupillary motility at other frequencies was associated with poorer performance, whereas more pupillary motility at the frequency of presented stimuli was associated with better performance. Depressed participants had more pupillary motility at other frequencies, which partially mediated observed deficits in cognitive performance. These findings support the hypothesis that allocating cognitive resources to intrinsic processing contributes to observed cognitive deficits in depression.     

A mouse with a roof? effects of phonological neighbors on processing of words in sentences in a non-native language

The architecture of the language processing system for speakers of more than one language remains an intriguing topic of research. A common finding is that speakers of multiple languages are slower at responding to language stimuli in their non-native language (L2) than monolingual speakers. This may simply reflect participants' unfamiliarity with words in the L2, however it may also be the reflection of interference from competing lexical alternatives both across and within the participants' multiple languages. In the current studies (one behavioral, one electrophysiological) we investigate how interference from phonologically similar words within the L2 alone may account for problems in auditory language comprehension in non-native speakers. To this end a cross modal lexical priming (CMLP) paradigm was implemented, which allowed us to look for effects of spoken word primes embedded in sentences on the recognition of target stimuli. Specifically, we investigated whether a word such as mouse, which has a close phonological neighbor, house, would show a modulating effect on recognition of a word semantically related to house but not to mouse (i.e., roof). We hypothesized that L2 speakers, less efficient at categorizing phonemes in their L2 would show a difference in the processing of roof preceded by mouse as compared to roof preceded by another unrelated word, such as lamp, due to a residual co-activation of the phonological neighbor mouse. Furthermore, L1 speakers, highly proficient at recognizing phonemes in their native tongue, should show no such effect. The results of both studies clearly support our hypothesis, indicating that phonological neighbors in the L2 may greatly interfere with L2 word recognition.     

The reading ability of good and poor temporal processors among a group of college students

In this study, we examined whether good auditory and good visual temporal processors were better than their poor counterparts on certain reading measures. Various visual and auditory temporal tasks were administered to 105 undergraduates. They read some phonologically regular pseudowords and irregular words that were presented sequentially in the same ("word" condition) and in different ("line" condition) locations. Results indicated that auditory temporal acuity was more relevant to reading, whereas visual temporal acuity was more relevant to spelling. Good auditory temporal processors did not have the advantage in processing pseudowords, even though pseudoword reading correlated significantly with auditory temporal processing. These results suggested that some higher cognitive or phonological processes mediated the relationship between auditory temporal processing and pseudoword reading. Good visual temporal processors did not have the advantage in processing irregular words. They also did not process the line condition more accurately than the word condition. The discrepancy might be attributed to the use of normal adults and the unnatural reading situation that did not fully capture the function of the visual temporal processes. The distributions of auditory and visual temporal processing abilities were co-occurring to some degree, but they maintained considerable independence. There was also a lack of a relationship between the type and severity of reading deficits and the type and number of temporal deficits.     

The contribution of rapid visual and auditory processing to the reading of irregular words and pseudowords presented singly and in contiguity

This study examined the relative involvement of rapid auditory and visual temporal resolution mechanisms in the reading of phonologically regular pseudowords and English irregular words presented both in isolation and in contiguity as a series of six words. Seventy-nine undergraduates participated in a range of reading, visual temporal, and auditory temporal tasks. The correlation analyses suggested a general timing mechanism across modalities. There were more significant correlations between the visual temporal measures and irregular word reading and between the auditory measures and pseudoword reading. Auditory gap detection predicted pseudoword reading accuracies. The low temporal frequency flicker contrast sensitivity measure predicted the accuracies of isolated irregular words and pseudowords presented in contiguity. However, when a combined speed-accuracy score was used, visible persistence at both low and high spatial frequencies and auditory gap detection were active in the reading of pseudowords presented in contiguity. Sensory processing skills in both visual and auditory modalities accounted for some of the variance in the reading performance of normal undergraduates, not just reading-impaired students.     

Orangutan leaf-carrying for nest-building: Toward unraveling cultural processes

We report an empirical study on leaf-carrying, a newly discovered nest-building technique that involves collecting nest materials before reaching the nest site. We assessed whether leaf-carrying by rehabilitant orangutans on Kaja Island, Central Kalimantan, owes to cultural influences. Findings derive from ca 600 h observational data on nesting skills and nesting associations in Kaja’s 42 resident rehabilitants, which yielded 355 nests and 125 leaf-carrying cases by 34 rehabilitants. Regional contrasts with 14 other communities (7 rehabilitant, 7 wild) indicated cultural influences on leaf-carrying on Kaja. Association data showed exceptional social learning opportunities for leaf-carrying on Kaja, with residents taking differential advantage of these opportunities as a function of development, experience, and social position. Juvenile males with basic nesting skills were most influenced by social input. Most (27) leaf-carriers had probably learned leaf-carrying when caged and 7 probably learned it on Kaja. Social priming was probably the main impetus to leaf-carrying on Kaja, by simply prompting observers to copy when leaf-carrying associates collected nesting materials, what they collected, and where they used their collected materials. Implications concern acquisition processes and ontogenetic schedules that orchestrate sets of features—needs or interests, cognitive abilities, social preferences—which enable cultural transmission.     

Victim to offender: A review

It has been suggested that victimization during childhood may be a primary factor in the adoption of offending behaviour during adolescence. Why is it, therefore, that the majority of child abuse victims do not become delinquent? Although empirical and theoretical evidence abounds in the victim to offender literature, the pathways responsible for vulnerability towards and protection against criminal activity have so far been unidentified. The significance of detecting these influencing factors is apparent, specifically in relation to termination of the cycle either before or after it has begun.