Effects of decision strategy and number of openings on employment selection decisions

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of two factors—decision strategy and the number of openings—on selection decisions. Two hundred graduate and undergraduate students participated in a human resource employment screening simulation. Decision strategy was varied by having candidates evaluate resumes and letters of application for 20 candidates one-at-a-time (sequentially) or all at once (simultaneously). The number of position openings was either one or three. Decision strategy affected the number of candidates accepted, acceptance threshold, and decision time. The number of openings affected selection decisions in the simultaneous but not the sequential context. Implications of these results for selection processes are discussed.     

Does symptomatic schizophrenia exist?

The question if there are "symptomatic schizophrenias" has been discussed since the 20s. Schizophrenic psychoses caused be definable and well known brain diseases are presented. All schizophrenic symptoms and syndromes, the first rank symptoms (K. Schneider) too, occur in somatically founded psychoses. The group of paroxysmal transition syndromes in the sense of aura prolongata (continua) and the episodic schizophrenic psychoses in psychomotor epilepsy may be a model for the schizophrenia research. Vital threatening, so-called pernicious catatonic schizophrenias are found on the basis of infectious brain diseases, sometimes only diagnosed in autopsy. Beside acute and reversible symptomatic schizophrenic psychoses there are, even if rarely, recurrent and chronic courses of symptomatic schizophrenias. That certain conditions for the developing of symptomatic schizophrenias are rarely realised, could be an explanation for their rarity. Some findings indicate that the limbic system is significant for symptomatic (and idiopathic) schizophrenic psychoses and the pre- and postpsychotic basic stages determined by dynamic and cognitive basic symptoms, which are phenomenologically very similar to aura symptoms released by stereoelectroencephalographic depth recordings (Wieser). The characteristic features of marked fluctuation, discontinuity and insteadiness of the cognitive thought, perception, psychomotor and cenesthetic phenomena do not speak against an organic brain disorder provided that the traditional process hypothesis is abandoned in favor of a neurobiochemic disorder, fluctuating on its part depending on endogenous as well as psychic-reactive factors.     

Grading the ‘cultural literacy’ project

The essay examines the argument advanced by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., for instituting ‘cultural literacy’ as a fundamental priority of schools. A number of confusions and equivocations in Hirsch's reasoning are identified, and the propensity of his project to indoctrinate is exposed. Among the features of Hirsch's argument shown to be troubling are his shifting construal of ‘language’, his inconsistency about the requirements of cultural literacy, and his uncritical relation to traditional images of the American past and present. The upshot is to raise the question why Hirsch's project has elicited wide support and praise.     

Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Rudolf Laban -- An Interactive Appropriation of Parallels and Resonances

In this paper, we propose an examination of the shared connections between the French philosopher, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and the Austro-Hungarian movement theorist, Rudolf Laban.In many ways Merleau-Ponty's philosophy demonstrates a synthesis of the best in existen-tialism and phenomenology. In like manner, Rudolf Laban was a synthesizer of experiences and theories of movement.we propose to examine the parallels and resonances of their theory within the forum of a hypothetical, collegial conversation. This dialogue will be prefaced by an historical contextualization of their work and an explanation of the appropriate reading sensibility with which to enter our interpretation of their text. In this way, we hope to reveal (a) possible parallels and resonances between their theories concerning the body in perception and movement, and (b) possible connections between phenomenology and movement education.     

A Nonmonotonic Modal Formalization of the Logic of Acceptance and Rejection

The problems we deal with concern reasoning about incomplete knowledge. Knowledge is understood as ability of an ideal rational agent to make decisions about pieces of information. The formalisms we are particularly interested in are Moore's autoepistemic logic (AEL) and its variant, the logic of acceptance and rejection (AEL2). It is well-known that AEL may be seen as the nonmonotonic KD45 modal logic. The aim is to give an appropriate modal formalization for AEL2.     

The Question of God in an Age of Science: Constructions of Reality and Ultimate Reality in Theology and Science

Both science and theology have lately faced a crisis of authority. Their shared realization of the extent to which knowledge is underdetermined by the data and socially constructed provides a kind of common ground for reconsideration of their respective methods of inquiry as well as of the status of the claims they have warrant to make. Both fields are now consciously and critically employing a models approach. This article proposes criteria for assessing models and applies the criteria to one model from each field. The model of understanding evolution as a struggle for existence is considered from the field of science, and the traditional model for understanding the God-world relation as that of a king's relation to his kingdom is considered from the field of theology. Each of these models is evaluated with respect to its credibility, religious viability, and moral adequacy. In each case an alternative analogy is proposed and argued for.     

Referenzsemantik in der Partnermodellierung

How can we explain that an assertion on something perceived can be understood in the same manner by somebody who cannot perceive that scene? This problem bases the interest in computational linguistics in how listener modeling could possibly be harmonized with reference semantics. Mental images substituting real perception appear as a way out. The architecture of the listener model has to be adapted to the creation and use of such pictorial data structures. Furthermore, the relation between the latter and a verbal (i. e., propositional) representation must be understood. The resulting architecture of a listener model with reference semantics can be employed to solve communicational problems from three general classes in a better way, as is demonstrated by an example implementation.     

Youth at Risk: Another Point of View

In this rejoinder to Tidwell and Corona Garrett (1994), the authors discuss three important aspects of the term at risk that help to clarify its meaning.     

Effects of surface texture on weight perception when lifting objects with a precision grip

In this paper, we show that, when lifting an object using a precision grip with the distal pads of the thumb and index finger at its sides, the perceived weight depends on the object’s surface texture. The smoother the surface texture, the greater the perceived weight. We suggest that a smoother object is judged to be heavier because the grip force, normal to the surface, required to prevent it from slipping is greater. The possibility of there being an influence of surface texture per se is excluded by a second experiment that employed a variant of the precision grip in which the thumb supports the weight of the object from underneath. With the grip oriented in this way, there is no need to match grip force to surface texture and, under these conditions, there is no effect of surface texture on weight perception. In the first two experiments, the test and comparison weights were lifted successively by the same hand. In a third experiment, the effect of surface texture was replicated for sequential lifts made with separate hands. Thus, the effect is not restricted to comparisons made with the same hand.