Projection of a binary criterion into a model of hierarchical classes

A formal analysis is made of how to project an attribute criterion into the hierarchical classes model for object by attribute data proposed by De Boeck and Rosenberg. The projection is conceptualized as the prediction of the attribute criterion by means of a logical rule defined on the basis of attribute combinations from the model. Eliminative and constructive strategies are proposed to find logical rules with maximal predictive power and minimal formula complexity. Logical analyses of a real data set are reported and compared with a logistic regression to demonstrate the usefulness of the logical strategies, and to show the complementarity of logical and probabilistic approaches.The first suthor is Senior Research Assistant of the National Fund for Scientific Research (Belgium). We would like to thank the Editor, the reviewers, Seymour Rosenberg, and Luc Delbeke for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article.     

A comparison of directly recorded and derived acceleration data in movement control research

This paper compares acceleration-time histories that were recorded during a simple arm extension/flexion movement completed as fast as possible and at a slower rate. Directly measured accelerations from an accelerometer were used to obtain an optimum filter cut-off frequency for displacement data were to be subsequently differentiated. Dependent variables such as ‘zero line crossings’ and ‘significant deviations’ were measured using both the accelerometer data and the derived acceleration data.     

Parents, Careers and Culture: The View of Ethnic-Minority and Ethnic-Majority Girls

In a study concerned with factors affecting career aspirations, 45 Muslim and 71 non-Muslim secondary-schoolgirls completed scales requiring them to rate themselves on attributes chosen for their relevance to careers. Subjects also completed these scales as they believed their parents would rate them. Minimal differences were shown between the two groups and, contrary to stereotype, Muslim girls did not indicate that their fathers would rate them low on such attributes. Interviews conducted with 21 of the Muslim pupils indicated little conflict in their homes over vocational issues and revealed that both parents, but especially fathers, were supportive of higher education and careers for their daughters.     

Assessing phonological awareness in kindergarten children: Issues of task comparability

Ten different phonological awareness tasks were administered to a group of kindergarten children whose reading ability was assessed 1 year later. The extraneous cognitive requirements inherent in the tasks varied widely. The children's performance on three tasks that involved a rhyming response was at ceiling, and these tasks did not correlate with subsequent reading progress. The other seven measures were all moderately related to later reading ability and, employed in sets, were very strong predictors. The relative predictive accuracy of the phonological tasks was equal to or better than more global measures of cognitive skills such as an intelligence test and a reading readiness test. The phonological tasks had a large amount of common variance. Factor analysis revealed only one factor on which all the nonrhyming phonological tasks loaded highly. The results bolster the construct validity of phonological awareness, indicate considerable comparability and interchangeability among the tasks used to measure the construct, and are encouraging as regards the possible use of such tasks in predictive test batteries.     

Dichotic listening ear asymmetry: Patterns of longitudinal development

Dichotic listening research with children has continued to be prevalent although numerous authors have described both theoretical and methodological limitations with traditional dichotic listening free-recall paradigms. The present research adds to this growing skepticism by reanalyzing two major longitudinal studies of children's ear asymmetries. These two studies, based in different countries (United States, Holland), utilized highly similar paradigms (free-recall digits), subjects (males), and age levels (kindergarten and second and fifth grade). The questions of ear advantage development, patterns of ear advantages, and the relationship between dichotic listening performance and reading skills are addressed from the multiple statistical methodologies represented in the literature. From these analyses, support for all of the major hypotheses regarding the developmental patterns of dichotic listening performances could be obtained from the same data samples. The use of traditional free-recall dichotic listening paradigms are not recommended for use with children. The implications for future research are discussed.     

Mental age and cognitive stage in young handicapped and at-risk children

This research addressed the question of whether stage-related patterns of early cognitive development, reported for normally developing children in the first two and a half years of life, may also characterize the development of at-risk and handicapped children when mental age rather than chronological age is used to organize the data. Performance on a psychometric infant test and two neo-Piagetian-based stage measures was assessed for 95 at-risk and handicapped children. Mental age predicted cognitive level of performance for levels 1 to 3, representing the first year and a half of development, but did not predict the highest level, symbolic functioning. In addition, transition points between levels were observed at mental ages similar to the chronological ages when these transitions have been reported for normally developing infants, for all but the last level. The significance of the correspondence between the psychometric measure and the stage measures is discussed and several alternatives for the breakdown at the highest level are considered.     

Death

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - There is a classic problem which confronts any attempt to assign death a value. On the assumption that death is personal annihilation, death deprives evil of a...     

Effects and aftereffects of continuous noise and computation work on risk and effort choices

Choices between risk and effort, in a format (COPE) previously shown to reflect fatigue, were obtained from subjects in noise or quiet. Both sexes were used in the experiment, half the subjects working at the Norinder arithmetic task while half rested. The COPE test took a computational form, offering choices between digit lists of differing lengths in which target sums were imbedded. The baseline choice levels were established in quiet, but half the subjects were exposed to noise during the posttest. As previously found in comparable conditions, the Norinder task showed no effect of noise. Pretest-posttest comparisons on the COPE test showed that exposure to noise, like computation work, had the predicted effect of decreasing the choice of high-probability, high-effort alternatives. The presence of noise during posttest had no overall effect on risk effort choices, although there were indications that changes of any kind in the test conditions might be a factor. The data seem difficult to explain in an arousal framework, but may be simply interpreted as showing that exposure to noise produces real fatigue.     

Interactive effects of item content and ethnic group membership on performance on the McCarthy scales

The study investigated cultural bias in the 46 verbal items of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (MSCA). The verbal items of the MSCA were administered to 59 Anglo and 59 Mexican-American subjects matched for age and sex. The responses of two groups of subjects on these items were analyzed by log-linear technique using the likelihood ratio chi-square statistic. The analysis of the data revealed that the majority of the verbal items of the MSCA are free from cultural bias. Only three items of the MSCA V-scale reflected systematic cultural bias. Two of these items are from the Word Knowledge II Subtest and the third one is from the Opposite Analogies Subtest. Suggestions for the use of the MSCA with children from minority cultures are made.     

Modality-specific interference with overt mediation by pigeons in a delayed discrimination task

Pigeons were trained on a delayed discrimination task in which they were rewarded for pecking a white terminal stimulus (TS) presented 5 sec after a green initial stimulus (IS) and for not pecking the white TS when it followed a red IS. Each bird bridged the memory interval (MI) with overt mediational behaviors. Nevertheless, sustained retroactive interference (RI) effects were produced by houselight illumination (Experiments 1 and 3), and mild shock pulses (Experiment 5) but not white noise (Experiment 2) presented during the MI. Although the magnitude of the light-induced RI effect was proportional to the duration of houselight illumination (Experiment 4), the beginning-end effect described by W. A. Roberts and D. S. Grant (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 1978, 4, 219–236) was not observed. These results not only attest to the between-task robustness of both light-induced RI and modality-specific effects with pigeons, but also support the hypothesis that RI effects result from the disruption of mediational activities possibly analogous to rehearsal. The results further demonstrate that an event interpolated within the MI need not be unexpected or novel to produce RI. Furthermore, the interpolated event can produce modality-specific RI effects even though it effects a different sense than do the IS and TS.