The acquisition of conditioned emotional response as a function of intertrial interval

The effects of intertrial interval (ITI) and foreperiod duration on the acquisition of a conditioned emotional response were investigated using a four-trial conditioning procedure. The optimum ITI was found to be 60 s with a bidirectional gradient for conditioned suppression above and below 60 s. Conditioned supression was found to be directly related to foreperiod duration.     

Alcohol-induced changes in contrast sensitivity following high-intensity light exposure

Relatively low doses of alcohol produced large, significant, dose-related increases in the time required to recover foveal contrast sensitivity following bright light exposure. Nine subjects participated in a double-blind experiment involving three dose levels of alcohol (including placebo). The luminance parameters of the test were comparable to those encountered in practical situations such as driving. The alcohol-induced delay in glare recovery is probably retinal and lasts for several hours after drinking.     

Technical standards and performance standards in the pursuit of quality

The concept of standards lacks clarity because it is applied both to concrete specifications and to the assessment of quality. Confusion is reduced by introducing the notion of interchange expectancy. distinguishing transfer, coupling, and market success as components. Transfer expectancy depends upon the products to be transported or exchanged, but when there is a need to estimate transfer expectancy, a combination of technical standards and performance standards must be applied. Though performance standards are intended to produce quality, the quality of the instrumentation to measure performance standards is often neglected. The development of high-quality performance standards first requires the delineation of the relevant dimensions of performance quality. The process of giving precision to performance standards may lead to the emergence of more acceptable technical standards. To illustrate some of these points, data is presented from the CONDUIT system for quality evaluation of computer-based curriculum materials. The performance quality of these products includes the dimension of transfer expectancy, as well as educational and scientific merit. Increased specification and impact of technical standards may provide greater incentives to authors and hence lead to the invention of products which have higher educational and scientific quality.     

Islamic Legal, Ethical, and Political Theory: The Search for the Good Society and the Moral Law

Book reviewed:
Standing Trial: Law and the Person in the Modern Middle East , Baudouin Dupret (ed.), I.B. Tauris 2004 (1-86064-997-1), x + 382 pp., $75.00
Muslim Ethics: Emerging Vistas , Amyn B. Sajoo, I.B. Tauris 2004 (1-85043-550-2), xvi + 164 pp., $39.50     

Change in cognitive functioning associated with apoE genotype in a community sample of older adults

The influence of a genetic risk factor, apolipoprotein E (apoE) epsilon4 variant, was assessed in older adults aged 70 to 94 on 3 occasions over 7 years. The results of latent growth curve analyses are reported for individuals genotyped for apoE at the 2nd measurement occasion (n = 601) and for a subsample of individuals without probable or definite dementia during the 1st or 2nd occasion (n = 434). ApoE-epsilon4 status was a significant predictor of level and change in memory performance and change in speed performance in the full sample, and of initial level and change in memory performance in the nondemented subsample. These results support previous findings that apoE-epsilon4 is associated with accelerated memory deterioration in individuals without clinical dementia.     

Two bs or not two Bs? A signal detection theory analysis of repetition blindness in a counting task

Stimulus repetition usually benefits performance. A notable exception is repetition blindness (RB), in which subjects fail to report a repeated stimulus in a rapid serial visual presentation. Theories differ in attributing RB to either perceptual encoding or memory retrieval and to impaired discrimination versus response bias. In the present study, subjects judged whether one or two letters were imbedded in sequences of digits. Unlike previous studies, false guesses of two unrepeated letters were distinguished from false guesses of two repeated letters. When repeated- and unrepeated-letter trials were randomly intermixed (Experiment 1), RB was entirely attributable to response bias. However, when they were separately blocked (Experiments 2 and 3), RB was manifested in discriminability (d'). The results support perceptual-encoding accounts of RB but indicate that effects on discriminability depend on subjects' processing strategies.     

The ‘redefinition of death’ debate: Western concepts and western bioethics

Biomedicine is a global enterprise constructed upon the belief in the universality of scientific truths. However, despite huge scientific advances over recent decades it has not been able to formulate a specific and universal definition of death: In fact, in its attempt to redefine death, the concept of death appears to have become immersed in ever increasing vagueness and ambiguity. Even more worrisome is that bioethics, in the form of principlism, is also endeavouring to become a global enterprise by claiming neutrality. It appears that the discourse within both disciplines have similarly manipulated the boundaries of death to include the “dying”. This paper argues that the redefinition of death debate in biomedicine reveals a concept of personhood which is profoundly western in origin and which is in accordance to the concept adhered to within principlism. Biomedicine and bioethics do not appear to acknowledge the limitations of their own world view and hence lack an understanding of their applicability and appropriateness in diverse social and cultural contexts; a situation which adds credence to claims as to the hegemonic and imperialistic nature of all such global enterprises. Ms. Jones is an intensive care clinical nursing specialist. Dr. Kessel is a public health physician and medical ethicist.     

Two Case Studies of Community Schools Serving Latino and Southeast Asian Children

Recent attention has focused on establishing school-based integrated services centers which offer educational and noneducational services to students and their families. We present two comparative case studies of client participation in school centers established in low income Latino and Southeast Asian communities. The cases focus on types of center services utilized by families, culturally compatible practices of the centers, and impact of coordinated services on students and families. The data reveal the limited capacity of high poverty families to cope with daily and persistent life challenges and how the schools have been transformed into family support environments which assist families to manage their lives in ways that lead to self-sufficiency and growth.