Should Engineering Ethics be Taught?

Should engineering ethics be taught? Despite the obvious truism that we all want our students to be moral engineers who practice virtuous professional behavior, I argue, in this article that the question itself obscures several ambiguities that prompt preliminary resolution. Upon clarification of these ambiguities, and an attempt to delineate key issues that make the question a philosophically interesting one, I conclude that engineering ethics not only should not, but cannot, be taught if we understand “teaching engineering ethics” to mean training engineers to be moral individuals (as some advocates seem to have proposed). However, I also conclude that there is a justification to teaching engineering ethics, insofar as we are able to clearly identify the most desirable and efficacious pedagogical approach to the subject area, which I propose to be a case study-based format that utilizes the principle of human cognitive pattern recognition.     

Spatial attention and conscious perception: the role of endogenous and exogenous orienting

Attention has often been considered to be a gateway to consciousness (Posner, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 91(16), 7398–7403, 1994). However, its relationship with conscious perception (CP) remains highly controversial. While theoretical models and experimental data support the role of attention in CP (Chica, Lasaponara, Lupiáñez, Doricchi, &; Bartolomeo, NeuroImage, 51, 1205–1212, 2010; Dehaene, Changeux, Naccache, Sackur, &; Sergent, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10, 204–211, 2006; Mack &; Rock, Inattentional blindness, 1998), recent studies have claimed that at least some forms of attention—endogenous or top-down spatial attention—are neither sufficient nor necessary for CP (Koch &; Tsuchiya, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11, 16–22, 2007). In the present experiments, we demonstrate the importance of exogenously triggered attention for the modulation of CP. Weak or null effects were instead observed when attention was triggered endogenously. Our data are discussed in the framework of recent neuropsychological models (Dehaene et al., Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10, 204–211, 2006), postulating that activity within reverberating frontoparietal networks, as colocalized with spatial--orienting systems, is the brain correlate of consciously processed information.     

Exploring a new paradigm for empathy research / Explorando un nuevo paradigma para el estudio de la empatía

Abstract

The present paper proposes an alternative experimental procedure for studies on empathy. It is intended as a simple and reliable alternative to the commonly used designs, which are certainly very elegant, but costly, as they require delicate real-life experimental manipulations. We advocate that studies using simple well-formulated text stimuli can be methodologically as reliable and valid as game task approaches. To underscore our claim, we report first behavioural evidence that supports this conclusion. The clear advantage of the method we present is that it is less susceptible to bias and, more importantly, more accessible to laboratories that do not have the financial means and the spatial infrastructure to manoeuvre complex and costly experimental setups and techniques. It is an easy to use, computer-based paradigm.     

The semantic organization of the animal category: evidence from semantic verbal fluency and network theory

Semantic memory is the subsystem of human memory that stores knowledge of concepts or meanings, as opposed to life-specific experiences. How humans organize semantic information remains poorly understood. In an effort to better understand this issue, we conducted a verbal fluency experiment on 200 participants with the aim of inferring and representing the conceptual storage structure of the natural category of animals as a network. This was done by formulating a statistical framework for co-occurring concepts that aims to infer significant concept-concept associations and represent them as a graph. The resulting network was analyzed and enriched by means of a missing links recovery criterion based on modularity. Both network models were compared to a thresholded co-occurrence approach. They were evaluated using a random subset of verbal fluency tests and comparing the network outcomes (linked pairs are clustering transitions and disconnected pairs are switching transitions) to the outcomes of two expert human raters. Results show that the network models proposed in this study overcome a thresholded co-occurrence approach, and their outcomes are in high agreement with human evaluations. Finally, the interplay between conceptual structure and retrieval mechanisms is discussed.     

Eating attitudes and their psychological correlates among Turkish adolescents

This study examined the eating attitudes and psychological characteristics of Turkish late adolescents. Seven hundred eighty-three university students were administered the Eating Attitudes Test, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Social Physique Anxiety Scale. More than one in ten (9.2% of the males and 13.1% of the females) had abnormal eating attitude scores. Chi-square analysis revealed that there were no significant differences in the prevalance of abnormal eating behaviors based on gender. Analysis of covariance indicated that participants who had disturbed eating attitudes had lower self-esteem, higher social physique anxiety, and higher trait anxiety than those who had normal eating attitudes. It was concluded that the prevalence of disturbed eating attitudes was high among these Turkish late adolescents, and that disturbed eating attitudes were related to several psychological characteristics.     

Axiomatic Extensions of IMT3 Logic

In this paper we characterize, classify and axiomatize all axiomatic extensions of the IMT3 logic. This logic is the axiomatic extension of the involutive monoidal t-norm logic given by ¬φ³ ∨ φ. For our purpose we study the lattice of all subvarieties of the class IMT3, which is the variety of IMTL-algebras given by the equation ¬(x³) ∨ x ≈ ?, and it is the algebraic counterpart of IMT3 logic. Since every subvariety of IMT3 is generated by their totally ordered members, we study the structure of all IMT3-chains in order to determine the lattice of all subvarieties of IMT3. Given a family of IMT3-chains the number of elements of the largest odd finite subalgebra in the family and the number of elements of the largest even finite subalgebra in the family turns out to be a complete classifier of the variety generated. We obtain a canonical set of generators and a finite equational axiomatization for each subvariety and, for each corresponding logic, a finite set of characteristic matrices and a finite set of axioms.     

HIV-1 infection and its impact on the HPA axis, cytokines, and cognition

Immediately after infection, Human immunodeficiency virus, type 1 (HIV-1) enters the central nervous system (CNS) and is localized in highest concentration in the hippocampus and basal ganglia. Since these areas are associated with HPA axis and autonomic activities as well as cognition, it has been hypothesized that these functions will be impacted adversely in HIV-1 infection. In the treatment of HIV infection, although the highly potent antiretroviral (HAART) drugs have been effective in reducing peripheral viral load and prolonging life expectancy, these drugs do not cross the blood-brain barrier in therapeutic concentrations. Therefore, it has been proposed that the beneficial effects of HAART on the CNS will be limited. Our investigations on seropositive individuals, showing hypo-reactivity of the autonomic system and HPA axis activity suggest that HIV-1 infection is a model of chronic stress. Furthermore, an elevated baseline TNF-alpha level as well as its increased reactivity to an alpha-adrenergic challenge among HIV-1+ individuals, may lead to additional neurodegeneration. It is proposed that the effects of HIV-1 infection on the brain will have implications for neurocognitive and mental health functioning in seropositive individuals even in patients undergoing HAART therapy. These outcomes may result in the need to develop facilities for long term "care-giving".     

The modulation of inhibition of return by objectinternal structure: Implications for theories of object-based attentional selection

Recently, Vecera, Behrmann, and McGoldrick (2000), using a divided-attention task, reported that targets are detected more accurately when they occur on the same structural part of an object, suggesting that attention can be directed toward object-internal features. We present converging evidence using the object-based inhibition of return (IOR) paradigm as an implicit measure of selection. The results show that IOR is attenuated when cues and targets appear on the same part of an object relative to when they are separated by a part boundary. These findings suggest that object-based mechanisms of selection can operate over shape representations that make explicit information about objectinternal structure.     

Dispositional pessimism predicts illness-related disruption of social and recreational activities among breast cancer patients

The authors tested whether dispositional pessimism would predict withdrawal from social activities among women treated for breast cancer. In a cross-sectional sample 3-12 months postsurgery, disruption of social and recreational activities (measured by the Sickness Impact Profile) correlated with concurrently assessed pessimism. This association appeared mediated by emotional distress and fatigue. A longitudinal sample was studied shortly postsurgery and over the next year. Initial pessimism predicted disruption of social activities concurrently and prospectively (3, 6, and 12 months later) but predicted change in disruption from one time to the next only at final follow-up. These associations appeared partially mediated by distress. The authors conclude that pessimism places patients at risk for adverse outcomes in several respects rather than solely with regard to emotional distress.     

Stress management and psychoneuroimmunology in HIV infection

Does stress management affect psychological and immune functioning in persons with human immunodeficiency virus infections? Stress-management techniques, such as relaxation training and imagery, cognitive restructuring, coping-skills training, and interpersonal-skills training, may reduce anxiety, depression, and social isolation in HIV-infected persons by lowering physical tension and increasing a sense of control and self-efficacy. A psychoneuroimmunologic model is proposed wherein these psychological changes are hypothesized to be accompanied by an improved ability to regulate neuroendocrine functioning, which in turn may be associated with a partial normalization of immune system functions such as lymphocyte proliferation and cytotoxicity, providing more efficient surveillance of latent viruses that may contribute directly to increased HIV replication and generate opportunistic infections or cancer if left unchecked. Such a normalization of stress-associated immune system decrements are hypothesized to forestall or minimize increases in viral load and expression of clinical symptoms. This model is useful for testing the factors contributing to the health effects of stress-management interventions in HIV-infected persons. In this context, one general research strategy for testing the effects of stress-management interventions is to target them toward the more prevalent psychosocial challenges that HIV-infected people face at various points in the disease process; enroll an HIV-infected population (eg, HIV-positive homosexual and bisexual men) into a randomized trial; and monitor changes in cognitive, affective, behavioral, and social factors in parallel with hormonal, immunologic, viral, and clinical changes over the course of time. This article will review the major psychoneuroimmunologic findings that have emerged using this paradigm and suggest future research directions and clinical applications.