Solving a Murder Case by Asking Critical Questions: An Approach to Fact-Finding in Terms of Argumentation and Story Schemes

In this paper, we look at reasoning with evidence and facts in criminal cases. We show how this reasoning may be analysed in a dialectical way by means of critical questions that point to typical sources of doubt. We discuss critical questions about the evidential arguments adduced, about the narrative accounts of the facts considered, and about the way in which the arguments and narratives are connected in an analysis. Our treatment shows how two different types of knowledge, represented as schemes, play a role in reasoning with evidence: argumentation schemes and story schemes.     

Children’s first and second-order false-belief reasoning in a verbal and a low-verbal task

We can understand and act upon the beliefs of other people, even when these conflict with our own beliefs. Children’s development of this ability, known as Theory of Mind, typically happens around age 4. Research using a looking-time paradigm, however, established that toddlers at the age of 15 months old pass a non-verbal false-belief task (Onishi and Baillargeon in Science 308:255–258, 2005). This is well before the age at which children pass any of the verbal false-belief tasks. In this study we present a more complex case of false-belief reasoning with older children. We tested second-order reasoning, probing children’s ability to handle the belief of one person about the belief of another person. We find just the opposite: 7-year-olds pass a verbal false-belief reasoning task, but fail on an equally complex low-verbal task. This finding suggests that language supports explicit reasoning about beliefs, perhaps by facilitating the cognitive system to keep track of beliefs attributed by people to other people.     

Reflection and Critique: Philosophy's Hope for Education

1 Introduction Universities still,today,enjoy a specific type of respectability.Undoubtedly,this could be explained by the fact that universities,from medieval times onwards,have belonged to the cultural and intellectual landscape in general and to educational heritage in particular.From a distance,it looks like they are braving,with obvious confidence,every day's delusions;most people look at universities as quite stable institutions.Of course,there are good reasons for this:Universities have been and still are offering programs and training,consisting of individual courses,offered by professors.At the end,in exchange for ongoing efforts,students can get a degree,most likely opening the door to interesting,meaningful jobs with decent pay.     

Young Children's Learning of Size Comparison Strategies: Effect of Origami Exercises

The authors examined the process of change in size comparison strategies among preschool-age children. Twelve 5- and 6-year-old children were provided with origami exercises and size comparison tasks for 5 days consecutively, and another twelve 5- and 6-year-old children received size comparison tasks only. Children's strategies for the size comparison tasks were analyzed in terms of placement and adjustment. In contrast with the children in the control condition, the children who were provided with exercises in origami increased their use of superimposition and adjustment strategies by 2 dimensions across the 5 days. The authors argue that origami exercises helped the children connect their implicit understanding of relative size with the use of more effective strategies for size comparison.     

Physical and cognitive effort discounting of hypothetical monetary rewards

Effort discounting refers to the decrease in the subjective value of a reward as the effort required to obtain the reward increases. The main aims of this study were to ascertain whether the amount of the reward affects the steepness of the effort discounting process for hypothetical monetary rewards, to identify whether this steepness depends on the type of effort that is required, and to determine whether the steepness of different types of effort covary at the individual level. Two types of effort were studied under hypothetical choice situations: physical effort and cognitive effort. Both physical and cognitive effort discounting were well described by the hyperbolic model. Large rewards were discounted less steeply than small rewards for both types of effort. This finding agrees with the results of prior studies which have found that larger rewards have greater motivational power. In addition, the steepness of physical effort discounting was positively correlated with the steepness of cognitive effort discounting, which suggests that the effort discounting process is a trait‐like characteristic within an individual.     

HIV voluntary counselling and testing among recently initiated and traditionally circumcised men in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

HIV voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) is a cornerstone of the national strategic plan for HIV/AIDS treatment, care and support in South Africa. However, research shows that the utilisation of VCT services is disappointingly low, particular among males. This article focuses on the factors associated with the intention to test for HIV-infection among recently initiated and traditionally circumcised men in the rural areas of Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Individual face-to-face interviews were conducted among 1656 sexually active men. Logistic regression analyses were used to explore the association between intention to test for HIV and psychosocial factors. Overall, 35.1% of the participants reported ever having tested for HIV. Intention to test for HIV was positively associated with perceived probability of getting an STI, positive attitudes towards gender-based violence, received general teachings about being a responsible man and highest grade passed. These findings provide specific information that can be used in the development of a focused cultural sensitive STI/HIV prevention programme aimed to increase VCT uptake among sexually active young men, which can be integrated into initiation and health education practices.     

Identity statuses in young adult employees: Prospective relations with work engagement and burnout

The importance of identity statuses for individuals' well-being and psychosocial functioning has been demonstrated abundantly in high school and college samples. The present longitudinal study complemented this research line by (a) focusing on identity clusters or statuses in a sample of 300 working young adults (21–40 years of age), and (b) investigating the concurrent and prospective implications of these identity statuses for work engagement and burnout. Based on a recently developed dimensional model of personal identity formation, five distinct statuses were obtained, largely replicating previous research on identity clusters. These five statuses were meaningfully differentiated on the basis of their associations with the outcome measures, with the identity achievement status showing the most optimal profile (low burnout, high engagement) and the diffused diffusion status the least adjusted profile across time. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Updating Allport's and Batson's Framework of Religious Orientations: A Reevaluation from the Perspective of Self‐Determination Theory and Wulff's Social Cognitive Model

We theoretically and empirically evaluate Allport's intrinsic‐extrinsic and Batson's quest religious orientations through the lens of self‐determination theory (SDT) and Wulff's social‐cognitive model. Confirming our theoretical analysis, we find that Allport's intrinsic‐extrinsic dichotomy fails to correspond empirically to the differentiation between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation within SDT. Whereas Allport's intrinsic religious orientation was positively related to internalized extrinsic motivation, his two extrinsic (i.e., personal and social) religious orientations were not systematically related to any of the discerned motives within SDT. Furthermore, Batson's quest orientation was unrelated to any of the SDT concepts but was positively related to symbolic disbelief. The present findings suggest that Allport's motivational orientations model needs both refinement and relabeling to better fit with recent theoretical evolutions in the field of motivational psychology.     

Reasons,impossibility and efficient steps: reply to Heuer

Ulrike Heuer argues that there can be a reason for a person to perform an action that this person cannot perform, as long as this person can take efficient steps towards performing this action. In this reply, I first argue that Heuer’s examples fail to undermine my claim that there cannot be a reason for a person to perform an action if it is impossible that this person will perform this action. I then argue that, on a plausible interpretation of what ‘efficient steps’ are, Heuer’s claim is consistent with my claim. I end by showing that Heuer fails to undermine the arguments I gave for my claim.     

Autonomous and controlled regulation of performance-approach goals: Their relations to perfectionism and educational outcomes

The present research uses self-determination theory to examine whether autonomous and controlled regulation of performance-approach (PAp) goals would differentially predict educational outcomes and add to the variance explained by the goal strength. Two cross-sectional studies among 10th to 12th grade students supported this hypothesis but showed that when regulations of PAp goals were entered into the same regression equation with the PAp goal strength, the PAp goal strength no longer predicted outcomes. Study 2 examined perfectionism in relation to PAp goals and types of regulation, thereby showing that whereas adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism were both positively related to PAp goals, adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism were associated with autonomous and controlled regulations, respectively. Finally, path modeling indicated that autonomous and controlled regulations of PAp goals (but not PAp goals themselves) accounted for nearly all of the relation between the types of perfectionism and learning outcomes. The discussion emphasizes that it is critical to move beyond the consideration of PAp goals per se, thereby considering the types of regulation of PAp goals.