Why Experience Told Me Nothing about Transparency 1

The transparency argument concludes that we're directly aware of external properties and not directly aware of the properties of experience. Focusing on the presentation used by Michael Tye (2002) I contend that the argument requires experience to have content that it cannot plausibly have. I attribute the failure to a faulty account of the transparency phenomenon and conclude by suggesting an alternative understanding that is independently plausible, is not an error‐theory and yet renders the transparency of experience compatible with mental‐paint style views.     

East Asian child-rearing attitudes: an exploration of cultural, demographic and self-disclosure factors among US immigrants

Child-rearing attitudes among East Asian groups have been emphasized in the developmental psychology literature in the context of their association with academic achievement. Although child-rearing attitudes play an important role in the transmission of cultural values, much of the research on East Asian child-rearing attitudes has ignored cultural variables and has instead focused on authoritarian parenting style. The current study examined the association between three classes of variables-culture (i.e., ethnic identity, self-construal, acculturation), demographics (sex, years in the US, English fluency), and self-disclosure-and traditional child-rearing attitudes (TCRA) among East Asian immigrants in the United States. It was hypothesized that higher levels of TCRA would be associated with higher levels of ethnic identity, interdependent self-construal, separation, and guarded self-disclosure, and fewer years spent in the United States. The participants included 170 East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) immigrants (88 men, 82 women) who were administered a battery of psychometrically established measures. Our hypotheses were largely supported. We found that, while there was no significant sex by ethnicity effect for TCRA, men were significantly more likely than women to endorse TCRA and the Korean group had significantly higher TCRA than the Japanese group. Ethnic identity, interdependent self-construal, separation, years in the US, and guarded self-disclosure were significant independent predictors of TCRA. The findings suggest the need for broadening the content of assessment tools of child-rearing attitudes and measuring associated cultural and noncultural variables among East Asian ethnic groups. Future research on child-rearing attitudes among Asian ethnic groups may benefit from (1) measuring multiple dimensions of TCRA, (2) assessing associated cultural variables directly rather than inferring them in an ad hoc fashion based on observed ethnicity differences, (3) measurement of demography (including sex and years spent in the host country) and (4) examining the potential influence of guarded self-disclosure.     

Approximate quantification in young,healthy older adults’, and Alzheimer patients

Forty young adults, 40 healthy older adults, and 39 probable AD patients were asked to estimate small (e.g., 25) and large (e.g., 60) collections of dots in a choice condition and in two no-choice conditions. Participants could choose between benchmark and anchoring strategies on each collection of dots in the choice condition and were required to use either benchmark or anchoring on all configurations in the no-choice conditions (one per strategy). The benchmark strategy involves visual estimation processes whereas the anchoring strategy involves both enumeration and estimation processes. Results showed that strategy use was influenced by collection, participant, and strategy characteristics. Age-related and dementia-related differences were found in both strategy use and strategy execution. The findings have implications for our understanding of aging effects in approximate quantification, strategic variations in Alzheimer’s patients, and sources of cognitive decline during early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.     

Poverty in Russia

This paper is intended to shed light on the extent of poverty in the Russian Federation. We present estimates of poverty lines and poverty ratios derived from subjective questions used in a data collection for a large household panel (RUSSET). We estimate poverty using a subjective approach, where the level of the poverty line is derived using the opinion of the individual, rich or poor, on poverty. This approach differs from the objective approach to poverty, which defines poverty according to the opinion of experts. Three subjective poverty lines are presented: one the Financial Satisfaction Poverty Line, two the Leyden Poverty Line, and three the Subjective Well-Being Poverty Line. The first two poverty lines are based on subjective questions regarding income and economic welfare while the last concept focuses on satisfaction with life as a whole. The results obtained are compared with each other and with results derived using objective measures and official figures.     

Reliability and validity of the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List - Revised

A recent factor analysis of the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL) changed the Anxiety, Depression, and Hostility scales from bipolar to unipolar scales and added two new scales: Positive Affect and Sensation Seeking. Internal reliability of the MAACL-R scales, computed for normal and patient samples, was adequate for state and trait forms except for Sensation Seeking. Test-retest reliability in college students was higher for the trait form with retest intervals of from 2 to 8 weeks than for the state form with retest intervals of from 2 to 5 days. The pattern of correlations among self-, peer, and counselor ratings and the MAACL-R scales for normal and patient samples indicates improved discriminant validity and equally good convergent validity as the old scales. The use of standard scores that are indexed to the number of items checked reduced scale intercorrelations by controlling the acquiescence set.The financial support of the Weldon Springs Endowment Fund, University of Missouri at Kansas City, toward the completion of this research project is gratefully acknowledged.