Contextualism And Global Doubts About The World

Several recent contextualist theorists (e.g. David Lewis, Michael Williams, andKeith DeRose) have proposed contextualizing the skeptic. Their claim is that oneshould view satisfactory answers to global doubts regarding such subjects as theexternal world, other minds, and induction as requirements for justification incertain philosophical contexts, but not in everyday and scientific contexts. Incontrast, the skeptic claims that a satisfactory answer to a global doubt in eachof these areas is a context-invariant requirement for justified belief. In this paper,I consider and reject the arguments Michael Williams develops in his bookUnnatural Doubts that are intended to show that the skeptic's interpretationof the significance of global doubts is mistaken. In addition, I argue that Williams'general strategy in opposing the skeptic is extremely interesting and worth furtherinvestigation, even if his particular execution of it is unsuccessful. To this end, Iclarify the general strategy, distinguish it from a variety of others, and discuss itsprospects as an answer to the skeptic.     

Teaching Strategies for Personality Assessment at the Undergraduate Level

Personality assessment is a crucial component of clinical practice, and the training and proficiency criteria to develop competence are complex and multifaceted. Like many advanced topics, the field of personality assessment would benefit from early exposure in undergraduate classroom settings. This research evaluates how an undergraduate personality course can be enhanced through 2 enrichment activities (self-assessments and a personality project). Students completed several self-assessments of their personality and wrote a comprehensive and integrative personality assessment about themselves. Results demonstrated that these activities increased interest in personality assessment, deepened understanding of course material, and promoted student growth and self-exploration. We discuss the benefits of these enrichment activities for the student, instructor, and field of personality science.     

Rapid automatized naming (RAN) in children with ADHD: An ex-Gaussian analysis

Children with ADHD demonstrate increased frequent “lapses” in performance on tasks in which the stimulus presentation rate is externally controlled, leading to increased variability in response times. It is less clear whether these lapses are also evident during performance on self-paced tasks, e.g., rapid automatized naming (RAN), or whether RAN inter-item pause time variability uniquely predicts reading performance. A total of 80 children aged 9 to 14 years—45 children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 35 typically developing (TD) children—completed RAN and reading fluency measures. RAN responses were digitally recorded for analyses. Inter-stimulus pause time distributions (excluding between-row pauses) were analyzed using traditional (mean, standard deviation [SD], coefficient of variation [CV]) and ex-Gaussian (mu, sigma, tau) methods. Children with ADHD were found to be significantly slower than TD children (p < .05) on RAN letter naming mean response time as well as on oral and silent reading fluency. RAN response time distributions were also significantly more variable (SD, tau) in children with ADHD. Hierarchical regression revealed that the exponential component (tau) of the letter-naming response time distribution uniquely predicted reading fluency in children with ADHD (p < .001, ΔR² = .16), even after controlling for IQ, basic reading, ADHD symptom severity and age. The findings suggest that children with ADHD (without word-level reading difficulties) manifest slowed performance on tasks of reading fluency; however, this “slowing” may be due in part to lapses from ongoing performance that can be assessed directly using ex-Gaussian methods that capture excessively long response times.     

Why cast shadows are expendable: insensitivity of human observers and the inherent ambiguity of cast shadows in pictorial art

The kinds of visual cues artists choose to use or not use in their work can offer insight into perceptual processes. On the basis of the observed paucity of the use of cast shadow in pictorial art, we hypothesized that cast shadows might be relatively expendable as pictorial cues. In this study, we investigated two potential reasons for this expendability: first, viewers might be insensitive to much of the information that cast shadows provide; and, second, ambiguities about what is shadow and what is pigment can often be resolved only through motion-something that static media are ill-equipped to deal with. In experiment 1, we used a visual-search paradigm in which viewers had to determine if there were odd cast shadows in sets of 4, 8, 16, and 32 objects. In experiment 2, viewers had to discriminate between shadow/pigment ambiguities in both still and moving images. Our results demonstrate that viewers are neither particularly sensitive to static cast-shadow incongruities, nor are they able to disambiguate cast shadow from pigment without continuous motion information. Taken together, these results may help explain why cast shadows are relatively rare in static pictorial work.     

Comparison of stability and weight shift among golfers grouped by skill level

This study compared balance, sway, and weight shift among golfers with different skill levels. Participants (N=52) were right-handed, male golfers between the ages of 18 and 55 and were divided into 3 groups based on their official handicap (Group 1= 0-9, Group 2= 10-16, Group 3 = 17+). Postural sway velocity was recorded unilaterally for each leg and bilaterally. Weight shift as assessed by limits of stability was measured as movement velocity and directional control. During testing, participants stood on a virtual center square as illustrated by a monitor placed directly in front of them. On command participants initiated movement about eight target squares located in a circle around the center square and attempted to move quickly and accurately to the targets. Means from the three forward, three backward, three left, and three right targets were analyzed by group. While significant condition means existed for each of the analyzed means, no significant group differences were found for bilateral or unilateral postural sway, and no significant group differences were found for movement velocity or directional control. In conclusion, as measured in the current study, balance and weight shift are not significantly different among golfers with different skill.     

Children's peer selection: experimental examination of the role of self-perceptions

Although previous studies have examined characteristics of children selected as friends, little research has examined the role played by characteristics of the selecting child. In 2 experimental studies that examined the role of self-perceptions in peer selection, participants (91 seventh graders in Study 1 and 83 third graders in Study 2) viewed various evaluations of themselves. Participants either believed evaluations were written by unfamiliar peers (Study 1) or were asked to imagine that the views of puppets were views of unfamiliar peers (Study 2). Participants were asked to select the peers they wished to meet and interact with. When evaluations were related to specific competence domains, 7th graders preferred positive peers to negative peers, whereas 3rd graders selected peers who viewed them as they viewed themselves. When evaluations were related to global self-worth, children's selections were unrelated to views of their own global worth. Selection of a globally negative peer was associated with attachment-insecurity/maternal-rejection and depressive symptoms.     

The younger siblings of teenage mothers: a follow-up of their pregnancy risk

This study followed 243 younger brothers and younger sisters of parenting teens and nonparenting teens across a 1.5-year period. The average age of siblings was 13.6 years at Time 1 and 15 years at Time 2. Relative to other youths, the sisters of parenting teens exhibited a sharp increase in drug and alcohol use and partying behavior across time and had the highest pregnancy rate at Time 2 (15%). The siblings of parenting teens spent 10 hr a week caring for their sisters' children, and, for girls, many hours of child care was associated with negative outcomes including permissive sexual behavior. Findings suggest that the younger sisters of parenting teens are at very high risk of early pregnancy and that this risk becomes increasingly pronounced across time.     

Can depression be de-medicalized in the 21st century: scientific revolutions, counter-revolutions and the magnetic field of normal science

This article is about our scientific investigations of the change mechanisms in cognitive therapy (CT) for depression. In a previous clinical trial, we found that so-called 'cognitive' interventions were not necessary for the success of CT: the behavioral activation (BA) component, a treatment precluding attempts to change thinking, worked as well as the entire CT package, both in maximizing acute treatment response and in relapse prevention over a two year period. We tentatively suggested at the time of publication [Jacobson, N. S., Dobson, K. S., Truax, P. A., Addis, M. E., Koerner, K., Gollan, J. K., Gortner, E. T., & Prince, S. E. (1996). A component analysis of cognitive-behavioral treament for depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 295-304; Gortner, E. T., Gollan, J. K., Dobson, K. S., & Jacobson, N. S. (1998). Cognitive-behavioral treatment for depression: relapse prevention. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66, 377-384.] that the 'cognitive' components of CT may not only be unnecessary but potentially a liability, since they result in a less parsimonious treatment package that may be not be cost effective. In this article, we not only defend this contention, but counteract the skepticism expressed by some CT advocates that the quality of our CT was deficient. Finally, we describe a study designed to confirm our conclusions from the earlier trial and, in the process, reintroduce a contextual perspective on depression, one which counters the currently dominant defect models reflected in both Beck's cognitive model and in theories that emphasize biological causation.     

Early intensive behavioral intervention: emergence of a consumer-driven service model

Parents are becoming influential stimulators and shapers of public policy in regard to educational services for their children. Increasingly, this advocacy has created a controversy about the role of applied behavior analysis as a foundation for early intensive behavioral intervention in autism. Uncertainties exist in policy regarding the role of behavior analysis in early intervention and the capacity of behavior analysis to field a trained work force. Based on contacts with parents of children with autism and information available in a variety of forms on the Internet, there is a rising demand for fundamentally better early intervention services that are available and accessible, provide active intervention, and are based on principles of behavior analysis. Contemporary movements in special and early education, however, appear to be nonconducive to scientifically based treatments, and school districts seem hostile to an increasing role for behavior analysis and to the establishment of services that are responsive to changing parental priorities for the education of their children with autism and related disorders.