Mathematical Practice,Fictionalism and Social Ontology

From the perspective of mathematical practice, I examine positions claiming that mathematical objects are introduced by human agents. I consider in particular mathematical fictionalism and a recent position on social ontology formulated by Cole (2013, 2015). These positions are able to solve some of the challenges that non-realist positions face. I argue, however, that mathematical entities have features other than fictional characters and social institutions. I emphasise that the way mathematical objects are introduced is different and point to the multifaceted role that relations and interconnections play in this context. Finally, I argue that mathematical entities can be considered to be pragmatically real.

     

A Russian adaptation of the child behavior checklist: Psychometric properties and associations with child and maternal affective symptomatology and family functioning

The Child Behavior Checklist's (CBCL) applicability to a sample of 105 Russian 9- and 10-year-old children was evaluated by examining the internal consistency of Russian adaptations of parent and teacher report forms. In addition, child behavior scores were correlated with child reports of internalizing symptoms and maternal reports of their own internalizing symptoms and general family functioning. Finally, rates of child behavior problems and patterns of interrater agreement were compared with U.S. normative data. The psychometric properties of the adaptations demonstrate the adequacy of these instruments for use in Russia. Internal consistency and interrater agreement were generally comparable to estimates obtained in U.S. normative samples. Further, an exploration of the construct validity of the Russian versions of the CBCL and Teacher Report Form (TRF) lends additional support to the adequacy of these instruments.This work was supported in part by grants from the International Research Exchanges Board (IREX) (with funds provided by the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the U.S. Department of State) and the National Institute of Mental Health (MH-00508, an RSDA to D. Pauls). None of these organizations is responsible for the views expressed. In addition, the authors wish to thank Thomas Achenbach for his helpful comments and suggestions.     

White Racial Identity and Expectations About Counseling

Although there have been several studies that have explored people's expectations about counseling, to date there has been no such exploration from a racial-cultural perspective. This study sought to explore the relationship between White racial identity attitudes and expectations about counseling. Although the results showed that men and women differ in their expectations about counseling and in their levels of White racial identity attitudes, the findings of the study indicated that there was no significant relationship between White racial identity attitudes and counseling expectations. The results of the study are examined in relation to previous findings in the field and directions for future study are considered.     

A method for the analysis of complex avian song repertoires

A new method for the analysis of complex avian song repertoires is introduced. The method consists of sending a tape-recorded bird-song signal through five narrow band-pass filters and then to a five-channel high-speed pen recorder. A coding method that allows a researcher to convert the output from the pen recorder to numbers for later analysis by computer is described.     

Reducing the effects of adjacent distractors by narrowing attention.

Three experiments explored the gradual narrowing of visual attention to a letter target when other letters were positioned close by. The method by which attention was narrowed involved presenting a digit target immediately prior to the latter target and in the same location for progressively shorter durations and requiring the subject to identify both the digit target and the letter target before responding. The response time data from the first 2 experiments indicated that shorter durations of the digit reduced the amount of information processed from noise letters positioned on either side of the letter target. In the third experiment, in which separation of letters was increased slightly, the response times indicated that the information from flanking noise letters may have been virtually eliminated.