Prior and rennie on times and tenses

One of Arthur Prior’s constructions of the relational calculus for times within tense logic plus propositional quantifiers is considered using Malcolm Rennie’s multimodal semantics and found wanting in two respects: Prior’s use of an independent necessity operator was both incorrect and unnecessary, and his system imported an objectionable metaphysics namely temporal relationism.When these defects are repaired it is shown that temporal relationism is not entailed by the modified system.Finally, there is considered the possibility of describing an inconsistent temporal structure in which distinct, classically incompatible conceptions of time can be unified within an inconsistent framework     

Fear of routine dental treatment in adults: Its nature and management

Abstract

The fear of dental treatment in adults can be characterised in several ways, loosely related, such as anticipating being afraid, avoiding dental check-ups and seeking treatment only under general anaesthesia. Defined thus, at least a quarter of adults are highly afraid of dentistry. The feared experiences are many, including most frequently, pain. Several studies have shown that anxious patients experience less pain during treatment than they expect. It remains to be confirmed that these are typical experiences because other studies show that local anaesthesia can fail to protect patients from sudden pain in 13% of treatments on average. Expectations of pain are highly resistant to change, the result probably of several influences including distortion in recall of pain-free treatment, intermittent experience of sudden severe pain, expecting pain in order to reduce its impact, and uncertainty about treatment. It has yet to be shown that experience free of discomfort can reduce these expectations. However, relaxation instructions and information about pain management and stop signals can reduce pre-treatment fear. To prevent the onset and the maintenance of anxiety: the prevention of pain is essential; controlled behavioural studies of the treatment of pain and other experiences such as panics are needed. Finally, the need for new instruments to assess all aspects of fear of dentistry is described.     

Do sedentary motives adversely affect physical activity? Adding cross-behavioural cognitions to the theory of planned behaviour

The purpose of this study was to explore whether sedentary behavior cognitions explain physical activity (PA) intention and behavior when integrated within the theory of planned behavior framework (TPB). A random community sample of 206 adults and a sample of 174 undergraduate students completed measures of the TPB pertaining to PA and four popular leisure-time behaviors (TV viewing, computer use, sedentary hobbies, and sedentary socializing) and an adapted Godin Leisure-Time Exercize Questionnaire (community sample = cross-sectional, undergraduate sample = 2-week prospective). Results using ordinary least squares regression provided evidence that TV viewing intention explains additional variance in PA behavior, and affective attitude (community sample) and perceived behavioral control (undergraduate sample) towards TV viewing explains additional variance in PA intention even after controlling for PA-related TPB constructs. These results underscore the potential value of adding sedentary control interventions in concert with PA promotion.     

Dynandcs in cancer caregiver's health over time: Gender-specific patterns and determinants

Abstract

This study exandned patterns and determinants of three dimensions of caregiver's health of newly diagnosed colorectal cancer patients, i.e. physical, mental and social functioning (N= 148). Physical functioning declined within a 6-month period in female caregivers, while no change was observed in male caregivers. For mental and social functioning, an improvement was observed in male and female caregivers. Change in physical functioning was associated with gender, age, income and initial level. Change in mental functioning was predicted by initial status and positive as well as negative caregiver experiences. Change in social functioning was mainly predicted by initial level and change in patient's dependency. Physical and mental functioning showed the least favorable patterns in female caregivers. The study shows that caregiving may lead to positive health consequences, and underlines the importance of making a distinction between male and female caregivers and of studying caregiver outcomes by using multidimensional assessments.     

The problem of defective desires

This paper defends the actualist desire-satisfaction theory of welfare against a popular line of objection—namely, that it cannot accommodate the fact that, sometimes, it is bad for a person to get what he wants. Ill-informed desires, irrational desires, base desires, poorly cultivated desires, pointless desires, artificially aroused desires, and the desire to be badly off, are alleged by objectors to be defective in this way. I attempt to show that each of these kinds of desire either is not genuinely defective or else is defective in a way fully compatible with the theory.     

‘I download my prayer schedule’: exploring the technological mediation of Islamic religious practice at work

The practice of daily prayers in Islam and how observances such as Ramadan fall each year follow specific solar or lunar calendars different from the Gregorian calendar of UK work places. Identifying the time for daily prayers and finding a place to practise is a skilled activity requiring ways to ascertain the correct (and changing) time and a place in which prayer can take place. In the absence of traditional mediation such as the call to prayer broadcast from a local mosque, new, often technologically innovative, approaches are being adopted. This paper reports on a study of how Muslims practise and negotiate the difficulties of performing daily prayers in a UK university. Though technological mediation is a significant aspect of daily prayers, it is but one part of a complex practice which often involves multiple technologies and multiple ways of working.     

How Children Learn the Ins and Outs: A Training Study of Toddlers' Categorization of Animals

Young children are able to categorize animals on the basis of unobservable features such as shared biological properties (e.g., bones). For the most part, children learn about these properties through explicit verbalizations from others. The present study examined how such input impacts children's learning about the properties of categories. In a training study with thirty-six 2.5-year-olds (M_age = 2;9), we tested the prediction that a relatively small amount of input highlighting the importance of unobservable properties would lead to a gradual shift in children's use of these properties for categorization. Children with no initial categorization bias were trained to categorize either on the basis of shared unobservable properties or shared observable properties. During 3 days of training, children gradually developed a categorization bias in the direction of the property type for which they received training and sustained this bias more than a week after training. Also, a set of children who exhibited an initial perceptual bias showed an abrupt change in how they categorized after only 1 training session.     

Web-Based Surveys: Best Practices Based on the Research Literature

ABSTRACT

Over the last 10 years, Web-based surveys have developed a reputation as an easy and economical method of collecting data. However, as with all research methods, there is a need for careful design and planning. This article reviews the literature on the use and effectiveness of Web surveys. It explores the similarities and differences between Web surveys and postal or telephone surveys, the opportunities and limitations of Web surveys, and the use of Web surveys in visitor studies research. Design tips are provided to assist users to make the best possible use of this important new tool.     

Symbolic- and response-related contributions to blindness to compatible stimuli

Blindness to compatible stimuli refers to poorer target identification (e.g., right-pointing arrowhead) following compatible stimuli (e.g., right arrows; Stevanovski, Oriet, & Jolic?ur, 2003) and compatible responses (e.g., right key press; Müsseler & Hommel, 1997a and 1997b). To clarify the role of the response in this effect, we examined the impact of adding or removing an overt response. In three experiments, subjects saw an arrow cue (that sometimes required a response) followed by a brief, masked arrowhead, which was reported on all trials. In all experiments, making a response increased the magnitude of the blindness effect. Furthermore, “no response” performance was unaffected by whether subjects had previously responded to the cue. Results favour a two-factor symbolic- plus response-related activation model over a purely symbolic activation model.     

Understanding the multiframe caricature advantage for recognizing facial composites

Eyewitnesses often construct a “composite” face of a person they saw commit a crime, a picture that police use to identify suspects. We described a technique (Frowd, Bruce, Ross, McIntyre, & Hancock, 2007) based on facial caricature to facilitate recognition of these images: Correct naming substantially improves when composites are seen with progressive positive caricature, where distinctive information is enhanced, and then with progressive negative caricature, the opposite. Over the course of four experiments, the underpinnings of this mechanism were explored. Positive-caricature levels were found to be largely responsible for improving naming of composites, with some benefit from negative-caricature levels. Also, different frame-presentation orders (forward, reverse, random, repeated) facilitated equivalent naming benefit relative to static composites. Overall, the data indicate that composites are usually constructed as negative caricatures.