Belief, assertion and Moore’s Paradox

In this article I argue that two received accounts of belief and assertion cannot both be correct, because they entail mutually contradictory claims about Moore’s Paradox. The two accounts in question are, first, the Action Theory of Belief (ATB), the functionalist view that belief must be manifested in dispositions to act, and second, the Belief Account of Assertion (BAA), the Gricean view that an asserter must present himself as believing what he asserts. It is generally accepted also that Moorean assertions are absurd, and that BAA explains why they are. I shall argue that ATB implies that some Moorean assertions are, in some fairly ordinary contexts, well justified. Thus BAA and ATB are mutually inconsistent. In the concluding section I explore three possible ways of responding to the dilemma, and what implications they have for the nature of the constitutive relationships linking belief, assent and behavioural dispositions.

美国的患儿同意及借鉴意义

准确地评定患儿的同意能力,保障患儿的同意权得以有效行使,有利于尊重患儿的人格尊严,促进患儿身心健康。从患儿同意能力和同意权的角度出发,简要回顾了美国患儿同意产生的背景,介绍了美国患儿同意的现状,并对其进行了一定的分析和评价,希望对促进我国患儿同意的发展起到一定的借鉴作用。     

When Effort is Threatening: The Influence of the Belief in a Just World on Americans' Attitudes Toward Antipoverty Policy

In the political context of the reauthorization of federal welfare reform legislation, a nationally representative sample of 1,570 adults in the United States completed a survey examining the factors that affect attitudes and policy preferences with regard to aid for low-income individuals and families in the United States. This study utilized an innovative survey technique, the factorial survey methodology (Rossi & Nock, 1982), which allows for the simultaneous experimental manipulation of a large number of factors through the use of a vignette. This research demonstrates how the portrayal of difficulties faced by people in need and the ways in which they attempt to overcome these difficulties affect support for policies designed to aid low-income individuals and families. In addition, this study of public attitudes considers the role that psychological orientations of the evaluators play in judgments of families in need. In this case, we examined how the evaluators' belief that the world is a just place influences their evaluations of deservingness. Consistent with our expectations, we found that the more efforts the vignette subject engaged in improving her situation, the less deserving of government benefits she was judged to be by respondents with a strong belief in a just world. The reverse was found among respondents with a weaker belief: more efforts were associated with greater judgments of deservingness.     

Pilot study for assessing the behaviors of patients with schizophrenia towards a virtual avatar.

This study examined whether a virtual avatar could be perceived as a real human by patients with mental disease, especially schizophrenia, as well as whether a virtual avatar could be applied to acquiring patients' behavior characteristics in a short conversation situation. The virtual avatar has been used for various applications which need to communicate with other person or to train or educate by showing humanlike behavior. Recently, many researches have shown that the virtual avatar technology has been enhanced and the avatar could be perceived like real human. A virtual avatar, standing in a virtual room, was designed for this study. Tasks to approach, initiate a talk, and answer to avatar's questions was assigned to the 11 patients with schizophrenia. As behavioral parameters in the virtual environment, the interpersonal distance and the verbal response time were acquired. In addition, the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) for patients was administered in order to investigate the relationship between patients' symptomatic characteristics and behavior parameters. The interpersonal distance was negatively correlated with the negative syndrome scale, a subscale of PANSS, which is consistent with previous research reporting the relationship between interpersonal distance and a real person's image. The verbal response time, however, was not correlated with any other subscale of PANSS. After analyzing subitems of the negative syndrome of PANSS, two positive correlations were found: one was with blunted affect and the other was with poor rapport. We concluded that the virtual avatar could be perceived as a real human by schizophrenic patients and the avatar could draw the schizophrenic patients' behavior characteristics.     

Effects of Word Semantic Transparency,Context Length,and L1 Background on CSL Learners’ Incidental Learning of Word Meanings in Passage-Level Reading

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - This study investigated the effects of semantic transparency of Chinese disyllabic compound words on Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners’...     

Stripes within words affect reading

In a series of eight studies it is shown that the first peak in the horizontal autocorrelation of the image of a word (which captures the similarity in shape between the neighbouring strokes of letters) determines (i) the appearance of the words as striped; (ii) the speed with which the words are read, both aloud and silently; and (iii) the speed with which a paragraph of text can be searched. By subtly distorting the horizontal dimension of text, and thereby reducing the first peak in the horizontal autocorrelation, it is shown that the speed of word recognition can be increased. The increase in speed is greater in poor readers.     

Multiple pathways from stress to suicidality and the protective effect of social support in Hong Kong adolescents

Two theoretical models were constructed to illustrate how stressful events, family and friends support, depression, substance use, and death attitude mutually influence to create cumulative risks for suicide. The models were evaluated using structural equation modeling. Results showed that suicidality was strongly predicted by death attitude, depression, and substance use which together form a dangerous combination of risk factors at the personal level. Within the adolescent's social environment, stressful events increased suicidality through intensifying depression, substance use, and death acceptance, whereas family and friends support lowered it, partly through reducing stress and death acceptance. The effect (direct and indirect combined) of family support was much stronger than that of friends support. Enhancing stress coping ability, promoting positive family relationships, and attacking attitudes supportive of death might be the best strategies to prevent youth suicide.     

How Do You Say Nature?: Opening the Design Space with a Knowledge Environment

In this paper, we describe a design study on how families in Los Angeles experience nature, with a particular focus on how using alternative formats for research analysis and presentation can enrich a design research inquiry. Conducted in Pasadena, CA as a part of Super Studio, the year-long design research class emphasized knowledge building and sharing through design methods of analysis, exhibition, and concept prototypes. After conducting interviews and engaging participants with probes, the class built the results into an open-ended knowledge environment. The main observation from the exhibition – that Angelenos have a limited vocabulary for describing nature and their interaction with it – helped to define the opportunity for design intervention that created connection points between Angelenos and nature. There are few attempts to describe how probe returns evolve into design concepts. Showcased is a process that depends on the unique affordances of design as the vehicle for discovery and invention.     

Associations between childhood trauma and emotion-modulated psychophysiological responses to startling sounds: a study of police cadets

Childhood trauma may confer risk for adult psychopathology by altering emotional and physiological responses to subsequent stressors. Few studies have distinguished effects of childhood trauma from effects of current Axis I psychopathology on adult psychophysiological reactivity. The authors exposed 90 psychiatrically healthy police cadets to startling sounds under increasing threat of shock while assessing their eyeblink electromyogram (EMG), skin conductance (SC), and heart rate responses. When compared with those who did not endorse early trauma (n = 65), cadets reporting childhood trauma (n = 25) reported less positive emotion and showed greater SC responses across all threat levels. They also showed threat-dependent elevations in reported negative emotions and EMG responses. Results suggest that childhood trauma may lead to long-lasting alterations in emotional and psychophysiological reactivity even in the absence of current Axis I psychopathology.