Android Epistemology For Babies: Relections On Words,Thoughts And Theories

Words, Thoughts and Theories arguesthat infants and children discover the physical and psychological featuresof the world by a process akin to scientific inquiry, more or less asconceived by philosophers of science in the 1960s (the theory theory).This essay discusses some of the philosophical background to analternative, more popular, ``modular' or ``maturational' account ofdevelopment, dismisses an array of philosophical objections to the theorytheory, suggests that the theory theory offers an undeveloped project forartificial intelligence, and, relying on recent psychological work oncausation, offers suggestions about how principles of causal inference mayprovide a developmental solution to the ``frame problem'.     

Change Processes in Residential Cognitive and Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Social Phobia: A Process-Outcome Study

The purpose of this study was to test cognitive and interpersonal models for improving social phobia. Eighty patients with social phobia were randomized to 10-week residential cognitive (RCT) or residential interpersonal psychotherapy (RIPT). They completed process measures every Thursday and a sub-outcome measure every Monday. The ratings were analyzed with mixed models. Weekly changes in the process variables derived from the cognitive model (self-focus, estimated probability and estimated cost of negative social events, safety behaviors) predicted subsequent weekly changes in social anxiety. Changes in the interpersonal variable perceived acceptance by others also predicted subsequent changes in social anxiety. On the other hand, changes in social anxiety predicted changes in the four cognitive variables. There were no interactive effects of process with treatment. The cognitive variables decreased during treatment to a similar degree in both treatments. The results indicate that, to reduce social anxiety, therapy should target self-focus, estimated probability and cost of feared social events, safety behaviors, and perceived acceptance by others. The process of improvement may involve positive cycles in that a reduction of social anxiety, in turn, appeared to impact self-focus, probability, cost, and safety behaviors.     

Too much to count on: impaired very small numbers in corticobasal degeneration

Patients with corticobasal degeneration (CBD) have calculation impairments. This study examined whether impaired number knowledge depends on verbal mediation. We focused particularly on knowledge of very small numbers, where there is a precise relationship between a cardinality and its number concept, but little hypothesized role for verbal mediation. We evaluated accuracy and reaction time (RT) for matching dot arrays and Arabic numerals involving smaller (2-4) and larger (5-9) cardinalities in non-aphasic patients with CBD (n=16), frontotemporal dementia (FTD; n=23), and healthy controls (n=15). CBD were less accurate and slowed at judging smaller Arabic numeral-dot array stimuli compared to FTD patients and controls. Moreover, only CBD showed longer RTs judging successively larger number-dot array pairs among the smaller cardinalities. Difficulty judging very small numbers is impaired in CBD, suggesting degraded representation of precise number knowledge that does not depend on language functioning.     

Absolute and Relative Decision Processes in Eyewitness Identification

A prominent and long-standing theory of eyewitness identification decision making distinguishes between absolute judgments, based on the lineup members' match to the witness's memory of the perpetrator, versus relative judgments, based on match values relative to other lineup members. This distinction was implemented in a computational model and simulations showed that the model predicts an accuracy advantage for absolute judgments over relative judgments under some conditions. The present experiment tested this prediction by evaluating the accuracy of witnesses instructed to use relative or absolute rules. Contrary to predictions, the overall analysis did not show an absolute advantage. Additional exploratory analyses showed a relative advantage when the suspect was surrounded by high-similarity foils. These results are consistent with a model that assumes that side-by-side comparisons of lineup members increase diagnostic accuracy by allowing witnesses to give greater weight to more diagnostic features and less weight to less diagnostic features.     

Developmental patterns in the infants and young children of mentally ill mothers

The development of children (ages 2 to 49 months) of mentally ill mothers was compared with that of children of matched “well” mothers. The children of mentally ill mothers scored lower on measures of intelligence and had a less adaptive coping style in the testing situation. The children of “well” mothers were more socially competent; that is, they sought the attention of adults more often, responded more to social initiatives, displayed more positive affect, and sent clearer signals. Clinical data on the children of mentally ill mothers complemented the research data, indicating that these children displayed problems in the areas of interpersonal relationships, verbal-conceptual functioning, attentional skills, and mood and affect.     

Eyewitness identification evidence and innocence risk

It is well known that the frailties of human memory and vulnerability to suggestion lead to eyewitness identification errors. However, variations in different aspects of the eyewitnessing conditions produce different kinds of errors that are related to wrongful convictions in very different ways. We present a review of the eyewitness identification literature, organized around underlying cognitive mechanisms, memory, similarity, and decision processes, assessing the effects on both correct and mistaken identification. In addition, we calculate a conditional probability we call innocence risk, which is the probability that the suspect is innocent, given that the suspect was identified. Assessment of innocence risk is critical to the theoretical development of eyewitness identification research, as well as to legal decision making and policy evaluation. Our review shows a complex relationship between misidentification and innocence risk, sheds light on some areas of controversy, and suggests that some issues thought to be resolved are in need of additional research.     

Teaching the History of Christianity: Critical Themes and Challenges

At the November 2008 meeting of the American Academy of Religion, the History of Christianity section sponsored a panel around the question: “What are the key challenges, opportunities, and goals in the History of Christianity classroom today and how best should teachers respond to them?” Beginning with brief sketches of institutional context and identification of one or more pivotal choices each makes in the course they teach, the panelists explored critical themes and issues that arise in teaching the history of Christianity, first with each other and then through interchange with the audience.     

School Counselor Inclusion: A Collaborative Model to Provide Academic and Social‐Emotional Support in the Classroom Setting

The increasingly diverse student demographics reflect a myriad of needs in the interrelated arenas of educational achievement, social‐behavioral adjustment, and career development, while federal legislation, the ethical standards of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA; 2004a), and the ASCA (2005a) National Model have emphasized academic achievement and success for all students. This article describes a new model of school counselor “inclusion” that involves collaboration with classroom teachers and changes the setting of school counselor interventions to the classroom for small‐group and individual work.     

The association of childhood intelligence with mortality risk from adolescence to middle age: Findings from the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s cohort study

There is growing evidence that childhood IQ is inversely associated with mortality in later life. However, the specificity of this association in terms of causes of death, whether it is continuous over the whole range of IQ scores and whether it is the same according to age and sex is not clear. In a large cohort (N = 11,603) of a complete population of children born in one city in the UK in the early 1950s, IQ measured at age 7 years (using a routinely administered picture test) was found to be inversely associated with mortality between the ages of 15 and 57 years. For every 1 SD increase in IQ at 7, the all cause mortality hazard ratio was 0.79 (95% CI 0.73, 0.85). On adjustment for a range of perinatal factors, father's social class at birth, number of sibs in the household and childhood height and weight, this was attenuated slightly to 0.81 (0.74, 0.88). Almost identical associations of IQ with mortality were seen for men and women as well as at younger (15–39) and older (40+) ages. These associations were across the entire IQ range, although some of the high mortality in the lowest category of IQ (< 70) was accounted for by causes associated with congenital disorders. Overall, external causes of death showed the strongest association, with weaker associations being seen for cancer. Further work is required to understand the mechanisms whereby childhood IQ has such a robust association with mortality in later life.