Platonism and metaphor in the texts of mathematics: G?del and Frege on mathematical knowledge

In this paper, I challenge those interpretations of Frege that reinforce the view that his talk of grasping thoughts about abstract objects is consistent with Russell's notion of acquaintance with universals and with Gödel's contention that we possess a faculty of mathematical perception capable of perceiving the objects of set theory. Here I argue the case that Frege is not an epistemological Platonist in the sense in which Gödel is one. The contention advanced is that Gödel bases his Platonism on a literal comparison between mathematical intuition and physical perception. He concludes that since we accept sense perception as a source of empirical knowledge, then we similarly should posit a faculty of mathematical intuition to serve as the source of mathematical knowledge. Unlike Gödel, Frege does not posit a faculty of mathematical intuition. Frege talks instead about grasping thoughts about abstract objects. However, despite his hostility to metaphor, he uses the notion of grasping as a strategic metaphor to model his notion of thinking, i.e., to underscore that it is only by logically manipulating the cognitive content of mathematical propositions that we can obtain mathematical knowledge. Thus, he construes grasping more as theoretical activity than as a kind of inner mental seeing.     

Does Regulating Others' Feelings Influence People's Own Affective Well-Being?

ABSTRACT

Individuals in a variety of social contexts try to regulate other people's feelings, but how does this process affect the regulators themselves? This research aimed to establish a relationship between people's use of interpersonal affect regulation and their own affective well-being. In a field study, self- and other-reported data were collected from prisoners and staff members in a therapeutic prison using two surveys separated in time. In a laboratory study, a student sample reported their affect before and after attempting to influence the feelings of talent show contestants in a role-play task. The results of both studies indicated congruent associations between the use of affect-improving and affect-worsening interpersonal affect regulation and strategy agents' affective well-being. Our findings highlight that, when performing interpersonal affect regulation, people may not be immune from the effects of their own actions.     

The use of behavioral skills training to improve staff performance of discrete trial training

Well‐trained staff are a prerequisite for successful implementation of treatment plans when working in human service contexts. The high rate of turnover makes the use of efficient and effective staff training all the more important. Previous research has used behavioral skills training to train teachers in correct implementation of discrete trial training of children with autism. They showed that a brief 10‐min procedure could effectively train staff and result in improved performance. The current study elaborated on previous work by using participants without prior exposure to the method, including treatment integrity data and testing for maintenance 1 month after training ended. The mean percentage of correct teaching responses for the three participants increased from 70%, 58%, and 66% during baseline to 97%, 96%, and 99%, respectively, following training. Results indicated that the training package was effective and the results were maintained 30 days later.