A call for a statement of expectations for the global information infrastructure

This paper considers the relationship between ethics, technology and law, and the roles and limitations each has in this relationship. It argues that ethics has the key role in establishing a resilient, comprehensive and sensitive information infrastructure. It puts forward a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for the electronic community.

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Discrimination by newborns of the intensity, frequency and temporal characteristics of auditory stimuli

The ability of 3- to 5-day-old neonates to discriminate between auditory stimuli, in terms of each of the dimensions of intensity, pitch and time, was studied using heart-rate responses in a habituation paradigm. For each of the dimensions a survey of the literature failed to provide results which could be used as the basis for later work involving auditory patterns. Further analysis of an earlier experiment (Stratton, 1970 a) involving stimuli at 80, 85 and 90 db showed that louder stimuli evoked larger initial responses and more rapid habituation. From the same experiment it was found that a change of pitch produced dishabituation as early as the 10th trial. There are reasonable grounds for attributing the increased response to the frequency characteristics rather than a change in the perceived intensity of the stimuli. Previous experiments suggested that fixed inter-stimulus intervals tended to produce anticipatory heart-rate changes and modify the magnitude and latency of the response. Two experiments designed specifically to examine temporal phenomena revealed time-linked behaviour. In both experiments acceleratory responses occurred at the first stimulus omission of a fixed-interval series. Not all of the subjects showed this effect, and in both experiments, only the subjects who failed to respond to the first stimulus presentation responded to stimulus omission. The findings are discussed in relation to general issues of neonatal psychophysiology, and it is concluded that neonates can discriminate in each of the auditory dimensions, but that preliminary work involving patterns should concentrate on varying pitch and intensity.     

Perspectivism as a Way of Knowing in the Zhuangzi

A perspectivist theory is usually taken to mean that (1) our knowledge of the world is inevitably shaped by our particular perspectives, (2) any one of these perspectives is as good as any other, and (3) any claims to objective or authoritative knowledge are consequently without ground. Recent scholarship on Nietzsche, however, has challenged the prevalent view that the philosopher holds (2) and (3), arguing instead that his perspectivism aims at attaining a greater level of objectivity. In this essay, I attempt a structurally similar reinterpretation of Zhuangzi’s perspectivism. I argue that while the Chinese thinker sees all knowledge as perspective-dependent, he thinks that some perspectives are broader and more accurate than others. He utilizes shifts in perspective precisely in order to attain these superior perspectives, which constitute what he calls da zhi 大知, or “greater knowledge.” Whereas Nietzsche sees his perspectivism as methodologically continuous with the sciences, Zhuangzi’s “greater knowledge” has the goal of ensuring our survival and well-being in the everyday world.     

Suggestibility effects persist after one year in children who experienced a single or repeated event

The study of long-term memory for repeated events has important implications for understanding autobiographical memory in a forensic context. Recall accuracy and suggestibility for details of an instance of a repeated event versus a single event were examined in children aged 5–6 and 7–8 years after a one-year delay. Children who reported an instance of a repeated event were more likely to report that a non-experienced detail had occurred and reported less correct information than did single-event children. After one year a significant suggestibility effect was still present. The present experiment provides further evidence for both the capabilities and limitations of children's long-term recall and reinforces the importance of non-suggestive interviews of children at all stages of investigation.     

Psychoanalytic theory in times of terror

Recent events have underlined in the most tragic and dramatic way the need for depth psychology to turn its attention to the psychology of terror. The present paper attempts to distinguish between the psychological modes of horror and terror and explores the different theoretical approaches of Burke, Freud, Kristeva and Jung to this problem in order to cast light on the individual and collective functions that horror and terror play. While all these authors stress that terror and horror play a role in structuring the sense of identity and in strengthening community bonds, Freud and Kristeva believe that the experience of horror works to increase the exclusion of otherness through mechanisms of repression or foreclosure while Burke and Jung see in the encounter with the Negative Sublime or with the Shadow the possibility of widening the boundaries of ego consciousness and of integration of 'otherness'. The paper then uses the analysis of two horror movies and of a particular socio-cultural context to illustrate these different functions of horror and terror and to delineate possible solutions to the problems facing society.     

Up front and personal: confronting dynamics in the Family Group Conference

The Family Group Conference is a participatory model of decision making with families in child protection. It is a legal process that brings together the family, including the extended family, and the professionals in a family-led decision-making forum. Bringing together extended family and professionals to discuss child protection concerns can create a highly charged dynamic. Workers are challenged by family, family are challenged by workers, and family members challenge each other. Practice is also exposed to wider scrutiny as professionals also challenge the work. This article briefly describes the development and practice of family group conferencing as a family-centred legal process in Aotearoa, New Zealand. It then examines the findings of a study exploring the dynamics emerging from family group conference practice from the perspective of the coordinators who convene them. Family group conferencing as a family strengthening practice is discussed.     

Does eye gaze indicate implicit knowledge of false belief? Charting transitions in knowledge

Three-year-olds sometimes look to the correct location but give an incorrect verbal answer in a false belief task. We examined whether correct eye gaze among 3- to 5-year-old children indexed unconscious knowledge or low confidence conscious knowledge. Children "bet" counters on where they thought a story character would go. If children were conscious of the knowledge conveyed by their eye gaze then they should have bet modestly on their explicit answer (i.e., been unsure whether this answer or the answer conveyed through eye direction was correct). We found that children bet very highly on the location consistent with their explicit answer, suggesting that they were not aware of the knowledge conveyed through their eye gaze. This result was supported by a number of conditions that showed that betting was a sensitive measure of even small degrees of uncertainty. The results shed light on false-belief understanding, the implicit-explicit distinction, and transitional knowledge. We argue that the transition to a full understanding of false belief is marked by periods of implicit knowledge and explicit understanding with low confidence.