The responses of African American men to dominant norms of masculinity within the United States

Sex Roles - In this study, responses of White/European American and African American men to dominant norms of masculinity within the United States were investigated. A general model for male...     

Many questions Begs the Question (but questions do not Beg the Question)

The fallacy of many questions or the complex question, popularized by the sophism ‘Have you stopped beating your spouse?’ (when a yes-or-no answer is required), is similar to the fallacy of begging the question orpetitio principii. Douglas N. Walton inBegging the Question has recently argued that the two forms are alike in trying unfairly to elicit an admission from a dialectical opponent without meeting burden of proof, but distinct because of the circularity of question-begging argument and noncircularity of many questions. I offer a reconstruction of the many questions fallacy according to which it is just as circular as begging the question, concluding that many questions begs the question. The same analysis contradicts Walton's claim that questions can beg the question, drawing a distinction between questions as the instruments of question-begging, and as vehicles for categorical noninterrogative presuppositions that beg the question.     

Visual detection and perceptual independence: Assessing color and form

Visual stimuli are multidimensional. One important perceptual problem is to determine how the dimensions are combined. One important aspect of dimensional combination is whether the dimensions are perceptually independent or perceptually correlated. A new task is presented—the visual detection task—that directly assesses the degree of perceptual correlation between any two dimensions. Two experiments were conducted that assess the degree of perceptual correlation between form and color during the early stages of perceptual analysis. The results show that form and color are not perceptually independent. In addition, the pattern of perceptual correlation found indicates that form and color are not processed independently. The pattern of results constrains all models of early vision. A model of early vision based on active signal modulation is proposed.     

Dimensions of adolescent career development: A multi-instrument analysis

Dimensions of adolescent career development were assessed by several well-established, objectively scored instruments. Attention was given to the correlations between measures of academic achievement and career development. Correlations among 19 scales administered to 237 eleventh graders revealed three clusters of converging scale pairs, labeled “Certainty,” “Decision-Making,” and “Activity.” Four orthogonal factors were identified and given the following heuristic labels: “Cognitive Resources for Decision-Making,” “Decision-Making Style,” “Systematic Involvement in Career Decision-Making,” and “Decision-Making Stage/Certainty.” Results are discussed in relation to practical problems of instrument selection and score interpretation and in the context of theories of adolescent career development.     

The relative efficacy of predicting IQ from mother-child interactions using ratings versus behavioral count measures

The relative efficacy of using ratings versus behavioral count measures to predict intelligence from mother-child interactions was investigated for 45 mother-child dyads who constituted a heterogeneous sample with respect to socioeconomic status. These dyads were observed when the children were 36 months of age; children were tested with standardized IQ tests at 36 and 60 months. Social interactions between mothers and children were coded from video tapes with two different systems by independent observers. The behavioral count system was used to code second-by-second the duration and frequency of behaviors during the session. The rating system was used to judge maternal behaviors on three scales following the session. A series of forced stepwise multiple regression analyses compared the predictive utility of the two systems both concurrently and over time. The ratings of maternal behavior yielded high correlations with child IQ both concurrently and over time and were not contributed to significantly by the behavioral count measures. The authors speculate that ratings proved more efficacious because the raters could make more subjective and intuitive judgments concerning maternal behavior.     

Language and Literacy in a Developmental Perspective

Snow et al. have provided an unusually comprehensive, even-handed, and thoughtful review of research on early reading development. Here we expand on an important theme—the value of a developmental and transactional perspective. Using results from studies of verbally precocious children and children with language impairments, we illustrate the qualitatively changing nature of the task of learning to read, and its connection to oral language development. We also discuss the bidirectional influence of adults and children on each other. This perspective has implications for what, when, and how to teach reading.