Rights, justice, and duties to provide assistance: a critique of Regan's theory of rights

In his monograph, The Case for Animal Rights (University of California Press; 1983), Tom Regan seeks to develop an alternative moral theory to utilitarianism, and to apply it to the question of animal rights, including animal experimentation. Here Jamieson presents an overview of Regan's theory and critically examines areas in which he, Jamieson, believes it to be most problematic. He argues that Regan's theory encounters difficulties in its account of our duties to render assistance and its principles for overriding rights. Jamieson concludes that Regan has failed to develop a "compelling and dramatic alternative to utilitarian theories" and that most plausible revisions of his theory lead back in the direction of utilitarianism.     

Intentional explanations and radical theories of education

In this paper I argue that Marxist studies of schools have overlooked the power of intentional explanations to explain schooling practices and policies. This oversight is at least in part due to many radical analyses failing to distinguish between explaining the acquisition and persistence of beliefs and determining the social consequences that follow from acting on beliefs. I further contend that radical researchers examining schooling practices must develop a more rigorous and refined conception of capitalist class interests.     

Semantic priming and repetition priming from masked words: evidence for a center-surround attentional mechanism in perceptual recognition

Two lexical decision experiments compared semantic and repetition priming by masked words. Experiment 1 established prime-mask stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) with presence-absence detection judgments. Primes presented at detection-threshold SOAs produced equal facilitation for repeated and semantically related targets: 26 ms and 24 ms. Experiment 2 established SOAs with semantic judgments. Primes presented at 70% of the semantic-threshold SOA to mimic the exposure conditions of Experiment 1 produced slightly greater facilitation for repeated targets but a tendency toward inhibition for semantically related targets: 38 ms and -6 ms. These results confirm Dagenbach, Carr, and Wilhelmsen's (1989) report that strategies induced by threshold-setting tasks can influence masked priming. In addition, Experiment 2 suggests a mechanism for retrieving weakly activated semantic codes into consciousness that relies on the center-surround principle to enhance activation of sought-for codes and to inhibit related codes stored nearby in the semantic network.     

Informant impressions of retardate personality: reliability with extraversion, emotionality, toughmindedness

To assess extraversion, emotionality and toughmindedness among retarded persons with limited linguistic skills the 18-item Personal Reactions and Habits Questionnaire (PRHQ) was created. The responses of 2 interviewed informants, each well acquainted with a target person, are summed to obtain scores for each of the personality factors identified by Eysenck and Eysenck (1975). To establish the reliability of this procedure 4 interviewers inquired of 35 informants about a total of 54 target Ss of a wide range of mental retardation and living variously in the natural home, a group home or in a large state-operated institution. One-week test-retest reliability coefficients, e.g. r=0.93 for Extraversion, r=0.86 for Emotionality and r=0.92 for Toughmindedness, suggest the PRHQ to be a promising instrument for research on personality of Ss unable to provide self-reports. The possible use of the PRHQ to assess concordance of self-reports with personality impressions of others is also discussed.     

Therapeutic rationale,monetary incentive and fear behavior: a methodological note on analogue research

Analogue research has been questioned as a means of evaluating clinical procedures (e.g. Cooper, Furst and Bridger, 1969). A major criticism has been the failure to include adequate controls. Placebo conditions have varied markedly in their similarity to active treatment procedures (Caputo, Nau and Borkovec, 1973), have not provided equally credible therapeutic rationales (Borkovec and Nau, 1972), and have thus generated differing expectancies and demands for improvement.To evaluate a therapy procedure, a comparison condition is needed in which no treatment intervenes between pre- and post-test measures, yet which provides adequate incentive for improvement. Rimm and Mahoney (1969) used a ‘contingent reinforcement’ placebo condition in which tokens, exchangeable for money, were dispensed for improvement in a graded approach to a feared stimulus. Little improvement occurred, suggesting a lack of effectiveness of money alone in improving approach behavior. However, as no therapeutic rationale was presented, it is likely that little expectancy for improvement occurred.The present study provided a ‘no treatment’ condition in which Ss participated in three test sessions with no intervening treatment procedure. Unlike Rimm and Mahoney (1969), two conditions provided a rationale explaining why Ss had maintained their fear and why no real therapy was needed to eliminate it. Also, monetary reward (a $5.00 bill rather than tokens) was dispensed only upon picking up the feared object. A follow-up session assessed the lasting effects of rationale and monetary incentive in the absence of extrinsic reinforcement. Thus, the present study attempted to determine the effect of therapeutic rationale and/or the possibility of receiving money, in the absence of ‘therapy’, on subclinical fear.     

Primary prevention of behavior problems in mexican-american children

A primary prevention program, the Houston Parent-Child Development Center, directed towards infants and their parents, has effectively reduced the frequency of behavior problems for these children 5 to 8 years after the program's completion. Teacher ratings showed significantly fewer acting-out, aggressive behaviors for program children. Ratings of classroom behaviors found program children significantly less hostile and more considerate than control boys. This appears to be the first primary prevention program to have demonstrated effectiveness in reducing behavior problems over such a long time.     

Effect of task on mother-child interaction results

The influence of task on behavior in mother-child interaction was studied. Five tasks varying in degree of structure and difficulty were used in mothers' interactions with their children at 24 and 36 months of age. Child competence was assessed through several tests. Families that had participated in an extensive parent-education program were compared with randomly assigned controls. Interactions were videotaped and rated on scales. Results indicated that there were no task differences in ability to discriminate groups and tasks seldom were found to be differentially related to child competence. Task stability over time yielded some differences.This paper was presented at the American Educational Research Association meeting in Boston, April 1980. The preparation of this article and the research reported in it were supported by the Hogg Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and Office of Child Development Grant 90-C-379.     

The masking of octave-band noise by broad-spectrum noise: A comparison of infant and adult thresholds

Localization responses to a 4,000-Hz octave-band noise in a background of broad-spectrum noise were obtained from infants, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months of age, and adults. A two-alternative, forced-choice procedure was used to determine thresholds at each of two levels of masking noise, 42 and 60 dBC. Adults were also tested for their localization of pure tones in noise and their detection of octave-band noises with the more traditional two-interval, forced-choice task. Increasing the masking noise from 42 to 60 dBC resulted in comparable threshold shifts for all age groups. However, infant thresholds were 16–25 dB higher than those obtained for adults. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.