Laboratory analogue investigation of defusion and reappraisal strategies in the context of symbolically generalized avoidance

The present study examined and compared the effects of 2 analogues of cognitive treatments—cognitive defusion and cognitive reappraisal—on symbolically generalized avoidance established using a basic behavioral laboratory paradigm. This back‐translation design contributes to the development and validation of principle‐based definitions of the applied constructs of defusion and reappraisal. Eighty‐eight participants first underwent basic laboratory procedures designed to establish symbolically generalized avoidance in response to an arbitrary stimulus (a nonsense word). Participants were then randomized to defusion, reappraisal, or control conditions. The response variables were (a) equivalence responding—indicative of the trained relational network and analogous to the cognitive content responsible for symbolic generalization—and (b) avoidance—the behavioral impact of symbolic generalization. A between‐groups analysis revealed that defusion and reappraisal significantly increased the odds of nonavoidance responding. Discrete‐time survival mediation analyses provided preliminary support for the classification of defusion as a functional context intervention and reappraisal as a relational context intervention.     

Number gestures predict learning of number words

When asked to explain their solutions to a problem, children often gesture and, at times, these gestures convey information that is different from the information conveyed in speech. Children who produce these gesture‐speech “mismatches” on a particular task have been found to profit from instruction on that task. We have recently found that some children produce gesture‐speech mismatches when identifying numbers at the cusp of their knowledge, for example, a child incorrectly labels a set of two objects with the word “three” and simultaneously holds up two fingers. These mismatches differ from previously studied mismatches (where the information conveyed in gesture has the potential to be integrated with the information conveyed in speech) in that the gestured response contradicts the spoken response. Here, we ask whether these contradictory number mismatches predict which learners will profit from number‐word instruction. We used the Give‐a‐Number task to measure number knowledge in 47 children (M_age = 4.1 years, SD = 0.58), and used the What's on this Card task to assess whether children produced gesture‐speech mismatches above their knower level. Children who were early in their number learning trajectories (“one‐knowers” and “two‐knowers”) were then randomly assigned, within knower level, to one of two training conditions: a Counting condition in which children practiced counting objects; or an Enriched Number Talk condition containing counting, labeling set sizes, spatial alignment of neighboring sets, and comparison of these sets. Controlling for counting ability, we found that children were more likely to learn the meaning of new number words in the Enriched Number Talk condition than in the Counting condition, but only if they had produced gesture‐speech mismatches at pretest. The findings suggest that numerical gesture‐speech mismatches are a reliable signal that a child is ready to profit from rich number instruction and provide evidence, for the first time, that cardinal number gestures have a role to play in number‐learning.     

Martin Heidegger's principle of identity: On belonging and Ereignis

This article discusses Martin Heidegger's interpretation of Parmenides given in his last public lecture “The Principle of Identity” in 1957. The aim of the piece is to illustrate just how original and significant Heidegger's reading of Parmenides and the principle of identity is, within the history of philosophy. Thus the article will examine the traditional metaphysical interpretation of Parmenides, and consider G. W. F. Hegel and William James’ account of the principle of identity in light of this. It will then consider Heidegger's contribution, his return to and re-interpretation of Parmenides in his last lecture. Heidegger will, through the Parmenidean claim that “Thinking and Being are one”, deconstruct the traditional metaphysical understanding of the principle of identity, and in its place offer a radically different conception of how our relationship, our “belonging together” with Being can be understood.     

Hybrids of the -translation for

In [W. Burr, Functional interpretation of Aczel's constructive set theory, Annals of Pure and Applied Logic 104 (2000) 31–73] Wolfgang Burr presents a functional interpretation of constructive set theory in all finite types, , in a theory of constructive set functionals. is a subtheory of , containing bounded quantifiers only. His interpretation theorem reduces the consistency problem of (and certain extensions thereof) to the consistency problem of .We want to study admissible rules in , i.e. rules under which is closed. To do so, we study a Troelstra-style q-hybrid of, in fact, a modification ^× of Burr's translation. We introduce this modification in order to close a minor gap in Burr's proof of the functional interpretation of the schema of (Strong Collection).First of all, but surely after a short introduction, we analyse the less complex translation of modified realisation ^mr and its hybrids ^mq and ^mrt.     

Being a non-drinking student: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

Recent research suggests that safer student alcohol consumption might be assisted by understanding how social occasions are managed by non-drinkers. In-depth, semi-structured interviews with five 19 – 22 year old non-drinking English undergraduates were subjected to interpretative phenomenological analysis. We present five inter-linked themes: ‘living with challenges to non-drinking’; ‘seeing what goes on in drinking environments’; ‘dealing with conversations about non-drinking (making excuses vs. coming out)’; ‘knowing which friends care about you’; and ‘the importance of minimising “legroom” for peer pressure’. Participants felt under persistent peer scrutiny (as a form of peer pressure) and could feel alienated in drinking environments. Talking about non-drinking was characterised by whether to ‘come out’ (as a non-drinker) or ‘fake it’ (e.g. ‘I’m on antibiotics’). Loyal friendships were reported as particularly important in this context. The decision not to drink was experienced as providing a successful buffer to peer pressure for former drinkers. Our findings unsettle traditional health promotion campaigns which advocate moderate drinking among students without always suggesting how it might be most successfully accomplished and offer tentative guidance on how non-drinking during specific social occasions might be managed more successfully. Findings are discussed in relation to extant literature and future research directions are suggested.