Understanding Quine''s Famous `Statement''

I argue that Quine's famous claim, any statement can be held true come what may, demands an interpretation that implies that the meanings of the expressions in the held-true statement change. The intended interpretation of this claim is not clear from its context, and so it is often misunderstood by philosophers (and is misleadingly taught to their students). I explain Fodor and Lepore's (1992) view that the above interpretation would render Quine's assertion entirely trivial and reply, on both textual and philosophical grounds, that only this trivial reading is consistent with Quine's famous denial of analyticity. I also explain briefly how the trivial reading lends support to meaning holism, which, regardless of one's views of its consequences, is an important position in the philosophy of language and mind.     

A longitudinal study of the performance of the elderly and young on the Tower of Hanoi puzzle and Rey recall

Normal performance on the Tower of Hanoi puzzle by amnesic patients has been taken as support for viewing this problem solving task as having a nondeclarative memory component. Individuals in each decade of life between the 20s and 80s were asked to solve this puzzle four times in four sessions with intersession intervals from 1 to 7 days (Davis & Keller, 1998). Participants in their 70s and 80s were significantly impaired compared to participants in their 20s and 30s. The elderly were also significantly impaired on five immediate trials of a 15 words verbal recall test. Participants were readministered these tests an average of 6.6 years later for the elderly (n = 12) and 7.7 years later for the young (n = 11). For the Tower of Hanoi, the performance of the elderly, but not the young individuals, was significantly poorer than their original performance. For the verbal recall test, no significant change over time was detected for the young or elderly participants. These findings support the view that some nondeclarative and/or problem solving tasks demonstrate as great or greater decline with age than some declarative tasks.     

Language decline across the life span: findings from the Nun Study

The present study examines language samples from the Nun Study. Measures of grammatical complexity and idea density were obtained from autobiographies written over a 60-year span. Participants who had met criteria for dementia were contrasted with those who did not. Grammatical complexity initially averaged 4.78 (on a 0-to-7-point scale) for participants who did not meet criteria for dementia and declined .04 units per year; grammatical complexity for participants who met criteria for dementia initially averaged 3.86 and declined .03 units per year. Idea density averaged 5.35 propositions per 10 words initially for participants who did not meet criteria for dementia and declined an average of .03 units per year, whereas idea density averaged 4.34 propositions per 10 words initially for participants who met criteria for dementia and declined .02 units per year. Adult experiences, in general, did not moderate these declines.     

Characterising the corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) receptors mediating CRH and urocortin actions during human pregnancy and labour

The mechanism of human labour remains unresolved. One of the most important regulatory signals, however, appears to be corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), a hypothalamic peptide that controls the body's response to stress, which is also produced by the placenta and intrauterine tissues during pregnancy. CRH belongs to a family of peptides that includes urocortin, which shares sequence homology with CRH and is also expressed by the placenta and intrauterine tissues. During human pregnancy circulating CRH appears to have five main target tissues: the myometrium, the placenta, the fetal membranes, the fetal adrenal cortex and the vasculature. In these tissues CRH plays a role in the control of myometrial contractility,placenta vasodilation, peptide and prostaglandin production and adrenal steroidogenesis and probably many more, yet unidentified processes. The actions of CRH in these tissues are mediated via specific G-protein coupled membrane-bound receptors. These receptors have different functional characteristics, depending on where they are expressed and on the stage of pregnancy. In addition, their function depends upon other intracellular signals via communication between signalling cascades. These findings led us to propose a hypothesis for a dual role of CRH and other CRH-like peptides during pregnancy and labour.     

The central nucleus of the amygdala; a conduit for modulation of HPA axis responses to an immune challenge?

Physical stressors such as infection, inflammation and tissue injury elicit activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. This response has significant implications for both immune and central nervous system function. Investigations in rats into the neural substrates responsible for HPA axis activation to an immune challenge have predominantly utilized an experimental paradigm involving the acute administration of the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin- 1β (IL-1β). It is well recognized that medial parvocellular corticotrophin-releasing factor cells of the paraventricular nucleus (mPVN CRF) are critical in generating HPA axis responses to an immune challenge but little is known about how peripheral immune signals can activate and/or modulate the mPVN CRF cells. Studies that have examined the afferent control of the mPVN CRF cell response to systemic IL-1β have centred largely on the inputs from brainstem catecholamine cells. However, other regulatory neuronal populations also merit attention and one such region is a component of the limbic system, the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA). A large number of CeA cells are recruited following systemic IL-lβ administration and there is a significant body of work indicating that the CeA can influence HPA axis function. However, the contribution of the CeA to HPA axis responses to an immune challenge is only just beginning to be addressed. This review examines three aspects of HPA axis control by systemic IL-1β: (i) whether the CeA has a role in generating HPA axis responses to systemic IL-1β, (ii) the identity of the neural connections between the CeA and mPVN CRF cells that might be important to HPA axis responses and(iii) the mechanisms by which systemic IL-Iβ triggers the recruitment of CeA cells.     

A comparison of older adolescent and adult females' responses to anger-provoking situations

There has been an increase in research on anger in girls and women. However, few researchers have examined anger across different groups of females. The goal of this study was to examine the experience and expression of anger in individuals who differ by age and employee/student status. Two female populations, university students and employees, described their reactions to a hypothetical work/school-related situation. Similar factors elicited an angry emotion, but there were group differences in the responses to the anger experience. The results are interpreted from a gender schema perspective, taking the contextual influence of developmental period and employee/student role into account.     

Baby Think It Over: using role-play to prevent teen pregnancy

This study examined the effectiveness of Baby Think It Over (BTIO; Jurmaine, 1994), an infant simulation program that seeks to modify attitudes toward teen pregnancy and teen parenting. As in the study by Saltz, Perry, and Cabral (1994), the premise was that teens engage in unprotected sex because of a personal fable concerning pregnancy: "It can't happen to me." It was expected that participation in BTIO, a form of role-play, would encourage teens to acknowledge their own personal vulnerability to an unplanned pregnancy, and provide them with some insight into the experience of adolescent parenting. One hundred fourteen eleventh-grade students participated. After two to three days' experience with BTIO, teens in the intervention group were more likely to accurately assess their personal risk for an unplanned pregnancy than were teens in the comparison group. Qualitative analyses revealed that teens in the intervention group were significantly more likely to produce concrete examples of activities and consequences related to child-rearing than were teens in the comparison group. Findings of this study are discussed from the perspective of the health belief model (Rosenstock, 1974), and suggestions for further research with BTIO are made.     

Body weight, self-esteem, and depression in Korean female

The purpose of this study was to examine whether body mass index (BMI) and perception of a body weight problem predict level of self-esteem and depression in Korean female adolescents. The sample consisted of 303 females, ranging in age from 15 to 19 years, who were attending four high schools located in Seoul, Korea. BMI and desired BMI were calculated based on self-reported weight and height. Self-perception of having a weight problem was evaluated by one question: "Do you see yourself as having a weight problem?" Self-esteem was measured using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and depression was measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Based on BMI, 18.2% of the females were underweight, 79.2% were of normal weight, and 2.6% were overweight. Based on desired BMI, 78.5% of the females desired to be underweight. Results showed that perception of a weight problem, but not BMI, contributed significantly to the prediction of level of self-esteem and depression. In addition, there was a significant positive correlation between BMI and perception of a weight problem.     

Factors differentiating successful versus unsuccessful malingerers.

Relatively little is known about the processes in which "successful" malingerers engage to avoid detection. This study summarizes the response strategies used by participants (N = 540) instructed to feign a specific mental disorder while completing various self-report instruments designed to detect faking. Postexperiment questionnaires indicated that those who were able to appear symptomatic while avoiding being detected as feigning (n = 60) were more likely to endorse a lower rate of legitimate symptoms, to avoid overly unusual or bizarre items, and to base their responses on their own personal experiences.