I Think,Therefore I Persist

Suppose that you're lying in bed. You just woke up. But you're alert. Your mind is clear and you have no distractions. As you lie there, you think to yourself, ‘2?+?2 = 4.’ The thought just pops into your head. But, wanting to be sure of your mathematical insight, you once again think ‘2?+?2 = 4’, this time really meditating on your thought. Now suppose that you're sitting in an empty movie theatre. The lighting is normal and the screen in front of you is blank. Then at some point an image of a peach is flashed on the screen. The image isn't up there for long. In fact, it's only on the screen for what seems like an instant—just long enough for you to see it. These two scenarios are a bit mundane. But, as I will show, reflection on them can yield significant results concerning the nature of persons and their persistence through time. First I will show that thought and perception have temporal constraints whereby your thinking or perceiving in the above scenarios implies that you exist through a temporally extended interval. Then I will argue that this allows us to rule out several prominent theories of personal identity.     

The Perceived Nature and Incidence of Dysfunctional Assessment Center Features and Processes

The aims of this research are to identify, for the first time, the dysfunctional features and processes perceived to take place in assessment centers (ACs) from multiple perspectives (assessment center designers, assessors, and candidates) and to indicate the frequency of these phenomena. Two surveys were conducted in this study. In the first, a wide variety of dysfunctional processes and events were identified, and, in the second, many of these processes are reported to occur with regularity. Based on these findings, it is proposed that ACs should be construed, researched, and managed, not only as large‐scale psychometric systems, but also as complex administrative, social, and political events susceptible to a broad range of dysfunctional phenomena.     

Visual search for drowning swimmers: Investigating the impact of lifeguarding experience

How does domain expertise influence dynamic visual search? Previous studies of visual search often use abstract search arrays that are devoid of applied context, with comparatively few studies exploring applied naturalistic and dynamic settings. The current research adds to this literature by examining lifeguard drowning‐detection across two studies using naturalistic, dynamic search tasks. Behavioural responses and eye‐movement data were recorded as participants watched staged video clips and attempted to identify if a swimmer was drowning. The results demonstrate lifeguard superiority in response times to drowning events, compared to non‐lifeguards. No differences between lifeguard and non‐lifeguard eye‐movements were noted however. This suggests that the experiential benefit in response times results from other underlying processes, rather than any scanning benefits. This research highlights the complex nature of naturalistic and dynamic searches, while demonstrating the robust nature of simulated videos in producing experience effects in visual search.     

Ditching determination and dependence: or,how to wear the crazy trousersa

Synthese - This paper defends Flatland—the view that there exist neither determination nor dependence relations, and that everything is therefore fundamental—from the objection from...     

The co-construction of adolescent narrative identity: narrative processing as a function of adolescent age, gender, and maternal scaffolding

The current study aimed to situate the development of adolescent narrative identity in the context of past-event conversations between adolescents and their mothers, extending work on conversational contexts in early childhood to adolescence. We examined a cross-section of 63 adolescents with 2 goals: (1) to examine how adolescent age and gender interacted with mothers' scaffolding behaviors and how those interactions were associated with adolescents' narrative processes of meaning-making, vulnerability, and resolution; (2) to examine mothers' behaviors in conversation and how the interactions between those behaviors and event type (important, sad, and happy themes) were associated with those narrative processes. We found that maternal behavior in the conversation was related to adolescent narrative processes, yet this link varied as a function of characteristics of the adolescent and type of event discussed. Overall results suggest that those with potentially less practice at narrating the self in elaborative ways--younger adolescents and boys--receive more supportive scaffolding, and that for those with likely more practice with elaborative narration--girls and older adolescents--mothers engage in more negation behavior. The role of these scaffolding behaviors in adolescent narrative identity development is discussed.     

Torgerson’s conjecture and Luce’s magnitude production representation imply an empirically false property

The prediction presented is based upon the empirically well sustained magnitude production representation that arose in both of Luce’s global psychophysical theories for subjective intensity of binary and unary continua coupled with Torgerson’s (1961) conjecture that respondents fail to distinguish subjective differences from subjective ratios. When applied to eqisections and fractionation the conjecture implies that the cognitive distortion function of the magnitude production representation is the identity function, which is firmly rejected by existing data.     

Response strength in extreme multiple schedules

Four pigeons were trained in a series of two-component multiple schedules. Reinforcers were scheduled with random-interval schedules. The ratio of arranged reinforcer rates in the two components was varied over 4 log units, a much wider range than previously studied. When performance appeared stable, prefeeding tests were conducted to assess resistance to change. Contrary to the generalized matching law, logarithms of response ratios in the two components were not a linear function of log reinforcer ratios, implying a failure of parameter invariance. Over a 2 log unit range, the function appeared linear and indicated undermatching, but in conditions with more extreme reinforcer ratios, approximate matching was observed. A model suggested by McLean (1991), originally for local contrast, predicts these changes in sensitivity to reinforcer ratios somewhat better than models by Herrnstein (1970) and by Williams and Wixted (1986). Prefeeding tests of resistance to change were conducted at each reinforcer ratio, and relative resistance to change was also a nonlinear function of log reinforcer ratios, again contrary to conclusions from previous work. Instead, the function suggests that resistance to change in a component may be determined partly by the rate of reinforcement and partly by the ratio of reinforcers to responses.     

Wittgenstein and the groundlessness of our believing

In his final notebooks, published as On Certainty, Wittgenstein offers a distinctive conception of the nature of reasons. Central to this conception is the idea that at the heart of our rational practices are essentially arational commitments. This proposal marks a powerful challenge to the standard picture of the structure of reasons. In particular, it has been thought that this account might offer us a resolution of the traditional scepticism/anti-scepticism debate. It is argued, however, that some standard ways of filling out the details of this proposal ultimately lead to an epistemology which is highly problematic. The goal here is to present a more compelling version of Wittgenstein??s account of the structure of reasons which can evade these difficulties.     

Early predictors of high school mathematics achievement

Identifying the types of mathematics content knowledge that are most predictive of students' long-term learning is essential for improving both theories of mathematical development and mathematics education. To identify these types of knowledge, we examined long-term predictors of high school students' knowledge of algebra and overall mathematics achievement. Analyses of large, nationally representative, longitudinal data sets from the United States and the United Kingdom revealed that elementary school students' knowledge of fractions and of division uniquely predicts those students' knowledge of algebra and overall mathematics achievement in high school, 5 or 6 years later, even after statistically controlling for other types of mathematical knowledge, general intellectual ability, working memory, and family income and education. Implications of these findings for understanding and improving mathematics learning are discussed.