Neurobehavioral outcomes in diseases of childhood. Individual change models for pediatric human immunodeficiency viruses.

The growing incidence of human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in children is a major public health problem. Current research emphasizes treatments for ameliorating deleterious effects on the child's neurological and behavioral development. This article outlines approaches to the assessment of individual change that may provide alternatives to more traditional approaches to the assessment of neurobehavioral outcomes in children with chronic diseases. These approaches provide more precise conceptualizations of changes that lead directly to statistical designs and measurement strategies for assessing effects of HIV-1 and AIDS on development. Such assessments can be superimposed on current clinical trial methodologies to evaluate the efficacy of pharmacological and behavioral interventions designed to improve quality of life in HIV-1 infected children.     

A plausible role of imagination in pretend play,counterfactual reasoning,and executive functions

A notable observation is the similarities in the cognitive processes of pretend play (PP) and counterfactual reasoning (CFR) as both involve thinking about alternatives to reality. It is argued by Weisberg and Gopnik (Cogn. Sci., 37, 2013, 1368) that alternative thinking in PP and CFR is underpinned by an imaginary representational capacity but few studies have empirically investigated this link. We use a variable latent modelling approach to test a hypothetical model of the structural relationship of PP and CFR predicting that if PP and CFR are cognitively similar; they should have similar patterns of associations with Executive Functions (EFs). Data were collected on PP, CFR, EFs and Language from 189 children (M = 4.8 years, males = 101, females = 88). Confirmatory factor analyses showed that measures of PP and CFR loaded onto single latent constructs and were significantly correlated (r = .51, p = .001) with each other. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that EF accounted for unique significant variance in both PP (β = 21) and CFR (β = 22). The results of the structural equation modelling revealed that the data were a good fit for the hypothetical model. We discuss the plausible role of a general underlying imaginative representational capacity to explain similarities in the cognitive mechanisms of different states of alternative thinking like PP and CFR.     

Humean Naturalism and the Problem of Induction

Naturalised epistemology has shunned rationality, a hallmark of humanity since ancient Greece. One of Quine's explicit motivations is that Hume's problem of induction cannot be solved. However, Hume himself suggests a solution and the narrow focus of the paper is to present a 'Humean Solution' which is an elaboration and defence of Hume's suggestion. What emerges will be argued to be a naturalised conception of rationality which makes naturalised epistemology more continuous with traditional epistemology's focus on rationality.     

Seeking harmony in Chinese families: A dyadic analysis on Chinese parent‒child relations

Based on Leung, Koch, and Lu’s (2002) dualistic harmony model, we examined the relations of two harmony‐seeking behaviors—harmony enhancement and disintegration avoidance—to family functioning among 177 Hong Kong Chinese adolescent?parent dyads. Structural equation modeling results showed that adolescent‐rated harmony enhancement was positively related to adolescent‐rated family functioning whereas parent‐rated harmony enhancement was positively related to parent‐rated family functioning. Disintegration avoidance, however, was not related to family functioning in the two samples. Furthermore, no significant cross‐path association between harmony‐seeking behaviors and family functioning was identified, meaning that the harmony‐seeking behaviors of adolescents and their parents did not relate to each other’s perception of family functioning. Implications of these findings to our understanding of family in Chinese culture are discussed.     

Talking nets: a multiagent connectionist approach to communication and trust between individuals

A multiagent connectionist model is proposed that consists of a collection of individual recurrent networks that communicate with each other and, as such, is a network of networks. The individual recurrent networks simulate the process of information uptake, integration, and memorization within individual agents, and the communication of beliefs and opinions between agents is propagated along connections between the individual networks. A crucial aspect in belief updating based on information from other agents is the trust in the information provided. In the model, trust is determined by the consistency with the receiving agents' existing beliefs and results in changes of the connections between individual networks, called trust weights. These weights lead to a selective propagation and thus to the filtering out of less reliable information, and they implement H. P. Grice's (1975) maxims of quality and quantity in communication. The unique contribution of communicative mechanisms beyond intrapersonal processing of individual networks was explored in simulations of key phenomena involving persuasive communication and polarization, lexical acquisition, spreading of stereotypes and rumors, and a lack of sharing unique information in group decisions.     

Assessment of Quality of Outcomes within a Local United Way Organization: Implications for Sustaining System Level Change

This paper provides a historical case study of efforts to implement and sustain "outcomes based funding" in a large United Way system in Central Ohio. The case study describes how community practitioners employed specific strategies to promote sustainability. The use of these strategies corresponds to several techniques suggested in the sustainability literature. This case study is offered as a means of considering how practitioners helped sustain the shift to outcomes based funding within the United Way system. In addition, this case study demonstrates how skills related to implementation and sustainability might be transferred to other situations where practitioners are interested in promoting change within large organizations and/or communities. The authors suggest that skills related to implementation and sustainability are essential to community practice.