Naturalizing the essential tension

Kuhn’s “essential tension” between conservative and innovative imperatives in enquiry has an empirical analogue—between the potential benefits of collectivization of enquiry and the social dynamic impediments to effective sharing of information and insights in collective settings. A range of empirical materials from social psychology and organization theory are considered which bear on the issue of balancing these opposing forces and an institution is described in which they are balanced in a way which is appropriate for collective knowledge production.     

Cognitive effects of racial diversity: White individuals’ information processing in heterogeneous groups

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that mere anticipation of membership in a racially heterogeneous group can lead White individuals to exhibit more thorough information processing. In Study 1 White participants who expected to discuss a race-relevant topic with a racially diverse group exhibited better comprehension of topical background readings than did Whites assigned to all-White groups. Study 2 replicated these results and indicated that the processing effects were attributable in part to an increase in race-relevant thought activation among White individuals in a diverse setting. No such anticipatory effects of racial composition were observed for Whites expecting to discuss race-neutral topics. Taken together, these studies render untenable the assumption that the observable effects of racial diversity are wholly attributable to the novel contributions of non-White group members. More generally, they emphasize the need for additional empirical investigation of the cognitive processes through which racial heterogeneity influences individual and group performance.     

Gone but Not Forgotten: Council Leaders, 1934–1952

The authors summarize the contributions of several leaders of the American Council of Guidance and Personnel Associations, explaining that the counseling profession owes its origin to a coalition of professional organization leaders who were committed to guidance and personnel services. In explaining these leaders' contributions, the authors provide readers with an opportunity to connect a part of the American Counseling Association's past with the present.     

Virtual augmented exercise gaming for older adults.

This paper details the design, development, and testing of virtual augmented exercise (VAE) gaming for older adults. Three versions of an underwater VAE environment were tested with a sample of 22 healthy adults aged 50 or over. Participants strongly preferred VAE to traditional physical exercise, and adherence rate was 100%. The findings suggest that VAE with puzzles changes or negates the expected negative associations among exercise outcomes. Fitness level was not associated with performance in the game, irrespective of VAE type, indicating that persons who are less physically fit can expect to perform similarly to those who are more physically fit. In conclusion, the research found some evidence for the benefits of VAE with cognitive exercise (solving simple puzzles and hitting targets based on the answer). This type of exercise appears to be a promising method of exercise for older adults.     

The structure of social relationships among captive female giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis)

Giraffe herds have been characterized as random associations of individuals, but recent evidence suggests giraffe have a more complex social structure. The authors formulated 3 hypotheses designed to evaluate whether a herd of captive giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) associated randomly or patterned their behavior and proximity in a manner indicative of social relationships. Affiliative interaction, proximity, and nearest neighbors for 6 captive female giraffe living in a large outdoor enclosure were analyzed, and all three measures were nonrandomly distributed, indicating female giraffe had social preferences. Furthermore, preferences were consistent across measures and time, suggesting that adult female giraffe maintain relationships. Mother-daughter pairs and pairs with large age differences between members interacted and associated most often. The social structure of this captive herd is influenced by social relationships between individual adult females, and the social behavior of individual females should be examined more closely in the wild.     

Embedded Cognition and Mental Causation: Setting Empirical Bounds on Metaphysics

In this paper, we challenge Jaegwon Kim’s version of neural reductionism according to which the causal powers of mental properties are pre-empted by those of neural properties. Using empirical and theoretical developments from the field of embedded cognition, we articulate and defend a notion of process externalism that extends Clark and Chalmers’ notion of an extended mind. We argue that process externalism undermines one of Kim’s key premises leading to the alternative conclusion that mental causation cannot be reduced to neural causation. Instead, mental properties have their own new causal powers just like other scientifically established macroproperties.     

Pulling the plug on clinical equipoise: a critique of Miller and Weijer

As clinicians, researchers, bioethicists, and members of society, we face a number of moral dilemmas concerning randomized clinical trials. How we manage the starting and stopping of such trials--how we conceptualize what evidence is sufficient for these decisions--has implications for both our obligations to trial participants and for the nature and security of the resultant medical knowledge. One view of how this is to be done, "clinical equipoise," recently has been given an extended defense by Paul Miller and Charles Weijer in their article "Rehabilitating Equipoise." The present paper critiques this position and Miller and Weijer's defense of it. I argue that their attempted rehabilitation fails. Their analysis suffers from a number of confusions, as well as a failure to make crucial distinctions, adequately to clarify key concepts, or to think through exactly what needs to be established to justify their claim. We are left with little reason to uphold the clinical equipoise criterion.