Legalising Toleration: a Reply to Balint

I re-present my account of how a liberal democratic society can be tolerant and do so in a way designed to meet Peter Balint??s objections. In particular, I explain how toleration can be approached from a third-party perspective, which is that of neither tolerator nor tolerated but of rule-makers providing for the toleration that the citizens of a society are to extend to one another. Constructing a regime of toleration should not be confused with engaging in toleration. Negative appraisal and power remain ??possibility conditions?? of toleration but they are not necessary features of either a regime of toleration or the sponsors of such a regime.     

A synchronization account of false recognition

We describe a computational model to explain a variety of results in both standard and false recognition. A key attribute of the model is that it uses plausible semantic representations for words, built through exposure to a linguistic corpus. A study list is encoded in the model as a gist trace, similar to the proposal of fuzzy trace theory (Brainerd & Reyna, 2002), but based on realistically structured semantic representations of the component words. The model uses a decision process based on the principles of neural synchronization and information accumulation. The decision process operates by synchronizing a probe with the gist trace of a study context, allowing information to be accumulated about whether the word did or did not occur on the study list, and the efficiency of synchronization determines recognition. We demonstrate that the model is capable of accounting for standard recognition results that are challenging for classic global memory models, and can also explain a wide variety of false recognition effects and make item-specific predictions for critical lures. The model demonstrates that both standard and false recognition results may be explained within a single formal framework by integrating realistic representation assumptions with a simple processing mechanism.     

Errors in identifying and expressing emotion in facial expressions, voices, and postures unique to social anxiety

The purpose of the present study was to see if 7-10-year-old socially anxious children (n = 26) made systematic errors in identifying and sending emotions in facial expressions, paralanguage, and postures as compared with the more random errors of children who were inattentive-hyperactive (n = 21). It was found that socially anxious children made more errors in identifying anger and fear in children's facial expressions and anger in adults' postures and in expressing anger in their own facial expressions than did their inattentive-hyperactive peers. Results suggest that there may be systematic difficulties specifically in visual nonverbal emotion communication that contribute to the personal and social difficulties socially anxious children experience.     

Stuttering severity and educational attainment

Purpose

This study investigated the relationship between self-reported stuttering severity ratings and educational attainment.

Method

Participants were 147 adults seeking treatment for stuttering. At pretreatment assessment, each participant reported the highest educational level they had attained and rated their typical and worst stuttering severity on a 9-point scale for a range of speaking situations. These included: (1) talking with a family member, (2) talking with a familiar person, not a family member, (3) talking in a group of people, (4) talking with a stranger, (5) talking with an authority figure such as a work manager or teacher, (6) talking on the telephone, (7) ordering food or drink, and (8) giving their name and address.

Results

There was a significant negative relationship between highest educational achievement and mean self-reported stuttering severity rating for the eight situations.

Conclusions

Future research is needed to investigate how this result should be addressed in educational institutions.Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (1) describe the negative effects of stuttering through childhood to adulthood; (2) identify some of the negative consequences associated with stuttering on peer and teacher relationships, and academic performance at school; and (3) summarise the relationship between stuttering severity and educational attainment.     

Cue interactions in flavor preference learning: a configural analysis

Four experiments showed that the preference normally established to a neutral flavor cue that was paired with maltodextrin was attenuated when that cue was conditioned in compound with another flavor--overshadowing. Furthermore, two experiments showed that the preference for a neutral flavor conditioned as part of a compound was further attenuated if the other element in that compound was separately paired with the reinforcer--blocking. These results stand in contrast to a number of previous compound flavor preference conditioning experiments, which have not revealed reliable cue competition effects. These discrepant findings are discussed in terms of the effects of within-compound associations and a configural perspective on potentiation. Modeling of this configural perspective predicts that a compound of two separately trained cues will elicit a similar response to the individual cues themselves--absence of summation. Two experiments confirmed this prediction.     

From early markers to neuro-developmental mechanisms of autism

A fast growing field, the study of infants at risk because of having an older sibling with autism (i.e. infant sibs) aims to identify the earliest signs of this disorder, which would allow for earlier diagnosis and intervention. More importantly, we argue, these studies offer the opportunity to validate existing neuro-developmental models of autism against experimental evidence. Although autism is mainly seen as a disorder of social interaction and communication, emerging early markers do not exclusively reflect impairments of the “social brain”. Evidence for atypical development of sensory and attentional systems highlight the need to move away from localized deficits to models suggesting brain-wide involvement in autism pathology. We discuss the implications infant sibs findings have for future work into the biology of autism and the development of interventions.     

A quasi-experimental investigation of message appeal variations on organ donor registration rates.

OBJECTIVE: Approximately 6,000 Americans die every year awaiting an organ transplant. Health promotion interventions may alleviate the shortage of viable organs by increasing the number of registered organ donors. This study is the first to evaluate the differential effectiveness of various organ donor messages in naturalistic settings. DESIGN: A 4 (Appeal)x4 (Exemplar)x4 (Location) counterbalanced quasi-experimental design was implemented. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The behavioral outcome measure was the number of individuals who registered to be organ donors at computer kiosks. RESULTS: A number of significant main effects and interactions emerged. Most notably, of the 4 different appeals (counterargument, emotional, motivating action, dissonance), counterargument was by far the most efficacious, especially in academic-type settings (library, university, community college); the emotional appeal was most successful in hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: The findings from this study have implications for both organ donor investigations and health campaign research in general. Statistical interactions highlight the importance of evaluating multiple exemplars in multiple locations for each type of appeal when conducting health campaign research.