The Impact of Cognitive Expenditure on the Ethical Decision-Making Process: The Cognitive Elaboration Model

The extent to which decision-makers are willing and able to purposely expend cognitive effort in resolving ethical issues is an important area of study in the ethical decision-making literature. In this article we describe the role that cognitive expenditure is expected to play in the ethical decision-making process by presenting an integrated model of ethical decision-making. This model provides the foundation for a series of research propositions suggesting the manner in which purposive cognitive expenditure is expected to influence the ethical decision process and, ultimately, the likelihood of engaging in moral behavior.     

How Do We Acquire Moral Knowledge? Is Knowing Our Duty Ever Passive? – Two Questions for Martin Sticker

Martin Sticker's discussion of the common moral agent contains much that I find insightful, true and significant. As a response to his paper, I focus on two important issues that nevertheless separate us: (1) Sticker claims that knowing our duty can be mere passive awareness and that it indeed is passive as awareness of the special status of humanity. I deny that knowing our duty is ever passive. (2) He further claims that the common universalization test is the paradigmatic way active agents acquire moral knowledge. I argue that Sticker appears to construe universalization as a formal test that presupposes no moral knowledge and that so construed the test cannot serve for acquiring moral knowledge.     

Glucocorticoid receptor antagonists: new tools to investigate disorders characterized by cortisol hypersecretion

Increased cortisol levels have been observed in patients suffering from a number of metabolic and psychiatric disorders. In some of these disorders a causal relationship has been suggested between the increased cortisol secretion and the observed clinical phenomena. Glucocorticoid receptor antagonists which block cortisol effects might have a benefit in both the diagnosis and treatment of these disorders. Selective glucocorticoid receptor antagonists with in vivo potency have not been described thus far, partly due to the similarity between the glucocorticoid and progesterone receptors. In the present studies, we report on three different chemical classes derived from the glucocorticoid/progestagen antagonist RU486. Selected compounds from the classes 11-monoaryl steroids, 11,21-bisaryl steroids and 11-aryl, 16-hydroxy steroids proved to be selective glucocorticoid receptor binders with in vivo antagonistic activity. Most compounds were able to pass the blood-brain barrier. These compounds offer the opportunity to investigate and possibly treat patients with a disturbed hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis without side effects caused by an antiprogestagenic action.     

Synthesis of theories through parametrisation of laws

The paper presents an example of unified theory bearing interest from both a historical and systematic point of view. The example is chosen from evolutionary population genetics (neo-Darwinian synthetic theory). It exhibits various aspects of theoretical change in science that have been shown in Part I (Geiger, 1988) to be characteristic of syntheses of theories.     

Reasoning with conditionals: Does every counterexample count? It’s frequency that counts

A series of experiments investigated what determines people's degree of belief in conditionals and their readiness to draw inferences from them. Information on the frequency of exceptions to conditional rules was contrasted with information about the number of different disabling conditions causing these exceptions. Experiments 1 and 2, using conditionals with arbitrary contents, revealed a strong effect of frequency information and no effect of disabling information. Experiment 3 established that, in the absence of frequency information, the disabling condition information used in Experiments 1 and 2 affected belief in the conditionals and inference acceptance, as has been found in many previous studies (Byrne, 1989; DeNeys, Schaeken, & d'Ydewalle, 2003b). Experiment 4 extended the results of Experiments 1 and 2 to everyday conditionals. The results show that belief in a conditional, and the confidence in inferences subsequently drawn from it, both depend on the subjective conditional probability of the consequent given the antecedent. This probability is estimated from the relative frequency of exceptions regardless of what causes them.     

The relationship between DSM-IV cluster B personality disorders and psychopathy according to Hare's criteria: clarification and resolution of previous contradictions

This study examines the relationship between DSM-cluster B personality disorders (PDs) and psychopaths according to Hare's criteria as detected by the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL:SV) in 299 violent offenders. To clarify some contradictions among several previous studies on this issue, individual cluster B PDs were looked at alone, excluding any cases of comorbidity with other PDs of this cluster. We found highly significant relationships between antisocial and borderline PD and Factor II of the PCL and a highly significant correlation between narcissistic PD and Factor I of the PCL. These results were to be expected from the theoretical basis of the development of the PCL and provide a contribution to the construct validity of the PCL, which until now has not been validated on such a large sample in Germany.     

An evaluation of preference for video and in vivo modeling

We assessed preference for video or in vivo modeling using a concurrent-chains arrangement with 3 children with autism. The two modeling conditions produced similar acquisition rates and no differential selection (i.e., preference) for all 3 participants.     

Live training versus e‐learning to teach implementation of listener response programs

Discrete‐trial teaching is an effective teaching procedure that must be implemented with high integrity to produce optimal learning. Behavioral Skills Training (BST) has proven effective for staff training; however, BST is time and labor intensive. Computer‐based instruction (CBI) programs may provide a more efficient and cost‐effective alternative to live training if the CBI program is as effective as BST in producing accurate implementation. The current study compared CBI to BST to train novice undergraduate students to conduct discrete‐trial teaching. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions and assessed prior to and after the completion of training. Results indicated that although both BST and CBI were effective at training participants to implement discrete‐trial teaching, BST was slightly but significantly more effective whereas CBI quickly created a return on the investment of product development.     

Dear Computer,Teach Me Manners: Testing Virtual Employment Interview Training

Expanding research on employment interview training, this study introduces virtual employment interview (VI) training with focus on nonverbal behavior. In VI training, participants took part in a simulated interview with a virtual character. Simultaneously, the computer analyzed participants’ nonverbal behavior and provided real‐time feedback for it. The control group received parallel interview training. Following training, participants took part in mock interviews, where interviewers rated participants’ nonverbal behavior, and interview performance. Analyses revealed (a) that participants of VI training showed better interview performance, (b) that this effect was mediated by nonverbal behavior, and (c) that VI training has a positive influence on interview anxiety. These results have important practical implications for applicants, career counseling centers, and organizations.     

Basal ganglia participation in language pathology

Language disturbances were studied in 40 patients with well-demarcated vascular lesions of the speech-dominant hemisphere. Computerized cranial tomography was used for localization of the lesion. Special emphasis was given to the analysis of automatized speech and repetitive verbal phenomena.Subcortical infarctions with basal ganglia involvement led to transient aphasia although long-lasting abnormalities of language could be detected in these patients. Aphasia was more severe if a cortical lesion was combined with a basal ganglia lesion. Automatisms and recurring utterances occurred only with combined cortical and basal ganglia lesions. A lesion of Wernicke's area alone, without involvement of prerolandic structures or subcortical nuclei, was sufficient to produce long-lasting aphasia, whereas lesions of Broca's area alone produced only transient language disturbances. The results are compatible with a recent theory of multiple cerebral representation of function.