Awareness Luck

Nagel’s constitutive moral luck is one important type of moral luck, but discussions of it have tended to focus on temperament. Luck in how aware a person is of morally relevant aspects of her situation—awareness luck—though similar in some ways, also raises different issues. Luck in temperament impacts how difficult a person finds it to behave well, while awareness luck impacts whether she even recognizes that the situation is making a moral demand on her. For this reason, awareness luck raises some unique challenges for those who would deny the existence of moral luck.     

Abstraction and model evaluation in category learning

Thirty previously published data sets, from seminal category learning tasks, are reanalyzed using the varying abstraction model (VAM). Unlike a prototype-versus-exemplar analysis, which focuses on extreme levels of abstraction only, a VAM analysis also considers the possibility of partial abstraction. Whereas most data sets support no abstraction when only the extreme possibilities are considered, we show that evidence for abstraction can be provided using the broader view on abstraction provided by the VAM. The present results generalize earlier demonstrations of partial abstraction (Vanpaemel & Storms, 2008), in which only a small number of data sets was analyzed. Following the dominant modus operandi in category learning research, Vanpaemel and Storms evaluated the models on their best fit, a practice known to ignore the complexity of the models under consideration. In the present study, in contrast, model evaluation not only relies on the maximal likelihood, but also on the marginal likelihood, which is sensitive to model complexity. Finally, using a large recovery study, it is demonstrated that, across the 30 data sets, complexity differences between the models in the VAM family are small. This indicates that a (computationally challenging) complexity-sensitive model evaluation method is uncalled for, and that the use of a (computationally straightforward) complexity-insensitive model evaluation method is justified.     

Psychosoziale Risiken von Arbeitsplatzverlust und Arbeitslosigkeit

In a society centred around employment the strain that is associated with the experience of job loss is carrying considerable health risks. The empirical evidence of the differential effects of unemployment is reviewed in the framework of the victimization model and related to the background of health risks resulting from the former employment biography. Individual reactions are co-determined by a series of moderator variables which have been identified by differential unemployment research. From a health-related perspective also the indirect effects on the “victims-by-proxy”, e.g., the partners and children of unemployed people, have to be taken into consideration. Interventions can limit the psychosocial effects, especially if they are tailor-made and if they try to integrate elements of employment, qualification and social support. The necessity of the development of societal concepts of a “social convoy” (in the sense of a professional counselling) in occupational transitions is stressed. These should, however, start already during employment before the dismissal takes place. Theses concepts will take over social responsibility for restructuring and provide those being affected by dismissals with a legitimate claim for social support.     

Apodemus sylvaticus (LOXT) is a suitable mouse strain for testing spatial memory retention in the Morris water maze

Information on the difference in cognitive function between laboratory and wild-caught mice is anecdotal and this question has not been systematically studied. Moreover, studying a wild-caught mouse strain per se may add information to the repertoire of mouse strains available. We aimed to study spatial memory in a wild mouse strain (Apodemus sylvaticus, AS) as compared to two individual laboratory mouse strains.Male AS (n = 20), CD1 (n = 19) and C57BL/6J mice (n = 19), 12–14 weeks old, were used in the experiments. The Morris water maze (MWM) was used for determination of spatial memory and time spent in the target quadrant at time points 5 (D5) and 12 days (D12) was evaluated. During the acquisition phase latency to reach the platform and path length to reach the platform was evaluated.Following four training days on day 5 (D5), time spent in the target quadrant was highest in AS > CD1 > C57BL/6J (P < 0.006). On day 12 (D12), time spent in the target quadrant was significantly higher in AS than in both other strains (P < 0.001).All animals learned the task and during the acquisition phase, latency to reach the platform as well as path length decreased significantly in AS.It is concluded that the AS is the most suitable strain for the evaluation of spatial memory in the MWM and is presenting with memory retention superior to laboratory mouse strains CD1 and C57BL/6J.     

Word associations: Network and semantic properties

A number of properties of word associations, generated in a continuous task, were investigated. First, we investigated the correspondence of word class in association cues and responses. Nouns were the modal word class response, regardless of the word class of the cue, indicating a dominant paradigmatic response style. Next, the word association data were used to build an associative network to investigate the centrality of nodes. The study of node centrality showed that central nodes in the network tended to be highly frequent and acquired early. Small-world properties of the association network were investigated and compared with a large English association network (Steyvers & Tenenbaum, 2005). Networks based on a multiple association procedure showed small-world properties despitebeing denser than networks based on a discrete task. Finally, a semantic taxonomy was used to investigate the composition of semantic types in association responses. The majority of responses were thematically related situation responses and entity responses referring to parts, shape, or color. Since the association task required multiple responses per cue, the interaction between generation position and semantic role could be investigated and discussed in the framework of recent theories of natural concept representations (Barsalou, Santos, Simmons, & Wilson, in press).     

Leisure time physical activity motives and smoking in adolescence

ObjectivesThe study aimed to gain a better understanding of the relationship between leisure time physical activity and smoking in adolescence by investigating adolescents' motives for participation in leisure time physical activity.MethodsThe study involved cross-sectional and longitudinal data from a postal survey involving 16–22-year old Danes. The hypothesized associations were examined using hierarchical logistic regression analyses.ResultsAn inverse association between participating in leisure time physical activity and smoking was found. Participation in leisure time physical activity for friendship or competition reasons were conditions that strengthened the inverse association between physical activity and smoking in males. In contrast, participation for the reason of losing weight or gaining self-esteem appeared to weaken the inverse association among females. In addition, the motives enjoyment, health and, in females, friendships and stress relief were associated with less smoking irrespective of participation level, while the motives self-esteem, losing weight and, in males, friendships were unrelated or even positively related to smoking.ConclusionsThe association between adolescents' leisure time physical activity and smoking behavior differs with the underlying motivation for the activity.