The Tacit Epistemology of the GMO Debate: A Case Study

The issue of biotechnology has been chosen in the MIRRORS project in order to analyze the sometimes uneasy relationship between science and society. After analyzing the situation of biotechnology regarding the GMO debate in Spain, France and Italy during a previous MIRRORS Workshop (This MIRRORS Workshop is entitled European Policies and Knowledge Society, held in Catania on December 15th 2008, during the which the undersigned, Anna Benedetta Francese and Cinzia Rizza discussed three papers about this topic [see the MIRRORS website www.mirrors-project.it]), in this essay I have tried to tackle the relationship science–society, focalizing my attention on the epistemological and methodological problems behind the biotechnology debate that are often not clearly expressed, remaining mainly tacitly presupposed. I will take as a starting point some questions about the role of science in society and about the way science is used by policy makers in decision-making processes. These questions are fundamental in order to analyze (and possibly to propose salvation strategies) the existing problems of the relationship between science and society which has assumed, especially nowadays, more conflictual aspects. Our Research Team firmly holds that it is not possible to tackle this topic without an in-depth discussion of the most significant epistemological questions regarding research, discussions, and methods of biotechnology.     

Dissociation between appearance and location within visuo-spatial working memory

Previous research has demonstrated separation between systems supporting memory for appearance and memory for location. However, the interpretation of these results is complicated by a confound occurring because of the simultaneous presentation of objects in multiple-item arrays when assessing memory for appearance and the sequential presentation of items when assessing memory for location. This paper reports an experiment in which sequential or simultaneous modes of presentation were factorially manipulated with memory for visual appearance or memory for location. Spatial interference (tapping) or visual interference (dynamic visual noise) were presented during retention. Appearance versus location interacted with the type of interference task, but mode of presentation did not. These results are consistent with the view that different subsystems within visuo-spatial working memory support memory for appearance and memory for location.     

Adolescent Patients’ Responses to Interpretations Focused on Endings in Short-Term Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Discussing endings is a crucial part of the work of short-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy with adolescents, but there are different views on how best this should be done and whether it is helpful or appropriate to link endings to interpretations of the transference. This study looks at how adolescent patients suffering from moderate to severe depression respond to interpretations around endings in a 28-session long, manualized psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Data come from a randomized clinical trial in which all sessions were audio-recorded. Purposive sampling was used to identify four sessions with four different adolescents in which therapists raised the issue of upcoming endings, explored the patients’ emotional responses, and linked these to the transference. The four extracts were transcribed and analysed using conversation analysis. Findings show that patients either emphasized or diminished the importance of their relationship to the therapists and the consequences of the separation from them in response to transference interpretations. They managed the conversational exchange by either “trouble-telling” or “story-telling.” The authors reflect on the implication of patients’ responses for treatment technique and consider whether transference work with adolescents should be paced and adapted more flexibly in short term psychoanalytic psychotherapy.     

Pseudoneglect in back space

Successful interaction with the environment depends upon our ability to retain and update visuo-spatial information of both front and back egocentric space. Several studies have observed that healthy people tend to show a displacement of the egocentric frame of reference towards the left. However representation of space behind us (back space) has never been systematically investigated in healthy people. In this study, by means of a novel visual imagery task performed within a virtual reality environment, we found that representation of right back space is perceived as smaller than the left. These results suggest that there is a selective compression or distortion for mental representation related to the right space behind us.     

Amnesia,rehearsal, and temporal distinctiveness models of recall

Classical amnesia involves selective memory impairment for temporally distant items in free recall (impaired primacy) together with relative preservation of memory for recency items. This abnormal serial position curve is traditionally taken as evidence for a distinction between different memory processes, with amnesia being associated with selectively impaired long-term memory. However recent accounts of normal serial position curves have emphasized the importance of rehearsal processes in giving rise to primacy effects and have suggested that a single temporal distinctiveness mechanism can account for both primacy and recency effects when rehearsal is considered. Here we explore the pattern of strategic rehearsal in a patient with very severe amnesia. When the patient’s rehearsal pattern is taken into account, a temporal distinctiveness model can account for the serial position curve in both amnesic and control free recall. The results are taken as consistent with temporal distinctiveness models of free recall, and they motivate an emphasis on rehearsal patterns in understanding amnesic deficits in free recall.     

The Intertwinement of Propositional and Doxastic Justification

One important distinction in the debate over the nature of epistemic justification is the one between propositional and doxastic justification. Roughly, while doxastic justification is a property of beliefs, propositional justification is a property of propositions. On a rather common view, which accounts for doxastic justification in terms of propositional justification plus the so-called ‘basing relation’, propositional justification is seen as the prior notion, and doxastic justification is explained in terms of it. According to the opposing view, the direction of explanation needs to be reversed, and doxastic justification should be seen as primary. I distinguish between two notions of priority, and I argue that they give different verdicts with respect to the issue of which notion of justification comes first. The lesson may be taken to be that propositional and doxastic justification are in a relation of intertwinement.     

The Association between Self-Regulation and Symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Preschoolers with Externalizing Behavior Problems

The purpose of the current study was to examine the role of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in predicting deficits in self-regulation across the domains of executive functioning and emotion regulation. Parents of 40 preschoolers with externalizing behavior problems reported on children’s ADHD and ASD symptoms, and emotion regulation. Children completed a standardized executive functioning battery. Results indicated that 28% of parents and 53% of teachers rated children above the subclinical range on ASD symptoms. An interaction emerged such that higher ASD symptoms were only associated with poorer executive functioning for children with lower ADHD symptoms. However, ASD symptoms were predictive of poorer emotion regulation independent of ADHD symptoms. Findings revealed clinically significant ASD symptoms, which aided in explaining heterogeneity in self-regulation deficits.     

Delineation of a spatial working memory profile using a non-verbal eye-tracking paradigm in young children with autism and Williams syndrome

Working memory deficits profoundly inhibit children’s ability to learn. While deficits have been identified in disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Williams syndrome (WS), findings are equivocal, and very little is known about the nature of these deficits early in development. A major barrier to advances in this area is the availability of tasks suitable for young children with neurodevelopmental disorders who experience difficulties with following verbal instructions or who are distressed by formal testing demands. To address these issues, a novel eye-tracking paradigm was designed based on an adaptation of the classic A not B paradigm in order to examine the early foundations of spatial working memory capabilities in 26 developmentally delayed preschool children with ASD, 18 age- and IQ-matched children with WS, and 19 age-matched typically-developing (TD) children. The results revealed evidence that foundational spatial working memory performance in ASD and WS was comparable with that of TD children. Performance was associated with intellectual ability in the ASD and TD groups, but not in the WS group. Performance was not associated with adaptive behavior in any group. These findings are discussed in the context of previous research that has been largely limited to older and substantially less developmentally delayed children with these neurodevelopmental disorders.