Performance feedback improves the resolution of confidence judgments

A training experiment was carried out to examine whether feedback concerning the appropriateness of confidence judgments, given in terms of probability, improves calibration and resolution skills. Subjects participated in four separate sessions in which they responded to a series of general knowledge questions. Immediately before completing the questionnaires in Sessions 2, 3, and 4, half of the subjects were given detailed feedback concerning their confidence levels and accuracy rates. The remaining half were given no such feedback, and thus served as a control group. The resolution of confidence judgments improved across sessions to a greater extent for the group exposed to performance feedback than for the control group. Calibration of confidence judgments was uninfluenced by the performance feedback manipulation.     

FORGIVENESS AND INTERPRETATION

This paper explores the relationship between our interpretations of another's actions and our readiness to forgive. It begins by articulating an account of forgiveness drawn from the New Testament. It then employs the work of Schleiermacher, Dilthey, and Gadamer to investigate ways in which our interpretations of an act or agent can promote or prevent such forgiveness. It concludes with a discussion of some ethical restrictions that may pertain to the interpretation of actions or agents as opposed to utterances and a look at the significance of these restrictions for forgiveness‐promoting interpretation.     

Suicide Risk Prediction: A New Approach*

A computer program that collects suicide risk factors by computer interview from persons with thoughts of suicide and processes the data to provide risk predictions has been written and pilot tested. Patient acceptance of the interviewing technique was good; more than half of the patients interviewed preferred the computer to a doctor as an interviewer. Bayes Theorem is used to process the data collected against a subjective data base. In a retrospective study comparing risk predictions made by the computer with predictions by experienced clinicians, the computer was more accurate in predicting suicide attempters (p .01) and slightly less accurate in predicting nonattempters. The program is economical, can be used wherever a telephone and a computer terminal are available, and is readily and uniformly modified to include new data.     

Professional boundary violations and mentalizing in the clergy

In a national study, 25% of help-seekers contacted clergy; suicidal behavior was one of the significant predictors for making contact. Clergy have been found to refer 10% of help-seekers to mental health providers. This qualitative study explored the referral practices of 15 northeastern Mainline and Evangelical Protestant clergy when contacted by suicidal individuals; all referred to mental health providers. Participants reported low confidence with risk identification and provided moving examples of pastoral care.     

Two kinds of a priori infallibility

On rationalist infallibilism, a wide range of both (i) analytic and (ii) synthetic a priori propositions can be infallibly justified (or absolutely warranted), i.e., justified to a degree that entails their truth and precludes their falsity. Though rationalist infallibilism is indisputably running its course, adherence to at least one of the two species of infallible a priori justification refuses to disappear from mainstream epistemology. Among others, Putnam (1978) still professes the a priori infallibility of some category (i) propositions, while Burge (1986, 1988, 1996) and Lewis (1996) have recently affirmed the a priori infallibility of some category (ii) propositions. In this paper, I take aim at rationalist infallibilism by calling into question the a priori infallibility of both analytic and synthetic propositions. The upshot will be twofold: first, rationalist infallibilism unsurprisingly emerges as a defective epistemological doctrine, and second, more importantly, the case for the a priori infallibility of one or both categories of propositions turns out to lack cogency.     

ADHD,strain, and criminal behavior: a test of general strain theory

This study explores the relationship between attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), strain, and criminal behavior. This is an attempt to introduce ADHD, a psychological disorder, into the framework of general strain theory. Using a purposive sample of college students, we tested the hypothesis that individuals with self-reported symptoms of ADHD were more likely to participate in criminal behaviors when experiencing strain. We found that ADHD symptoms conditioned the effect of strain on crime. The results suggest that individuals at risk for ADHD may be less able to legitimately cope with strain compared to the rest of the population.