Blind Man’s Bluff: The Basic Belief Apologetic as Anti-skeptical Stratagem

Today we find philosophical naturalists and Christian theists both expressing an interest in virtue epistemology, while starting out from vastly different assumptions. What can be done to increase fruitful dialogue among these divergent groups of virtue-theoretic thinkers? The primary aim of this paper is to uncover more substantial common ground for dialogue by wielding a double-edged critique of certain assumptions shared by `scientific' and `theistic' externalisms, assumptions that undermine proper attention to epistemic agency and responsibility. I employ a responsibilist virtue epistemology to this end, utilizing it most extensively in critique of Alvin Plantinga’s Warranted Christian Belief (2000). Epistemological externalism presages, I also argue, a new demarcation problem, but a secondary aim of the paper is to suggest reasons to think that `responsibilist externalism,' especially as glossed in virtue-theoretic terms, provides its proponents with the ability to adequately address this problem as we find it represented in a potent thought-experiment developed by Barry Stroud.     

The locus and modulation of the location negative priming effect

Responding to the location of a target is slower when it appears at a recent distractor location [ignored-repetition (IR) trial] than when it arises at a new position [control (CO) trial], defining the location negative priming (NP) effect. On IR trials, both the distractor location and response are from the prior trial, and the locus question asks whether the delayed responding that arises is caused by the reused distractor position (i.e., a location locus) or the need to execute a distractor output (i.e., a response locus). A location NP procedure was used, incorporating a many:1 location-to-response mapping design, along with a response cue on some trials. A response locus for the location NP effect was indicated. Distractor-turned-target responses took longer to initiate than new outputs (many:1 paradigm), and valid response cues reduced distractor response interference and the location NP effect. Importantly, a possible S-R compatibility problem within the many:1 S-R paradigm was not supported.     

A SAS macro for statistical power calculations in meta-analysis

Although statistical power is often considered in the design of primary research studies, it is rarely considered in meta-analysis. Background and guidelines are provided for conducting power analysis in meta-analysis, followed by the presentation of a SAS macro that calculates power using the methods described by Hedges and Pigott (2001, 2004). Several detailed examples are given, including input statements and output. Practical issues in the application of power analysis to meta-analysis are discussed. The macro and examples may be downloaded as supplemental materials for this article from brm.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

Two for the show: Anti-luck and virtue epistemologies in consonance

This essay extends my side of a discussion begun earlier with Duncan Pritchard, the recent author of Epistemic Luck.Pritchard’s work contributes significantly to improving the “diagnostic appeal” of a neo-Moorean philosophical response to radical scepticism. While agreeing with Pritchard in many respects, the paper questions the need for his concession to the sceptic that the neo-Moorean is capable at best of recovering “‘brute’ externalist knowledge”. The paper discusses and directly responds to a dilemma that Pritchard poses for virtue epistemologies (VE). It also takes issue with Pritchard’s “merely safety-based” alternative. Ultimately, however, the criticisms made here of Pritchard’s dilemma and its underlying contrast of “anti-luck” and “virtue” epistemologies are intended to help realize his own aspirations for a better diagnosis of radical scepticism to inform a still better neo-Moorean response.     

Neuere Entwicklungen in der kognitiv-verhaltenstherapeutischen Paartherapie

This article focuses on relevant modifications in behavioral marital therapy. Two main topics are addressed: (a) relevant new techniques in marital therapy and (b) important new aims in the prevention of marital problems. Whereas in the first part most essential new techniques such as the acceptance work proposed by Jacobson and Christensen, emotion-focused approaches and the strengthening of marital knowledge are presented, the second part deals with the importance of the prevention of marital problems. The goals of modern cognitive behavioral therapy should focus not only on repairing marital problems but even more on prevention and a broader dissemination of empirically founded knowledge about marital functioning.     

What do double dissociations prove?

Brain damage may doubly dissociate cognitive modules, but the practice of revealing dissociations is predicated on modularity being true (T. Shallice, 1988). This article questions the utility of assuming modularity, as it examines a paradigmatic double dissociation of reading modules. Reading modules illustrate two general problems. First, modularity fails to converge on a fixed set of exclusionary criteria that define pure cases. As a consequence, competing modular theories force perennial quests for purer cases, which simply perpetuates growth in the list of exclusionary criteria. The first problem leads, in part, to the second problem. Modularity fails to converge on a fixed set of pure cases. The second failure perpetuates unending fractionation into more modules.     

Climate change and social order: Knowledge for action?

This article is a critical, sociological examination of policy advice aimed at reducing or limiting CO₂ emissions. The policy proposals are taken from various sources directed to governmental or economic institutions and targeted to cope with the natural and social consequences of global warming. We ask, based on a sociological understanding of features constitutive of practical social science knowledge, how feasible and practical are various policy proposals. Our assessment, in turn, is based on a theoretical model of the characteristics ofpractical scientific knowledge, which is discussed in conjunction with the current field of climate change knowledge. He is currently the editor of theCanadian Journal of Sociology. This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the 27th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association, Learned Societies Conference, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, June 1992.     

Does a prototypical argumentative schema exist? Text recall in 8 to 13 years olds

120 students in grades 3 to 7 (aged 8 to 13) heard an argumentative text and were immediately submitted to a free recall task. The results show that before grade 7, the subjects did not view the text as argumentative. The discussion centers on the relevancy of a prototypical argumentative schema in accounting for these findings.     

Developmental changes in the effects of presentation media on noun-pair learning

Interpretations of previous research have indicated that there are age-related increases in the efficacy of pictorial media, relative to verbal, for presenting paired-associate items and elaborative prompts to young children. The purposes of the present study were to replicate these phenomenon and to evaluate two hypotheses advanced to account for them: a semantic encoding hypothesis and a verbal decoding hypothesis. To these ends, 14 treatments conditions were partioned into three independent-groups experimental designs. Each of 504 childrens, sampled from nursery, kindergarten, and second-grade populations, learned a list of 20 pairs of familiar objects. The expected developmental increase in the effectiveness of presenting items in a pictorial medium was not replicated. As predicted, however, the results revealed an increase with age in the effect of presenting elaborative prompts pictorially, but the phenomenon was confined to groups where the sex of subject and of experimenter was the same. It was concluded that the verbal decoding hypothesis accomodated the pattern of results better than did the semantic encoding hypothesis. Throughout the sudy, performance was substantially facilitated by elaborative prompts, that is, across age, presentation media, and testing conditions.