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.     

The structure of informed consent in psychiatric research

The manner in which the informed consent process is structured was explored by means of intensive interviews with 17 experienced psychiatric researchers. Despite differing views on informed consent, investigators displayed a commonality of practice. Most investigators were themselves not usually involved in obtaining consents, relegating the process to lower-level assistants. They did not closely monitor the process and generally were unaware of problems that may have arisen. Most protocols called for repeat contact with patients so that a relationship would develop and information could be provided before obtaining a formal consent. The actual signing of a consent form often reflected a decision that had been made much earlier in the process. These findings have significance for both sides in the dispute over informed consent in research. Those who favor tighter controls over psychiatric research will have to consider the implications of monitoring, without destroying, a prolonged and complicated process. Those who argue for a reliance on investigators' integrity must deal with the apparent lack of involvement most investigators have in the consent process.     

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.     

Effects of computer-mediated vocational guidance procedures: Accuracy of self-knowledge

To assess the effectiveness of vocational guidance procedures proposed for inclusion in a computer-based vocational exploration system, 128 11th-grade male subjects were randomly assigned to three experimental groups and a control group. One group was given a computer-generated accuracy of self-knowledge feedback, another group was taught on occupational classification scheme, a third group experienced both. Measures of self-knowledge showed increased accuracy about intelligence, but not about interests, after treatments that included the feedback. Increases were largely due to changes in subjects who originally underestimated their intelligence. A delayed posttest indicated that the increases did not persist.     

Subtraction and the solution of open sentence problems

This paper is concerned with the processes used by children in solving open sentence problems of the form x + u = y (Type 1) and u + x = y (Type 2). Three models for reaction times to these problems are proposed. The first assumes they are solved by an incrementing process, the second assumes a decrementing process, while the third assumes that the subject increments or decrements, depending on which is quickest. Two experiments designed to evaluate these models are reported. It is shown, by means of a series of regression analyses that the third model gives the best account of the success latencies to Type 1 problems. This model predicts that times will be a linear function of the minimum of x and y ? x. It is also shown that none of the models give an adequate account of the latency data for Type 2 problems. Some possible reasons for this difference are discussed, together with some evidence that indicates that Type 1 problems and ordinary subtraction problems are solved by the same process.