Contrary-to-duty obligations

We investigate under what conditions contrary-to-duty (CTD) structures lacking temporal and action elements can be given a coherent reading. We argue, contrary to some recent proposals, that CTD is not an instance of defeasible reasoning, and that methods of nonmonotonic logics are inadequate since they are unable to distinguish between defeasibility and violation of primary obligations. We propose a semantic framework based on the idea that primary and CTD obligations are obligations of different kinds: a CTD obligation pertains to, or pre-supposes, a certain context in which a primary obligation is already violated. This framework is presented initially as an extension of Standard Deontic Logic (SDL), a normal modal logic of type KD, and is illustrated by application to a series of examples. The concluding section is concerned with some resemblances between CTD and defeasible reasoning. We show first that the SDL-based framework contains a flaw and must be adjusted. A discussion of possible adjustments, including an alternative treatment in terms of a preference-based semantics, reveals difficulties that are reminiscent of problems in defeasible reasoning and intensional accounts of defeasible conditionals.     

An Empirical Examination of Same- and Other-Gender Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

This study examines sexual harassment (SH) whichinvolves members of the same gender, either male orfemale. Data are taken from the 1988 Department ofDefense Survey of Sex Roles in the Active Duty Military. Separate comparisons for male (38% White, 31%Black, and 31% ‘other’) and female (48%White, 27% Black, and 25% ‘other’) targetsare made between sameand other-gender SH related to fourmajor components of a conceptual model proposed by Fitzgerald,Drasgow, Hulin, Gelfand, & Magley (1997). Thesecomponents include sexual harassment behaviors, personalvulnerability, target response styles, and consequences of the SH for the target. The sexualorientation of targets and perpetrators is notconsidered because data were unavailable. Results reveala number of meaningful differences between sameandother-gender SH. The most striking result is that maletargets of same-gender SH experience consequences thatare significantly more pervasive and severe than thoseexperienced by male targets of other-gender SH.Organizational implications are discussed.     

The psychologist's role in assessing and facilitating patients' knowledge of advance directives in medical settings: A preliminary investigation

In a time of budgetary shortfalls in the medical industry, an aging population, and an increased emphasis on health care choices, psychologists are being called upon to administer advance medical directive programs to patients. This study reports preliminary findings from a program to assess and facilitate patients' knowledge of advance directives (ADs) by the Psychology Service at the Ann Arbor VA Medical Center. The participant pool included 243 male veteran patients admitted to medical and surgical wards at the hospital. The intervention included the use of a computer-generated prompt for consultation, which was sent to the psychology staff in response to a patient inquiry regarding ADs. It also involved an increased emphasis on the delivery of written material on ADs by the admissions clerks. The intervention appeared to result in a modest increase in patients' knowledge of advance directives. Suggestions are offered for areas that should be emphasized in future attempts to increase patients' knowledge and utilization of advance directives.     

Chlorpromazine and serial reaction performance

The effect of 25 mg or 75 mg of chlorpromazine on the serial reaction performance of 12 male human subjects was studied. Speed or number of correct responses was reduced by the high dose of chlorpromazine and errors of commission and omission were increased. The adverse effect of the drug upon speed appeared only at the end of the half-hour test. By contrast the adverse effect upon gaps and errors was apparent throughout the test and there was no interaction with test duration.     

Geometric and semantic similarity in visual masking

Semantic and geometric or physical similarity were manipulated separately in a backward-masking situation. When the target was a word to be read aloud, formal similarity between the letters of target and mask facilitated target recognition, as did associative similarity. Masking a target word by its own anagram also facilitated whole word report. In contrast, formal similarity was inhibitory rather than facilitatory of report when the target was spelled letter-by-letter, rather than read whole. This was true even for the same target words whose whole report was facilitated by formal similarity. A model to account for this reversal in the broader context of the neural substrate of reading is advanced. It is proposed that letter and word processing are fundamentally different in that letters are recognized by hierarchical feature analysis while words are stored and recognized wholistically by diffuse and redundant networks. Implications of the results for the study of reading are discussed.     

Children's knowledge of the separation of variables concept

Children 8, 10, and 13 years of age were either given prior experience constructing seriations or matrices with two-dimensional stimuli, or no prior experience. Knowledge of the separation of variables concept was then assessed by examining children's use of controlled tests of a problem variable's effect (probe questions), and recognition of the inadequacy of confounded variable tests (negative counter-suggestion questions). Although many children either passed both questions or failed both questions, a significant number of children correctly used controlled variable tests, and yet failed to recognize the inadequacy of a confounded test. These results suggest that although a preliminary form of the separation of variables concept is characterized by use of controlled variable tests, subsequent refinement of the concept includes recognition of the inadequacy of confounded tests. Relative to seriation, prior experience constructing matrices facilitated recognition of a confounded test's inadequacy. Constructing matrices may have focused attention on the simultaneous variation of problem elements on multiple dimensions and thus facilitated recognition of the necessary role of both variation of stimuli on test dimensions and equality of stimuli on nontest dimensions, e.g., a controlled test.     

Experimental assessment of tinnitus aurium

A 32-year-old male volunteer with an eight year history of chronic unilateral tinnitus (ear-ringing) participated in a behavioral assessment strategy that included a series of measurement and modification procedures. A psychophysical matching technique was employed throughout a planned combination of procedures to assess and manipulate the intensity or loudness of tinnitus responses. Following baseline assessment, measurements were conducted at varying times of the day, concomitant with exposure to music, during progressive relaxation training, and under conditions of caffeine consumption. The value of careful assessment to describe cues and conditions associated with tinnitus and its reduction are discussed with implications for behavior treatment design and evaluation.     

Semantic specificity in cued recall

In three cued recall experiments, extralist retrieval cues that were congruous in meaning to an encoded target pair of words produced better recall of the targets than wh6n the cuetarget relation was incongruous. However, this result, which differs from that of other experiments, depended in some cases on scoring recall of a target pair when either member of the pair was recalled. It is argued that (1) pairs of words are typically stored as higher order units, (2) the best test procedure is to request recall of both members of the pair when an extralist cue is presented, and (3) semantic features provide an important dimension in the mnemonic representation of word events.