ALTRUISM AND THE GOLDEN RULE

This essay addresses recent claims about the compatibility of the sociobiological theory of reciprocal altruism with standard Western formulations of the Golden Rule. Derek Parfit claims that the theory of reciprocal altruism teaches us to be “reciprocal altruists,” who benefit only those people from whom we can reasonably expect benefits in the future. The Golden Rule, on the other hand, teaches us to benefit anyone regardless of their intention or ability to return the favor, or as Parfit puts it, the Golden Rule teaches us to be “suckers.” I argue that this distinction is founded on a misconception of the nature of the theory of reciprocal altruism, which is sociobiological as opposed to moral, and that this distinction accordingly confuses is with ought. Sociobiological theories may explain underlying psychological motivations in individuals (and perhaps even in populations), but these theories do not prescribe any sort of moral behavior. Furthermore, the theory of reciprocal altruism does not imply mental states of which agents are aware. The unconscious motivations assumed by this theory are in fact compatible with certain formulations of the Golden Rule; I will accordingly argue for the view that certain words with moral content related to the Golden Rule—such as “altruism” and “selfishness”—exist only insofar as they are social tools, which can further the self‐interests of an individual in any group.     

An analysis of a performance feedback system: the effects of timing and feedback, public posting, and praise upon academic performance and peer interaction

In the first experiment, after establishing baseline composition rates in each classroom, timing (announcing time limits) and feedback (student self-scoring) were introduced followed by the introduction, removal, and reintroduction of public posting of highest scores. Timing and feedback improved story writing performance and public posting of highest scores improved performance even further in both classrooms. Teacher praise produced further improvement in one classroom but had no effect on performance in the other. Changes in on-task behavior paralleled changes in writing rate. Comments made by children concerning their own work or work of their peers were recorded throughout the experiment. Although the baseline rate of performance comments was almost zero, the introduction of each variable markedly increased the rate of performance comments. In the second experiment, baseline rates on reading and language exercises were established in a fifth-grade classroom. The entire performance feedback system was introduced on a multiple baseline across the two behaviors and then removed during the final phase of the experiment. Introducing the system improved performance on both tasks. These results further increased the generality of some of the findings of the previous experiment and of previous research on the efficacy of the experimental package of timing, feedback, public posting, and praise.     

Direction constancy

A series of experiments investigating the constancy of perceived direction was conducted. Experiments 1, 2, and 3 indicated that the perception of direction, while close to constancy, exhibited a consistent departure from constancy of approximately 2.5 deg. Experiments 4 and 5 investigated the departure from constancy in terms of the information of the position of the eyes within the head and the information of the retinal area (local sign) being stimulated. The results of these experiments indicated that the departure from constancy was a function of the underestimation of the position of the eyes within the head.     

A motivational hierarchy within: Primacy of the individual self,relational self,or collective self?

The individual self, relational self, and collective self are important and meaningful aspects of identity. However, they plausibly differ in their relative importance such that one self lies closer to the motivational core of the self-concept, better represent the “home base” of selfhood, or, simply stated, is motivationally primary. Four multi-method studies tested the relative motivational-primacy of the selves. Despite their disparate methods, the studies yielded consistent evidence of a three-tiered hierarchy with the individual self at the top, followed by the relational self, and trailed at the bottom by the collective self. The same hierarchy emerged in the Eastern culture of China and the Western cultures of the US and UK. Such pancultural consistency suggests that the motivational hierarchy is a fundamental pattern of the human self.     

Music and Suicidality: A Quantitative Review and Extension

This article provides the first quantitative review of the literature on music and suicidality. Multivariate logistic regression techniques are applied to 90 findings from 21 studies. Investigations employing ecological data on suicide completions are 19.2 times more apt than other studies to report a link between music and suicide. More recent and studies with large samples are also more apt than their counterparts to report significant results. Further, none of the studies based on experimental research designs found a link between music and suicide ideation, prompting us to do a brief content analysis of 24 suicide songs versus 24 nonsuicide songs from the same album. Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software, we found no difference in the content of the suicide songs and controls, including the percentage of sad words, negative affect, and mentions of death, thus providing an explanation for nonfindings from experimental research. In summary, ecologically based (which capture at‐risk persons not in typical school‐based samples) and more recent investigations (which have used superior or new methodologies) tend to demonstrate a linkage between music and suicidality. Experimental research is needed with a control group of songs from an alternative genre with low suicidogenic content.     

Metacognition of the testing effect: Guiding learners to predict the benefits of retrieval

If the mnemonic benefits of testing are to be widely realized in real-world learning circumstances, people must appreciate the value of testing and choose to utilize testing during self-guided learning. Yet metacognitive judgments do not appear to reflect the enhancement provided by testing Karpicke & Roediger (Science 319:966–968, 2008). In this article, we show that under judicious conditions, learners can indeed reveal an understanding of the beneficial effects of testing, as well as the interaction of that effect with delay (Experiment 1). In that experiment, subjects made judgments of learning (JOLs) for previously studied or previously tested items in either a cue-only or a cue–target context, and either immediately or after a 1-day delay. When subjects made judgments in a cue-only context, their JOLs accurately reflected the effects of testing, both immediately and at a delay. To evaluate the potential of exposure to such conditions for promoting generalized appreciation of testing effects, three further experiments elicited global predictions about restudied and tested items across two study/test cycles (Experiments 2, 3, and 4). The results indicated that learners’ global naïve metacognitive beliefs increasingly reflect the beneficial effects of testing when learners experience these benefits with increasing external support. If queried under facilitative circumstances, learners appreciate the mnemonic enhancement that testing provides on both an item-by-item and global basis but generalize that knowledge to future learning only with considerable guidance.     

Feed My Sheep: An Analysis of the Black–White Biblical Academic Achievement Gap

Secular academic achievement gap analyses consistently hold that Blacks perform worse than their White counterparts. Although gaps are closing, significant variances remain; sadly, poor performance isn’t limited to secular academics. Analysis of Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life’s 2010 U.S. Religious Knowledge survey holds that although African-American Christians are more likely to attend church more frequently than other ethnicities, they are significantly more likely to know the least about the Bible. Unfortunately, the literature does not address the biblical racial achievement gap; we seek to correct this deficiency. We explored the extent of the Black–White biblical academic achievement gap and identified variables which exacerbate it. Linear regression analysis reveals that Blacks actualize a negative impact to biblical literacy engendered by their race: regardless of attendance frequency, the total number of questions answered correctly (μ = 4.337 out of 8) is reduced by 0.705. This impact is (a) not experienced by Whites and (b) larger than the church attendance benefit (0.228).