Evidence for a difference in syntactic knowledge between skilled and less skilled adult readers

In two experiments, we investigated the relationship between reading ability and linguistic knowledge in adults. The results from Experiment 1 showed that good comprehenders performed more accurately than average comprehenders in a syntactic-judgment task that required them to decide whether pairs of words served the same grammatical function in sentences. By contrast, the reader groups performed similarly when required to make semantic judgments about whether pairs of words were related in meaning. In Experiment 2, individuals were classified according to comprehension level and reading speed. Good comprehenders again performed more accurately than average comprehenders in the syntactic task but not the semantic task. We argued that differences in form-class knowledge could be associated with corresponding differences in syntacticprocessing efficiency, and thus with variation in reading-comprehension skill generally.     

CIRCULARITY AND INCONSISTENCY IN KUHN'S DEFENSE OF HIS RELATIVISM

For more than a century, it has been a standard ploy to argue against relativism on the grounds of self-referential incoherence (e.g., “if the relativists say that beliefs have no objective validity then that belief itself has none,” etc.). This paper determines the particular form this sort of charge takes when applied to a problematic passage in which Kuhn defends his relativistic theory of science by applying that theory to the debate between his critics and himself. If Kuhn were to give up relativism with respect to facts and truth but retain it with respect to the strength of reasons, a pair of dilemmas charging circularity and inconsistency could be circumvented.     

Psychosocial risk and resistance factors among children with chronic illness,healthy siblings,and healthy controls

Psychosocial risk and resistance factors within the domains of parental functioning, family Stressors, and family resources were examined as predictors of psychological adjustment and physical problems in juvenile rheumatic disease patients (N=93), their healthy siblings (N=72), and demographically matched healthy controls (N=93). Family socioeconomic status and background variables showed few consistent relationships with child functioning. However, a constellation of risk and resistance factors tended to show comparable associations with functioning for patients, siblings, and controls. Higher parental depression and medical symptoms and more family Stressors, sibling problems, and burden of illness on the family predicted more problems among the patients. These relationships held when disease duration and severity were controlled. For the siblings, increased parental and patient dysfunction, more family Stressors, and less family cohesion and expressiveness were associated with more problems. Although the associations were not as strong, mothers' depression and lack of family cohesion and expressiveness also were related to more adjustment problems among the control children. These findings imply that there may be a general association between certain risk and resistance factors and childhood adaptation.This research was supported in part by NIH Multipurpose Arthritis Center Grant AM20610, NIMH Grant MH16744, and Veterans Administration Medical and Health Services Research and Development Service Research funds. Jan Gottlieb provided valuable help in all phases of the research. We appreciate the help of the staff of the Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic at Children's Hospital at Stanford and the families who participated in this study.     

EXPERT AND NAIVE RATERS USING THE PAQ: DOES IT MATTER?

A finding by Smith and Hakel (1979) is that job expert ratings on the PAQ correlate highly with ratings obtained from college students who are given no information about jobs other than their titles. One possible explanation for this finding is that the PAQ measures only trivial or common knowledge about work that both experts and naive observers possess. This particular view, of course, has serious implications for the use of the PAQ. In this paper we point out a problem in the way Smith and Hakel calculated the convergent validity between expert raters and naive raters. We also present the results from a replication study that indicate convergent validities are much lower than those reported by Smith and Hakel. Additional points are presented in order to caution against the interpretation that the PAQ measures only common knowledge about jobs.     

SCIENCE EDUCATION AND MORAL EDUCATION

Abstract. Both science and ethics are embedded in cultural traditions where truths are shared through education; both need competent critics educated within such traditions. Education in both ought to be directed although moral education demands levels of responsible agency that science education does not. Evolutionary science often carries an implicit or explicit understanding of who and what humans are, one which may not be coherent with the implicit or explicit human self-understanding in moral education. The latter in turn may not be coherent with classical human self-understandings. Moral education may enlighten and elevate the human nature that has evolved biologically.     

Statistical versus clinical significance in research with the MMPI

Some of the contradictions in psychological research may be attributable to failure to distinguish statistical from clinical significance. 82 articles in which the MMPI was the research instrument were analyzed to see how often the results reported as significant were in fact large enough to warrant such a conclusion. Articles were classified as to whether or not the clinical interpretations were consistent with the statistical results. Excluding articles in which data were insufficient to reach an independent conclusion, 54.90% of the articles presented conclusions of clinical significance that were not supported by the data, while 45.10% reported clinical results that were supported by the data.     

What can we mean by “cognition,” and does it make any sense?

Practitioners of Rational-Emotive Therapy easily identify themselves with the broad camp of cognitive behavior therapy. However, the meaning of the term cognition is often unclear. Six possible meanings are outlined: (1) mental event, (2) symbolic overt behavior, (3) symbolic covert behavior, (4) pragmatic convention, (5) unreportable behavior and (6) hypothetical construct. This paper aims to: (1) clarify what we can mean when we talk about cognition, and (2) identify which meanings keep us in the tradition of empirical science and which take us to the realm of spooks and nonsense.Hank Robb works as a private practitioner. He is an Associate Fellow and approved Supervisor of the Institute of Rational-Emotive Therapy, New York, as well as a Diplomate in Counseling Psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology.     

Sex Differences in Clinical Pain: A Multisample Study

A recent meta-analysis of the experimental pain literature revealed effect sizes of .55 for pain threshold and .57 for pain tolerance, indicating a moderate difference in pain perception between men and women, with women reporting an increased sensitivity to pain. The current study investigated the relationship between sex and clinical pain ratings, in patients seeking care at a tertiary care facility. Five samples of chronic pain patients were recruited from several diverse clinics associated with the University of Florida. Analyses of clinical pain ratings revealed similar effect sizes for all samples, ranging from –.07 to –.25, indicating small differences, with women reporting higher levels of clinical pain. This is the first paper to report effect sizes for differences in report of pain in samples of chronic pain patients presenting for treatment at a tertiary care facility.