Testimonial Injustice and Mindreading

Miranda Fricker maintains that testimonial responsibility is the proper corrective to testimonial injustice. She proposes a perceptual‐like “testimonial sensibility” to explain the transmission of knowledge through testimony. This sensibility is the means by which a hearer perceives an interlocutor's credibility level. When prejudice causes a hearer to inappropriately deflate the credibility attributed to a speaker, the sensibility may have functioned unreliably. Testimonial responsibility, she claims, will make the capacity reliable by reinflating credibility levels to their proper degree. I argue that testimonial sensitivity may be or involve “mindreading,” the cognitive capacity by which we predict human behavior and explain it in terms of mental states. Further, I claim that, if testimonial sensibility is or involves mindreading, and mindreading is a function of brain processes (as claimed by cognitive neuroscientists), testimonial injustice cannot be corrected by testimonial responsibility. This is because 1) it appears to rely on conscious awareness of prejudice, whereas much bias occurs implicitly, and 2) it works at the individual level, whereas testimonial injustice occurs both individually and socially. I argue that the remedy for testimonial injustice is, instead, engaging in social efforts that work below the level of consciousness.     

Beyond logic – entering the realm of mystery: hermeneutic phenomenology as a tool for reflecting on children’s spirituality

This paper suggests hermeneutic phenomenology as a theoretical framework for reflecting, interpreting and gaining insight into children’s spirituality. It describes an episode that took place in a Year 5 classroom involving a 10‐year‐old child and his response to an Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime story. The possibilities this observed incident opens for hermeneutic phenomenology are then explored using van Manen’s notion of lifeworld existentials as guides to reflection upon the life expression of this child. The four lifeworld existentials are lived space (spatiality), lived body (corporeality), lived time (temporality) and lived human relation (relationality). In using these as a means by which to interpret the life expression of this child, it is argued that some insights into his or her spirituality can be gleaned.     

The ABCs of depression: integrating affective, biological, and cognitive models to explain the emergence of the gender difference in depression

In adulthood, twice as many women as men are depressed, a pattern that holds in most nations. In childhood, girls are no more depressed than boys, but more girls than boys are depressed by ages 13 to 15. Although many influences on this emergent gender difference in depression have been proposed, a truly integrated, developmental model is lacking. The authors propose a model that integrates affective (emotional reactivity), biological (genetic vulnerability, pubertal hormones, pubertal timing and development) and cognitive (cognitive style, objectified body consciousness, rumination) factors as vulnerabilities to depression that, in interaction with negative life events, heighten girls' rates of depression beginning in adolescence and account for the gender difference in depression.     

Derivation and prediction of temperamental types among preschoolers.

The number and nature of temperamental types in 488 children aged 3 years 6 months was examined on the basis of a broad set of temperamental characteristics, including positive and negative emotionality and the attentional and behavioral control domains. Configural frequency analysis methods showed clear support for two temperament types: controlled-nonexpressive and noncontrolled-expressive. These types showed meaningful differences against external criteria related to a wide range of problem behaviors from the emotional, social, and attentional domains. The reports of problem behaviors were obtained contemporaneously from fathers and caregivers. These findings replicated a year later when children were aged 4 years 6 months. Furthermore, the findings showed that infant and toddler-age temperamental characteristics differentiated these preschool-aged types. The authors discuss the implications of the results for a categorical view of temperament-personality.     

Neural signatures of number processing in human infants: evidence for two core systems underlying numerical cognition

Behavioral research suggests two cognitive systems are at the foundations of numerical thinking: one for representing 1-3 objects in parallel and one for representing and comparing large, approximate numerical magnitudes. We tested for dissociable neural signatures of these systems in preverbal infants, by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) as 6-7.5 month-old infants (n = 32) viewed dot arrays containing either small (1-3) or large (8-32) sets of objects in a number alternation paradigm. If small and large numbers are represented by the same neural system, then the brain response to the arrays should scale with ratio for both number ranges, a behavioral and brain signature of the approximate numerical magnitude system obtained in animals and in human adults. Contrary to this prediction, a mid-latency positivity (P500) over parietal scalp sites was modulated by the ratio between successive large, but not small, numbers. Conversely, an earlier peaking positivity (P400) over occipital-temporal sites was modulated by the absolute cardinal value of small, but not large, numbers. These results provide evidence for two early developing systems of non-verbal numerical cognition: one that responds to small quantities as individual objects and a second that responds to large quantities as approximate numerical values. These brain signatures are functionally similar to those observed in previous studies of non-symbolic number with adults, suggesting that this dissociation may persist over vast differences in experience and formal training in mathematics.     

Do the myths still exist? Revisiting people's negative beliefs about organ donation upon death

The prevalence of myths preventing people partial to donation in Australia from consenting is unknown. Respondents (N?=?468: 381 donors, 26 non-donors, 61 undecided) were surveyed about their (negative) donation beliefs. Approximately 30% of donors were neutral or supported negative beliefs about organ allocation, especially donation to undesirable organ recipients and a black market organ trade. Confusion about brain death, lack of family and religious support, and discomfort with donation were negative beliefs endorsed by some respondents irrespective of donor preference. Proportionally, donors had greater trust in hospitals/doctors than other groups. Some myths still exist but may vary with donation preference.     

The effect of Pavlovian stimuli on the acquisition of a new response

Three experiments explored the effects of response dependent stimuli which have had different types of contingent relationships with positive reinforcement. Results showed consistent differences in the effects of response dependent appetitive Pavlovian CS + s, CS ? s, and truly random control (TRC) stimuli on the acquisition of a new response. These differences were shown in both a free operant and a discrete-trial learning situation. Appetitive Pavlovian CS?s consistently produced lower levels of responding than did TRC stimuli, even in an experimental situation free of possible contrast effects. The results of these experiments extended a contingency analysis of acquired associations to appetitive conditioning and provided a clear demonstration of a conditioned reinforcement effect against a variety of control procedures.     

5-HTTLPR X Stress in Adolescent Depression: Moderation by MAOA and Gender

Depression surges in adolescence, especially among girls. Most evidence indicates that the short allele of a polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) interacts with stress to influence the onset of depression. This effect appears to be less robust in adolescents, particularly among boys, and may be moderated by other genetic polymorphisms. Seeking to explain the adolescent gender difference in depression, this study examined the effects of 5-HTTLPR (rs25531), the monoamine oxidase A-upstream variable number tandem repeat (MAOA-uVNTR), and negative life events (NLE). A community-based longitudinal sample of 309 adolescents reported depressive symptoms and NLE at ages 11, 13, and 15. 5-HTTLPR and MAOA-uVNTR genotypes were ascertained via buccal swabs. A significant four-way interaction of 5-HTTLPR, MAOA-uVNTR, NLE at age 13, and gender predicted depressive symptoms at age 15. Girls were most likely to exhibit elevated depressive symptoms when experiencing NLE if they possessed low-expression MAOA-uVNTR alleles and short 5-HTTLPR alleles, whereas low-expression MAOA-uVNTR alleles but long 5-HTTLPR alleles were implicated in boys. The results indicate that the commonly reported 5-HTTLPR by stress interaction for depression may be limited to individuals with low-expression MAOA-uVNTR alleles. These data also provide new evidence that the short allele of 5-HTTLPR confers susceptibility to stress differently for females compared with males.     

Ethnicity and Gender Stereotypes of Emotion

In three studies we investigated gender stereotypes of emotions among four ethnic groups in the U.S., using persons from these groups as informants about their own groups. European Americans’ reports of stereotypes were compared to those of African Americans (Study 1), Hispanic Americans (Study 2), and Asian Americans (Study 3). The examination of group differences was interpreted based on variations across ethnicities in norms concerning emotional expression and gender roles. Overall, gender stereotypes of emotion were evident among all ethnic groups studied, but European Americans’ gender stereotypes were the most gender differentiated. For example, European American stereotypes held that men express more pride than women do, but African Americans’ stereotypes of pride for men and women did not differ. Similarly, whereas among European Americans, women were stereotyped to express much more love than men do, the gender difference was smaller among Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans. These different norms may pose challenges for inter-cultural interactions, and they point to the importance of considering both gender and ethnicity simultaneously in the study of emotions.     

Interactions between Callous Unemotional Behaviors and Executive Function in Early Childhood Predict later Aggression and Lower Peer-liking in Late-childhood

Callous unemotional (CU) behaviors are linked to aggression, behavior problems, and difficulties in peer relationships in children and adolescents. However, few studies have examined whether early childhood CU behaviors predict aggression or peer-rejection during late-childhood or potential moderation of this relationship by executive function. The current study examined whether the interaction of CU behaviors and executive function in early childhood predicted different forms of aggression in late-childhood, including proactive, reactive, and relational aggression, as well as how much children were liked by their peers. Data from cross-informant reports and multiple observational tasks were collected from a high-risk sample (N = 240; female = 118) at ages 3 and 10 years old. Parent reports of CU behaviors at age 3 predicted teacher reports of reactive, proactive, and relational aggression, as well as lower peer-liking at age 10. Moderation analysis showed that specifically at high levels of CU behaviors and low levels of observed executive function, children were reported by teachers as showing greater reactive and proactive aggression, and were less-liked by peers. Findings demonstrate that early childhood CU behaviors and executive function have unique main and interactive effects on both later aggression and lower peer-liking even when taking into account stability in behavior problems over time. By elucidating how CU behaviors and deficits in executive function potentiate each other during early childhood, we can better characterize the emergence of severe and persistent behavior and interpersonal difficulties across development.