Psychosocial and Biomedical Predictors of Attention and Memory in End-Stage Renal Disease Patients

This study examined the neurocognitive functioning of 554 end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients to determine the underlying factor structure of tests of attention and memory and to assess the differential impact of psychosocial and biomedical variables on these factors. Analysis revealed three underlying factors: Sustained Attention, Focused Attention, and Memory Recall. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that psychosocial and biomedical variables were most strongly related to the Focused Attention factor. Education, vocabulary score, age, race, age by creatinine, creatinine, and renal replacement therapy accounted for 30% of variance in Focused Attention; sex, depression, and hypertension were unrelated. After controlling for demographic and medical variables, type of renal replacement therapy was a statistically, but not clinically, significant predictor of Focused Attention, with peritoneal dialysis associated with better attentional performance relative to hemodialysis. The potential relationship between focused attention and compliance is discussed.     

Taking Ethical Disability Seriously

Aristotle's ethical theorizing contains resources for explaining what I call 'ethical disability'. In theories such as Kant's and Mill's it is important that criteria of right action be accessible to anyone. Aristotle's moral psychology yields a plausible account of how they are not available to everyone. Unless a correct appreciation of good is part of the agent's second nature, the agent will not recognize ethical requirements, and will not have the resources to alter his judgments. Often, bad action is not a matter of agents' flouting or violating criteria of right action that they recognize, but is a matter of agents' regarding as choiceworthy things that are in fact no good, and the agents are unable to appreciate this because of their vices. However, on the Aristotelian view, this is not a condition that diminishes responsibility, because of how voluntariness is interpreted. Some of the views of Susan Wolf and Bernard Williams are discussed in the development of this view of the moral landscape.     

Statistical analysis of the bidirectional inconsistency of spelling and sound in French

Recent studies suggest that performance attendant on visual word perception is affected not only by the “traditional” feedforward inconsistency (spelling → phonology) but also by its feedback inconsistency (phonology → spelling). The present study presents a statistical analysis of the bidirectional inconsistency for all French monosyllabic words. We show that French is relatively consistent from spelling to phonology but highly inconsistent from phonology to spelling. Appendixes B and C list prior and conditional probabilities for all inconsistent mappings and thus provide a valuable tool for controlling, selecting, and constructing stimulus materials for psycholinguistic and neuropsychological research. Such large-scale statistical analyses about a language’s structure are crucial for developing metrics of inconsistency, generating hypotheses for cross-linguistic research, and building computational models of reading.     

Saturation estimates and chromatic adaptation

Category estimates of spectral saturation were obtained from three observers under neutral adaptation and under three conditions of chromatic adaptation. The data so obtained show that chromatic adaptation causes a shift in the location of minimal spectral saturation toward the spectral locus of the adapting light. The existence of secondary minima and enhancement effects in spectral saturation are also noted.     

The inconsistency of higher order extensions of Martin-Löf's type theory

Martin-Löf's constructive type theory forms the basis of this paper. His central notions of category and set, and their relations with Russell's type theories, are discussed. It is shown that addition of an axiom — treating the category of propositions as a set and thereby enabling higher order quantification — leads to inconsistency. This theorem is a variant of Girard's paradox, which is a translation into type theory of Mirimanoff's paradox (concerning the set of all well-founded sets). The occurrence of the contradiction is explained in set theoretical terms. Crucial here is the way a proof-object of an existential proposition is understood. It is shown that also Russell's paradox can be translated into type theory. The type theory extended with the axiom mentioned above contains constructive higher order logic, but even if one only adds constructive second order logic to type theory the contradictions arise.     

Escape responding in a shuttlebox

Measures of response latency are a primary tool for those who investigate escape responding in rats. Unfortunately, the single term “latency to escape” has been applied to several different measures of latency. The present study was designed to demonstrate that two different measures of the “latency to escape” tap different aspects of escape responding. To that end, rats were given escape training using a Sidman Avoidance Schedule with brief inescapable electric shock as the aversive stimulus. The latency to escape the shock-shock interval, as measured from the onset of the last shock in a shock period, did not change across trials. However, the latency to escape the shock period, as measured from the onset of the first shock in a shock period, decreased across trials. In addition, the presentation of a feedback stimulus contingent upon escape responding did not affect the latency to escape either the shock period or a shock-shock interval. The results show that these two latency measures, typically not recognized as unique, measure different characteristics of the strength of escape responding in a shuttlebox. Alternative accounts of this pattern of data were considered.     

The Influence of Traditional Male Initiation (Lebollo) on School Discipline: Educators’ Perspectives

This study explores the influence of traditional male initiation on school discipline. Eight educators teaching in township schools in Bloemfontein, South Africa, were purposefully selected to take part in a focus-group interview. The results from a content analysis indicate that initiates may exacerbate disciplinary problems at schools and that certain types of misbehavior may be attributed to initiation schools. The study found that initiation schools might perpetuate gender inequalities, patriarchy, gangsterism, and criminality. Recommendations on how to deal with disciplinary problems arising from initiates’ behavior are made.