Individualization,singularization and e-ducation (between indifference and responsibility)

It is commonly supposed that acting and judging ought to rest on a community-wide, binding definition of what is right and respectable, that is, a substantial consensus. Such consensus is thought possible only when we engage shared values and criteria, when we use knowledge and abilities appropriated through education. On this view, education deals with the reproduction of consensus and, hence, with the passing on of traditions and norms. On my view, we need to question the framework in which the debate over social erosion takes place. I take a cue from remarks of Hannah Arendt and question the presupposition that acting and judging in a right way requires both common values and the appropriation of what we call knowledge of criteria and principles. I do not suggest that knowledge has nothing to do with acting and judging. Rather, I wish to draw attention to (Arendt's concept of) thinking as a condition for acting and judging. Here, thinking has nothing to do with knowledge or with appropriation. Rather, it has to do with living-together with somebody. Educa-tion for thinking is, then, a public thinking which leads out of the serf and into communal responsibility. On this treatment, the educator is to be a faithful guardian of this calling out into responsibility.     

The effects of nongender-role stereotyped,same-sex role models in storybooks on the self-esteem of children in grade three

This study examined the effect of nonstereotyped, same-sex role models on the self-esteem of children in Grade Three. There were 346 subjects: 315 white Australian, 15 Asian, 3 Aboriginal, 2 African, 5 Middle Eastern, and 6 European. Five groups were formed from these 346 children. Four of the groups were exposed to 12 nongender-role stereotyped stories over 4 weeks that varied from each other according to the sex of the story reader and the sex of the main character. The fifth group was a control group that was used to calculate stability and reliability. A self-concept measure was administered in a pre- and posttest format to all children. A three-way analysis of variance and subsequent analyses revealed that both girls' and boys' self-esteem increased more with same-sex role models than with the other-sex role models. In addition, girls responded better to a male role model than boys did with a female role model. The sex of the reader was irrelevant in all cases. It is concluded that since same-sex characters in storybooks can positively affect children's self-esteem, it is important for both girls and boys to have equal access to strong same-sex characters.     

Toilet rooms, body massages, and smells: Two field studies on human evaluative odor conditioning

In two experimental field studies, the hypothesis was tested that Pavlovian conditioning may modify adults’ liking or disliking of an odor. In Experiment 1, an odor (CS) was first paired unobtrusively with toilet stimuli (US). Next, Ss rated the experimental and a control odor on Semantic Differential items. For Ss evaluating going-to-the-toilet negatively, an acquired dislike for the toilet-paired odor relative to a nonexposed control odor was observed, whereas in Ss evaluating going-to-the-toilet positively, the reverse was observed. In Experiment 2, a neutral odor (CS) was mixed into the massage oil with which a physiotherapist treated his patients. Half of the Ss were treated with Positive-relaxing massage, half of the Ss with Negative-painful massage. At the medical follow-up, Semantic Differential ratings were obtained both for the treatment-odor and for a control odor. In the Positive massage group, the treatment odor was rated as more positive and as less dynamic than the control odor. No similar effects were observed in the Negative massage group, a failure which was probably due to the intended Negative massage not really being experienced as a disliked event. In both experiments, an almost identical pattern of results was observed in the subgroup of Ss who didnot consciously recognize the experimental odor as the treatment odor, eliminating the possibility that the results should be due to demand. As mere exposure cannot account for the results, they most probably represent genuine instances of evaluative odor conditioning. The results are discussed in terms of the understanding of the origins of the affective meaning of odorants, and are related to human evaluative conditioning and implicit memory issues.     

Lexical and Nonlexical Spelling Deficits in Dementia of the Alzheimer Type

Written spelling was assessed in 16 subjects with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) using an information processing approach. The results were compared to the performance in a group of healthy elderly subjects. The Alzheimer subjects scored significantly lower in word spelling and nonword spelling ability than the controls (F(1, 7) = 187,p< .0001), and both the lexical and the nonlexical spelling strategies were affected. The results did not support the hypothesis that nonlexical ability is preserved in DAT. In the DAT group, spelling correlated significantly (p< 0.01) with the severity of dementia, but spelling performance was not associated with the age of onset of dementia or family history of dementia.     

Pictorial surface attitude and local depth comparisons

We measured local surface attitude for monocular pictorial relief and performed pairwise depthcomparison judgments on the same picture. Both measurements were subject to internal consistency checks. We found that both measurements were consistent with a relief (continuous pictorial surface) interpretation within the session-to-session scatter. We reconstructed the pictorial relief from both measurements separately, and found results that differed in detail but were quite similar in their basic structures. Formally, one expects certain geometrical identities that relate range and attitude data. Because we have independent measurements of both, we can attempt an empirical verification of such geometrical identities. Moreover, we can check whether the statistical scatter in the data indicates that, for example, the surface attitudes are derivable from a depth map or vice versa. We estimate that pairwise depth comparisons are an order of magnitude less precise than might be expected from the attitude data. Thus, the surface attitudes cannot be derived from a depth map as operationally defined by our methods, although the reverse is a possibility.     

The influence of height and key on the perceptual similarity of transposed melodies

In two experiments, the perceptual similarity between a strong tonal melody and various transpositions was investigated using a paradigm in which listeners compared the perceptual similarity of a melody and its transposition with that of the same melody and another transposition. The paradigm has the advantage that it provides a direct judgment regarding the similarity of transposed melodies. The experimental results indicate that the perceptual similarity of a strong tonal melody and its transposition is mainly determined by two factors: (1) the distance on the height dimension between the original melody and its transposition (pitch distance), and (2) the distance between keys as inferred from the circle of fifths (key distance). The major part of the variance is explained by the factor pitch distance, whereas key distance explains only a small part.     

Rotation of Water in the Morris Water Maze Interferes with Path Integration Mechanisms of Place Navigation

The idea that place navigation in the Morris water maze is implemented by path integration between locations determined by landmark sighting was investigated in a 200-cm-diameter pool in which circular (7.2°/s) motion of water could be induced by tangentially arranged water jets. The rats were trained at 8 trials per day to navigate to an erectable platform which was raised after the rat had spent a criterion time in the target annulus (30 cm in diameter) in the midpoint of the NW quadrant. Asymptotic escape latency of 7 s was reached after 9 days in moving water (n= 8) and after 6 days in stationary water (n= 8). The group overtrained for 13 days in stable water performed well even after it was transferred to moving water. Changing the sense of rotation of water from counterclockwise to clockwise did not affect the asymptotic performance. The above findings show that overtrained rats rely on landmark sighting rather than on path integration. The influence of water movement reappeared when place navigation to a new target (SW) was examined in alternating 2-s periods of light (L) and darkness (D). On the first day, the latencies were 15.2 ± 1.2 and 22.8 ± 1.9 s in stable and moving water, respectively, but dropped to 10 s on the following day. The tracks generated in the L period were more tortuous than those generated in the D period and this difference was more pronounced in moving than in stable water. It is concluded that path integration mechanisms supporting navigation during intervals of darkness are impaired in moving water but that this impairment disappears in overtrained animals.     

Spatial cuing in a stereoscopic display: Evidence for a “depth-aware” attentional focus

Two experiments were conducted to explore whether attentional selection occurs in depth, or whether attentional focus is “depth blind,” as suggested by Ghiradelli and Folk (1996). In Experiment 1, observers viewed stereoscopic displays in which one of four spatial locations was cued. Two of the locations were at a near-depth location and two were at a far-depth location, and a single target was presented along with three distractors. The results indicated a larger cost in reaction time for switching attention inx,y and depth than inx,y alone, supporting a “depth-aware” attentional spotlight. In Experiment 2, no distractors were present, similar to the displays used by Ghiradelli and Folk. In this experiment, no effect for switching attention in depth was found, indicating that the selectivity of attention in depth depends on the perceptual load imposed on observers by the tasks and displays.     

PHILOSOPHY OF MEDICAL PRACTICE: A DISCURSIVE APPROACH

In spite of the seminal work A Philosophical Basis of Medical Practice, the debate on the task and goals of philosophy of medicine still continues. From an European perspective it is argued that the main topics dealt with by Pellegrino and Thomasma are still particularly relevant to medical practice as a healing practice, while expressing the need for a philosophy of medicine. Medical practice is a discursive practice which is highly influenced by other discursive practices like science, law and economics. Philosophical analysis of those influences is needed to discern their effect on the goals of medicine and on the ways in which the self-image of man may be changed. The nature of medical practice and discourse itself makes it necessary to include different philosophical disciplines, like philosophy of science, of law, ethics, and epistemology. Possible scenario's of euthanasia and the human genome project in the USA and Europe are used to exemplify how philosopy of medicine can contribute to a realistic understanding of the problems which are related to the goals of medicine and health care.