The evidential status of philosophical intuition

Philosophers have traditionally held that claims about necessities and possibilities are to be evaluated by consulting our philosophical intuitions; that is, those peculiarly compelling deliverances about possibilities that arise from a serious and reflective attempt to conceive of counterexamples to these claims. But many contemporary philosophers, particularly naturalists, argue that intuitions of this sort are unreliable, citing examples of once-intuitive, but now abandoned, philosophical theses, as well as recent psychological studies that seem to establish the general fallibility of intuition.In the first two sections of this paper, I evaluate these arguments, and also the counter-arguments of contemporary defenders of tradition. In the next two sections, I sketch an alternative account of the role of philosophical intuitions that incorporates elements of traditionalism and naturalism - and defend it against other such views. In the final section, however, I discuss intuitions about conscious experience, and acknowledge that my view may not extend comfortably to this case. This may seem unfortunate, since so much contemporary discussion of the epistemology of modality seems motivated by worries about the mind-body problem, and informed by the position one wishes to endorse. But, as I argue, if conscious experience is indeed an exception to the view I suggest in this paper, it is an exception that proves - and can illuminate - the rule.     

Prescriptive Analysis: Further Individualization of Hypothesis Testing in Brief Experimental Analysis of Reading Fluency

Brief experimental analyses (BEA) have been used to identify effective individualized interventions for improving reading fluency with school-age children. Interventions involving incentives, modeling, repeated reading, and error correction are most often tested in a BEA. However, these interventions are rarely modified according to individual student needs. The current study examined the effects of varied levels of modeling (passage, sentence, word) and varied contingencies (tracking and fluency) on fluency in non-treated high-word overlap passages and general outcome measure passages. BEA-identified interventions were effective for improving reading fluency on non-treated passages for both second grade students and the third grade student. Notably, the effects reversed when intervention was withdrawn with one of the second grade students. Results are discussed in terms of considerations in the application of BEA technology in the schools.     

Adolescent family experiences and educational attainment during early adulthood

In this study, the authors investigated the degree to which a family investment model would help account for the association between family of origin socioeconomic characteristics and the later educational attainment of 451 young adults (age 26) from 2-parent families. Parents' educational level, occupational prestige, and family income in 1989 each had a statistically significant direct relationship with youths' educational attainment in 2002. Consistent with the theoretical model guiding the study, parents' educational level and family income also demonstrated statistically significant indirect effects on later educational attainment through their associations with growth trajectories for supportive parenting, sibling relations, and adolescent academic engagement. Supportive parenting and sibling relations were linked to later educational attainment through their association with adolescent academic engagement. Academic engagement during adolescence was associated with educational attainment in young adulthood. These basic processes operated similarly regardless of youths' gender, target youths' age relative to a near-age sibling, gender composition of the sibling dyad, or gender of parent.     

Beyond "objective" and "projective": a logical system for classifying psychological tests: comment on Meyer and Kurtz (2006)

I present a formal system that accounts for the misleading distinction between tests formerly termed objective and projective, duly noted by Meyer and Kurtz (2006). Three principles of Response Rightness, Response Latitude and Stimulus Ambiguity are shown to govern, in combination, the formal operating characteristics of tests, producing inevitable overlap between "objective" and "projective" tests and creating at least three "types" of tests historically regarded as being projective in nature. The system resolves many past issues regarding test classification and can be generalized to include all psychological tests.     

The specificity of the effects of stimulant medication on classroom learning-related measures of cognitive processing for Attention Deficit Disorder children

There appear to be beneficial effects of stimulant medication on daily classroom measures of cognitive functioning for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) children, but the specificity and origin of such effects is unclear. Consistent with previous results, 0.3 mg/kg methylphenidate improved ADD children's performance on a classroom reading comprehension measure. Using the Posner letting-matching task and four additional measures of phonological processing, we attempted to isolate the effects of methylphenidate to parameter estimates of (a) selective attention, (b) the basic cognitive process of retrieving name codes from permanent memory, and (c) a constant term that represented nonspecific aspects of information processing. Responses to the letter-matching stimuli were faster and more accurate with medication compared to placebo. The improvement in performance was isolated to the parameter estimate that reflected nonspecific aspects of information processing. A lack of medication effect on the other measures of phonological processing supported the Posner task findings in indicating that methylphenidate appears to exert beneficial effects on academic processing through general rather than specific aspects of information processing.     

The morphosyntactic decomposition and semantic composition of German compound words investigated by ERPs

In two experiments, we investigated the morphosyntactic decomposition and semantic composition of acoustically presented German compound words. A left-anterior negativity (LAN) was found in the ERP for gender incongruent, initial compound constituents although these constituents are syntactically irrelevant in German. This LAN provides online evidence for morphosyntactic decomposition. Experiment 1 showed also preliminary evidence for semantic composition, which was further investigated in Experiment 2 by comparing semantically transparent and opaque compounds. Transparent compounds elicited an increased negativity with a centroparietal maximum that occurred during the presentation of the head constituent. This negativity is suggested to reflect the semantic integration of compound constituents that is necessary after the constituents have been accessed separately.     

Metacognition of agency

The feeling that we are agents, intentionally making things happen by our own actions, is foundational to our understanding of ourselves as humans. People's metacognitions of agency were investigated in 4 experiments. Participants played a game in which they tried to touch downward scrolling Xs and avoid touching Os. Variables that affected accuracy included speed of the scroll, density of the targets, and feedback. Of central interest were variables directed not only at accuracy but also at people's control: the turbulence of the cursor and how close the cursor had to come to the target for a hit (i.e., "magic"). After each trial, people made judgments of agency or judgments of performance. People were selectively sensitive to the variables to which they should be responsive in agency monitoring--whether the cursor moved in close synchrony to their movements and whether targets disappeared by magic. People knew, separably from their objective or judged performance, when they were in control and when they were not. These results indicate that people can sensitively monitor their own agency.     

Rumination-focused cognitive behaviour therapy for residual depression: a case series

The treatment of chronic and recurrent depression is a priority for the development of new interventions. The maintenance of residual symptoms following acute treatment for depression is a risk factor for both chronic depression and further relapse/recurrence. This open case series provides the first data on a cognitive-behavioural treatment for residual depression that explicitly targets depressive rumination. Rumination has been identified as a key factor in the onset and maintenance of depression, which is found to remain elevated following remission from depression. Fourteen consecutively recruited participants meeting criteria for medication--refractory residual depression [Paykel, E.S., Scott, J., Teasdale, J.D., Johnson, A.L., Garland, A., Moore, R. et al., 1999. Prevention of relapse in residual depression by cognitive therapy--a controlled trial. Archives of General Psychiatry 56, 829-835] were treated individually for up to 12 weekly 60-min sessions. Treatment specifically focused on switching patients from less helpful to more helpful styles of thinking through the use of functional analysis, experiential/imagery exercises and behavioural experiments. Treatment produced significant improvements in depressive symptoms, rumination and co-morbid disorders: 71% responded (50% reduction on Hamilton Depression Rating Scale) and 50% achieved full remission. Treating depressive rumination appears to yield generalised improvement in depression and co-morbidity. This study provides preliminary evidence that rumination-focused CBT may be an efficacious treatment for medication--refractory residual depression.     

A review of projective test findings with older adults

The projective test literature on aging is reviewed. It was concluded that, while much critical research remains to be done and many of the studies are flawed, projective testing has contributed a great deal to the understanding of the aging process and has yielded a core of consistent findings. Suggestions for future research which would help resolve some current ambiguities were made.