There is No <Emphasis Type="Italic">Simpliciter Simpliciter</Emphasis>

This paper identifies problems with indexicalism and abverbialism about temporary intrinsic properties, and solves them by disentangling two senses in which a particular may possess a property simpliciter. The first sense is the one identified by adverbialists in which a particular possesses at all times the property as a matter of foundational metaphysical fact regardless of whether it is manifest. The second involves building on adverbialism to produce a semantics for property-manifestation according to which different members of a family of second-order properties of the foundational property are relevant to property manifestation at different times.     

What in the world are the ways things might have been?

Robert Stalnaker is an actualist who holds that merely possible worlds are uninstantiated properties that might have been instantiated. Stalnaker also holds that there are no metaphysically impossible worlds: uninstantiated properties that couldn't have been instantiated. These views motivate Stalnaker's "two dimensional" account of the necessary a posteriori on which there is no single proposition that is both necessary and a posteriori. For a (metaphysically) necessary proposition is true in all (metaphysically) possible worlds. If there were necessary a posteriori propositions, that would mean that there were propositions true in all possible worlds but which could only be known to be true by acquiring empirical evidence. Consider such a purported proposition P. The role of empirical evidence for establishing P's truth would have to be to rule out worlds in which P is false. If there were no such worlds to be ruled out, we would not require evidence for P. But by hypothesis, P is necessary and so true in all metaphysically possible worlds. And on Stalnaker's view, the metaphysically possible worlds are all the worlds there are. So there can be no proposition that is true in all possible worlds, but that we require evidence to know. In this way, the motivation for Stalnaker's two dimensional account of the necessary a posteriori rests on his denying that there are metaphysically impossible Worlds. I argue that given his view of what possible worlds are, Stalnaker has no principled reason for denying that there are metaphysically impossible worlds. If I am right, this undercuts Stalnaker's motivation for his two dimensional account of the necessary a posteriori.

From Social Withdrawal to Social Confidence: Evidence for Possible Pathways

Children born with a possible predisposition toward shyness face many social challenges. Researchers over the past four decades have begun to identify specific factors that influence shy children’s social skill development and their level of peer acceptance. The purpose of this article is to review factors across each developmental stage that have been found to either promote or hinder the development of social competence and peer acceptance in shy children. These factors include physiological differences, caregiver influences, emotion socialization, friendships, general peer support, coping skills, organized social activities, and socioeconomic status.     

Implicit memory influences the allocation of attention in visual cortex

The visual environment is highly regular, with particular objects frequently appearing in specific locations. Previous studies of visual search have shown that people take advantage of such regularities, detecting targets more quickly when they appear at a predictable location within a given spatial configuration. Moreover, this effect depends on implicit rather than explicit memory for the configurations. These studies have suggested that implicit long-term memory for contextual information influences the allocation of attention, modulating the flow of information through visual cortex. The present study used event-related potentials to provide the first direct support for this proposal. We suggest that this guidance of attention by implicit memory is important in the natural environment because it allows environmental regularities to influence perception without the intervention of limited-capacity conscious processes.     

Perfectionism and the five-factor model of personality

In this study of the discriminant, convergent, and incremental validity of the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R), university students completed the APS-R, additional measures of perfectionism, the NEO Five-Factor Inventory-Form S, and measures of self-esteem and depression. The results revealed expected significant, but not completely overlapping, associations between the APS-R Discrepancy subscale scores and the Five-Factor Model of Personality (FFM) dimension of Neuroticism, and between the APS-R High Standards and Order subscales and the FFM dimension of Conscientiousness. The incremental validity of APS-R scores over FFM dimensions was supported in analyses of self-esteem but not depression. The implications of these findings for further psychometric and clinical studies of perfectionism and facets of FFM dimensions are discussed.     

Malingering in toxic exposure: classification accuracy of reliable digit span and WAIS-III Digit Span scaled scores

This study examined the sensitivity and false-positive error rate of reliable digit span (RDS) and the WAIS-III Digit Span (DS) scaled score in persons alleging toxic exposure and determined whether error rates differed from published rates in traumatic brain injury (TBI) and chronic pain (CP). Data were obtained from the files of 123 persons referred for neuropsychological evaluation related to alleged exposure to environmental and industrial substances. Malingering status was determined using the criteria of Slick, Sherman, and Iverson (1999). The sensitivity and specificity of RDS and DS in toxic exposure are consistent with those observed in TBI and CP. These findings support the use of these malingering indicators in cases of alleged toxic exposure and suggest that the classification accuracy data of indicators derived from studies of TBI patients may also be validly applied to cases of alleged toxic exposure.     

The effect of type and timing of feedback on learning from multiple-choice tests

Two experiments investigated how the type and timing of feedback influence learning from a multiple-choice test. First, participants read 12 prose passages, which covered various general knowledge topics (e.g., The Sun) and ranged between 280 and 300 words in length. Next, they took an initial six-alternative, multiple-choice test on information contained in the passages. Feedback was given immediately for some of the multiple-choice items or after delay for other items. Participants were either shown the correct answer as feedback (standard feedback) or were allowed to keep answering until the correct answer was discovered (answer-until-correct feedback). Learning from the test was assessed on a delayed cued-recall test. The results indicated that delayed feedback led to superior final test performance relative to immediate feedback. However, type of feedback did not matter: discovering the correct answer through answer-until-correct feedback produced equivalent performance relative to standard feedback. This research suggests that delaying the presentation of feedback after a test is beneficial to learning because of the spaced presentation of information.     

Inferring the popularity of an opinion from its familiarity: a repetitive voice can sound like a chorus

Despite the importance of doing so, people do not always correctly estimate the distribution of opinions within their group. One important mechanism underlying such misjudgments is people's tendency to infer that a familiar opinion is a prevalent one, even when its familiarity derives solely from the repeated expression of 1 group member. Six experiments demonstrate this effect and show that it holds even when perceivers are consciously aware that the opinions come from 1 speaker. The results also indicate that the effect is due to opinion accessibility rather than a conscious inference about the meaning of opinion repetition in a group. Implications for social consensus estimation and social influence are discussed.     

Investigating the illusion of control in mildly depressed and nondepressed individuals during video-poker play

Cognitive fallacies, such as the illusion of control, and psychological disorders, such as depression, may perpetuate gambling and thus contribute to problem gambling (e.g., R. Ladouceur, C. Sylvan, C. Boutin, & C. Doucet, 2002). Gender differences may exist across these variables (e.g., N. M. Petry, 2005). The authors investigated these possibilities by recruiting mildly depressed and nondepressed individuals to play jacks or better, 5-card draw, video poker. Across three poker sessions, participants were given (a) no choice of which cards to play, (b) information on the best cards to play but control over which cards were played, or (c) no information and complete control over which cards were played. The total amount of money gambled increased as control over the game decreased, but this result correlated with an increase in the rate of play. Depressed and nondepressed participants did not differ in how they gambled, but men gambled significantly more and sometimes made more mistakes during play than did women. These results question the role of the illusion of control and depression in perpetuating gambling. They also suggest that providing players information about which cards to play may indirectly promote gambling and provide insight as to why men are more prone to suffer from gambling problems than are women.     

Religiosity and Spirituality: Influence on Quality of Life and Perceived Patient Self-Efficacy among Cardiac Patients and Their Spouses

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of spirituality, religiosity, and religious coping on quality of life and self-efficacy among couples following a first time cardiac event. There was no significant association between measures for spirituality and religiosity and couples’ ratings for quality of life and self-efficacy. Negative forms of religious coping were associated with lower levels of quality of life and decreased confidence in the patient’s ability to perform physical tasks. Spouses’ measures for quality of life, self-efficacy, spirituality, religiosity, and religious coping were associated with patients’ measures for the same study variables. Joan F. Miller, RN, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Nursing, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania 17815 and Director of the Bloomsburg University Nursing Wellness Center. The author gives special thanks to Timothy R. McConnell, Ph.D., and Troy A. Klinger, M.S., for their research support and helpful feedback.