Conditioned suppression/avoidance as a procedure for testing hearing in birds: The domestic pigeon (Columba livia)

Although the domestic pigeon is commonly used in learning experiments, it is a notoriously difficult subject in auditory psychophysical experiments, even those in which it need only respond when it detects a sound. This is because pigeons tend to respond in the absence of sound—that is, they have a high false-positive rate—which makes it difficult to determine a pigeon’s audiogram. However, false positives are easily controlled in the method of conditioned suppression/avoidance, in which a pigeon is trained to peck a key to obtain food and to stop pecking whenever it detects a sound that signals impending electric shock. Here, we describe how to determine psychophysical thresholds in pigeons using a method of conditioned suppression in which avoidable shock is delivered through a bead chain wrapped around the base of a pigeon’s wings. The resulting audiogram spans the range from 2 to 8000 Hz; it falls approximately in the middle of the distribution of previous pigeon audiograms and supports the finding of Kreithen and Quine (Journal of Comparative Physiology 129:1–4, 1979) that pigeons hear infrasound.     

Motivation in Personal Construct Theory: A Conceptual Critique

Kelly's attempt to derive apparently motiwtional phenomena (hostility, guilt, etc.) solely from the confirmation or disconfirmation of personal constructs cannot adequately explain such phenomena. His account of hostility assumes that some beliefs are so resistant to change that the person seeks to compel confirmation of them; however, this resistance is incompatible with Kelly's own Choice Corollary. Anxiety is said to derive from the fact that disconfirmation would leave one's world in chaos, but “chaos” is shown to be an illogical concept. Humor, in turn, cannot be explained just by cognitive incongruity, since incongruity may as well lead to anxiety or hostility. Finally, guilt cannot be explained without reference to underlying fears of punishment and their rationalization in terms of supposedly objective moral concepts. Nevertheless, Kelly's Repertory Grid technique, supplemented by laddering, may be useful in indicating primary needs, moral convictions, and sources of anxiety.     

Functional Somatic Syndromes and Childhood Physical Abuse in Women: Data From a Representative Community-Based Sample

This study investigated whether childhood physical abuse was associated with functional somatic syndromes (FSS) in women while controlling for age, race, and four clusters of potentially confounding factors: (a) Other childhood adversities, (b) adult health behaviors, (c) socioeconomic status and stressors, and (d) mental health. A regional subsample of the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey of 7,342 women was used. Women reported whether they had been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia (Fm), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), or multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS). Fully 749 reported having been physically abused by someone close to them during their youth. When controlling for potentially confounding factors, childhood physical abuse was significantly associated with CFS (OR = 2.11; 95% CI = 1.22, 3.65), Fm (OR = 1.65; 95% CI = 1.08, 2.52), and MCS (OR = 2.82; 95% = CI 1.90, 4.17). Clinicians using reattribution and stepped care approaches in the management of FSS should assess for a history of abuse.     

Foster Care Youth Share Stories of Trauma Before,During, and After Placement: Youth Voices for Building Trauma-Informed Systems of Care

Many research studies address child trauma experiences that take place before foster care placement. However, few studies focus on the types and patterns of trauma experiences that reportedly take place during and after foster care placement; that is, after entry into adult living. This study examined the testimony of 43 foster care youth who spoke to a listening panel comprised of state legislators, child welfare professionals, and university educators. Qualitative analyses of transcribed text data revealed 3 main themes. First, the youth reported experiencing trauma before, during, and after placement. Second, the youth described trauma events and situations that were chronic (i.e., intense, composite, or cumulative). Third, youth offered suggestions for reducing traumatic experiences for foster care youth. They recommended earlier family interventions, access to people who listen and care, improved parenting skills for foster parents, continuity of relationships, and opportunities for leadership for foster youth. Foster youth voices offer important suggestions for building, strengthening, and evaluating trauma-informed systems of care.     

Inclusive infinity and radical particularity: Hegel,Hartshorne and Nishida

Three writers who utilize a similar metaphysics to understand the relationship between Ultimate Reality and conventional reality are compared. The metaphysics of what I call an inclusive Infinity is the common thread employed in comparing the thought of Hegel, Hartshorne and Nishida. I contrast the concept of inclusive Infinity with that of radical particularity and argue that people are private centers of conscious awareness who cannot be encompassed within an infinity or totality. Because of the individuality and uniqueness of particulars, there can be no absolutely inclusive Infinite.     

Congenital hypothyroidism: an analysis of persisting deficits and associated factors.

Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is a neonatal disorder that is caused by a prolonged loss of thyroid hormone, which is essential for early brain development. While CH was once the leading cause of mental retardation, newborn screening for CH now allows for early identification and treatment. As a result, affected children now show normal physical and psychological development. Nevertheless, because they still undergo a brief but circumscribed period of thyroid hormone insufficiency, they are at risk for subtle selective impairments. This paper examines several of the persisting deficits observed in children with CH that was identified early in life by newborn screening as well as the relevant disease- and treatment-related factors contributing to such deficits. Highlighted will be (a) a weakness in visuospatial processing, which is associated with prenatal thyroid hormone insufficiency, (b) selective memory deficits associated with postnatal thyroid hormone insufficiencies, (c) a weakness in sensorimotor abilities also reflecting postnatal thyroid hormone insufficiencies, and (d) attention deficits, which are due to abnormal thyroid hormone levels at time of testing. Because these four disabilities implicate different neural substrates, the findings described presently will provide insights as to the specific time windows when different brain structures in the human critically need thyroid hormone.     

Aristotle on Pleasure and the Worst Form of Akrasia

The focus of this paper is Aristotle's solution to the problem inherited from Socrates: How could a man fail to restrain himself when he believes that what he desires is wrong? In NE 7 Aristotle attempts to reconcile the Socratic denial of akrasia with the commonly held opinion that people act in ways they know to be bad, even when it is in their power to act otherwise. This project turns out to be largely successful, for what Aristotle shows us is that if we distinguish between two ways of having knowledge (‘potentially’ and ‘actually’), the Socratic thesis can effectively account for a wide range of cases (collectively referred to here as ‘drunk-akrasia’) in which an agent acts contrary to his general knowledge of the Good, yet can still be said to ‘know’ in the qualified sense that his actions are wrong. However, Book 7 also shows that the Socratic account of akrasia cannot take us any farther than drunk-akrasia, for unlike drunk-akrasia, genuine akrasia cannot be reduced to a failure of knowledge. This agent knows in the unqualified sense that his actions are wrong. The starting-point of my argument is that Aristotle's explanation of genuine akrasia requires a different solution than the one found in NE 7 which relies on the distinction between qualified and unqualified ‘knowing’: genuinely akratic behaviour is due to the absence of an internal conflict that a desire for the ‘proper’ pleasures of temperance would create if he could experience them.     

Are there degrees of belief?

John Maynard Keynes claimed that not all probabilities were comparable. Frank Ramsey argued that they were, and that Keynes's views to the contrary rested on a confusion of degree of entailment and degree of belief. We will argue that Keynes and Ramsey largely talked past each other, and yet that there are issues of great significance underlying their dispute. In particular, the simple principle of maximizing expected utility may be seen in a new light as one step of a rich and complex process.