How Sex and College Major Relate to Mental Rotation Accuracy and Preferred Strategy: An Electroencephalographic (EEG) Investigation

The Psychological Record - The electroencephalogram (EEG) was used to investigate variation in mental rotation (MR) strategies between males and females and different college majors. Beta...     

Computability Issues for Adaptive Logics in Multi-Consequence Standard Format

In a rather general setting, we prove a number of basic theorems concerning computational complexity of derivability in adaptive logics. For that setting, the so-called standard format of adaptive logics is suitably adopted, and the corresponding completeness results are established in a very uniform way.     

Natural religion,common notions,and the study of religions: Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1583–1648)

While the seminal role of Lord Herbert in the early modern study of religion has long been recognized, his legacy has most often been mistakenly identified with ‘natural religion’. This article provides evidence for Lord Herbert's repudiation of ‘natural religion’ and its inconsistency with his own theory of common notions. It also identifies those basic tools still used in the study of religions which emerged as unintended by‐products of his theory of common notions.     

Philosophical intervention and cross-disciplinary science: the story of the Toolbox Project

In this article we argue that philosophy can facilitate improvement in cross-disciplinary science. In particular, we discuss in detail the Toolbox Project, an effort in applied epistemology that deploys philosophical analysis for the purpose of enhancing collaborative, cross-disciplinary scientific research through improvements in cross-disciplinary communication. We begin by sketching the scientific context within which the Toolbox Project operates, a context that features a growing interest in and commitment to cross-disciplinary research (CDR). We then develop an argument for the leading idea behind this effort, namely, that philosophical dialogue can improve cross-disciplinary science by effecting epistemic changes that lead to better group communication. On the heels of this argument, we describe our approach and its output; in particular, we emphasize the Toolbox instrument that generates philosophical dialogue and the Toolbox workshop in which that dialogue takes place. Together, these constitute a philosophical intervention into the life of CDR teams. We conclude by considering the philosophical implications of this intervention.     

Psychiatric Symptom Impairment in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

The general aim of this study was to examine the relation of psychiatric symptom-induced impairment with other common parameters of mental health in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Prevalence rates are used to illustrate the implications of different criteria for caseness. Parents/teachers completed DSM-IV-referenced rating scales for 6–12 year old children with ASD (N?=?115), the majority of whom were boys (86 %). Most children were rated by parents (81 %) or teachers (86 %) as being socially or academically impaired by symptoms of at least one psychiatric disorder. The most common impairing conditions (parent/teacher) were attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (67 %/71 %), oppositional defiant disorder (35 %/33 %), and anxiety disorder (47 %/34 %), and the combined rates based on either informant were generally much higher. Agreement between symptom cutoff and impairment cutoff was acceptable for most disorders. A larger percentage of youth were impaired by psychiatric symptoms than met symptom cutoff criteria, and the discrepancy between impairment cutoff and clinical cutoff (impairment cutoff plus symptom cutoff) was even greater. Impairment was moderately to highly correlated with both number and severity of symptoms. Parents’ and teachers’ ratings indicated little agreement as to whether a child was impaired. Findings for youth with ASD were similar to non ASD child psychiatry outpatient referrals, but clearly different in several ways from comparable studies of community-based samples.     

Disaster Impact Across Cultural Groups: Comparison of Whites, African Americans, and Latinos

The current study extends knowledge regarding the differential impact of natural disasters among White, African American, and Latino survivors of Hurricane Ike through its use of a large, regional sample recruited via representative sampling procedures to examine the associations between cultural identification and disaster impact, including loss, damage, and negative mental health outcomes. Consistent with previous research, results indicated disparities between cultural groups with regard to disaster exposure. Additionally, type of disaster impact was differentially associated with PTSD and depression status dependent on cultural group. Specifically, the extent of personal disaster exposure, property damage, and loss of services made significant contributions to PTSD status among White survivors. African-Americans were more likely than White and Latino Ike survivors to endorse post-disaster PTSD and depression and endorsement of depression was predicted by severity of property damage. With respect to Latino respondents, only the extent of personal disaster exposure significantly contributed to both PTSD and depression status. Implications of the current findings are discussed with regard to future disaster preparedness and response efforts and the implementation and evaluation of community-based disaster resources.     

Anxiety, Sensory Over-Responsivity, and Gastrointestinal Problems in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) experience high rates of anxiety, sensory processing problems, and gastrointestinal (GI) problems; however, the associations among these symptoms in children with ASD have not been previously examined. The current study examined bivariate and multivariate relations among anxiety, sensory over-responsivity, and chronic GI problems in a sample of 2,973 children with ASD enrolled in the Autism Treatment Network (ages 2–17 years, 81.6 % male). Twenty-four percent of the sample experienced at least one type of chronic GI problem (constipation, abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, and/or nausea lasting three or more months). Children with each type of GI problem had significantly higher rates of both anxiety and sensory over-responsivity. Sensory over-responsivity and anxiety were highly associated, and each provided unique contributions to the prediction of chronic GI problems in logistic regression analyses. The results indicate that anxiety, sensory over-responsivity and GI problems are possibly interrelated phenomenon for children with ASD, and may have common underlying mechanisms.     

A meta-analytic review of the Dark Triad–intelligence connection

We conducted a meta-analytic review of the relations between general mental ability (GMA) and the Dark Triad (DT) personality traits—Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy—to determine if individuals who display socially exploitative social qualities tend to be more intelligent or less intelligent. Across 48 independent samples, GMA showed no consistent relation with any DT trait. These effects were not sufficient to support either the “evil genius” hypothesis (highly intelligent individuals tend to display socially exploitative personality traits) or the “compensatory” hypothesis (less intelligent individuals compensate for their cognitive disadvantages by adopting manipulative behavioral tendencies). However, these relations were moderated, to some extent, by the sex and age of the participants, type of sample studied, and the measure of GMA.