Bergmann’s dilemma: exit strategies for internalists

Michael Bergmann claims that all versions of epistemic internalism face an irresolvable dilemma. We show that there are many plausible versions of internalism that falsify this claim. First, we demonstrate that there are versions of “weak awareness internalism” that, contra Bergmann, do not succumb to the “Subject’s Perspective Objection” horn of the dilemma. Second, we show that there are versions of “strong awareness internalism” that do not fall prey to the dilemma’s “vicious regress” horn. We note along the way that these versions of internalism do not, in avoiding one horn of the dilemma, succumb to the dilemma’s other horn. The upshot is that internalists have many available strategies for avoiding dilemmatic defeat.     

Selective responses to threat: the roles of race and gender in decisions to shoot

Extensive work over the past decade has shown that race can bias perceptions and responses to threat. However, the previous work focused almost exclusively on responses to men and overlooked how gender and the interaction of race and gender influence decisions regarding use of force. In the current article, two studies examine the implications of gender (Study 1) and both race and gender (Study 2) for decisions to shoot criminal suspects on a computerized simulation. In Study 1, participants were biased away from shooting White female suspects compared to White male suspects. In Study 2, White participants showed a pronounced bias toward shooting Black men but a bias away from shooting Black women and White ingroup members, providing evidence of a behavioral threat-related response specific to outgroup men stereotypically associated with aggression. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Does Anxiety Improve Voters' Decision Making?

Affective Intelligence (AI) theory proposes to answer a fundamental question about democracy: how it succeeds even though most citizens pay little attention to politics. AI contends that, when circumstances generate sufficient anxiety, citizens make informed and thoughtful political decisions. In Ladd and Lenz (2008 ), we showed that two simpler depictions of anxiety's role can explain the vote interactions that apparently support AI. Here, we again replicate Marcus, Neuman and MacKuen's (2000 )'s voting model, which they contend supports AI, and again show that it is vulnerable to these alternative explanations, regardless of how candidate choice is measured. We also briefly review the broader literature and discuss Brader's (2005, 2006 ) important experimental results. Although the literature undoubtedly supports other aspects of AI, few studies directly test AI's voting claims, which were the focus of our reassessment. In our view, the only study that does so while ruling out the two alternatives is our analysis of the 1980 ANES Major Panel ( Ladd & Lenz, 2008 ), which finds no support for AI, but ample support for the alternatives. None of the responses to Ladd and Lenz (2008 ) addresses these findings. Overall, evidence that anxiety helps solve the problem of voter competence remains sparse and vulnerable to alternative explanations.     

Peer status in an ethnic context: Associations with African American adolescents' ethnic identity

This investigation examined the association between ethnic identity centrality and peer status for African American adolescents who represented a sizable proportion, yet numerical minority within a high school context. Initial analyses indicated that a traditional sociometric nomination procedure did not adequately characterize peer status for African American adolescents. A modified nomination procedure varying the ethnicity of nominators yielded measures of African American adolescents' peer acceptance/rejection and perceived popularity as rated by African American or European American peers. Results suggest that high levels of peer acceptance and popularity as rated by African American peers were associated with high ethnic identity centrality; however, acceptance and popularity as rated by European American peers were unrelated to ethnic identity centrality among African American adolescents. Findings suggest the importance of examining peer status of African American adolescents with consideration given to ethnicity as a relevant context.     

Imprisoned by the past: unhappy moods lead to a retrospective bias to mind wandering

Evidence suggests that mind wandering is a frequent accompaniment to an unhappy mood. Building on such work, two laboratory experiments used mood induction to assess whether the greater frequency of mind wandering in a low mood is also accompanied by a shift towards a focus on events from the past. Experiment 1 induced moods via video and induction of an unhappy mood was associated with a greater tendency for past-related mind wandering as measured by a post-task questionnaire. In Experiment 2, negative and positive moods were induced in a group of participants using the Velten mood-induction procedure and the temporal focus of mind wandering was measured using experience sampling probes. Analyses indicated that induction of an unhappy mood led to an increase in past-related mind wandering and the magnitude of this change increased with scores on a measure of depressive symptoms. Together these experiments suggest that when the mind wanders in an unhappy mood it is drawn to events from its past.     

Reducing Psychotropic Medications in an Intensive Residential Treatment Center

Medication rates in behaviorally disordered children and youth have greatly increased to current high levels and are very controversial. This study examined changes in psychotropic medication use, levels of behavioral disturbance, and use of personal restraint and seclusion in a population of youth with serious behavioral disorders receiving medically directed cognitive-behavioral treatment in an intensive residential setting. The hypothesis was that there would be significant reductions in medication rates, without the unintended consequences of increased rates of problem behavior or offsetting increases in the use of seclusion or personal restraint. Results showed significant reductions in both the number of youth on medication and the average number of psychotropic medications during the residential stay. There were also significant reductions in behavioral disturbance, seclusions, and personal restraints. These results demonstrate that psychotropic medication can be significantly reduced without increases in problem behavior or the use of seclusions or personal restraints. We conclude that it is possible to significantly reduce psychotropic medication rates to far more conservative levels within the context of a clinically directed cognitive-behavioral treatment milieu.     

Psychotropic Medication Management Within Residential Treatment Centers: Physician Opinions About Difficulties and Barriers

Research has shown that between 40 and 98 % of youth entering residential treatment are taking at least one psychotropic medication and that psychotropic medication management is often an integral component of treatment in residential settings. To determine physician opinion about the difficulty of managing psychotropic medications for youth in residential treatment and to determine the resources that are used in the process, a survey study was conducted. Overall, physicians indicated that youth involved in residential settings were much more complex than those in traditional outpatient settings, due to multiple mental health diagnoses, polypharmacy, and unknown treatment histories. They also reported that many existing resources are not applicable to youth, particularly those in residential settings, and that they are difficult to read and interpret.     

Integration of visuospatial information encoded from different viewpoints

Two experiments investigated whether separate sets of objects viewed in the same environment but from different views were encoded as a single integrated representation or maintained as distinct representations. Participants viewed two circular layouts of objects that were placed around them in a round (Experiment 1) or a square (Experiment 2) room and were later tested on perspective-taking trials requiring retrieval of either one layout (within-layout trials) or both layouts (between-layout trials). Results from Experiment 1 indicated that participants did not integrate the two layouts into a single representation. Imagined perspective taking was more efficient on within- than on between-layout trials. Furthermore, performance for within-layout trials was best from the perspective that each layout was studied. Results from Experiment 2 indicated that the stable environmental reference frame provided by the square room caused many, but not all, participants to integrate all locations within a common representation. Participants who integrated performed equally well for within-layout and between-layout judgments and also represented both layouts using a common reference frame. Overall, these findings highlight the flexibility of organizing information in spatial memory.     

On the importance of being first: Serial order effects in the interaction between action plans and ongoing actions

When we plan sequences of actions, we must hold some elements of the sequence in working memory (WM) while we execute others. Research shows that execution of an action can be delayed if it partly overlaps (vs. does not overlap) with another action plan maintained in WM (partial repetition cost). However, it is not known whether all features of the action maintained in WM interfere equally with current actions. Most serial models of memory and action assume that interference will be equal, because all action features in the sequence should be activated to an equal degree in parallel; others assume that action features earlier in the sequence will interfere more than those later in the sequence, because earlier features will be more active. Using a partial repetition paradigm, this study examined whether serial position of action features in action sequences maintained in WM have an influence on current actions. Two stimulus events occurred in a sequence, and participants planned and maintained an action sequence to the first event (action A) in WM while executing a speeded response to the second event (action B). Results showed delayed execution of action B when it matched the first feature in the action A sequence (partial repetition cost), but not when it matched the last feature. These findings suggest that serial order is represented in the action plan prior to response execution, consistent with models that assume that serial order is represented by a primacy gradient of parallel feature activation prior to action execution.     

THE DEVELOPMENT OF FALSE‐POSITIVE OUTCOMES DURING FUNCTIONAL ANALYSES OF PROBLEM BEHAVIOR

False‐positive outcomes of functional analyses exist when exposure to the consequences in a condition strengthens a relation that did not previously exist. Two functional analyses (aggression and spitting) were conducted with a child with an intellectual disability. High rates of problem behavior occurred immediately in the attention condition of the functional analysis across response topographies, suggesting a clear functional response class. However, rates of aggression and spitting increased in the demand condition, following the initial block of sessions, indicating the possible creation of a novel contingent relation for spitting. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.