Cartesian or condillacian linguistics?

This paper intends to deal with Condillacian Linguistics. Although the Condillacian philosophy of mind and analysis of language were the most important in the late eighteenth century, none of them is mentioned in Chomsky's work (1966, Cartesian Linguistics). It would be useful for the history of Western thought if Chomsky's monumental error were generally recognized and if Condillacian Linguistics were at last to find the place it rightly deserves. The main thesis of Condillac's linguistic ideas (language is the first step in the analysis of thought) is briefly presented with reference to its context and consequences.     

Meaning,amount of processing,and memory for words

Two experiments were carried out in order to try to resolve the controversy about whether the semantic processing of a word necessarily involves all the elements of its meaning. In the first experiment, subjects categorized a list of auditorially presented words according to whether or not they were natural consumable solids (e.g., “apple“). They were then given an unexpected test of their ability to recall the whole list, which contained equal numbers of words with none, one, two, or all three of the target components. The results confirmed the prediction that the greater the number of components a word has in common with a target category, the better it will be recalled. The second experiment used a visual presentation of a list of words, which subjects scanned for members of a particular target category. There were four different target categories assigned to independent groups of subjects. The results again confirmed the prediction. On the assumption that memorability in such tasks is determined by amount of processing, we conclude that some elements of the meaning of a word can be processed without having to process all of them.     

A new computational method to fit the weighted euclidean distance model

This paper describes a computational method for weighted euclidean distance scaling which combines aspects of an analytic solution with an approach using loss functions. We justify this new method by giving a simplified treatment of the algebraic properties of a transformed version of the weighted distance model. The new algorithm is much faster than INDSCAL yet less arbitrary than other analytic procedures. The procedure, which we call SUMSCAL (subjectivemetricscaling), gives essentially the same solutions as INDSCAL for two moderate-size data sets tested.Comments by J. Douglas Carroll and J. B. Kruskal have been very helpful in preparing this paper.     

Validity and quantification in intuitionism

We distinguish three different readings of the intuitionistic notions of validity, soundness, and completeness with respect to the quantification occurring in the notion of validity, and we establish certain relations between the different readings. For each of the meta-logical notions considered we suggest that the most natural reading (which is not the same for all cases) is precisely the one which is required by the recent intuitionistic completeness theorems for IPC.This paper was partly written while the first author, H. C. M. de Swart, was a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University for the academic year 1976–1977. This opportunity was given to him by the Niels Stensen Stichting in Amsterdam, the department of philosophy of the Catholic University in Nijmegen and by Princeton University. He is happy to express his appreciation for that opportunity.     

A generalization of Kristof's theorem on the trace of certain matrix products

Kristof has derived a theorem on the maximum and minimum of the trace of matrix products of the form \(X_1 \hat \Gamma _1 X_2 \hat \Gamma _2 \cdots X_n \hat \Gamma _n\) where the matrices \(\hat \Gamma _i\) are diagonal and fixed and theX _i vary unrestrictedly and independently over the set of orthonormal matrices. The theorem is a useful tool in deriving maxima and minima of matrix trace functions subject to orthogonality constraints. The present paper contains a generalization of Kristof's theorem to the case where theX _i are merely required to be submatrices of orthonormal matrices and to have a specified maximum rank. The generalized theorem contains the Schwarz inequality as a special case. Various examples from the psychometric literature, illustrating the practical use of the generalized theorem, are discussed.     

Assertive training for agoraphobics

Twenty-one unassertive agoraphobic patients were assigned to one of three treatments: (1) prolonged exposure in vivo, (2) assertive training and (3) a combination of assertive training and prolonged exposure in vivo. Each treatment was conducted in groups which were led by two therapists. Assessments involved both phobic targets and assertiveness, and were made before and after treatment, and at 1-month follow-up. Exposure in vivo was found to be superior to assertive training on phobic targets. Assertive training produced greater gains in assertiveness than exposure in vivo. The combination of treatments produced results comparable to exposure in viro. Results indicated that the type of change produced by the treatments is a rather specific one and is related to the specific target of treatment.     

Group psychotherapy in chronic psychiatric outpatients: a Toronto model.

Seventy to 80 chronic psychiatric patients are treated in an aftercare clinic with a goal of tertiary preventive care. The major component of the treatment approach is reality-oriented group psychotherapy with an emphasis on interpersonal relationships. Attention to three factors in group psychotherapy with this population of patients has facilitated our work and outcome. These are the concept of the core group, diagnostic heterogeneity, and staff structure.