Coordinating own and other perspectives in argument

What does it take to argue well? The goal of this series of studies was to better understand the cognitive skills entailed in argument, and their course of development, isolated from the verbal and social demands that argumentive discourse also entails. Findings indicated that young adolescents are less able than adults to coordinate attention to both positions in an argument, an age-related pattern that parallels one found in discourse. Contributing to this weakness was inattention to the opposing position (in both constrained and unconstrained formats), but not ability to address the opposing position when explicitly asked to do so. In addition to implementing the necessary dual focus, results point to the importance of developing epistemological understanding of the relevance of the opposing position to argument, as well as of the goals of argument more generally. The results also reflect the close parallels between dialogic and non-dialogic argument.     

Studying Complex Discursive Systems.

Scholars increasingly theorize about the power of communication to organize and structure social collectives. However, two factors threaten to impede research on these theories: limitations in the scope and range of existing methods for studying complex systems of communication and the large volume of communication produced by even small collectives. Centering resonance analysis (CRA) is a new text analysis method that has broad scope and range and can be applied to large quantities of written text and transcribed conversation. It identifies discursively important words and represents these as a network, then uses structural properties of the network to index word importance. CRA networks can be directly visualized and can be scored for resonance with other networks to support a number of spatial analysis methods. Following a critique of existing methodologies, this paper describes the theoretical basis and operational details of CRA, describes its advantages relative to other techniques, demonstrates its face validity and representational validity, and demonstrates its utility in modeling organizational knowledge. The conclusion argues for its applicability in several organizational research contexts before describing its potential for use in a broader range of applications, including media content analysis, conversation analysis, computer simulations, and models of communication systems.     

Misdirected by the gap: the relationship between inattentional blindness and attentional misdirection

In several of our articles we have drawn analogies between inattentional blindness paradigms and misdirection. Memmert (2010) however, has criticized this analogy and urged for caution in assuming too much of a close relationship between these two phenomena. Here we consider the points raised by Memmert and highlight some misunderstandings and omissions in his interpretation of our work, which substantially undermine his argument. Debating the similarities and differences between aspects of misdirection and inattentional blindness is valuable and has the potential to highlight the utility of these two phenomena. However, it is important not to be misdirected by subtle differences between particular instances of each phenomenon, at the expense of failing to detect the opportunities that these phenomena present for extending our understanding of attention and awareness.     

Correlational reasoning in an everyday context

In the context of everyday reasoning, individuals inferring a causal relation between an antecedent (A) and event (E) rarely have available as evidence for their inferences frequencies of all the four possible occurences, AE, A$\text{E}$, $\text{A}$E, and $\text{AE}$. The present study investigated the willingness of subjects in fourth, seventh, and tenth grades, and college to infer such a relation under the more typical condition of incomplete frequency data. There was some improvement with age, but even college subjects were remarkably willing to infer a relationship based on minimal data, notably the presence of cases in the AE cell. No subjects indicated the need for information regarding the remaining cells. Subsequent presentations of datafor the A$\text{E}$ cell did not substantially alter subjects' willingness to infer a relation, nor did subsequent presentation of data for the remaining two cells, despite the fact that complete frequency data indicated independence of A and E. A comparison group of subjects presented with all four cells at once showed somewhat more frequent application of quantitative reasoning strategies, but their willingness to infer a relationship between A and E was not notably less than that of subjects to whom the data were presented sequentially.     

The relation between formal operational reasoning and academic course selection and performance among college freshmen and sophomores

The significance of Inhelder and Piaget's (1958) construct of “formal operations” depends in part on establishing the extent to which formal operations have real-world relevance beyond the narrow domain of assessment situations in which Inhelder and Piaget studied them. The present research investigates this question by examining the effect of exhibiting a concrete versus formal operational level of reasoning in an isolation of variables task on academic program selection and performance of beginning college students over a two-year period. Students who reasoned at the concrete operational level did not differ from students matched on ACT scores who reasoned at a formal operational level with respect to either number of college credits obtained or overall grade point average. When courses were broken down into three categories, however, “formals” took significantly more science/math courses and received significantly higher grades in them. No differences were found in the other two categories: liberal arts/social sciences or activities/vocational courses. A further study of beginning college students already enrolled in science/math courses confirmed that very few concrete operational reasoners were present in these courses, suggesting that a process of self-selection is in operation.     

Quantifiers as modal operators

Montague, Prior, von Wright and others drew attention to resemblances between modal operators and quantifiers. In this paper we show that classical quantifiers can, in fact, be regarded as S5-like operators in a purely propositional modal logic. This logic is axiomatized and some interesting fragments of it are investigated.This paper is based in part on material in Chapter IV of [9]. I have benefited greatly from comments of Anthony M. Ungar.     

Clarifying an ambiguous functional analysis with matched and mismatched extinction procedures

Results of functional analysis were ambiguous in suggesting that self-injurious behavior (SIB) was maintained by escape, sensory reinforcement, or both. To help clarify these results, we compared escape extinction, sensory extinction, and the combined treatments. Sensory extinction proved to be a necessary and sufficient treatment, whereas escape extinction failed to decrease SIB. These analyses helped to clarify the function of SIB and to identify an effective and efficient treatment.