The logical structure of linguistic commitment II: Systems of relevant commitment entailment

In The Logical Structure of Linguistic Commitment I (The Journal of Philosophical Logic 23 (1994), 369–400), we sketch a linguistic theory (inspired by Brandom's Making it Explicit) which includes an expressivist account of the implication connective, : the role of is to make explicit the inferential proprieties among possible commitments which proprieties determine, in part, the significances of sentences. This motivates reading (A B) as commitment to A is, in part, commitment to B. Our project is to study the logic of . LSLC I approximates (A B) as anyone committed to A is committed to B, ignoring issues of whether A is relevant to B. The present paper includes considerations of relevance, motivating systems of relevant commitment entailment related to the systems of commitment entailment of LSLC I. We also consider the relevance logics that result from a commitment reading of Fine's semantics for relevance logics, a reading that Fine suggests.     

A year’s memories: The calendar effect in autobiographical recall

When asked to recall autobiographical events from the past year, students tend to recall more incidents from the beginning and the end of school terms than from other periods. We investigated thiscalendar effect in Experiment 1 by comparing free recall at schools with different academic calendars. The event distributions tracked the individual calendars, helping to eliminate the possibility that the calendar effect is due to seasonal, nonschool factors, such as holidays. In Experiments 2–4, we checked explanations based on the ideas that events at term boundaries are more important or distinctive than others, that events are incorrectly dated too near the boundaries, and that boundaries serve as implicit cues for recall. These experiments revealed no evidence that importance or errors in dating could explain the effect. Manipulating cues, however, did change the size of the effect, implicating retrieval from very long-term memory as the effect’s source. We suggest that when people have to search episodic memory, they consider their own calendar rhythms (such as a student’s academic schedule) and let the temporal structure of their personal context guide their search.     

Investigating Relationships Among Distress Tolerance,PTSD Symptom Severity,and Alcohol Use

Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment - Exposure to trauma (particularly interpersonal trauma), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and low distress tolerance (DT; the...     

A Qualitative Study of the Interplay Between Privilege and Oppression

In this qualitative study, the authors explored how an individual's privileged social or cultural group statuses (e.g., being White, male, or heterosexual) may work in combination with an individual's oppressed group statuses (e.g., being African American, a woman, or lesbian/gay/bisexual) in shaping the individual's multicultural experiences. En este estudio cualitativo, los autores exploraron cóomo la posición social o cultural privilegiada de una persona (por ejemplo, ser Blanco, hombre, o heterosexual) puede trabajar en combinación con las posiciones oprimidas del grupo a quien pertenece el individuo (por ejemplo, ser Africano Americano, mujer, olesbiana/gay/bisexual) cuando se estan formando las experiencias multiculturales del individuo.     

Do children learn the integers by induction?

According to one theory about how children learn the meaning of the words for the positive integers, they first learn that "one," "two," and "three" stand for appropriately sized sets. They then conclude by inductive inference that the next numeral in the count sequence denotes the size of sets containing one more object than the size denoted by the preceding numeral. We have previously argued, however, that the conclusion of this Induction does not distinguish the standard meaning of the integers from nonstandard meanings in which, for example, "ten" could mean set sizes of 10, 20, 30,... elements. Margolis and Laurence [Margolis, E., & Laurence, S. (2008). How to learn the natural numbers: Inductive inference and the acquisition of number concepts. Cognition, 106, 924-939] believe that our argument depends on attributing to children "radically indeterminate" concepts. We show, first, that our conclusion is compatible with perfectly determinate meanings for "one" through "three." Second, although the inductive inference is indeed indeterminate - which is why it is consistent with nonstandard meanings - making it determinate presupposes the constraints that the inference is supposed to produce.     

Examining the Differential Item Functioning of the Rosenberg Self‐Esteem Scale Across Eight Countries1

We examined the differential item functioning (DIF) of Rosenberg's (1965 ) Self‐Esteem Scale (RSES) and compared scores from U.S. participants with those from 7 other countries: Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Kenya, South Africa, Singapore, and Taiwan. Results indicate that DIF was present in all comparisons. Moreover, controlling for latent self‐esteem, participants from individualistic countries had an easier time reporting high self‐esteem on self‐competence‐related items, whereas participants from communal countries had an easier time reporting high self‐esteem on self‐liking items ( Tafarodi & Milne, 2002 ). After adjusting for DIF, we found larger mean self‐esteem differences between the countries than observed scores initially indicated. The suitability of the RSES, and the importance of examining DIF, for cross‐cultural research are discussed.     

Voluntary manual exploration and vision in rod bisection

Two experiments were carried out to investigate contributions of voluntary manual exploration and vision to rod-bisection performance when the rod was placed in different spatial positions. Analysis showed both voluntary manual exploration and vision contributed to the accuracy of rod-bisection performance in healthy adults (Exp. 1: 12 men, 13 women; Exp. 2: 10 men, 11 women). Advantages of voluntary manual exploration were related to rod position and initial search direction. Results are discussed with regard to ecological approach to action and perception, two cortical systems (ventral and dorsal streams) for perception and control of actions, and the hemispheric activation hypothesis.     

Nonverbal arithmetic in humans: light from noise

Animal and human data suggest the existence of a cross-species system of analog number representation (e.g., Cordes, Gelman, Gallistel, & Whalen, 2001; Meeck & Church, 1983), which may mediate the computation of statistical regularities in the environment (Gallistel, Gelman, & Cordes, 2006). However, evidence of arithmetic manipulation of these nonverbal magnitude representations is sparse and lacking in depth. This study uses the analysis of variability as a tool for understanding properties of these combinatorial processes. Human subjects participated in tasks requiring responses dependent upon the addition, subtraction, or reproduction of nonverbal counts. Variance analyses revealed that the magnitude of both inputs and answer contributed to the variability in the arithmetic responses, with operand variability dominating. Other contributing factors to the observed variability and implications for logarithmic versus scalar models of magnitude representation are discussed in light of these results.     

Predictors of Successful Completion of a Postincarceration Drug Treatment Program

Using secondary analysis, this study compared the characteristics of 1,763 parolees with substance abuse problems who successfully completed a post incarceration drug treatment program with those who did not. Those who completed the program were more likely to be women who had not used drugs 30 days before program admission, had fewer prior treatment experiences, remained in the program longer, and had secured employment and stable living arrangements by the time of discharge. Implications for treatment and program development are discussed.