How to be a deontic buck-passer

Philosophical Studies - Deontic, as opposed to evaluative buck-passing theories seem to be easier to accept, since there appears to be an intimate connection between deontic properties, such as...     

Specific effects of the Trier Social Stress Test on speech fluency in young and older adults

The notion that speech becomes less fluent during stressful speaking conditions has received little empirical test, and no research has tested this relationship in older adult participants. We analyzed speeches produced during the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) or during a less stressful placebo (pTSST) version of the task. We measured young and older adults’ speech fillers (e.g., um), unfilled pauses (at least 1 s in duration), and other disfluencies (e.g., repetitions, repairs). Neither young nor older adult participants rated themselves as having greater stress in the TSST than pTSST condition, but behavioral effects were obtained. Participants in the TSST condition produced more mid-phrase speech fillers and unfilled pauses than participants in the pTSST condition. Young adults produced more unfilled pauses than older adults overall, and older adults produced more mid-phrase fillers than young adults. Critically, age group interacted with experimental condition, such that older speakers produced disproportionately more mid-phrase fillers than young adults in the TSST compared to the pTSST condition. In sum, the negative effects of the TSST on fluency were generally similar across age, but this specific age-related increase in mid-phrase fillers indicates that older adults’ word retrieval may have been particularly negatively affected. Findings are generally consistent with previous research and add to understanding of how factors internal to the speaker (i.e., demographic, personality, and cognitive variables) and factors external to the speaker (i.e., variables regarding the situation, context, or content of speech) combine to affect speech fluency.     

Implementation and Assessment of an Empirically Validated Intervention Program to Prevent Tobacco Use Among African-American Middle-School Youth

Evaluated Project Towards No Tobacco Use (TNT), a tobacco-use prevention program delivered in schools with primarily African-American students. Students were assigned randomly by classroom to either the intervention (n=58) or to a no-treatment control group (n=40). Students in the intervention group received a curriculum-based program over the course of 10 sessions. Pre-and post-assessments of tobacco knowledge, attitudes, communication, peer refusal, and smoking tendency were gathered. Students in the intervention group differed from their peers in the control group by evidencing greater knowledge and communication skills. We found this tobacco-use prevention program useful for African-American students.This investigation was supported in full by the American Cancer Society Grant Award ACS IRG 97-151.     

The development of children's problem solving in a gears task: A problem space perspective

I examined two contexts of development in children's problem solving: (1) the macro-context of different age cohorts (8–9 vs 11–12 years of age); and (2) the micro-context of an approximately one-hour experimental session. Twenty subjects (even divided across sexes and these two age groups) were individually presented a collection of variously sized gears, a board onto which these gears could be easily attached and rotated, and a knob. Each subject was asked to find all solutions, in which two marked gears were turning the same way, and to represent these solutions graphically. Subjects applied four different problem spaces to the task: the Euclidean, the Kinematic, the Dynamic, and the Topological. The Arithmetic Modifier could be applied to any of these problem spaces, resulting in a numerical characterization of the gear constructions and/or production strategies. The 11–12's tended to shift problem spaces adaptively; the 8–9's seldom did so. Analysis of the pathways of transition between the problem spaces revealed a complex picture of partial or complete incorporation, and substitution.     

“Toxin handling” and well-being: The case of the human resources manager

This study uses the job demands–resources model and multiple role theory to gain an understanding of the “toxin handling–well-being” relationship. “Toxin handlers” are empathetic managers willing to try to address pain and suffering in organizations (Frost, 2007). We use data from semistructured, in-depth interviews with HR managers to investigate the impact of the toxin handling role on well-being. The interviews indicate that toxin handling does not necessarily lead to the toxin handler’s ill health, because factors such as organizational and personal resources can influence that relationship. Further, toxin handlers can face very different toxin handling demands. These differences in the toxin handler’s resources and demands can lead to the full spectrum of possible health consequences of toxin handling (from decreased to enhanced health) for different toxin handlers.     

Attention during visual secondary tasks in driving: Adaptation to the demands of the driving task

Visual attention in driving with visual secondary task is compared for two visual secondary tasks. N = 40 subjects completed a 1 h test drive in a motion-base driving simulator. During the drive, participants either solved an externally paced, highly demanding visual task or a self paced menu system task. The secondary tasks were offered in defined critical and non-critical driving situations. Eye movement behavior was analyzed and compared for both tasks. Before starting the secondary tasks, eye movement behavior shows a smaller standard deviation of gaze as well as longer fixation durations for both tasks. The comparison between the two tasks indicates that drivers use the possibilities the self paced task offers: during the secondary task, they monitor the driving scene with longer fixations and show a greater standard deviation of gaze position. Furthermore, independently of the type of secondary task, drivers adapt their eye movement behavior to the demands of the situation. In critical driving situations they direct a larger proportion of glance time to the driving task. Last, the relation between glance behavior and collisions is analyzed. Results indicate that collisions go together with an inadequate distribution of attention during distraction. The results are interpreted regarding the attentional processes involved in driving with visual secondary tasks. Based on the similarities and differences between the two secondary tasks, a cognitive approach is developed which assumes that the control of attention during distraction is based on a mental situational model of the driving situation.     

"Proper" Binormal ROC Curves: Theory and Maximum-Likelihood Estimation

The conventional binormal model, which assumes that a pair of latent normal decision-variable distributions underlies ROC data, has been used successfully for many years to fit smooth ROC curves. However, if the conventional binormal model is used for small data sets or ordinal-category data with poorly allocated category boundaries, a "hook" in the fitted ROC may be evident near the upper-right or lower-left corner of the unit square. To overcome this curve-fitting artifact, we developed a "proper" binormal model and a new algorithm for maximum-likelihood (ML) estimation of the corresponding ROC curves. Extensive simulation studies have shown the algorithm to be highly reliable. ML estimates of the proper and conventional binormal ROC curves are virtually identical when the conventional binormal ROC shows no "hook," but the proper binormal curves have monotonic slope for all data sets, including those for which the conventional model produces degenerate fits. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.