On believing,saying and expressing

Examines the connections among believing, saying, and expressing in situations where the sentence used is a declarative sentence containing at least one proper name. Proposes a new way of understanding these connections. Develops an argument for the thesis that, although we typically believe the singular propositions expressed by our uses of name sentences, we rarely use such sentences because we believe those propositions.     

History,philosophy, and science teaching: A brief review

School science education is currently the subject of much debate. Historians and philosophers of science should play a role in this debate. Since the late nineteenth century there has been a persistent, if minor, tradition arguing for the incorporation of historical and philosophical dimensions in the teaching of school science. With the current crisis in science teaching, there are encouraging signs that more attention is being paid to this tradition. What is required is much greater collaboration between philosophers, historians, and science educators, particularly in the training of teachers.This article is a shortened version of my 1988, A Role for History and Philosophy in Science Teaching, inEducational Philosophy and Theory 20 (2). All references are to the following History, Philosophy, and Science Teaching: A Bibliography.This special number ofSynthese is part of a large international project on the place of history and philosophy in science teaching. Special issues ofEducational Philosophy and Theory, Interchange, andStudies in Philosophy and Education are being produced. An international conference on the subject will be held at Florida State University in November 1989. Details of the journals and the conference can be obtained from the author.The project commenced while the author was on leave at Florida State University in 1987. It began with a gracious invitation from Jaakko Hintikka to guest edit this number, and was furthered with the support and encouragement of David Gruender. I thank them both, and also the Philosophy Department for its hospitality. Special appreciation is due to the nearly 30 authors who have contributed papers to the project. I hope that their efforts will re-open the needed dialogue between historians, philosophers, and science educators.     

Timed magnitude comparisons of numerical and nonnumerical expressions of uncertainty

Two experiments involving paired comparisons of numerical and nonnumerical expressions of uncertainty are reported. Subjects were timed under two opposing sets of instructions ("choose higher probability" vs. "choose lower probability"). Numerical comparisons were consistently faster and easier than their nonnumerical counterparts. Consistent distance and congruity effects were obtained, illustrating that both numerical and nonnumerical expressions of uncertainty contain subjective magnitude information, and suggesting that similar processes are employed in manipulating and comparing numerical and verbal terms. To account for the general pattern of results obtained, Holyoak's reference point model (1978) was generalized by explicitly including the vagueness of the nonnumerical expressions. This generalized model is based on the notion that probability expressions can be represented by membership functions (Wallsten, Budescu, Rapoport, Zwick, & Forsyth, 1986) from which measures of location for each word, and measures of overlap for each pair can be derived. A good level of fit was obtained for this model at the individual level.     

Linguistic encoding in short-term memory as a function of stimulus type

In this study, we investigated bases for encoding linguistic stimuli in short-term memory. Past research has provided evidence for both phonological (sound-based) and cherological (sign-based) encoding, the former typically found with hearing subjects and the latter with deaf users of sign language. In the present experiment, encoding capabilities were delineated from encoding preferences, using 58 subjects comprising six groups differing in hearing ability and linguistic experience. Phonologically related, cherologically related, and control lists were presented orally, manually, or through both modalities simultaneously. Recall performance indicated that individuals encode flexibly, the code actually used being biased by incoming stimulus characteristics. Subjects with both sign and speech experience recalled simultaneous presentations better than ones presented orally or manually alone, which reveals the occurrence of enhanced encoding as a function of linguistic experience. Total linguistic experience appeared to determine recall accuracy following different types of encoding, rather than determining the encoding basis used.     

Retrieval plus scanning: Does it occur?

In the two experiments reported here, we tested the retrieval-plus-scan model of delayed probe recognition by adding a second probe 2 sec after subjects had responded to the first probe. According to this model, the list items should still be in consciousness from the first probe at the time of the second probe. Consequently, on tests in which the first probe had been tested immediately, we expected to find the same pattern of performance on both first and second probes. On tests in which the first probe came after a filled delay, we expected the first-probe data to show the effects of retrieval and proactive interference. These effects should not be present on the second probe. The results of the first-probe data in both experiments were consistent with the retrieval-plus-scan model. The second-probe data did not fit the model, however. In the first experiment, the second probe on what had been delayed first-probe trials still produced intercept differences, indicating the presence of retrieval. In the second experiment, the effects of proactive interference were still present on the second probe. It is suggested that these results not only invalidate the retrieval-plus-scan model for delayed probe recognition but that they, along with other results, cast doubt on a scanning operation in immediate probe recognition.     

Altering memory through recall: The effects of cue-guided retrieval processing

Three experiments were designed to investigate the influence of initial recall on memory by assessing delayed recall after different immediate cued-recall tests. In all experiments, subjects performed semantic and phonemic encoding tasks on a word list. The subjects then received a cued-recall test that cued the target using the same word as the context word in the encoding task, a test that cued the target with a word from the same level at which the target was encoded, a test that cued the target with a cue from a different level at which the target was encoded, or no immediate-recall test. One day later, the subjects performed a final cued-recall test in which the type of cue (semantic or phonemic) was varied. Consistently, delayed recall was facilitated primarily when the cue on the immediate test was from the same level as the cue on the delayed test. This pattern of facilitation suggests that immediate cued-recall produces an elaboration of an existing memory representation that is closely tied to the type of cue used on the immediate test.     

Evoked potentials and the study of sentence comprehension

Evoked brain potentials were used to monitor moment-by-moment decisions during language comprehension. Subjects read sentences containing temporary syntactic ambiguities for which one of the possible interpretations was semantically implausible. The N400 component of the evoked potential, which is sensitive to implausibility, was used to discover when during a sentence subjects made a decision about the ambiguity. The results demonstrate that readers try to interpret a syntactic ambiguity early in a sentence rather than waiting for disambiguating information. This introduces a new way to use brain activity to study sentence comprehension processes.     

Regional cerebral blood flow for singers and nonsingers while speaking, singing, and humming a rote passage

Two groups of singers (n = 12,13) and a group of nonsingers (n = 12) each produced the national anthem by (1) speaking and (2) singing the words and by (3) humming the melody. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured at rest and during each phonation task from seven areas in each hemisphere by the 133Xe-inhalation method. Intrahemisphere, interhemisphere, and global rCBF were generally similar across phonation tasks and did not yield appreciable differences among the nonsingers and the singers.     

The relationship between variability of intertap intervals and interval duration

Summary Subjects tracked intervals in a synchronization paradigm at interval durations of 180, 210, 240, 270, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, and 1,000 ms. The variability of intertap intervals (ITIs) shows a sudden increase near 300 ms. This increase is interpreted as indicating the transition from automatic to controlled movement. It is suggested that the sudden change in the variability of ITIs does not reflect the operation of different timing mechanisms at short and long intervals, but differences in the way in which attentional processes come to bear on movement initiation for different interval durations. In contrast to previous findings reported in the literature, a U-shaped function between interval duration and variability in the 300-to-1,000-ms range was not observed.     

Forecasting the impact of the federal sentencing guidelines

The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, which created the U.S. Sentencing Commission, required that the commisson consider prison capacity in drafting sentencing guidelines. As part of the commission's efforts to meet this requirement, we developed a computer simulation capable of projecting the impact of the commission's guidelines on future sentences and prison populations. According to our projections, “straight” probation sentences will be reduced significantly under the guidelines. However, reducing the use of probation will generate only modest demands on the prisons, and then mostly for community corrections phased in over the course of 5 years. We also project that, while average time served for violent offenses will increase substantially, average time served for most property crimes will remain largely the same. Finally, while we forecast that federal prison populations will grow markedly by the end of this century, this is more a result of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 and the career offender provision of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 than a result of the guidelines.