How a thing is called—A study of mothers' and children's naming

Mothers' selections of category names in object-naming tasks were examined using the levels of categorization defined by Eleanor Rosch (E. Rosch. In T. Moore (Ed.), Cognitive development and the acquisition of language, New York: Academic Press, 1973. E. Rosch. In E. Rosch & B. Lloyd (Eds.), Cognition and categorization. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1978. E. Rosch, C. Mervis, W. Gray, D. Johnson, & P. Boyes-Braem. Cognitive Psychology, 1976, 8, 382–439). The effect of three variables—Presentation Context, Taxonomy, and Age (of person for whom mother was naming the items)—on mothers' choice of category names, was also investigated. The stimuli were 36 photographs of common concrete objects representative of four taxonomies. Forty mothers named the stimulus items for their 2-year-olds (N = 20), for their 4-year-olds (N = 20), and for the Experimenter. The category labels that children of both ages used when naming the same items, and mothers' independent predictions of the names their children would use in the naming task, were recorded. Contextual factors were found to have a primary role in determining mothers' selections of category names and the three independent variables had a complex and dynamic effect on mothers' naming practices.     

Assessment of incarcerated juvenile delinquents: Agreement across raters and approaches to psychopathology

The purpose of the current study was to examine the agreement across three informants (youth, teacher, caretaker) when rating behaviors of incarcerated juvenile delinquents. Furthermore, the agreement between a dimensional approach (Child Behavior Checklist) and a categorical approach (DSM-III-R) of assessing behavior was examined. Fifty-two delinquent youth were assessed with a structured interview. In addition, the youth, teacher, and caretaker completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). The results indicated significant correlations across the teacher and caretaker for externalizing types of problems. The youth report form of the CBCL did not correspond to either adult informant. However, the ratings by the teacher and caretaker were related to externalizing types of problems, primarily hyperactivity/inattention, derived from the structured interview with the delinquent. The results suggest that, in the psychological assessment of incarcerated juvenile delinquents, agreement across informants is dependent on multiple factors, including type of behavior assessed and the approach utilized in assessment.This work was supported, in part, by the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council of Georgia, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the University of Georgia's Institute for Behavioral Research.     

Peat Bogs,Sperm, and Family Values: Teaching Naturalism Charitably

Introductory courses dealing with sex, gender and sexuality often assign excerpts from Thomas Aquinas as an exemplar of the naturalist view. Given that most novice students tend to side against such naturalism uncritically, they need to be exposed to a more charitable account of the biological considerations motivating a stance like Aquinas.’ With that in mind, this article presents accessible arguments aimed at restoring deliberative balance in the classroom.     

On Adjoint and Brain Functors

There is some consensus among orthodox category theorists that the concept of adjoint functors is the most important concept contributed to mathematics by category theory. We give a heterodox treatment of adjoints using heteromorphisms (object-to-object morphisms between objects of different categories) that parses an adjunction into two separate parts (left and right representations of heteromorphisms). Then these separate parts can be recombined in a new way to define a cognate concept, the brain functor, to abstractly model the functions of perception and action of a brain. The treatment uses relatively simple category theory and is focused on the interpretation and application of the mathematical concepts.