Properties in a Contingentist's Domain

This article attempts to make sense of property contingentism, the view that the metaphysical nature of properties is contingent. That is, it is contingent whether properties are universals or tropes or some other kind of entity. The article argues that even if one thinks that necessities are exhausted by conceptual truths and a posteriori necessities, the sort of methodology that can lead one to endorse contingentism in various domains in metaphysics does not give us good grounds to suppose that the nature of properties is contingent.     

Global precedence and response activation: Evidence from LRPs

Lateralized readiness potentials (LRPs) were measured in left/right/no-go tasks using compound global/local stimuli. In Experiment 1, participants responded to local target shapes and ignored global ones. RTs were affected by the congruence of the global shape with the local one, and LRPs indicated that irrelevant global shapes activated the responses with which they were associated. In Experiment 2, participants responded to conjunctions of target shapes at both levels, withholding the response if a target appeared at only one level. Global shapes activated responses in no-go trials, but local shapes did not. The results are consistent with partial-output models in which preliminary information about global shape can partially activate responses that are inconsistent with the local shape. They also demonstrate that part of the global advantage arises early, before response activation begins and probably before recognition of the local shape.     

VARIABLES RELATED TO BREAST SELF-EXAMINATION: Model Generation

Using a prospective design, variables from several relevant social psychological theories that would predict breast self-examination were identified. The participants included a probability sample of 362 women who were 35 or older. Instruments were tested for validity and reliability. Data were collected from each participant twice, 1 year apart, using an in-person interview for Time 1 and a telephone interview for Time 2. Results of standardized path coefficients (beta) indicated that breast self-examination (BSE) at Time 2 was directly related to BSE at Time 1 (.76). Indirect paths for susceptibility (.40), health motivation (.46), and barriers (-.54) were identified. All paths mentioned were significant (p5.01). Findings have implications for interventions to increase BSE in women 35 and older.