Value beyond truth-value: a practical response to skepticism

Synthese - I aim to offer a practical response to skepticism. I begin (in section one) by surveying a family of responses to skepticism that I term “dogmatic” and argue that they are...     

To Fail or Not to Fail? Implications of Extinction on Creativity and Problem-Solving Behavior

The Psychological Record - According to Epstein (1985), extinction is one of the main processes for creative problem solving. To test this assertion, we present an experiment in which we...     

Direct versus Indirect Well-Being Measures: Using Partially Structured Stimuli to Evaluate Well-Being

Given the important limitations of direct (explicit) measures, the study of indirect (implicit) measures of psychological constructs has received increased attention of social researchers. However, in the field of well-being the measures that have traditionally been used have tried to capture people’s well-being in an explicit and direct way, with some exceptions that are based mainly on adaptations of the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Given the critics that the IAT has received, the first aim of the present research was to develop a new life satisfaction measure using partially structured stimuli (PSWBS). The second goal was to examine the relation between direct and indirect well-being measures. In the first study, PSWBS showed good internal consistency, test–retest reliability and construct validity. Factorial analyses indicated that this measure acted as an indirect measure. In addition, direct and indirect well-being showed a significant but weak relation. To explain this result, in a second study we analyzed the moderating role of social comparison orientation on the relation between direct and indirect well-being measures. As expected, more social comparison tendency implied a stronger relation. In a third study we analyzed the criterion validity of both kind of measures. The PSWBS, the Personal Wellbeing Index-Adults and the Satisfaction With Life Scale significantly correlated with a criterion validity coefficient in terms of a semi-structured interview made by an external experimenter. Finally, in a fourth experiment we analyzed the influence of social desirability on direct and indirect measures of well-being. In contexts of high desirability, partially structured stimuli seemed to be more resistant to response factors (e.g., control of impressions) than traditional direct measures.

     

Intentional binding of visual effects

When an action produces an effect, the effect is perceived earlier in time compared to a stimulus without preceding action. This temporal bias is called intentional binding (IB) and serves as an implicit measure of sense of agency. Typically, IB is investigated by presenting a rotating clock hand while participants execute an action and perceive a resulting tone. Participants are asked to estimate the time point of tone onset by referring to the clock hand position. This time point estimate is compared to a time point estimate of a tone in a condition in which the tone occurs without preceding action. Studies employing this classic clock paradigm employed auditory action effects. We modified this paradigm to investigate potential IB of visual action effects, and, additionally, to investigate how IB differs for visual action effects (Experiment 1) in comparison to auditory action effects (Experiment 2). Our results show that, like the IB of an auditory effect, the time point of a visual action effect is shifted toward the causing action, and that the size of the IB depends on the delay duration of the effect. Comparable to auditory action effects, earlier action effects showed stronger IB compared to later action effects. Yet overall IB of the visual effects was weaker than IB of the auditory effects. As IB is seen as an indicator of sense of agency, this may have important implications for the design of human-machine interfaces.

     

Investigating social functioning after early mild TBI: the quality of parent–child interactions

The young brain is particularly vulnerable to injury due to inherent physiological and developmental factors, and even mild forms of traumatic brain injury (mTBI) can sometimes result in cognitive and behavioural difficulties. Despite the high prevalence of paediatric mTBI, little is known of its impact on children's social functioning. Parent–child relationships represent the centre of young children's social environments and are therefore ideal contexts for studying the potential effects of mTBI on children's social functioning. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of parent–child interactions after mTBI using observational assessment methods and parental report. The sample included 130 children (18–60 months at recruitment) divided into three groups: children with uncomplicated mTBI (n = 47), children with orthopaedic injury (OI, n = 27), and non‐injured children (NI, n = 56). The quality of parent–child interactions was assessed 6 months post‐injury using the Mutually Responsive Orientation (MRO) scale, an observational measure which focuses on the dyadic nature of parent–child exchanges, and the Parental Stress Index questionnaire (Parent‐Child Dysfunctional Interaction (PCDI) domain). Significant differences with medium effect sizes were found between the mTBI group and the NI group on the MRO, but not between the OI group and the other two groups. PCDI scores did not differ across groups, suggesting that observational measures may be more sensitive to changes in parent–child interactions after TBI. The current findings have implications for children's post‐injury social development and highlight the importance of monitoring social outcomes even after minor head injuries.     

The response of guide dogs and pet dogs (Canis Familiaris) to cues of human referential communication (pointing and gaze)

The study raises the question of whether guide dogs and pet dogs are expected to differ in response to cues of referential communication given by their owners; especially since guide dogs grow up among sighted humans, and while living with their blind owners, they still have interactions with several sighted people. Guide dogs and pet dogs were required to respond to point, point and gaze, gaze and control cues of referential communication given by their owners. Results indicate that the two groups of dogs do not differ from each other, revealing that the visual status of the owner is not a factor in the use of cues of referential communication. Both groups of dogs have higher frequencies of performance and faster latencies for the point and the point and gaze cues as compared to gaze cue only. However, responses to control cues are below chance performance for the guide dogs, whereas the pet dogs perform at chance. The below chance performance of the guide dogs may be explained by a tendency among them to go and stand by the owner. The study indicates that both groups of dogs respond similarly in normal daily dyadic interaction with their owners and the lower comprehension of the human gaze may be a less salient cue among dogs in comparison to the pointing gesture.     

Electrophysiological correlates of emotional face processing after mild traumatic brain injury in preschool children

Evidence suggests that social skills are affected by childhood mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), but the neural and affective substrates of these difficulties are still underexplored. In particular, nothing is known about consequences on the perception of emotional facial expressions, despite its critical role in social interactions and the importance of the preschool period in the development of this ability. This study thus aimed to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of emotional facial expressions processing after early mTBI. To this end, 18 preschool children (mean age 53 ± 8 months) who sustained mTBI and 15 matched healthy controls (mean age 55 ± 11 months) were presented with pictures of faces expressing anger, happiness, or no emotion (neutral) while event-related potentials (ERP) were recorded. The main results revealed that P1 amplitude was higher for happy faces than for angry faces, and that N170 latency was shorter for emotional faces than for neutral faces in the control group only. These findings suggest that preschool children who sustain mTBI do not present the early emotional effects that are observed in healthy preschool children at visuospatial and visual expertise stages. This study provides new evidence regarding the consequences of childhood mTBI on socioemotional processing, by showing alterations of emotional facial expressions processing, an ability known to underlie social competence and appropriate social interactions.     

Complex Collective Trauma Following a Terror Attack in a Small Community: A Systemic Analysis of Community Voices and Psychosocial Interventions

In this ethnographic study, data were collected four months, one year, and three years following a terror attack on civilians in a small Israeli community. The data included protocols of meetings of the intervention team, informal and formal interviews, and follow-up telephone interviews with local leaders and psychosocial professionals who worked with individuals, families, and groups in the community. Content analysis of field notes and interviews led to the elaboration of the theoretical construct “complex collective trauma.” The analysis of the community voices and psychosocial interventions indicated the importance of action-oriented, meaning-making community projects and memorials, screening and government-funded short-term trauma therapy, mapping interlocking circles of vulnerability, and an integrated clinical-community model coordinated long-term (one year) by an outside professional.     

Is a lower dose of cyproterone acetate as effective at testosterone suppression in transgender women as higher doses?

Objective: The recommended dose of cyproterone acetate (CPA), an anti-androgen that is commonly used in the hormonal treatment of transgender women, is 50–100 mg daily. Our objective was to determine whether CPA at 25 mg daily would suppress total testosterone as effectively as 50 mg daily in transgender women.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis of transgender women attending an endocrinology clinic between April 1, 2009, and June 30, 2015. We used a generalized linear mixed model to compare total testosterone between patients on CPA 25 mg versus CPA 50 mg or higher. In a subgroup of patients for which the CPA dose was decreased from 50 mg to 25 mg, we compared total testosterone levels before and after the decrease.

Results: We divided the sixty-eight patients included in the study into 4 groups: group 1, CPA 25 mg (N =31); group 2, CPA 50 mg or higher (N = 19); group 3, CPA dose lowered from 50 mg to 25 mg (N = 15); group 4, CPA dose increased from 25 mg to 50 mg (N = 3). The mean total testosterone on treatment was 0.9 nmol/L (95% CI 0.7 to 1.1) in group 1 and 1.2 nmol/L (95% CI 0.9–1.5) in group 2 and were not significantly different (p = 0.087). In group 3, there was no significant difference between total testosterone levels before and after decreasing the dose of CPA from 50 mg to 25 mg, p = 0.86. Group 4 was excluded from analysis.

Conclusions: We found that 25 mg of CPA daily was effective at suppressing testosterone levels to within normal female range when used in combination with recommended estrogen therapy in transgender women. Clinicians should consider using a lower dose of CPA in order to minimize potential adverse effects.     

The Accuracy and Rationality of Imprecise Credences

It has been claimed that, in response to certain kinds of evidence (“incomplete” or “non‐specific” evidence), agents ought to adopt imprecise credences: doxastic states that are represented by sets of credence functions rather than single ones. In this paper I argue that, given some plausible constraints on accuracy measures, accuracy‐centered epistemologists must reject the requirement to adopt imprecise credences. I then show that even the claim that imprecise credences are permitted is problematic for accuracy‐centered epistemology. It follows that if imprecise credal states are permitted or required in the cases that their defenders appeal to, then the requirements of rationality can outstrip what would be warranted by an interest in accuracy.