Epistemic Pluralism

In this paper epistemic pluralism concerning knowledge is taken to be the claim that very different facts may constitute knowledge. The paper argues for pluralism by arguing that very different facts can constitute the knowledge-making links between beliefs and facts. If pluralism is right, we need not anxiously seek a unified account of the links between beliefs and facts that partly constitute knowledge in different cases of knowledge. The paper argues that no good reasons have been put forward in favour of believing in a unified maker of knowledge. It then appeals to the role of knowledge in order to argue that we have positive reason to embrace pluralism.     

Elementary Students’ Motivation to Read and Genre Preferences

Abstract

This study examines the psychometric properties of a reading motivation measure with a sample of upper elementary students in the United States (n?=?195). The research explores upper elementary students’ motivation to read, the amount/frequency of their reading in general, and their preferences for different text genres. Factor analyses support the validity and reliability of the SRQ-RM for upper elementary students in the United States, a tool not previously used with this population. This study also included a nuanced assessment of students’ genre preferences, which has implications for reading motivation and effective classroom instruction.     

Confident,valued and supported: Examining the benefits of employment support for military spouses

ABSTRACT

Military spouses face numerous challenges in obtaining employment as a result of their connection to the military. Previous research has linked military spouses underemployment to reduced well-being and satisfaction with military life, which in turn impacts on retention of the service person. In response to this the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) trialed a 2 year programme of employment support for spouses in 2015. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative evaluation of this programme and its impact on spouses. Interviews were carried out with 30 spouses and 23 of their serving partners to examine the benefits and impact of the support provided. The majority of spouses and their serving partners perceived the employment support as providing a positive contribution from the military to help spouses get back into employment or improve their employability. Additionally, spouses felt invested in by the military and valued as constituents in their own right. No impact of employment support for spouses on the intention to remain or leave the Armed Forces was identified. Longitudinal follow up will be required to determine any long-term impact of employment support on employment outcomes and retention.     

Unsupervised categorization and category learning.

When people categorize a set of items in a certain way they often change their perceptions for these items so that they become more compatible with the learned categorization. In two experiments we examined whether such changes are extensive enough to change the unsupervised categorization for the items-that is, the categorization of the items that is considered more intuitive or natural without any learning. In Experiment 1 we directly employed an unsupervised categorization task; in Experiment 2 we collected similarity ratings for the items and inferred unsupervised categorizations using Pothos and Chater's (2002) model of unsupervised categorization. The unsupervised categorization for the items changed to resemble more the learned one when this was specified by the suppression of a stimulus dimension (both experiments), but less so when it was almost specified by the suppression of a stimulus dimension (Experiment 1, nonsignificant trend in Experiment 2). By contrast, no changes in the unsupervised categorization were observed when participants were taught a classification that was specified by a more fine tuning of the relative salience of the two dimensions.