Do we Need a Special Ethics for Research?

Research is subject to more stringent ethical requirements than most other human activities, and a procedure that is otherwise allowed may be forbidden in research. Hence, risk-taking is more restricted in scientific research than in most non-research contexts, and privacy is better protected in scientific questionnaires than in marketing surveys. Potential arguments for this difference are scrutinized. The case in its favour appears to be weak. A stronger case can be made in favour of a difference in the opposite direction: If perilous or otherwise problematic activities have to be performed it is usually better to perform them in a research context where they are properly evaluated so that guidance is obtained for the future. However, retreating from current ethical demands on research is not a desirable direction to go. Instead, research ethics can serve to inspire the introduction of more stringent ethical principles in other social sectors.     

A New Representation Theorem for Contranegative Deontic Logic

The logic of an ought operator O is contranegative with respect to an underlying preference relation if it satisfies the property Op & (¬p)(¬q) Oq. Here the condition that is interpolative ((p (pq) q) (q (pq) p)) is shown to be necessary and sufficient for all -contranegative preference relations to satisfy the plausible deontic postulates agglomeration (Op & OqO(p&q)) and disjunctive division (O(p&q) Op Oq).     

Order-Independent Transformative Decision Rules

A transformative decision rule alters the representation of a decision problem, either by changing the set of alternative acts or the set of states of the world taken into consideration, or by modifying the probability or value assignments. A set of transformative decision rules is order-independent in case the order in which the rules are applied is irrelevant. The main result of this paper is an axiomatic characterization of order-independent transformative decision rules, based on a single axiom. It is shown that the proposed axiomatization resolves a problem observed by Teddy Seidenfeld in a previous axiomatization by Peterson.     

Selective Revision

We introduce a constructive model of selective belief revision in which it is possible to accept only a part of the input information. A selective revision operator ο is defined by the equality K ο α = K * f(α), where * is an AGM revision operator and f a function, typically with the property ⊢ α → f(α). Axiomatic characterizations are provided for three variants of selective revision. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Providing Foundations for Coherentism

We prove that four theses commonly associated with coherentism are incompatible with the representation of a belief state as a logically closed set of sentences. The result is applied to the conventional coherence interpretation of the AGM theory of belief revision, which appears not to be tenable. Our argument also counts against the coherentistic acceptability of a certain form of propositional holism. We argue that the problems arise as an effect of ignoring the distinction between derived and non-derived beliefs, and we suggest that the kind of coherence relevant to epistemic justification is the coherence of non-derived beliefs. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Reversing the Levi identity

The AGM (Alchourrón-GÄrdenfors-Makinson) model of belief change is extended to cover changes on sets of beliefs that arenot closed under logical consequence (belief bases). Three major types of change operations, namely contraction, internal revision, and external revision are axiomatically characterized, and their interrelations are studied. In external revision, the Levi identity is reversed in the sense that onefirst adds the new belief to the belief base, and afterwards contracts its negation. It is argued that external revision represents an intuitively plausible way of revising one's beliefs. Since it typically involves the temporary acceptance of an inconsistent set of beliefs, it can only be used in belief representations that distinguish between different inconsistent sets of belief.     

The importance of impaired physical health and age in normal cognitive aging

The objective of this study was to investigate the importance of impaired physical health and age in normal cognitive aging. In our cross-sectional, clinical and explorative study, medical and neuropsychological data from 118 voluntary healthy controls aged 26-91 years were collected from five recruitment occasions. Health was assessed according to a criterion reflecting clinical and subclinical severity. The examinations included a clinical investigation, brain neuroimaging, and a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment. Regression analyses showed a significant incidence of clinical and subclinical medical disorders that explained 10.8% of the variation in cognitive performance, while age-related impairment explained 5.6%. Findings of the central nervous system were important but various other medical findings explained about half of the health-related variation. Cognitively demanding tasks were more susceptible to impaired physical health while tasks comprising salient motor- and visual spatial elements were more prone to be impaired by age. Our findings suggest (1) that impaired physical health is more important than chronological age in accounting for cognitive impairment across the adult lifespan, (2) that age and health dissociate with regard to cognitive functions affected, and (3) that selection for so-called "super healthy" elderly people might be justified in cognitive research. Because the prevalent diseases in normal aging are potentially preventable, the present findings promise good prospect for prevention of future cognitive disability among elderly people.     

Is This Relevant? Physician Perceptions,Clinical Relevance,and Religious Content in Clinical Interactions

Despite wide support among physicians for practicing patient‐centered care, clinical interactions are primarily driven by physicians’ perception of relevance. While some will perceive a connection between religion and patient health, this relevance will be less apparent for others. I argue that physician responses when religious/spiritual topics come up during clinical interactions will depend on their own religious/spiritual background. The more central religion is for the physician, the greater his or her perception of religion's impact on health outcomes and his or her inclusion of religion/spirituality within clinical interactions. Using a nationally representative sample of physicians in the United States and mediated path models, I estimate models for five different physician actions to evaluate these relationships. I find that a physician's religious background is strongly associated with whether or not he or she thinks religion impacts health outcomes, which is strongly predictive of inclusion. I also find that not all of the association between inclusion and physicians’ religious background is mediated by thinking religion impacts health outcomes. Issues of religion's relevance for medicine are important to the degree that religious beliefs are an important dimension of patients’ lives.     

Eradication

Eradication is a radical form of contraction that removes not only a sentence but also all of its non-tautological consequences from a belief set. Eradication of a single sentence that was included in the original belief set coincides with full meet contraction, but if the sentence is external to the belief set then the two operations differ. Multiple eradication, i.e. simultaneous eradication of several sentences, differs from full meet contraction even if the sentences to be contracted are all included in the original belief set. Eradication is axiomatically characterized and its properties investigated. It is shown to have close connections with the recovery postulate for multiple contraction. Based on these connections it is proposed that eradication rather than full meet contraction is the appropriate lower limiting case for multiple contraction operators.     

Cognitive remediation in pediatric traumatic brain injury

Robinson's (1970) elaborative encoding technique (PQRST) was implemented as the active cognitive intervention strategy to address verbal memory deficits in 2 fourth-grade boys following mild or moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI). A metacognitive reading comprehension technique (Smith & Dauer, 1984) was also implemented for comparison purposes. Single-case methodology was employed using a counter-balanced crossover of the two intervention strategies controlling for the effects of attention. The performance of both boys was significantly better during strategy training with the PQRST technique and approached the performance level of the normal comparison subject. In contrast, the performance of both subjects with TBI remained at, or returned to, baseline levels during the metacognitive intervention. These findings suggest that Robinson's cognitive remediation intervention holds promise in addressing memory and reading comprehension deficits following pediatrie traumatic brain injury. Future research should focus on enhancing generalization and transfer of training to classroom assignments.