The Many Faces of Closure and Introspection

In this paper I present a more refined analysis of the principles of deductive closure and positive introspection. This analysis uses the expressive resources of logics for different types of group knowledge, and discriminates between aspects of closure and computation that are often conflated. The resulting model also yields a more fine-grained distinction between implicit and explicit knowledge, and places Hintikka’s original argument for positive introspection in a new perspective.     

Transcendental Meditation and Social Psychological Attitudes

Students who practiced Transcendental Meditation (TM) from four university and college campuses were individually matched on seven variables with students from the general population of the same campuses (N # 23 matches). Results of a questionnaire designed to tap six social psychological attitudes indicated significant differences between these groups on five attitudes, with meditating students indicating more positive attitudes. In addition, matched meditating students (N # 6 matches) were compared on the variables of exposure to the TM philosophy and length of time meditating. Results on the exposure dimension found no significant difference between those with high or low exposure on the measured attitudes. Results on the length dimension found long term meditators with significantly more positive attitudes than short term meditators.     

Scaling Incentives: Determining Preference and Indifference in 8- to lO-Year-Old Girls

The present study adopted procedures similar to those used by Logan (1965) to determine choice behavior in children. The objective was to provide an improved methodology in delay-of-gratification studies, thus avoiding the problems associated with scaling different kinds of rewards, and to provide approximate functions relating a delay-of-token reward to choice behavior. Thus, 7 girls aged 8 to 10 years were exposed to a choice paradigm in which a larger reward (2 tokens) was pitted against a smaller reward (1 token); access to these rewards was delayed a certain period of time. The results of this experiment showed that as the delay of the larger reward increased, preference for the smaller reward increased in an orderly fashion. The finding that delay shifted preference from the larger to the smaller reward is discussed in relation to current theory. The results of this experiment also provide evidence for the utility of tokens in scaling incentives for choice studies.     

Scientific Thought

Using Pritchard's technique, the frequency and duration of total disappearance of stabilized images were compared using two reporting procedures: i.e., (a) a running commentary and (b) only “off” or “on.” Two target figures were employed: a simple triangle and a five-by-five grid of squares. The incidence and duration of complete disappearance was (a) less with the commentary than with the off-on procedure and (b) less with the grid than with the triangle. Hypotheses to account for the differences are discussed.     

Time Perspective: Temporal Extension,Time Estimation,and Impulsivity

It has been proposed that time perspective is an important variable that can, in part, explain the differences between people in terms of the development of self-control. One corollary of this position is that time perspective is somehow related to systematic biases in the way people perceive the passage of time. Such a bias may or may not be augmented by an association between time perspective and impulsivity. Two studies were conducted using measures of temporal extension, time estimation, and impulsivity. In general, no consistent effects were found. Neither time perspective nor impulsivity was related to any characteristic pattern of errors. In the second study, time perspective (mediated by age) was associated with predicting very brief time estimation scores, but not longer time estimation periods. It was concluded that whatever the mechanism might be that underlies the purported effect between time perspective and self-control, it is not related to a differential ability to perceive time moving more or less quickly.     

Aptitude Testing Inspired by Information Processing: A Test of the Four-Sources Model

The four-sources model of human abilities posits that individual differences in performance on cognitive tasks are due to differences in working-memory capacity, information-processing speed, the breadth of declarative knowledge, and the breadth of procedural knowledge. To test this model, 310 civilian volunteers were administered a 25-test battery, consisting of verbal, quantitative, and spatial tasks designed to reflect each of the four sources. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed on the variance-covariance matrix of test scores to test the four-sources model and plausible alternatives. The best-fitting model was one that included both the four-sources factors and three content factors. Hierarchical and nonhierarchical models fit about equally well. From additional data on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, latent-factor correlations suggested that working-memory capacity overlapped considerably with psychometric general ability (r = .99) and breadth of declarative knowledge overlapped with psychometric verbal ability (r = .97), but information-processing speed was distinct from psychometric perceptual speed (r = .16).     

The Impact of Abuse and Learning Difficulties on Emotion Understanding in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence

Children's affective experiences and cognitive abilities have an impact on emotion understanding. However, their relative contribution, as well as the possibility of an interaction between them, has rarely been examined. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of severe abuse and learning difficulties on simple and complex components of emotion understanding in late childhood and early adolescence. A total of 28 older children and young adolescents were selected for the study. Half of the participants had suffered from severe abuse, and half of these abused children additionally had learning disabilities. The remaining half of the sample had no history of abuse but were matched with the abused children on learning difficulties, age and gender. The participants’ emotion understanding was assessed with the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC). Results showed that (a) learning difficulties but not abuse had an impact on emotion understanding, (b) there was no interaction effect of abuse and learning difficulties on emotion understanding, and (b) the observed effects of learning difficulties were most apparent for the understanding of relatively complex components of emotion and not for simple components. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications.     

Torque as a Predictor of Reading Achievement

The present study assessed the utility of the Torque Test (Blau, 1977b) as a predictor of reading performance. Children (N = 149) were administered the Torque Test, the Harris Test of Lateral Dominance (Harris, 1958), the Wide Range Achievement Test, (Jastak & Jastak, 1965), and the Bender Gestalt Test (Koppitz, 1975). Torque scores of disabled and nondisabled readers did not differ significantly, and the correlation between torque and WRAT grade level scores was substantively low. It was concluded that torque is not a useful measure of reading ability.     

How simulations fail

‘The problem with simulations is that they are doomed to succeed.’ So runs a common criticism of simulations—that they can be used to ‘prove’ anything and are thus of little or no scientific value. While this particular objection represents a minority view, especially among those who work with simulations in a scientific context, it raises a difficult question: what standards should we use to differentiate a simulation that fails from one that succeeds? In this paper we build on a structural analysis of simulation developed in previous work to provide an evaluative account of the variety of ways in which simulations do fail. We expand the structural analysis in terms of the relationship between a simulation and its real-world target emphasizing the important role of aspects intended to correspond and also those specifically intended not to correspond to reality. The result is an outline both of the ways in which simulations can fail and the scientific importance of those various forms of failure.     

Intensionality and Epistemic Justification

The purpose of this paper is to raise a new objection to externalist process reliabilism about epistemic justification. The objection is that epistemic justification is intensional—it does not permit the substitution of co-referring expressions—and reliabilism cannot accommodate that.