Sir Francis Galton, Epigenetic Rules, Genetic Similarity Theory, and Human Life-History Analysis

ABSTRACT In this article, an evolutionary perspective is applied to individual differences Among the issues discussed are ( a ) the seminal contributions of Francis Galton and the subsequent ideological reaction, ( b ) the distalproximal continuum for understanding levels of explanation in social behavior, ( c ) consistent patterns of group differences in behavior (age, sex, social class, and race), ( d ) the heritability of personality and the role epigenetic rules play in guiding development in one direction over alternatives, ( e ) the genetic similarity theory perspective on friendship and mate choice, and ( f ) the view that personality is part of an r-K reproductive strategy involving a compensatory exchange between the production of gametes and parental care It is suggested in conclusion that personality traits be considered aspects of a coordinated life cycle deeply embedded in evolutionary history     

Grading the ‘cultural literacy’ project

The essay examines the argument advanced by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., for instituting ‘cultural literacy’ as a fundamental priority of schools. A number of confusions and equivocations in Hirsch's reasoning are identified, and the propensity of his project to indoctrinate is exposed. Among the features of Hirsch's argument shown to be troubling are his shifting construal of ‘language’, his inconsistency about the requirements of cultural literacy, and his uncritical relation to traditional images of the American past and present. The upshot is to raise the question why Hirsch's project has elicited wide support and praise.     

A note on verisimilitude and relativization to problems

This note aims at critically assessing a little-noticed proposal made by Popper in the second edition ofObjective Knowledge to the effect that verisimilitude of scientific theories should be made relative to the problems they deal with. Using a simple propositional calculus formalism, it is shown that the relativized definition fails for the very same reason why Popper's original concept of verisimilitude collapsed-only if one of two theories is true can they be compared in terms of the suggested definition of versimilitude.This note was written when the author was visiting the Groupe de Recherche en Épistémologie Comparative (Université du Québec à Montréal).     

Dissociation between Categorical and Coordinate Spatial Computations: Modulation by Cerebral Hemispheres, Task Properties, Mode of Response, and Age

Kosslyn suggested a dissociation of two kinds of spatial representations: categorical and coordinate, the former computed by the left hemisphere and the latter by the right hemisphere. In addition, with practice, a “categorization” of the coordinate computation would appear. These suggestions resulted largely from an experiment, replicated by others, in which the subjects had to estimate the relative position of a dot and a line by giving an oral response, and feedback was provided. The present series of five experiments was an attempt to test whether this finding could be generalized, under several methodological manipulations, some of which have already been used by researchers in separate studies. In the five experiments, accuracy was a more contributive dependent variable than correct latencies, and practice effects on the task × field interaction were not verified. Experiments 1–3 concerned the kind of response. When a manual instead of an oral response was required (Experiment 1;n= 32 Ss), the expected dissociation was observed (as well as when the latency of responses made by the right hand were studied). When the number of oral responses was increased from two (a binary choice) to eight, the dissociation was still observed for accuracy but disappeared when a more liberal criterion of accuracy was used to reduce the considerable task effect (Experiment 2;n= 32 Ss), or when response requirements were equated for both tasks (Experiment 3;n= 32 Ss). In Experiment 4 (n= 32 Ss), a manual response was called but the feedback was removed and the task dissociation disappeared. Finally, the task dissociation observed in Experiment 1 was not verified when a sample of elderly subjects was enrolled (Experiment 5;n= 32 Ss). However, age per se was the source of an interesting additional dissociation since only the coordinate computation was age sensitive. Our results suggest that the dissociation proposed by Kosslyn between the computation of categorical vs coordinate spatial relationships is highly unstable and sensitive to subtle methodological factors (vocal vs manual response, presence vs absence of feedback, binary vs “continous” response, age) which could preclude its general application.     

Referenzsemantik in der Partnermodellierung

How can we explain that an assertion on something perceived can be understood in the same manner by somebody who cannot perceive that scene? This problem bases the interest in computational linguistics in how listener modeling could possibly be harmonized with reference semantics. Mental images substituting real perception appear as a way out. The architecture of the listener model has to be adapted to the creation and use of such pictorial data structures. Furthermore, the relation between the latter and a verbal (i. e., propositional) representation must be understood. The resulting architecture of a listener model with reference semantics can be employed to solve communicational problems from three general classes in a better way, as is demonstrated by an example implementation.