Intentional and identity processes: A social constructionist investigation using student journals

In contrast to traditional theories of career development that focus on decision-making processes in relation to market work, [Richardson, M. S. (2004). The emergence of new intentions in subjective experience: A social/personal constructionist and relational understanding. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 64, 485-498], informed by social constructionism and considering both work and relationships, suggests that the process of emerging intentional states or intentional process is central to the broader task of constructing a life. This study was designed to investigate this process. The research situation consisted of three structured group discussions with students in a graduate class. Journals written after the group discussions constituted the data for the study. Based on the first stage of data analysis, the scope of investigation was expanded to include emerging identity states or identity process and the emotional experience of the group discussions. In the second phase of data analysis, intentional process and identity process data were analyzed for themes and the emotional experience data were coded. Results of both phases of data analysis are discussed in relation to future research and implications for practice.     

Ramsey and Joyce on deliberation and prediction

Synthese - Can an agent deliberating about an action A hold a meaningful credence that she will do A? ‘No’, say some authors, for ‘deliberation crowds out prediction’...     

Cognitive competencies and aggressive behavior: A developmental study

A number of studies have demonstrated that increased socially related cognitive skills are associated with decreases in aggressive behavior. However, the link between aggression and intelligence or academic skills is less evident. While some research indicates that poor academic performance is related to aggression, it is unclear which components of intellectual ability and performance are critical to the management of aggressive behaviors. In two independent longitudinal studies of elementary school-age children, the relationship among several aspects of cognitive competence and several aspects of aggressive behavior were examined. The results of the first study showed that aggressive behavior observed in kindergarten children was more closely related to academic performance in the first and second grades than to general cognitive ability (IQ). The results of the second study, a comprehensive three-year investigation of upper elementary school-age children, indicated that teachers' assessments of aggression and parents' ratings of cruelty were consistent over time for boys, but not for girls. The intercorrelations among aggression measures within each of the three years also revealed stable sex differences. Boys identified as aggressive in the classroom were more likely to be perceived as aggressive, cruel, and/or delinquent at home, but for girls, there was little correlation between aggression at school and in the home. The analyses relating measures of cognitive functioning to indices of aggressive behavior made clear the importance of discriminating among various facets of these psychological constructs. IQ had a negligible relationship with aggression and a weak inverse relationship to delinquency. An overall index of cognitive functioning was a somewhat more consistent negative correlate of aggression, cruelty, and delinquency, especially for boys. A similar pattern was found for the correlates of academic performance. Academic disability was strongly related to delinquency in boys, and to a lesser degree to aggression in boys. Of the several cognitively related factors that were explored, Low Need Achievement manifested the strongest and most consistent relationships with the different facets of aggression and antisocial behavior, especially in boys. The implications of these results for psychological interventions in the school are discussed.     

Motivations, Goals, Information Search, and Memory about Political Candidates

This study investigated the ways in which motivations and goals affect patterns of political information-seeking and the consequent structure of memory about candidates. Undergraduate participants used a computerized system that displayed different layers of information about fictional political candidates; the system recorded the strategies they used to search through this information. Results showed that motivations to engage in effortful processing produced tendencies to engage in within-candidate searches, better recall, and memory structures clustered by candidate. The goal of forming impressions of the candidates, which was expected to lead to within-candidate searching, was in fact modestly associated with weaker tendencies to do so, once effort was taken into account. Impression-formation goals, however, were associated with less attribute-based memory structures. The findings confirm that the manner in which people acquire candidate information has important consequences for the way they store that information in memory, and that these processes vary according to individual motivations and goals.     

An investigation of prospective memory in children with ADHD.

Prospective memory, defined as the ability to follow through on intended behavior, is believed to be subserved by a number of neuroanatomical substrates, but particularly dependent, at least in part, on the frontal lobes. Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) traditionally have difficulty on tasks dependent on frontal lobe structures. The present study attempted to determine whether children with ADHD are impaired in prospective memory function. Two studies are described that use a new measure of time-based prospective memory, the CyberCruiser (Kerns, 2000), to compare children with ADHD to a control group consisting of participants who were matched in respect to age, gender, and IQ. The results document prospective memory deficits in ADHD. Prospective memory performance correlated significantly with clinical measures of ADHD as assessed by the Conners' Parent Rating Scale (Conners, 1990) Hyperactivity Index, but was unrelated to intellectual ability. Though psychometric measures of attention correlated with prospective memory performance, they did not account for the differences in prospective memory that were observed between the ADHD and control groups.     

From objects to names: A cognitive neuroscience approach

To name an object, we need both to recognize it and to access the associated phonological form, and phonological retrieval itself may be constrained by aspects of the visual recognition process. This paper reviews evidence for such constraints, drawing on data from experimental psychology, neuropsychology, functional imaging, and computational modelling. Data on picture identification in normal observers demonstrate that the speed of name retrieval processes differs for natural objects and artifacts, due at least in part to differences in visual similarity between exemplars within these categories. Also, effects of variables on early and late stages of object identification combine in an interactive rather than an additive manner, consistent with object processing stages operating in a continuous rather than a discrete manner. Neuropsychological evidence supports this proposal, demonstrating that subtle perceptual deficits can produce naming problems, even when there is good access to associated semantic knowledge. Functional activation studies further show increased activity in visual processing areas when conditions stress object naming relative to the recognition of familiar object structures. These studies indicate that object naming is based on a series of continuous processing stages and that naming involves increased visual processing relative to recognition tasks. The data can be modelled within an interactive activation and competition framework. Received: 25 November 1997 / Accepted: 16 May 1998     

Structures And Structuralism In Contemporary Philosophy Of Mathematics

In recent philosophy of mathematics avariety of writers have presented ``structuralist'views and arguments. There are, however, a number ofsubstantive differences in what their proponents take``structuralism' to be. In this paper we make explicitthese differences, as well as some underlyingsimilarities and common roots. We thus identifysystematically and in detail, several main variants ofstructuralism, including some not often recognized assuch. As a result the relations between thesevariants, and between the respective problems theyface, become manifest. Throughout our focus is onsemantic and metaphysical issues, including what is orcould be meant by ``structure' in this connection.     

Decision responsibility, task responsibility, identifiability, and social loafing

Two laboratory experiments were conducted. Results of the first experiment revealed that identifiability had no impact on the degree of cognitive loafing when group members were asked to make a decision. Identifiability did have an impact when group members were asked to express an opinion. The second experiment replicated findings of the first experiment and, in addition, indicated that unidentifiable individuals with sole task responsibility loafed more than unidentifiable individuals who shared task responsibility. Cognitive effort was measured through recall of stimulus material.