Mechanisms of change: exploring not only when and what,but also how declarative memory develops

Age‐related changes in representational flexibility are a characteristic feature of declarative memory development. The authors suggest that a qualitative shift in the nature of infants' memory representations accounts for increasing memory flexibility with age. We will argue that a comprehensive theory of declarative memory development must (1) account for the effect of experience on flexibility, (2) be empirically separable from more parsimonious explanations, and (3) propose a mechanism by which the transition takes place. We will argue that a converging‐methods approach is necessary to understand not only when and what develops in declarative memory, but also how developmental change occurs. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Davidson’s Phenomenological Argument Against the Cognitive Claims of Metaphor

Axiomathes - In this paper, I take a critical look at the Davidsonian argument that metaphorical sentences do not express propositions because of the phenomenological experience—seeing one...     

Relationship between sleep disturbance,depression and anxiety in the 12 months following a cardiac event

We aimed to assess the prevalence of sleep disturbance in a cardiac patient population over a 12-month period and assess its relationship with treatment adherence, self-efficacy, anxiety and depression. A total of 134 patients consecutively admitted to two Australian hospitals after acute myocardial infarction (31%), or to undergo bypass surgery (29%) or percutaneous coronary intervention (40%) were interviewed at six weeks and four and 12 months. Sleep disturbance was measured using a recode of the Beck Depression Inventory (v.2) item 16. Anxiety and depression were assessed by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Sleep disturbance was highly prevalent (69%) at 6 weeks but was not associated with 12-month psychological outcomes. Path analysis revealed that sleep disturbance at 4 months was, however, associated with reduced treatment adherence and self-efficacy, and higher anxiety and depression scores at 12 months. The high prevalence of sleep disturbance in this study and its association with psychological outcomes may have adverse prognostic implications and possibly impede cardiac rehabilitation efforts.     

Wild chimeras: Enthusiasm and intellectual virtue in Kant

Kant typically is not identified with the tradition of virtue epistemology. Although he may not be a virtue epistemologist in a strict sense, I suggest that intellectual virtues and vices play a key role in his epistemology. Specifically, Kant identifies a serious intellectual vice that threatens to undermine reason, namely enthusiasm (Schwärmerei). Enthusiasts become so enamored with their own thinking that they refuse to subject reason to self‐critique. The particular danger of enthusiasm is that reason colludes in its own destruction: Enthusiasm occurs when self‐conceit and reason's desire to transcend its boundaries mutually reinforce each other. I conclude by sketching an account of Kantian intellectual virtue that is consistent with Kantian moral virtue.     

The Effect of Employee Assistance Services on Reductions in Employee Absenteeism

Personal and work-related stressors experienced by employees can result in substantial costs to employers in the form of employee absenteeism. Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) provide an important vehicle to assist employees with behavioral health issues, personal concerns, and work-related problems that impact employee absenteeism. This study tested the impact of EAPs on reducing employee absenteeism utilizing a well-matched control group and human resource timecard data. The study recruited employees from 20 areas of state government and used a prospective, quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching. EAP (n = 145) users were matched to non-EAP (n = 145) users on baseline demographic, psychosocial, and work-related characteristics that differentiate the groups. Hours of sick time recorded were provided by human resource offices. Differences in sick leave usage were tested using mixed model repeated measures. A steeper decline in sick leave usage for EAP than non-EAP employees was found, with estimates of 4.8 to 6.5% fewer hours lost per month to illness. Further analysis found that EAP services were most effective in helping clients move from moderate to low levels of sick leave rather than in reducing sick leave for those experiencing chronic absenteeism. Research on the effectiveness of EAPs rarely utilizes well-matched control groups and frequently relies on self-reported outcomes. Using an objective measure of work time lost, this study provides empirical evidence that users of EAP services tend to reduce their absenteeism at a faster pace than non-EAP users experiencing similar challenges to maintaining productivity.     

Iterative Probability Kinematics

Following the pioneer work of Bruno De Finetti [12], conditional probability spaces (allowing for conditioning with events of measure zero) have been studied since (at least) the 1950's. Perhaps the most salient axiomatizations are Karl Popper's in [31], and Alfred Renyi's in [33]. Nonstandard probability spaces [34] are a well know alternative to this approach. Vann McGee proposed in [30] a result relating both approaches by showing that the standard values of infinitesimal probability functions are representable as Popper functions, and that every Popper function is representable in terms of the standard real values of some infinitesimal measure.Our main goal in this article is to study the constraints on (qualitative and probabilistic) change imposed by an extended version of McGee's result. We focus on an extension capable of allowing for iterated changes of view. Such extension, we argue, seems to be needed in almost all considered applications. Since most of the available axiomatizations stipulate (definitionally) important constraints on iterated change, we propose a non-question-begging framework, Iterative Probability Systems (IPS) and we show that every Popper function can be regarded as a Bayesian IPS. A generalized version of McGee's result is then proved and several of its consequences considered. In particular we note that our proof requires the imposition of Cumulativity, i.e. the principle that a proposition that is accepted at any stage of an iterative process of acceptance will continue to be accepted at any later stage. The plausibility and range of applicability of Cumulativity is then studied. In particular we appeal to a method for defining belief from conditional probability (first proposed in [42] and then slightly modified in [6] and [3]) in order to characterize the notion of qualitative change induced by Cumulative models of probability kinematics. The resulting cumulative notion is then compared with existing axiomatizations of belief change and probabilistic supposition. We also consider applications in the probabilistic accounts of conditionals [1] and [30].     

Working memory training and transfer in older adults

There has been a great deal of interest, both privately and commercially, in using working memory training exercises to improve general cognitive function. However, many of the laboratory findings for older adults, a group in which this training is of utmost interest, are discouraging due to the lack of transfer to other tasks and skills. Importantly, improvements in everyday functioning remain largely unexamined in relation to WM training. We trained working memory in older adults using a task that encourages transfer in young adults (Chein & Morrison, 2010). We tested transfer to measures of working memory (e.g., Reading Span), everyday cognitive functioning [the Test of Everyday Attention (TEA) and the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT)], and other tasks of interest. Relative to controls, trained participants showed transfer improvements in Reading Span and the number of repetitions on the CVLT. Training group participants were also significantly more likely to self-report improvements in everyday attention. Our findings support the use of ecological tasks as a measure of transfer in an older adult population.     

The "drinking-buddy" scale as a measure of para-social behavior

Para-social behavior is a form of quasi-interpersonal behavior that results when audience members develop bonds with media personalities that can resemble interpersonal social interaction, but is not usually applied to political communication. This study tested whether the "Drinking-Buddy" Scale, a simple question frequently used in political communication, could be interpreted as a single-item measure of para-social behavior with respect to political candidates in terms of image judgments related to interpersonal attraction and perceived similarity to self. The participants were college students who had voted in the 2008 election. They rated the candidates, Obama or McCain, as drinking buddies and then rated the candidates' perceived similarity to themselves in attitude and background, and also the social and task attraction to the candidate. If the drinking-buddy rating serves as a proxy measure for para-social behavior, then it was expected that participants' ratings for all four kinds of similarity to and attraction toward a candidate would be higher for the candidate they chose as a drinking buddy. The directional hypotheses were supported for interpersonal attraction, but not for perceived similarity. These results indicate that the drinking-buddy scale predicts ratings of interpersonal attraction, while voters may view perceived similarity as an important but not essential factor in their candidate preference.