On Dependent Pronouns and Dynamic Semantics

Within natural language semantics, pronouns are often thought to correspond to variables whose values are contributed by contextual assignment functions. This paper concerns the application of this idea to cases where the antecedent of a pronoun is a plural quantifiers. The paper discusses the modelling of accessibility patterns of quantifier antecedents in a dynamic theory of interpretation. The goal is to reach a semantics of quantificational dependency which yields a fully semantic notion of pronominal accessibility. I argue that certain dependency phenomena that arise in quantificationally created contexts require a representation of context wherein the labelling of antecedents is not rigid but rather dynamic itself. I propose a stack-based alternative to classic assignment functions, along the lines of Vermeulen (1993) and van Eijck (2001), and give a dynamic semantics of quantification which correctly accommodates the problematic anaphoric phenomena.     

Effects of D-cycloserine on extinction of learned fear to an olfactory cue

D-cycloserine (DCS), a partial NMDA receptor agonist, facilitates extinction of learned fear in rats and has been used to treat anxiety disorders in clinical populations. However, research into the effects of DCS on extinction is still in its infancy, with visual cues being the primary fear-eliciting stimuli under investigation. In both human and animal subjects odors have been found to associate strongly with aversive events. Therefore, this study examined the generality of the effects of DCS on extinction by testing odor cues. Sprague-Dawley rats were conditioned and extinguished to an odor using varying parameters, injected with either saline or DCS (15 mg/kg) following extinction, and then tested for a freezing response 24 h later. Experiment 1 demonstrated that after 3 odor-shock pairings, rats did not display short-term extinction and DCS had no effect on long-term extinction. Experiment 2 demonstrated that after 3 odor-noise pairings, rats displayed significant short-term extinction and DCS significantly facilitated long-term extinction. Following 2 odor-shock pairings in Experiment 3, half the rats displayed short-term extinction ("extinguishers") and half did not ("non-extinguishers"). DCS facilitated long-term extinction in the "extinguishers" condition but not in the "non-extinguishers" condition. In Experiment 4, following 2 odor-shock pairings and an extra extinction session, DCS had a significant facilitatory effect on long-term extinction. Thus, extinction of freezing to an odor cue was facilitated by systemic injections of DCS, but only when some amount of within-session extinction occurred prior to injection.     

Conversation, gaze coordination, and beliefs about visual context

Conversation is supported by the beliefs that people have in common and the perceptual experience that they share. The visual context of a conversation has two aspects: the information that is available to each conversant, and their beliefs about what is present for each other. In our experiment, we separated these factors for the first time and examined their impact on a spontaneous conversation. We manipulated the fact that a visual scene was shared or not and the belief that a visual scene was shared or not. Participants watched videos of actors talking about a controversial topic, then discussed their own views while looking at either a blank screen or the actors. Each believed (correctly or not) that their partner was either looking at a blank screen or the same images. We recorded conversants' eye movements, quantified how they were coordinated, and analyzed their speech patterns. Gaze coordination has been shown to be causally related to the knowledge people share before a conversation, and the information they later recall. Here, we found that both the presence of the visual scene, and beliefs about its presence for another, influenced language use and gaze coordination.     

The role of context in the re-extinction of learned fear

Extinction of learned fear is both amygdala- and NMDA receptor (NMDAr)-dependent. Recent studies, however, have shown that extinction the second time (re-extinction) does not involve the amygdala and is NMDAr-independent. The present study compared the effects of context change on extinction and re-extinction in adult Sprague–Dawley rats. Experiment 1 showed that both extinction and re-extinction are context-specific with a renewal effect occurring in both cases. Experiment 2 then examined whether the transition from an NMDAr-dependent to an NMDAr-independent process was context-specific. As expected, the results showed that MK-801 (0.1 mg/kg) impaired initial extinction but did not impair re-extinction (i.e., re-extinction was found to be NMDAr-independent). A novel finding was that if re-extinction occurred in a context different from initial extinction, then MK-801 impaired re-extinction. In other words, re-extinction is NMDAr-dependent (i.e., like initial extinction) when it occurs in a different context to initial extinction. Therefore, the switch from NMDAr-dependent to NMDAr-independent extinction is both stimulus [Langton, J.M., Richardson, R. (2008). d-cycloserine facilitates extinction the first time but not the second time: An examination of the role of NMDA across the course of repeated extinction sessions. Neuropsychopharmacology, 33, 3096–3102.] and context-specific (the present study). The precise conditions that govern whether extinction requires NMDAr activation are of considerable theoretical interest and remain to be fully characterized.     

Reviews: Books and Films

TO REDEEM ONE PERSON IS TO REDEEM THE WORLD: THE LIFE OF FRIEDA FROMM-REICHMANN. By Gail A. Hornstein. 390 pp. New York: The Free Press, 2000. $35. THE GUIDE TO PASTORAL COUNSELING AND CARE. Edited by Gary Ahlskog and Harry Sands. 415 pp. Madison, CT: International Universities Press and Psychosocial Press, 2000. $60. THE ART OF DYING: A JUNGIAN VIEW OF PATIENTS' DRAWINGS. By Yvonne Barnhouse Williams. 209 pp. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1999. $24.95. LITTLE SAINT. By Hannah Green. New York: Random House, 2000. $25.95. BODY AND SOUL: HUMAN NATURE AND THE CRISIS IN ETHICS. By J.P. Moreland and Scott B. Rae. 350 pp. InterVarsity Press, 2000. $22.99. MUHAMMAD AND THE RISE OF ISLAM: THE CREATION OF GROUP IDENTITY. By Subhash C. Inamdar, M.D. 266 pp. Madison, Ct: International Universities Press and Psychosocial Press, 2001. $40. MANAGING MANAGED CARE: SECRETS FROM A FORMER CASE MANAGER. By Susan Frager. 276 pp. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2000. $45. THE DISABLED GOD: TOWARD A LIBERATORY THEOLOGY OF DISABILITY. By Nancy L. Eiesland. 139 pp. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994. $15. A LIFE COMPLETE. By Sallierae Henderson. 222 pp. New York: Scribner, 2000. $24. BIOENGAGEMENT: MAKING A CHRISTIAN DIFFERENCE IN BIOETHICS TODAY. Edited by Nigel Cameron, Scott Daniel and Barbara White. 265 pp. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm.B.Eerdmans, 2000. $22. CALLED INTO HEALING: RECLAIMING OUR JUDEO-CHRISTIAN LEGACY OF HEALING TOUCH. By Linda L. Smith. 244 pp. Arvada, CO: HTSM Press, 2000. $22.95. SURVEYING THE RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE: TRENDS IN U.S. BELIEFS. By George Gallup, Jr. and D. Michael Lindsay. 171 pp. Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 1999. $17.95. The Straight Story. Snow Falling On Cedars     

Reasons-Responsiveness and Ownership-of-Agency: Fischer and Ravizza's Historicist Theory of Responsibility

No one has done more than John Martin Fischer and Mark Ravizza toadvance our understanding of the important dispute in the theoryof responsibility between structuralists and historicists.This makes it all the more important to take the measure of Responsibility and Control, their mostrecent contribution to the historicist side of the discussion. In this paper I examine some novelfeatures of their most recent version of responsiblity-historicism,especially their new notions of ``moderate reasons-responsiveness' and ``ownership-of-agency.' Fischer and Ravizza intend these newelements to solve two problems untouched by earlier versions of theirtheory: the ``problem of strange preference patterns' and the ``reasons-responsivenessproblem of induction.' I argue that they cannot solve these problemswithin the theoretical strictures they place upon themselves, namely aminimalist meta-ethics of value and practical reason, and attentiononly to certain formal features of preference-acquisition. I concludethat historicist compatibilists cannot hope to meet the challenge ofstructuralist compatibilism, from the one side, and of incompatibilism,from the other, unless they take on the full task of accounting for thedifference between the child's acquisition (via education) of autonomoussubstantive preferences and values and her acquisition (viaindoctrination) of heteronomous ones.     

Multilevel Selection Theory and Major Evolutionary Transitions: Implications for Psychological Science

ABSTRACT— The concept of a group as comparable to a single organism has had a long and turbulent history. Currently, methodological individualism dominates in many areas of psychology and evolution, but natural selection is now known to operate at multiple levels of the biological hierarchy. When between-group selection dominates within-group selection, a major evolutionary transition occurs and the group becomes a new, higher-level organism. It is likely that human evolution represents a major transition, and this has wide-ranging implications for the psychological study of group behavior, cognition, and culture.     

Perceptual sensitivity and motoric competence in 5- and 6-month-old infants

The authors explored whether 5- to 6-month-old infants were sensitive to perceptual information and how they used perception as a recognition cue to search for a hidden object. In addition, the authors categorized and examined infant grasp by developmental effectiveness to determine any impact on infant search behaviors. In a within-participants design, 20 infants were presented with a toy in 2 occluder conditions. The toy was hidden under either a thick, camouflaging cloth or a thin, semitransparent cloth. The data revealed significant effects of perceptual sensitivity, age, and motor sophistication on search tasks. The results suggest that motor competence might be a limiting factor in infants' abilities to link motoric responses to notions about an object.     

Multimethod Assessment of Psychopathology Among DSM-IV Subtypes of Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Self-, Parent, and Teacher Reports

Using data based on self-, parent, and teacher reports, we assessed various aspects of psychopathology in a large sample of control children and those with ADHD. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to extract response bias from latent constructs of aggression, anxiety, attention problems, depression, conduct disorder, and hyperactivity. These latent constructs were then entered into logistic regression equations to predict membership in control versus ADHD groups, and to discriminate between ADHD subtypes. Results of the regression equations showed that higher levels of attention problems and aggression were the best predictors of membership in the ADHD group relative to controls. Logistic regression also indicated that a higher degree of aggression was the only significant predictor of membership in the ADHD-Combined group compared to the ADHD-Inattentive group. However, when comorbid diagnoses of Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder were controlled for in the logistic regression, greater hyperactivity rather than aggression was the sole variable with which to distinguish the ADHD-Combined from the ADHD-Inattentive subtype. Results are discussed in the context of the DSM-IV ADHD nosology and the role of instrument and source bias in the diagnosis of ADHD.