Perceptual Content Defended

Recently, the thesis that experience is fundamentally a matter of representing the world as being a certain way has been questioned by austere relationalists. I defend this thesis by developing a view of perceptual content that avoids their objections. I will argue that on a relational understanding of perceptual content, the fundamental insights of austere relationalism do not compete with perceptual experience being representational. As it will show that most objections to the thesis that experience has content apply only to accounts of perceptual content on which perceptual relations to the world play no explanatory role. With austere relationalists, I will argue that perceptual experience is fundamentally relational. But against austere relationalists, I will argue that it is fundamentally both relational and representational.     

The Influence of Religious Factors on Drinking Behavior Among Young Indigenous Sami and Non-Sami Peers in Northern Norway

It has been hypothesized that Laestadianism has contributed to the less drinking observed among indigenous Sami. This paper further investigates the bivariate protective influence of Sami ethnicity on youth drinking behavior using logistic regressions. We simultaneously controlled for the influence of religious revival movements (Laestadianism or evangelic) and religious importance (being personally Christian), in addition to socio-demographics and parental factors. Cross-sectional data from the 1994/95 North Norwegian Youth Study including 2,950 (675 Sami) 15–19 year-old high school students (RR: 85%) was used. Sami ethnicity was statistically significant for two out of six alcohol outcome measures, after adjustment for religiosity and other covariates, indicating less current drinking and party drinking. Religiousness was associated with higher youth and parental abstinence across ethnicities. Generally, stronger protective influences on drinking behavior were found for religious importance (being personally Christian) than religious affiliation (Laestadianism). The non-significance between Sami and non-Sami drinking may partly be explained by ethnic differences in religiosity, but also socio-demographics (e.g., residing in the Sami Highland) and parental factors (e.g., abstinence) contributed to such a result. Laestadianism`s profound impact on Sami culture, and its strong anti-alcohol norms may have contributed to a religious-socio-cultural context of abstinence.     

The role of Broca's area in speech perception: evidence from aphasia revisited

Motor theories of speech perception have been re-vitalized as a consequence of the discovery of mirror neurons. Some authors have even promoted a strong version of the motor theory, arguing that the motor speech system is critical for perception. Part of the evidence that is cited in favor of this claim is the observation from the early 1980s that individuals with Broca’s aphasia, and therefore inferred damage to Broca’s area, can have deficits in speech sound discrimination. Here we re-examine this issue in 24 patients with radiologically confirmed lesions to Broca’s area and various degrees of associated non-fluent speech production. Patients performed two same-different discrimination tasks involving pairs of CV syllables, one in which both CVs were presented auditorily, and the other in which one syllable was auditorily presented and the other visually presented as an orthographic form; word comprehension was also assessed using word-to-picture matching tasks in both auditory and visual forms. Discrimination performance on the all-auditory task was four standard deviations above chance, as measured using d′, and was unrelated to the degree of non-fluency in the patients’ speech production. Performance on the auditory–visual task, however, was worse than, and not correlated with, the all-auditory task. The auditory–visual task was related to the degree of speech non-fluency. Word comprehension was at ceiling for the auditory version (97% accuracy) and near ceiling for the orthographic version (90% accuracy). We conclude that the motor speech system is not necessary for speech perception as measured both by discrimination and comprehension paradigms, but may play a role in orthographic decoding or in auditory–visual matching of phonological forms.     

Tower of London test: a comparison between conventional statistic approach and modelling based on artificial neural network in differentiating fronto-temporal dementia from Alzheimer's disease

The early differentiation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) from frontotemporal dementia (FTD) may be difficult. The Tower of London (ToL), thought to assess executive functions such as planning and visuo-spatial working memory, could help in this purpose. Twentytwo Dementia Centers consecutively recruited patients with early FTD or AD. ToL performances of these groups were analyzed using both the conventional statistical approaches and the Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) modelling. Ninety-four non aphasic FTD and 160 AD patients were recruited. ToL Accuracy Score (AS) significantly (p < 0.05) differentiated FTD from AD patients. However, the discriminant validity of AS checked by ROC curve analysis, yielded no significant results in terms of sensitivity and specificity (AUC 0.63). The performances of the 12 Success Subscores (SS) together with age, gender and schooling years were entered into advanced ANNs developed by Semeion Institute. The best ANNs were selected and submitted to ROC curves. The non-linear model was able to discriminate FTD from AD with an average AUC for 7 independent trials of 0.82. The use of hidden information contained in the different items of ToL and the non linear processing of the data through ANNs allows a high discrimination between FTD and AD in individual patients.     

Sameness of Fregean sense

This paper develops a criterion for sameness of Fregean senses. I consider three criteria: logical equivalence, intensional isomorphism, and epistemic equipollence. I reject the first two and argue for a version of the third.     

2010 Working Bibliography of Teaching and Learning Publications and Presentations related to the Work of the Wabash Center by Wabash Center Participants and Grant Recipients

This bibliography lists articles and books on teaching produced by workshop participants and grant recipients of the Wabash Center. It updates a similar list produced in 2007 and published in volume 10 number 3 of this journal.     

Doing Good, Feeling Good, and Having More: Resources Mediate the Health Benefits of Altruism Differently for Males and Females with Lumbar Spine Disorders

We evaluated whether resources mediate and/or moderate the relationship between altruism and health outcomes in adults with lumbar spine disorders. Hierarchical regression modeling on 243 persons with lumbar spine disorders evaluated gender differences and whether physical, emotional, and economic resources mediated or moderated the relationship between altruism (Schwartz Altruism) and health (Rand-36, PROMIS Pain Impact). Men and women had similar altruism subscale scores, but there were gender differences in the altruism-health relationships. Both men and women had better mental health with higher levels of Community Connection, after adjusting for Community Pressure, and this effect was mediated by emotional resources. Women evidenced better physical health and less pain impact when they endorsed higher levels of Community Connection and/or General Helping aspects of altruism. Physical and economic resources partially but did not fully mediate women??s altruism-physical health link. The altruism-pain impact link was not significant after adjusting for covariates. Men and women report similar levels of altruism but enjoy different benefits. Emotional resources explained the altruism-mental health link in both genders, but women experienced a physical health benefit of altruism that was not mediated by resources. Future research should test causal relationships.     

The juncture of law and morality in prohibitions against torture

Conclusion The right to be secure from torture, a right that encompasses moral as well as legal strictures against the practice, is supported by increasingly stringent human rights instruments. In this essay, I have discussed the principal instruments and their place in the anti-torture field considered broadly. The phenomenon of these international instruments foreshadows an ever-widening range of legal initiatives against torture, and is emblematic of the increasing importance attached to respect for human life and human dignity. The diversity of international treaties providing against torture such as, for example, The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), The Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery (1956), The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965), and The International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (1973), indicates the interconnectedness of a wide range of human rights issues.The boundaries that have been drawn around the violation constituted by torture are clearer at present than are those bounding many other rights. Rights commonly categorized as of an economic nature - the right to food and to development, for example - are undergoing processes of definition and implementation. One challenge of this paper is to generate procedures presently attached to such specific human rights violations as torture to rights with less clear parameters. In this way, the growing effectiveness of procedures against torture can serve in the long term to strengthen the bases of international human rights law while in the short term helping to expand the armory of procedures for the protection of less clearly-defined, rights. International human rights law offers a practical tool towards eliminating torture from states' instruments for governing and provides a model for the development of procedures in other categories of rights, while bringing universally declared moral aspirations and legal authority into closer alignment.     

Family processes,resourcefulness, coping,and stress: A prospective study

A review of the family therapy literature indicates that few studies have investigated the complex relationship among family processes, coping, and stress in understanding how people manage stressful events and conditions. The purpose of the present study was to utilize a prospective research design to systemically explore the impact of family processes on an individual's ability to use effective coping responses when faced with a stressful situation. The results did indicate that individuals experienced greater strain at Time 1 (awaiting exam). However, no differences were found between family process variables and an individual's coping responses between Time 1 and Time 2 (awaiting results). Suggestions for further research on intergenerational family systems theory and implications for family therapy practice are provided.     

Client gender and sex-typed nonverbal behavior: Impact on impression formation

The influence of sex-typed nonverbal behavior of male and female clients on college students' perceptions was investigated. In a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design, 156 male and female college students were exposed to a videotaped interview during which either a male or female client displayed either masculine or feminine sex-typed nonverbal behaviors. Subjects rated the perceived characteristics, prognosis for improvement, and problems of the client. Hypothesized main effects for client gender and sex-typed nonverbal behavior did not obtain. However, the hypothesized client gender by sex-typed nonverbal behavior interaction was found. This result was due primarily to a pervasive tendency to stigmatize the female clients displaying masculine sex-typed behaviors, in comparison to male clients displaying these same behaviors. Possible explanations and implications for these observed effects were discussed.