THE DANTO-WOLLHEIM MEANING THEORY OF ART

Arthur Danto in The Transfiguration of the Commonplace and Richard Wollheim in Painting as an Art have each advanced a certain meaning theory of art (MT), more specifically, a theory according to which something is a work of art just in case it expresses a proposition. The first part of this essay sets out that view in more detail, with textual support that Danto and Wollheim do in fact hold that theory. The second part offers reasons against accepting MT. (1) There seem to be persuasive counterexamples to MT: objects that are clearly works of art but which do not appear to exhibit any tendency towards propositionality. (2) Neither theorist provides an explanation as to why someone with something to say would choose to, as it were, hide his thought behind a painting. (3) MT will force a theory of the evaluation of art that parallels the evaluation of (say) scientific or philosophical thought. Artworks will be judged according to the profundity of the thoughts they express rather than by their aesthetic features – which would make Duchamp a greater artist than Monet!     

Expressing a Good Will: Kant on the Motive of Duty

If any action is to be morally good it is not enough that it should conform to the moral law-it must also be done for the sake of the moral law: where this is not so, the conformity is only too contingent and precarious, since the nonmoral ground at work will now and then produce actions which accord with the law, but very often actions which transgress it.     

Group aggregates and individual reliability: The case of verbal short-term memory

Two experiments examined the generalizability of the effects of word length and phonological similarity with visual and auditory presentation in immediate verbal serial ordered recall. In Experiment 1, data were collected from 251 adult volunteers drawn from a broad cross-section of the normal population. Word length and phonological similarity in both presentation modes significantly influenced the group means. However, 43% of the subjects failed to show at least one of the effects, and the likelihood that effects appeared was highly correlated with verbal memory span. In Experiment 2, 40 subjects of the original sample were retested, 20 of whom had failed to show one or more effects in Experiment 1. Whether or not an effect had appeared for individual subjects on the first test session was a poor predictor of whether the effect would appear on retest. Finally, an analysis of subject reports demonstrated that the patterns of experimental data could be accounted for in part by the strategies that subjects reported using, and the effect of strategy was independent of the effect of span. The implications of these findings for theories of verbal short-term memory are discussed.     

Many-Valued Logic and Event-Related Potentials

In previous experiments on event-related potentials (ERPs) during linguistic judgments, the subjects' decisions have been categorical (e.g., true vs false). In this experiment, more realistic variations in truth value and subject certainty were used. Thirty-eight naive undergraduates read a story about a fictional murder. ERPs were recorded as the subjects rated the strength of their beliefs about statements relating to suspects in the crime. Because no subject was sure which of the suspects was guilty of committing the crime, binary (true–false) category judgments were inappropriate. Three components of the ERP waveforms were affected by the experimental manipulations. An early positive component was largest to sentences concerning the suspect considered most likely to have committed the crime. A subsequent broad posterior positivity (LPC) also showed significant sentence-type differences, but it was larger to sentences considered probable—whether they were true or false—than to more ambiguous sentences. A third ERP component (N400) was negative at midline electrode sites and peaked at approximately 420 ms. Subjects' truth-value judgments had no effect on the N400. N400 was, however, affected by the subject's task. It was more negative when subjects made graded judgments about truth value than when they made binary true–false judgments. Overall, naturalistic judgments of sentence validity produced a variety of brain responses that reflected different aspects of linguistic decision making.     

Culturally Sensitive AIDS Educational Videos for African American Audiences: Effects of Source, Message, Receiver, and Context

The importance of using culturally sensitive educational materials in HIV-related interventions with racial and ethnic minority groups is widely recognized. However, little empirical research has been conducted to assess the relative effectiveness of different techniques for creating culturally sensitive AIDS educational videos. Two field experiments with three samples of African American adults (N = 174, 173, and 143) were conducted to assess how source characteristics (race of communicator), message characteristics (multicultural message vs. culturally specific message), and audience characteristics (racial distrust and AIDS-related distrust) influence proximate (perceptions of the message's credibility and attractiveness) and distal (AIDS-related attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral intentions) output variables for AIDS educational videos. In Study 1, an AIDS video with a culturally specific message was rated as more credible, more attractive, and of higher quality than was a video with a multicultural message. The multicultural message was rated less favorably when delivered by a White announcer than when the announcer was Black. In Study 2, the same pattern was replicated with a second community sample and a campus-based sample. Study 2 also indicated that a multicultural message might be more effective if delivered in a culturally specific context, namely, after audience members watch a culturally specific video. Minimal changes were observed in distal outcome variables. It is argued that influencing proximate output variables is necessary, though not sufficient, for effecting long-term change in AIDS-related attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.     

Specificity of Dating Aggression and Its Justification Among High-Risk Adolescents

Ninety-five high-risk adolescents were studied to determine whether their dating aggression and its justification as a response to interpersonal problems were specific to the current partner, general to dating relationships, or part of a global age-mate (same-sex peers and opposite-sex dating partners) aggression problem. Approximately one-third of males and two-thirds of females reported physical aggression against their current dating partner. Males' aggression (and its justification) toward their current dating partner was part of a generalized pattern of dating aggression, whereas for females, physical aggression against a current dating partner (and its justification) was partner-specific and unrelated to aggression in other relationships. Findings are discussed with regard to intervention and future research on adolescent dating aggression.     

A Systems Approach to the Treatment of Chemical Addiction

Therapists are increasingly considering chemical addiction from a family systems perspective. Effects of chemical dependency upon the family are discussed and intervention approaches aimed toward assisting the family as families redefine themselves and change their structure are considered. The integration of chemical dependency treatment and the family therapy is also discussed as it is practiced in an intensive outpatient program at a psychiatric hospital.     

Measuring How We Preach What We Practice: Psychoeducational Change in Depressed Inpatients

This study investigated the relationship between acquisition of psychoeducational principles and symptomatic improvement in depressed in-patients. One hundred and twenty-three inpatients hospitalized on a Cognitive Therapy Unit were administered the Test of Cognitive Behavioral Principles (TCBP) and the Beck Depression Inventory at admission and discharge. It was predicted that the TCBP scores would be higher at discharge than at pre-testing at admission. Further, it was hypothesized that the higher TCBP scores at post-test would be significantly correlated with lower Beck Depression Inventory scores at post-test. The results revealed that inpatients' TCBP scores improved over the course of treatment supporting the first hypothesis. However, the data did not support the second hypothesis as there was not a significant relationship between the TCBP scores and the BDI scores at discharge. The results are discussed in terms of clinical, theoretical, and methodological implications.     

The Impact of Job Performance,Gender, and Ethnicity on the Managerial Review of Sexual Harassment Allegations1

This study examines the managerial review of sexual harassment allegations by subordinates against supervisors as a 2-stage attribution process. In the 1st stage, reviewers decide whether the behavior was inappropriate (misconduct). In the 2nd, reviewers decide the level of company responsibility. The reviewers' 2 decisions are influenced in distinct ways by scenario participant job performance, and the genders and ethnicities of reviewer and scenario participants. Male respondents exhibited some bias for high-performing same-ethnicity supervisors—a bias not present in female responses. In the 2nd stage, female and non-White reviewers assessed significantly higher levels of company responsibility than did male and White respondents. The data suggest that although men and women do not differ substantially over what constitutes misconduct, they do differ over the company's responsibility.     

TEACHING MULTIPLICATION FACTS TO STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES

Multiple baseline designs were used to examine the effects of an instructional package on accuracy of performance in solving multiplication facts by 3 students with learning disabilities. The instructional package included the following components: (a) a modified instructional sequence in which multiplication facts were grouped into the zeros, ones, doubles, fives, and nines categories, and those remaining; (b) identification of the category in which each fact belonged; (c) mnemonic strategies associated with solving facts in each category; and (d) steps to be completed for solving facts in each category. Results indicated that the instructional package produced substantial and immediate effects. After receiving instruction, a participant's accuracy was often 100%, and this was maintained throughout the evaluation even as other strategies were introduced. Comparable results occurred across students, demonstrating replication of the effects of the instructional package.