Development of the Critical Elements of Genetic Evaluation and Genetic Counseling for Genetic Professionals and Perinatologists in Washington State

We present a method for the development of consensus documents describing the components of genetic evaluation and genetic counseling for various diagnoses. These documents were developed to encourage consistency among genetic professionals in Washington State. Other possible uses of these documents are to provide information regarding genetic evaluations for health care practitioners and payers, and to assist in quality assurance and genetic training programs. A working group of six genetic professionals developed two templates for the critical elements of genetic evaluation and genetic counseling, for clinical (nonprenatal) and prenatal patients. The working group then completed prototype templates for several specific genetic disorders. The templates and prototypes were sent to interested genetic professionals and perinatologists who submitted a total of 76 draft critical elements (CE's) to the working group. At two statewide meetings, participating practitioners modified and unanimously approved the CE templates, then unanimously approved the 21 draft CEs that had been finalized in small group discussions. Approved CE's were distributed to genetic professionals and perinatologists within the state.     

Thinking about Morality and Moral Thinking: Is There a Distinction?

ABSTRACT A recent exchange with Shaffer (this issue) reveals several points of agreement underscoring the utility of our subject-based approach to understanding moral thought. Shaffer's latest reply raises the interesting question of whether thinking about morality, the focus of our study, constitutes moral thinking. Our response underscores how Shaffer's approach to studying moral thought differs from our own. More important, we emphasize how disagreements over what constitutes moral thinking can and should be settled empirically.     

Shattering the illusion of control: Multi-shot versus single-shot gambles

The illusion of control refers to a phenomenon whereby people believe their chances of success at a task are greater than would be warranted by objective analysis. This article raises two questions. First, how robust is the illusion of control? Second, how might the illusion be ‘shattered?’ Previous experimental demonstrations involved situations that can be likened to unique or single-shot gambles. If, however, the phenomenon is robust, it should occur in repeated or multi-shot gambles in which the outcome depends on a series of gambles involving the same underlying random process. It should also appear in single-shot gambles that are framed so as to superficially resemble multi-shot gambles. We label this the strong illusion of control hypothesis. On the other hand, because people have a better appreciation of probabilistic concepts in tasks they are able to represent as relative frequencies, the introduction of a multi-shot or ‘pseudo-multi-shot’ context might cue people to the random nature of the task, thereby shattering the illusion. The weak illusion of control hypothesis holds that the illusion of control will occur in single-shot but not in multi-shot or pseudo-multi-shot gambles. Two studies are reported that support the weak hypothesis. Alternative explanations are considered and implications are discussed.     

Objective self-awareness,standards of evaluation,and moral behavior

In a performance setting, subjects were given an opportunity to cheat without fear of detection on puzzle problems. Subjects were led to believe that successful performance was due to ability in some conditions, but to luck in other conditions. In fact, most of the problems were insolvable, so that success was impossible without cheating. Self-awareness was induced in half the subjects by having them sit in front of a mirror and listen to a tape recording of their own voice as they worked on the puzzle problems; the remaining subjects were not exposed to a mirror and listened to a tape of someone else's voice as they worked on the problems. It was predicted that cheating frequency would be higher under ability attribution conditions than under luck attribution conditions, and that this effect of performance attribution would be greater among self-aware subjects than among non-self-aware subjects. Results confirmed these hypotheses. Discussion centered on the differential use of morality and competence standards for behavior when in a state of self-awareness.     

Self-control of smoking—II effects of cue salience and source of delay imposition on the effectiveness of training under increasing delay

Imposed increasing delay of cigarette puffs has been shown to facilitate smoking inhibition. Hypothetical mechanisms involved (frustration extinction or rehearsal of coping responses) imply that increased temptation cue salience and decreased degree of external control in increasing delay training, should facilitate smoking inhibition. After three pre-test delay tolerance trials, all subjects were cued to pace their smoking in an increasing sequence of delay. During treatment the cigarette temptation cues were either visible or hidden. Delays were either self-imposed but cued by the experimenter or the delays were physically imposed by the experimenter. Post-test consisted of three delay tolerance trials. Pre-test to post-test improvement was significantly facilitated by cue salience and reduced external control. No significant interaction effects were obtained. Cue salience significantly reduced the self-reported aversiveness and GSRs during self-control trials. Implications for treatment were advanced.     

A process model for Missionaries-Cannibals and other river-crossing problems

We extend a model originally developed by Atwood and Polson (1976) for the water jug task to four isomorphs of the Missionaries-Cannibals problem. Our results show that variation in cover story produced no differences in number of legal moves to solution, but caused large differences in illegal moves. A three-stage process model incorporating means-ends heuristics, assumptions about the utilization of memory, and an illegal move-detection process is able to account for both legal and illegal move data from all four versions of the problem.     

The effects of feature necessity and extrinsicity on gradedness of category membership and class inclusion relations*

Two theories of differences among natural language categories in graded membership and strength of class inclusion are contrasted. The two sets of hypotheses tested were: (1) that categories represented by features which many people believe to be necessary would have less graded memberships, and stronger class inclusion, than those represented by features which few people believe to be necessary, and (2) that categories which people believe are represented primarily by intrinsic features (i.e. features that are true of an entity in isolation; see Barr & Caplan, 1987) would have less graded structures, and stronger class inclusion, than those which people believe are represented primarily by extrinsic features (i.e. features representing relations between an entity and other entities). The findings suggest that feature necessity and feature extrinsicity have independent effects on gradedness of category membership and on class inclusion.