Environmental Ethics and Intergenerational Equity

Possible environmental and related impacts of human activity are shown to include the extinction of humanity and other sentient species, excessive human numbers, and a deteriorating quality of life (I). I proceed to argue that neither future rights, nor Kantian respect for future people's autonomy, nor a contract between the generations supplies a plausible basis of obligations with regard to future generations. Obligations concern rather promoting the well-being of the members of future generations, whoever they may be, as well as of current generations. Future benefits and costs should only be discounted where there are special reasons for doing do so (e.g. relevant opportunity costs) (II). A sustainable economy is held to be necessary for intergenerational equity. This granted, principles of equity are introduced concerning: compensation for long-term risks and for resource depletion; conserving the stock of resources, resource diversity, and assimilative capacity; equal options and opportunities for each generation; and remedying past failures to conserve environmental quality. Rules and policies considered include: an efficient, diversified, and ecologically sustainable economy; no increase of risk of irreversible environmental change; and action despite uncertainty to avert serious future outcomes (the Precautionary Principle). These policies are argued to require rectification of current injustices within and between current generations (III). Finally, the recently resuscitated metaphysical model of society as a partnership between generations is held to imply the view of each generation as trustees rather than owners of the planet. This trusteeship view is independently credible, and supportive of the principles and policies earlier introduced; and its adoption by successive generations could turn the partnership model into a reality (IV).     

Construing in a crowd: The effects of social crowding on mental construal

How does social crowdedness shape the way people mentally represent objects in the environment? Building on research suggesting that motivational intensity can serve to influence the span of conceptual scope, we demonstrate that individuals in socially crowded environments tend to rely on concrete low-level construals, while those in less crowded environments utilize more abstract high-level construals. We further demonstrate that these effects are mediated by a social crowding induced avoidance motivation, and are moderated by the composition of the crowd.     

An Archival Study of Eyewitness Memory of the Titanic's Final Plunge

A handful of real-life studies demonstrate that most eyewitnesses accurately recall central details (i.e., the gist of what happened) from traumatic events. The authors evaluated the accuracy of archival eyewitness testimony from survivors of the Titanic disaster who witnessed the ship's final plunge. The results indicate that most eyewitness testimony (15 eyewitnesses of 20) is consistent with forensic evidence that demonstrates that the Titanic was breaking apart while it was still on the ocean's surface. Despite the methodological limitations of archival research, the authors provide evidence from a single-occurrence traumatic event (with a large-scale loss of life) that the majority of eyewitnesses accurately recall central details.     

Intuition: A Challenge for Psychological Research on Decision Making

Intuition represents an enormous challenge for research on decision making. What is intuition? How does it modify our appreciation of cognitive abilities? When should people trust intuition? These questions set the agenda for this article, which (a) defines intuition, (b) comments on how intuition has been viewed across time in the decision making literature, (c) stresses the need to specify different types of intuition, (d) discusses when intuition is likely to lead to good decisions, and (e) presents four challenges. These are, first, elucidating the evolution of preferences; second, illuminating culturally acquired values such as morals; third, the need to educate intuitive responses; and fourth, problems in using intuition for decision making in a changing world. However, the major challenge facing intuition research is the need for conceptual work to define the nature and scope of different intuitive phenomena. To be useful, the concept should not become too broad.     

Advancements in competitive anxiety research: Use of the sport competition anxiety test and the competitive state anxiety inventory-2

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to briefly review the competitive anxiety research that has utilized the Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT) and the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) as measures of competitive trait anxity (A-trait) and multidimensional competitive state anxiety (A-state), respectively. An expanded model of competitive anxiety is presented which serves as the basis for the review of the literature. Specifically, the SCAT research reviewed includes the relationship of competitive A-trait to other intrapersonal factors, perception of threat, the prediction of state responses as well as motor performance and the prediction of performance outcomes or consequences. The CSAI-2 research reviewed includes the relationship of competitive A-state to other intrapersonal factors, interrelationships between CSAI-2 components, the anxiety-performance relationship, and evidence supporting the independence of the CSAI-2 components. Future directions for research using SCAT and the CSAI-2 are outlined.     

Decisional separability, model identification, and statistical inference in the general recognition theory framework

Recent work in the general recognition theory (GRT) framework indicates that there are serious problems with some of the inferential machinery designed to detect perceptual and decisional interactions in multidimensional identification and categorization (Mack, Richler, Gauthier, & Palmeri, 2011). These problems are more extensive than previously recognized, as we show through new analytic and simulation-based results indicating that failure of decisional separability is not identifiable in the Gaussian GRT model with either of two common response selection models. We also describe previously unnoticed formal implicational relationships between seemingly distinct tests of perceptual and decisional interactions. Augmenting these formal results with further simulations, we show that tests based on marginal signal detection parameters produce unacceptably high rates of incorrect statistical significance. We conclude by discussing the scope of the implications of these results, and we offer a brief sketch of a new set of recommendations for testing relationships between dimensions in perception and response selection in the full-factorial identification paradigm.     

Effects of learning from interaction with physical or mediated devices

Online learning tools and course materials have not only taken root: they are fully established and thriving. However, some wonder whether the missing interaction with physical, rather than virtual, tools may be undermining the foundation of more abstract spatial and cognitive skills. Sixty third-grade (28 male and 32 female) children with a mean age of 8.95 years (SD = .56 years) were randomly assigned to practice new math skills on a physical wooden Chinese abacus or a virtual Chinese abacus, programmed using Hypercard. Later; the children did equally well on a paper and pencil recognition test, but the children who had practiced with the virtual Chinese abacus were significantly worse at building on their knowledge to figure out how to use the abacus for more advanced computation than those who had practiced with the wooden Chinese abacus. This could have important implications for the early development of the foundation of mathematical, spatial, and cognitive skills.     

Containment and contentment

In this paper I examine the importance of the smile as an emotional nexus between infant and mother. A series of observations seems to suggest that the infant is almost immediately able to appreciate when the mother, as a special and separate person, is ready to receive such communication. I consider how a mother's physical and mental embrace may have been altered by the presence of an observer in such a way that the necessary conditions were created for her baby to feel that it was then the right time to use the ability to smile, and so become an active initiator of meaningful interaction.     

From Sanātana Dharmato Secularism: Hindu Identity in the Thought of Swami Rama Tirtha and the Swami Rama Tirtha Mission

The speeches and writings of the neo-Vedantin Swami Rama Tirtha (1873–1906) and his followers show an ongoing concern with discussion of Hinduism, Vedanta, and religion in general. Although a constant in this discussion is the basic understanding of Vedanta as the core, essential truth of all religions, the presentation of Vedanta has changed in differing social and political situations. This paper examines how one Hindu community has sought to define Hinduism and construct its own sense of identity over time, focusing particularly on the ways in which the definition of Hinduism has been modified since India became an independent, secular state.