Reading Abraham Lincoln: An Expert/Expert Study in the Interpretation of Historical Texts

This study explored how historians with different background knowledge read a series of primary source documents. Two university-based historians thought aloud as they read documents about Abraham Lincoln and the question of slavery, with the broad goal of understanding Lincoln's views on race. The first historian brought detailed content knowledge to the documents; the second historian was familiar with some of the themes in the documents but quickly became confused in the details. After much cognitive flailing, the second historian was able to piece together an interpretative structure that brought him by the task's end to where his more knowledgeable colleague began. Data analysis focused on how, lacking detailed content knowledge, this historian was able to regain his intellectual footing, work through confusion, and resist the urge to simplify. Implications of this work for cognitive analyses in history and education are discussed.     

How to endure presentism

Presentism and endurantism are natural bedfellows: arguments have been mounted from endurantism to presentism and vice versa. I generalise an argument against the compatibility between presentism and endurantism offered recently by Tallant (forthcoming. “Presentism, Persistence and Trans-temporal Dependence.” Philosophical Studies). I then show how to reformulate endurantism so that it is compatible with presentism. I demonstrate that this reformulated version of endurantism can do the same work with respect to the problem of temporary intrinsics as can standard definitions.     

Role of intertrial interval following an escape or avoidance response in bar-press avoidance

In three experiments, rats learned bar-press avoidance as a function of the intertrial interval following an escape or an avoidance. The general hypothesis is that the length of these intervals affects bar-press avoidance differentially, depending on whether an avoidance follows an escape (avoidance/escape) or an avoidance (avoidance/avoidance) on the previous trial. Specifically, it is proposed that short escape ITIs will facilitate avoidance/escape and avoidance/avoidance, while avoidance ITIs will have no effect on avoidance responding. The results tend to support this hypothesis. The shorter the intertrial interval following an escape, the higher the probability of both measures: avoidance/escape and avoidance/avoidance. No effect of avoidance interval was found on avoidance/avoidance. Unpredictedly, however, it was found that in comparison to a very short intertrial interval following an avoidance (0.5 sec), relatively long intervals (5 and 45 sec) facilitate avoidance/escape. These results were interpreted as mainly reflecting nonassociative factors such as shock-produced activity.     

Beyond freedom and dignity at 40: comments on behavioral science, the future, and chance (2007)

Forty years after the publication of Beyond Freedom and Dignity (Skinner, 1971) and the continuing growth of behavior analysis, the future of humanity and the role of behavioral science in that future remain uncertain. A recent paper by Chance (2007) documented a shift in Skinner's views during the last years of his life. Skinner had long advocated a science and technology of behavior for finding and engineering solutions to cultural and global problems and advancing human development. This optimism had given way under a gradual realization that the science of behavior was in fact showing how such problems were unlikely to be solved in time to avert a variety of possible disasters. Chance described nine behavioral phenomena that appear to interfere with effective problem-solving behavior on a large scale and in effective time frames. These phenomena are reviewed toward an analysis of common themes. Research is also reviewed that involves nonverbal, verbal, and cultural contingencies that may lead to applications designed to address the common themes. Problems and strategies of implementation are also discussed. The challenges are daunting, but may nevertheless be regarded as technical problems best suited for a science and technology of behavior.     

Bidirectional relations between different forms of prosocial behaviors and substance use among female college student athletes

Bidirectional, longitudinal relations between alcohol and marijuana use and prosocial behaviors in women college student athletes were examined. Participants were 187 female college students (M_age = 19.87 years; 91% White) who completed questionnaires on their use of marijuana and alcohol, and six forms of prosocial behaviors across 6 years (2004–2010). The findings yield overall evidence that earlier marijuana use predicted lower levels of most specific forms of prosocial behaviors for women athletes in later young adulthood. Early expressions of altruistic behaviors predicted less marijuana use in later young adulthood. Expression of public prosocial behaviors early in young adulthood predicted higher levels of hazardous drinking in late young adulthood. These novel findings have important implications for links between prosocial development and substance use in women college athletes.     

The Integration of Personal Identity,Religious Identity,and Moral Identity in Emerging Adulthood

The present study investigated the relative roles of identity structure (i.e., personal identity) and identity contents (i.e., religious identity and moral identity) in predicting emerging adults’ prosocial and antisocial behaviors. The sample included 9,495 college students. A variable-centered analysis (path analysis) used personal identity, religious identity, and moral identity as predictors of prosocial and antisocial behavior and tested interactions of personal identity with religious identity and moral identity. Moral identity was the strongest predictor of both behaviors, and religious identity and moral identity both interacted with personal identity in predicting antisocial behavior. A person-centered analysis (latent profile analysis) found three classes: integrated, moral identity–focused, and religious identity–focused, with integrated being most adaptive on both outcomes.     

The Hard Road to Presentism

It is a common criticism of presentism – the view according to which only the present exists – that it errs against truthmaker theory. Recent attempts to resolve the truthmaker objection against presentism proceed by restricting truthmaker maximalism (the view that all truths have truthmakers), maintaining that propositions concerning the past are not made true by anything, but are true nonetheless. Support for this view is typically garnered from the case for negative existential propositions, which some philosophers contend are exceptions to truthmaker maximalism. In this article, we argue that a ‘no truthmakers’ approach to the truthmaker objection is critically flawed.     

Personhood,consciousness, and god: how to be a proper pantheist

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion - In this paper I develop a theory of personhood which leaves open the possibility of construing the universe as a person. If successful, it removes...