Appearances can be deceiving

Conclusion I began by claiming that I simply wanted to undermine the plausibility of the appeal to appearances in matters of perceptual belief. Most of the arguments I have offered, however, have been more strongly stated, viz., I have apparently tried to eliminate them rather than simply render them less credible. But the notion of appearances is deeply entrenched, so much so that simply undermining their credibility may require overstating the case somewhat. The central theme of the above arguments is that appealing to appearances misleads us. The appeal misleads us into giving the wrong sorts of explanation, both with respect to the psychology of perceptual belief formation and the justification of perceptual beliefs. In short, appearances can be deceiving. And they probably are.A distant (if now unrecognizable) ancestor of this paper was first read at the 12th Annual Louisiana Philosophy Convention in October, 1988. Steve Fuller also offered comments on an intermediate version. I am especially grateful to Norton Nelkin who has read and commented on several versions. He should not be held complicit, however.     

Appearances,antirealism, and Aristotle

Summary Nussbaum misconstrues the difference between Plato and Aristotle over what is real for a debate over a conception of truth. She seems to mistake Aristotle's arguments against Plato' version of realism as an argument against realism per se, though the texts do not permit such a reading. She claims Aristotle is convinced that realism involves a fatal failure of reference, yet she produces not a single text where Aristotle is even remotely concerned about such a failure of reference given the commitments of realism. And nowhere is the crucial question of the relationship between Aristotle's antirealism and his method of appearances explicitly addressed or resolved.Nussbaum offers us a fashionable Aristotle. I have argued that, far from being attractive and obviously right on a deep and recent metaphysuical debate, Nussbaum's Aristotle is confused and inconsistent and thus that it is a good thing the texts do not support such a characterization.     

Out-of-home placement of children: Selected issues and prospects for the future

This paper describes the recent trends in the child welfare and children's mental health systems and their implications for public policy. Despite the rhetoric calling for preserving families and treating children and youth in their own homes, the best available evidence indicates that the rates of out-of-home placement are increasing at an alarming rate. More concerted and comprehensive efforts are needed if this trend is to be reversed in the near future.     

The time course of extinction-induced aggressive behavior in humans: Evidence for a stage model of extinction

Three experiments examined the effects of extinction on aggressive responding in male college students. In Experiment 1 subjects initially performed on a task where shuttle responding was either continuously or partially reinforced with tokens while either a nonaggressive button-pressing response or an aggressive pad-striking response was concurrently reinforced by escape from a moderately aversive tone. During shuttle acquisition there was clear preference for the escape response of button pressing, but when shuttle responding was extinguished subjects began to respond aggressively by striking the pad to escape. The time course of aggressive escape responses during concurrent shuttle extinction was an inverted U; aggressive responding rose to a peak and then declined. Aggressive responding began earlier in extinction following continuous- as contrasted with partial-reinforcement shuttle training. Experiment 2 showed that similar extinction-induced aggression was precipitated by both moderate and extended continuous-reinforcement shuttle training, with earlier onset after extended reinforcement. Experiment 3 ruled out the possibility that the emergence of the pad-striking response during extinction was simply induced response variation. These data were interpreted within the theoretical framework of P.T.P. Wong's recently advanced stage model of extinction (Animal Learning and Behavior, 1978,6, 82–93).     

Interval and ratio reinforcement of a complex sequential operant in pigeons

Pigeons were required to produce exactly four pecks on each of two keys in any order for reinforcement. Correct response sequences were reinforced on either fixed-interval two-minute or fixed-ratio four schedules, with each correct sequence treated as a single response. Each pigeon developed a particular dominant sequence that accounted for more than 80% of all sequences. Sequence stereotypy was relatively unaffected by the temporal properties of the fixed-interval and fixed-ratio schedules. Response time (time from the first response in each sequence to the last) was also relatively unaffected by the temporal properties of the schedules. In contrast, response latency (time from end of one sequence to the beginning of the next) was markedly affected by the schedules. Latencies were long early in the interreinforcement interval and got shorter as the interreinforcement interval progressed. These data suggest that stereotyped response sequences become functional behavioral units, resistant to disruption or alteration by reinforcement variables that ordinarily influence the temporal spacing of individual responses.     

Sex differences in causal attributions for success and failure in real and hypothetical sport settings

In Experiment 1, a 48-item attribution questionnaire was administered to 22 members of the men's and women's varsity basketball teams, respectively, after an intrasquad scrimmage. In Experiment 2, the same questionnaire was administered to a random sample of 54 undergraduates who were told to imagine a hypothetical scrimmage. Losing male athletes rated internal characteristics as less important in determining the outcome than did losing females. Winning females rated the opponent's characteristics as less important in determining the outcome than did winning males. Hypothetical female winners rated the opponent's characteristics as more important than did hypothetical male winners. The lack of correspondence in the outcomes of the two experiments and possible methodological shortcomings in the attribution literature are discussed.The two authors participated equally in the preparation of this article. Portions were presented at the First Annual Meeting of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, Denver, October 1980. We sincerely thank Coach Margaret Sisson and Coach Thomas Prechtl of the varsity women's and men's basketball teams, respectively, of the State University of New York — College at Fredonia, for their assistance in carrying out this project. We also thank the editors of this issue for their helpful criticisms of earlier versions of this article.     

Heroes and heroines among American adolescents

Based upon the analysis of questionnaire responses of 1092 high school students, an attempt was made to assess the type of heroes and heroines most often chosen. The major findings are that high school students have more heroes than heroines, that they have an approximately equal number of personal heroes and heroines, and that the preference for heroes is not altered when the sex or race of the respondents is considered. The findings are explained both by the greater numbers of males than females in public professional roles and by the greater salience of male than female professional role models. Implications of the possible effects of hero and heroine choices for sex-role identification are discussed.     

Verbal ability and mental processing speed

The notion that verbal ability is related to mental processing speed was examined using tasks that systematically varied in semantic content. Subjects' reaction times were measured in five tasks involving arrow matching, physical identity word matching, or taxonomic identity word matching. The findings indicated that matching tasks using different decision rules and different stimuli were all related to verbal ability. In fact, reaction time for subjects required to judge whether two arrows pointed in the same direction was the best predictor of verbal ability. One explanation of the results is that speed of information processing (a general factor) may be the important component of verbal ability which is measured by seemingly different matching tasks.     

The effects of conditioning and novelty on the rat's analgesic and pyretic responses to morphine

Six experiments with rat subjects investigated the role of conditioning in morphine tolerance. Concurrent assessments of body temperature and pain sensitivity were conducted. Experience with morphine produced tolerance to its analgesic effects but enhancement of its hyperthermic effects. Environmental novelty enhanced analgesia but not body temperature (Experiments 1 and 4). Under conditions in which a discriminated hyperthermic CR provided clear evidence that morphine-environment learning had developed, discriminated analgesic tolerance was not obtained (Experiments 2 and 3). Similarly, whereas placebo administrations extinguished the hyperthermic CR (Experiments 4 and 6), analgesic tolerance remained unaffected (Experiments 4, 5, and 6). These experiments suggest that the pyretic and analgesic systems are differentially sensitive to conditioning and the effects of novelty.     

Response and encoding factors in “ignoring” irrelevant information

Subjects classified either the numerosity or numeric value of elements in successive stimulus displays. In separate experiments, responses were indicated by oral naming, card sorting, manual tapping, and oral “tapping.” Incongruent levels of numeric value slowed naming and sorting, but not tapping, when numerosity was the cue for responding. Incongruent numerosity slowed tapping, but not naming and sorting, when numeric value was the cue. Changes in stimulus response mapping may thus critically alter the ability to ignore an irrelevant stimulus dimension.