Towards a Liberal Environment?

It is widely supposed that liberal political theory must exclude direct concern for nature, that its anthropocentric individualism can allow only indirect, instrumental value to the non-human world. This is perhaps thought to be especially true of contractarian versions of liberalism. In this paper I try to show that this is not so by outlining an argument based on an analogy between the 'neutrality' of Rawls' political liberalism and the 'otherness' of external nature. I consider some possible objections to the argument, and try to explain why I think that the analogy is strong enough to justify modifying the Rawlsian approach to encompass direct concern for external nature (as other). If I am right then it is not necessary completely to abandon that approach in order to construct a more adequately ecocentric political theory.     

The Role of Negation in Conditional Inference

This paper addresses the issue of how negative components affect people's ability to draw conditional inferences. The study was motivated by an attempt to resolve a difficulty for the mental models theory of Johnson-Laird and Byrne, whose account of matching bias in the selection task is apparently inconsistent with Johnson-Laird's explanation of the double negation effects in conditional inference reported by Evans, Clibbens, and Rood (1995). Two experiments are reported, which investigate frequencies of conditional inferences with task presentation similar to that of the selection task in two respects: the presence of a picture of four cards and the use of implicit negations in the premises. The latter variable was shown to be critical and demonstrated a new phenomenon: Conditional inferences of all kinds are substantially suppressed when based on implicitly negative premises. This phenomenon was shown to operate independently of and in addition to the double negation effect. A third experiment showed that the implicit negation effect could be extended to the paradigm in which people are asked to produce their own conclusions. It is argued that these two effects can be explained within either the mental models theory or the inference rule theory, of propositional reasoning, but that each will require some revision in order to offer a convincing account.     

An interactional “live eye tracking” study in autism spectrum disorder: combining qualitative and quantitative approaches in the study of gaze

Recent studies on gaze behaviours in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have utilised “live eye tracking.” Such research has focused on generating quantitative eye tracking measurements, which provide limited (if any) qualitative contextual details of the actual interactions in which gaze occurs. This article presents a novel methodological approach that combines live eye tracking with qualitative interaction analysis, multimodally informed conversation analysis. Drawing on eye tracking and wide-angle video recordings, this combination renders visible some of the functions, or what gaze “does,” in interactional situations. The participants include three children with ASD and their adult co-participants during body-movement gaming sessions. The article demonstrates how quantitative eye tracking research can be extended qualitatively using a microanalytic interaction analysis to recontextualise the gaze shifts identified. The findings in this article show that the co-participants treat a child’s gaze shifts differently depending on when these occur in a stream of other action. The study suggests that introducing this qualitative dimension to eye tracking research could increase its ecological validity and offer new insight into gaze behaviours in ASD.     

An fMRI investigation of posttraumatic flashbacks

Flashbacks are a defining feature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but there have been few studies of their neural basis. We tested predictions from a dual representation model of PTSD that, compared with ordinary episodic memories of the same traumatic event, flashbacks would be associated with activity in dorsal visual stream and related areas rather than in the medial temporal lobe. Participants with PTSD, with depression but not PTSD, and healthy controls were scanned during a recognition task with personally relevant stimuli. The contrast of flashbacks versus ordinary episodic trauma memories in PTSD was associated with increased activation in sensory and motor areas including the insula, precentral gyrus, supplementary motor area, and mid-occipital cortex. The same contrast was associated with decreased activation in the midbrain, parahippocampal gyrus, and precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex. The results were discussed in terms of theories of PTSD and dual-process models of recognition.     

Personality,Gender, Age and Logical Overlap in Multi‐Source Ratings

Variations in conceptual alignment between predictors and criteria have previously been studied in respect of criterion‐related validity, but not in settings of multi‐source rating. The differential conceptual alignment perspective was applied here to account for gender and age differences in the rating of behaviour. Personality traits of sales staff were found to predict logically overlapping customer‐contact behaviours, rated either by themselves or by their supervisor. Personality traits were also associated with employees' greater over‐rating of a behaviour relative to supervisors' judgements when personality–behaviour logical overlap was stronger. Significant differences in some work behaviours were observed between men and women and between older and younger employees, and those behavioural differences were accompanied by gender or age differences in personality traits that overlapped logically with the behaviour in question. Gender or age differences in ratings of specific behaviours are thus a reflection of gender or age differences in logically associated personality features.     

How does it feel to become a teacher? Emotions in teacher education

Academic emotions are central ingredients in student teachers’ learning. They have been shown to affect cognitive performance, motivation and achievement (e.g. Linnenbrink-Garcia et al. in Contemp Educ Psychol 36(1):13–24, 2011). However, until recently the role of emotions in student teachers’ learning has largely been neglected (e.g. Ketonen and Lonka in Proc Soc Behav Sci 69(24):1901–1910, 2012). The study focused on exploring the spectrum of academic emotions experienced by 19 student teachers in different academic activities. The results showed that student teachers experience a wide variety of emotions during their studies. A total of 18 different positive emotions and 20 different negative emotions were reported. They explicated more positive than negative emotions. Further investigations showed that student teachers reported more emotional experiences embedded in individual activities than in social activities. The results implied that the spectrum of academic emotions experienced by student teachers is wider than previous literature suggests, and that student teachers experience a wide range of academic emotions in various academic activities provided by teacher education.