Hume on the Standard of Virtue

Among those sympathetic to Hume'smoral philosophy, a general consensus hasemerged that his first work on the topic,A Treatise of Human Nature, is his best. Hislater work, An Enquiry Concerning thePrinciples of Morals, is regarded as scaleddown in both scope and ambition. In contrastto this standard view, I argue that Hume'slater work offers a more sophisticated theoryof moral evaluation. I begin by reviewing theTreatise theory of moral evaluation tohighlight the reasons why commentators find socompelling Hume's account of the corrections wemake to our moral sentiments. The method isendorsed by philosophers such as Henry DavidAiken and Annette C. Baier because, theyallege, it shows that moral sentiments reflecta process of judgment that includes thepossibility of corrigibility and ofjustification. But Hume's method of correctionfalls short and does not establish why thesentiments conforming to the standard of virtueshould count as moral judgments. In the secondEnquiry, Hume lays out a different set ofcriteria, including not only the need forcertain virtues of good judgment but attentionto the particular cultural and historicalorigins of the norms governing the virtues ofgood judgment. Hume's attention to diversityin evaluative outlook in his more matureposition takes seriously the relation betweenmoral authority and public debate.     

The influence of partial-match cues on event-based prospective memory

In event-based prospective memory tasks people form an intention to respond when an environmental cue signals that conditions are appropriate to fulfil an intended activity. In the ongoing activity the authors embedded partial-match cues that only partially, but not completely, satisfied the conditions required to make a prospective response. The consequence of encountering these partial-match cues was to increase responses to appropriate prospective memory cues encountered later. This outcome occurred both with semantic and orthographic cues, but only the former led to longer processing latencies of the partial-match cues. This asymmetry suggests that partial-match cues may not need to be processed consciously in order to benefit event-based prospective memory. A parametric manipulation of the number of partial-match cues resulted in numerically but not statistically better prospective memory. Consequently, partial-match cues may function as overt reminders of the intention to respond or they may serve to engage participants in self-initiated remindings of the intention.     

Chosen striking location and the user-tool-environment system

Controlling a hand-held tool requires that the tool user bring the tool into contact with an environmental surface in a task-appropriate manner. This, in turn, requires applying muscular forces so as to overcome how the object resists being moved about its various axes. Perceived properties of hand-held objects tend to be constrained by inertial variables that describe such resistance to movement. In 3 experiments, the authors investigated whether participants choose different striking locations on striking implements when using that implement under different constraints. The results suggest that the constraints of the striking task and the grasp position on the striking implement together contribute to the chosen striking location. Furthermore, such choices are constrained by inertial variables that reflect combinations of these constraints.     

Functional neuroimaging studies of human emotions

Neuroimaging studies with positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging have begun to describe the functional neuroanatomy of human emotion. Taken separately, specific studies vary in task dimensions and in type(s) of emotion studied, and are limited by statistical power and sensitivity. By examining findings across studies in a meta-analysis, we sought to determine if common or segregated patterns of activations exist in different emotions and across various emotional tasks. We surveyed over 55 positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging activation studies, which investigated emotion in healthy subjects. This paper will review observations in several regions of interest in limbic (eg, amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex) and paralimbic (eg, medial prefrontal cortex, insula) brain regions in emotional responding.     

Cognitive behavioural and neuropsychiatric treatment of post-traumatic conversion disorder: a case study

Conversion disorder consists of involuntary sensory or motor symptoms and deficits that cannot be explained by a general medical condition. There are several treatment options, although none has emerged as the treatment of choice. The present case study examined the effects of adding cognitive behaviour therapy to neuropsychiatric management of conversion disorder (motor subtype). The patient, a retired emergency services worker, presented with a history of intermittent episodes of speech disruption (inability to speak or difficulty speaking properly). Although episodes of speech disturbance sometimes occurred unexpectedly, they were more likely to occur under conditions of stress and fatigue, and were triggered by reminders of work-related traumatic events. The patient was treated with pharmacotherapy and psychoeducation from a neuropsychiatrist. With the aim of improving treatment outcome, cognitive behaviour therapy was added, involving imaginal exposure to trauma memories, along with cognitive restructuring. The frequency of between- and within-session speech disturbance episodes declined over the course of cognitive behaviour therapy to the point that the patient was essentially symptom-free. Within-session distress ratings also decreased, which suggested habituation to trauma-related memories. This case study demonstrates how particular cognitive behaviour therapy interventions can be usefully applied to one form of conversion disorder.     

Mentoring college-age women: a relational approach

Despite the popularity of mentoring programs, the relational dimension of mentoring has not been elucidated. Traditional conceptions of mentoring may exclude factors that are particularly important for women and girls, thus limiting the efficacy of mentoring programs for female adolescents. We suggest that the presence of relational qualities in the mentoring relationship (e.g., empathy, engagement, authenticity, and empowerment) strongly influences the success of mentoring in the lives of young women. In this study, we use a promising new measure of mentoring, the Relational Health Index – Mentor, to explore the impact of relational aspects of mentoring in female college students. We found that mentoring relationships high in relational qualities were associated with higher self-esteem and less loneliness.     

Evaluating Attributions for an Illness Based Upon the Name: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Myalgic Encephalopathy and Florence Nightingale Disease

In recent years, considerable discussion has occurred about stigma surrounding the name given to an illness currently known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Although patients and medical personnel have expressed varying opinions on this issue, no studies have evaluated how beliefs about the illness change based upon the type of name used for diagnostic purposes. Proposals have been put forth to rename the illness with an eponym (a famous patient's or researcher's name) or with a less trivial sounding, more medically based type of name. In this study, attributions about CFS were measured in three groups of medical trainees. All groups read the same case study of a person with classic symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome, with the only difference being in the type of name given. Trainees then were asked to provide attributions about certain aspects of the illness, including its cause, severity, and prognosis. Results suggested that, across name conditions, most trainees appeared to consider the symptom complex of CFS a serious illness resulting in poor quality of life. In addition, findings indicated that the name, chronic fatigue syndrome, may be regarded less seriously than the Myalgic Encephalopathy name with respect to some important aspects of the illness. In this study, specialty of medical trainee also played a role in how the illness was perceived.     

Not all narrative shifts function equally

Readers of narratives keep track of narrative events and the information associated with these events. Does some of this associated information help structure the processing of and memory for the narrative? In three experiments, we examined the role of basic event building blocks (character, time, and location) in event indexing during text comprehension. These three experiments dealt with perceived coherence, perceived cohesion, and on-line processing, respectively. The results indicated that characters are more likely to serve as event indexes. Although the findings with respect to indexing were similar in all three experiments, interesting differences emerged as a function of the level of text comprehension examined (coherence, cohesion, or on-line processing).