Socio-economic differences in size-judgments of discs and coins by Chinese primary VI children in Hong Kong.

The present experimental data provide some cross-cultural support for Bruner and Goodman's (1947) hypothesis about perceptual accentuation. 20 Hong Kong Chinese children from a lower socio-economic level over-estimated valued coins more than 15 children from a high socio-economic level. The two Primary Class VI samples used were matched for education and age, and both spoke the Cantonese dialect. There was also some evidence for Tajfel's (1957) "interserial" and "intraserial effects" more particularly for the lower socio-economic children, although similar trends were apparent for the smaller group of higher socio-economic children.     

Magnitude estimation of apparent sums and differences

Os first scaled two continua by magnitude estimation: apparent area of circles and loudness of 1,000-Hz tones. They then gave magnitude estimations of apparent sums and apparent differences for IS pairs of stimuli on each of the two continua. The scales for sums and differences were in some cases nearly linearly related to the power function obtained when the same as scaled the underlying continuum. However, systematic departure from linearity was the usual result. The power law exponents obtained were generally smaller than those usually reported for the two sensory continua.     

Validation of ratio scales of opinion by multimodality matching

Ss adjusted loudness and force of handgrip (and in one experiment apparent duration) to match the strength of their opinions regarding racism, occupational desirability, and pronunciability of trigrams. For each stimulus item, median settings of one continuum were plotted as a function of median settings of the other. The resulting power-function exponents agree with previous cross-modality matches and with the results of a cross-modality match of loudness and duration produced by Ss in the present experiments. The results provide validation of ratio scales of opinion and further establish the direct scalingmethods used to obtain them.     

Engagement and suffering in responsible caregiving: On overcoming maleficience in health care

The thesis of this article is that engagement and suffering are essential aspects of responsible caregiving. The sense of medical responsibility engendered by engaged caregiving is referred to herein as ‘clinical phronesis,’ i.e. practical wisdom in health care, or, simply, practical health care wisdom. The idea of clinical phronesis calls to mind a relational or communicative sense of medical responsibility which can best be understood as a kind of ‘virtue ethics,’ yet one that is informed by the exigencies of moral discourse and dialogue, as well as by the technical rigors of formal reasoning. The ideal of clinical phronesis is not (necessarily) contrary to the more common understandings of medical responsibility as either beneficence or patient autonomy — except, of course, when these notions are taken in their “disengaged” form (reflecting the malaise of “modern medicine”). Clinical phronesis, which gives rise to a deeper, broader, and richer, yet also to a more complex, sense than these other notions connote, holds the promise both of expanding, correcting, and perhaps completing what it currently means to be a fully responsible health care provider. In engaged caregiving, providers appropriately suffer with the patient, that is, they suffer the exigencies of the patient's affliction (though not his or her actual loss) by consenting to its inescapability. In disengaged caregiving — that ruse Katz has described as the ‘silent world of doctor and patient’ — provides may deny or refuse any ‘given’ connection with the patient, especially the inevitability of the patient's affliction and suffering (and, by parody of reasoning, the inevitability of their own. When, however, responsibility is construed qualitatively as an evaluative feature of medical rationality, rather than quantitatively as a form of ‘calculative reasoning’ only, responsibility can be viewed more broadly as not only a matter of science and will, but of language and communication as well — in particular, as the task of responsibly narrating and interpreting the patient's story of illness. In summary, the question is not whether phronesis can ‘save the life of medical ethics’ — only responsible humans can do that! Instead, the question should be whether phronesis, as an ethical requirement of health care delivery, can ‘prevent the death of medical ethics.’     

African four-striped grass mice (Rhabdomys pumilio), a diurnal-crepuscular muroid rodent,in the behavioral laboratory

African four-striped grass mice,Rhabdomys pumilio, are potentially valuable animals for laboratory studies of behavior. In nature, they live in the grasslands of much of Africa. In the laboratory, striped mice adapt well to a number of behavioral testing situations. Ten male grass mice tested in running wheels displayed a mean of approximately 10,000 revolutions per day, with a diurnal-crepuscular pattern characterized by sharp peaks near the time of light onset and offset and a generally greater level of wheel running in light than in darkness. The retinal anatomy of this species is characterized by a cone-like organization of the outer segment layer and unusual thickness of the inner plexiform layer, suggesting an unusual high amount of retinal data processing for a muroid rodent. The copulatory pattern ofR. pumilio is characterized by no lock, no intravaginal thrusting, multiple intromissions preceding ejaculation, and multiple ejaculations. The number of intromissions preceding the first ejaculation is unusually high, and postejaculatory intervals are unusually long. Grass mice display intermediate levels of open-field activity, but little climbing or digging.     

Modification of the startle reflex in a community sample: do one or two dimensions of psychopathy underlie emotional processing?

Recent research on psychopathy has begun to explore two dimensions that possibly underlie psychopathy–one related more to emotional and interpersonal traits, and another related more to antisocial behaviors. A community sample of adults was assessed for psychopathy using Hare's (1991) Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Eyeblinks elicited by startle probes were recorded while participants viewed pictures of emotionally-laden stimuli. Consistent with previous research, participants scoring high on PCL-R Factor 2 (“antisocial”) showed no affective modification of startle if they also scored high on PCL-R Factor 1 (“emotional detachment”). When the factor scores were analyzed together as continuous variables in a regression analysis, however, affective modification of startle was negatively related to Factor 1 but positively related to Factor 2. The results thus provide further support for a two-factor model of psychopathy.     

American and Chinese College Students' Predictions of People's Occupations,Housework Responsibilities,and Hobbies as a Function of Cultural and Gender Influences

Predictions of people's occupations, housework responsibilities, and hobbies by American and Chinese college students reflected their sensitivity to the sex and gender information embedded in metaphors. Specific gender information, even when implicit, weighed more than general sex information, even when explicit, in the formation of social predictions. The gender-stereotyped prediction patterns were similar in the 2 countries, although the American students made more gender-typed predictions than did their Chinese counterparts, whereas the latter produced more gender-neutral predictions than did the former. The Chinese students' data were somewhat paradoxical, which might suggest the influence of mixed gender messages in their daily life. These cultural differences were true of all 3 domains of occupation, housework, and leisure activities. The evolutionary perspective and the sociocultural perspective were applied to explain the prediction patterns.