Children's Sleep Behavior Scale: normative data on 870 children in grades 1 to 6

A 22-item Likert-type rating scale for parents was developed for screening a broad range of specific sleep-related behaviors of elementary school children. The prevalence of these behaviors was reported by parents for boys (n = 459) and girls (n = 411) in three age groups, less than 8.5 yr., between 8.5 and 11.5 yr., and greater than 11.5 yr. For all age groups, the most prevalent behaviors were restlessness, waking up at night, pleasant dreams, getting up to go to the bathroom, talking while asleep, and complaints about not being able to sleep, while the least frequent were rhythmical movements and crying while asleep. The self-reports suggest that many of the behaviors are underestimated in the literature. Some sex and age differences were found, but the number of siblings, birth order, change in family structure, and educational status of father and mother were unrelated to the sleep variables. Test-retest reliabilities of self-reports by these parents to individual items were adequate.     

Suppositions in argumentation

The atheist who begins to argue his case by saying, Suppose there is an omniscient Being of the sort in which Christians believe ... is employing a very familiar move in argumentation. However, most books on argumentation theory ignore suppositions completely. Searle omits suppositions entirely from his taxonomy of speech acts and this appears to lead to a similar omission in Speech Acts in Argumentative Discussions by van Eemeren and Grootendorst.This paper argues that suppositional argument is elegant, powerful and extremely common, that the correct way to understand it is based on Gottlob Frege's distinction between asserted and unasserted propositions and hence that suppositions are neither assertions nor (and this is more important) assertives. The paper discusses the connections between suppositions and conditionals; it argues that argumentation theory which ignores suppositions is systematically misleading; and it concludes by indicating some possible developments in argumentation theory.Revised version of a paper delivered at the University of Amsterdam, April 3, 1987.     

Mass media effects on sex role attitudes of incarcerated men

This study explores the impact of the mass media on sex role attitudes of men incarcerated in a maximum security prison. It seems likely that prisoners' attitudes may be shaped by the media during their isolation. There is the possibility that the incarceration experience itself may bolster any media effects and should therefore be explored. Moreover, media socialization with regard to sex roles may help a prisoner's reentry into society by making the men aware of the current achievements of women in society. On the other hand, a narrow presentation of women's roles by the media may theoretically hinder a prisoner's readjustment to the social scene. This paper also compares sex role attitudes among these men to such attitudes found in general population studies.     

Subjective Expected Utility,Locus of Control,and Behavior1

Although a fundamental assumption of behavior decision theory is that individuals must generally believe they can control their fate if their behavior is to be influenced by subjective expected utility (SEU), the hypothesis that the positive relationship between SEU and behavior is stronger for those with internal locus of control had not been directly tested. That hypothesis was assessed in two separate longitudinal studies of adolescents. The behavior studied in one sample was the initiation of cigarette smoking, and in the other it was the onset of drinking alcohol. The hypothesis received weak support in both studies.     

The Equity-Control Model as a Predictor of Vandalism Among College Students1

The equity-control model of vandalism (Baron & Fisher, 1984; Fisher & Baron, 1982) is used to conceptualize vandalism among college students. The model predicts that vandalism is most likely where there are low perceived equity (perceived lack of fairness in one's social or environmental arrangements) and low to moderate perceived control (perceived inability to effectively modify outcomes and arrangements). To test the model, university students were given questionnaires which measured perceived equity and control as these factors relate to the university and to dormitory living. Using multiple regression analysis, the interaction of equity and control was predictive of vandalism: Subjects with low perceived equity and control were most likely to report they engaged in vandalistic acts.     

The effects of teaching experience on levels of alienation

This study was designed to measure the levels of alienation among American student and full-time teachers, based on the length of their experience with the public school organization. One hundred seventy eight subjects, including 113 full-time teachers and 65 student teachers, were administered the Dean Alienation Scale. Analysis of the data indicated that student teachers had significantly higher levels of alienation, isolation, normlessness, and powerlessness, than did full-time teachers. The less experience the teacher had, the higher were his or her levels of total alienation and powerlessness.     

The Wrong Stuff: Chinese Rooms and the Nature of Understanding

Searle's Chinese Room argument is a general argument that proves that machines do not have mental states in virtue of their programming. I claim that the argument expresses powerful but mistaken intuitions about understanding and the first person point of view. A distinction is drawn between a competence sense and a performance sense of 'understanding texts'. It is argued that the Chinese Room intuition looks for a special experience (performance) of comprehension, whereas artificial intelligence is attempting to explain the knowledge (competence) required to understand texts. Moreover, a dilemma is sketched for the argument: either Searle hasn't identified the appropriate subject of understanding or he may understand after all. Finally, I question the underlying assumption that the general definition of mental states requires a projectable-by-us first person point of view.     

Accommodation and apparent distance

The ability to judge egocentric distance was assessed in sixteen normal observers under conditions where monocular blur-driven accommodation provided the only source of information regarding changes in target dioptric distance. Accommodation and apparent distance were measured over an optical range of 2 to 6 D for each of three targets which differed in their effectiveness as accommodative stimuli (excellent, moderate, and poor). For the excellent and moderate accommodative targets, apparent distance decreased as accommodation increased, with both targets sharing a common linear function. Apparent distance, however, tended to exceed accommodative distance and was relatively compressed in scale. As expected, accommodative response and apparent distance diminished in range as target effectiveness was reduced. The poor accommodative target represented the limiting case wherein accommodation failed to deviate from the tonic level, and apparent distance remained constant. There were considerable intersubject differences in the ability to judge distances on the basis of accommodation. The results indicate that accommodation can indeed serve as a source of distance information, particularly for some individuals.     

Menstrual symptoms and up-down vectors

Multiple studies considered the somatic symptom correlates of up-down asymmetries in women. In four samples, involving a total of 81 women, menstrual symptoms were significantly linked with the up-down distortion of the space surrounding self. In addition, there were borderline relationships between menstrual symptoms and other indices of up-down asymmetry. The findings suggested a possible link between menstrual symptoms and concerns about possessing versus not possessing power. Over-all, the results support previous studies indicating that spatial sets reflect important attitudes or conflicts that seem to play a role in somatic symptomatology. However, they point up the importance of considering sex differences.