Philosophy,Logic, Science,History

Analytic philosophy is sometimes said to have particularly close connections to logic and to science, and no particularly interesting or close relation to its own history. It is argued here that although the connections to logic and science have been important in the development of analytic philosophy, these connections do not come close to characterizing the nature of analytic philosophy, either as a body of doctrines or as a philosophical method. We will do better to understand analytic philosophy—and its relationship to continental philosophy—if we see it as a historically constructed collection of texts, which define its key problems and concerns. It is true, however, that analytic philosophy has paid little attention to the history of the subject. This is both its strength—since it allows for a distinctive kind of creativity—and its weakness—since ignoring history can encourage a philosophical variety of “normal science.”     

A confirmatory factor analytic approach on perceptions of knowledge and skills in teaching (PKST)

This paper reports the cross-validation of the factor pattern of the Perceptions of Knowledge and Skills in Teaching (PKST) survey, which was used to assess the self-perceived pedagogical knowledge and skills of pre-service and beginning teachers. The sample comprised 323 pre-service teachers enrolled in a 1-yr. post-graduate teacher education program in Singapore. The survey had 37 items distributed across six scales: student learning, lesson planning, instructional support, accommodating diversity, classroom management, and care and concern. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to cross-validate the survey's factor pattern. The results showed that the model was an acceptable fit to the data. The PKST survey can thus be adapted by different teacher education programs to assess pre-service and beginning teachers' progress in developing their pedagogical knowledge and skills.     

The Music of Ritual Practice—An Interpretation

Music is an important philosophical theme in Confucian writings, one that is intimately related to ritual. But the relationship between music and ritual requires clarification. This paper seeks to argue for a general sense of music that reflects a particular aspect of ritual that has to do with performance. There is much material available in classical texts, such as the 'Record of Music' ('Yueji'), that allows for nuanced explications of the musical qualities of such performances. Thus explicated, those musical terms provide for a way of speaking about the overall effects of ritual that is not bound to specific choreographic details or particular ritual rules. Finally, it is suggested that the Confucian notion of ren ?? could be usefully compared to the generalised notion of music.     

Religious Diversity in Mexico: Socioeconomic Attainment and Family Structure

Mexico has experienced dynamic changes in its religious landscape, but relatively little is known about the ways in which the affiliates of the diverse religious groups differ in their socioeconomic and family characteristics. This paper examines religious group differences in key demographic indicators of socioeconomic status and family structure using the 2000 Mexican Census. The changing patterns of religious affiliation in Mexico signal increasing religious, socioeconomic and familial diversity. Non-Christians and Mormons stand out for having higher scores on education and the wealth index relative to other religious groups. Most groups have lower rates of consensual unions and higher rates of marriage than do Catholics. These same groups also tend to have larger families and lower divorce/separation. These trends seem inconsistent with the Catholic teachings about marriage, divorce and contraception. Apparently, new groups are attracting adherents who have family orientations that differ from main-stream Mexican society.     

The strategic logic of costly punishment necessitates natural field experiments, and at least one such experiment exists

Costly punishment's scarcity "in the wild" does not belie strong reciprocity theory as Guala claims. In the presence of strong reciprocators, strategic defectors will cooperate and sanctioning will not occur. Accordingly, natural field experiments are necessary to assess a "wide" reading of costly punishment experiments. One such field experiment exists, and it supports the hypothesis that costly punishment promotes cooperation.     

Investigating trajectories of change in psychological distress amongst patients with depression and generalised anxiety disorder treated with internet cognitive behavioural therapy

Internet based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is efficacious for the treatment of anxiety and depression. The current study aimed to examine the effectiveness of internet based CBT prescribed by primary care clinicians for the treatment of depression and generalised anxiety disorder. Psychological distress data from 302 patients who completed an online CBT course for depression and 361 patients who completed an online CBT course for generalised anxiety disorder were subjected to growth mixture analysis. For both disorders psychological distress decreased across each lesson in a quadratic trend. Two classes of individuals were identified with different trajectories of change: a large group of individuals who responded well to the courses and a smaller group of individuals with a lower response. Both groups were similar with respect to socio-demographic characteristics however the Low Responders tended to have higher levels of symptom severity and psychological distress at baseline in comparison to the responders. For the majority of patients (75-80%) the internet CBT courses for depression and generalised anxiety disorder were effective. Further research is required to identify and effectively treat the smaller proportion of patients who did not improve during internet CBT.     

The multifinality constraints effect: how goal multiplicity narrows the means set to a focal end

In the presence of several objectives, goal conflict may be avoided via multifinal means, which advance all of the active goals at once. Because such means observe multiple constraints, they are fewer in number than the unconstrained means to a single goal. Five experimental studies investigated the process of choosing or generating such means for multiple goals. We found that the simultaneous activation of multiple goals restricted the set of acceptable means to ones that benefitted (or at least, did not harm) the entire set of active goals. Two moderators of this phenomenon were identified: (a) the feasibility of identifying multifinal means, which was dependent on the relations between the different active goals, and (b) the enhanced importance of the focal goal, which resulted in the inhibition of its alternatives and the consequent relaxation of multifinality constraints.     

The Relationship Between Phonological Memory,Phonological Sensitivity,and Incidental Word Learning

This study investigated the cognitive abilities needed to succeed at incidental word learning, specifically by examining the role of phonological memory and phonological sensitivity in novel word learning by 4-year-olds who were typically developing. Forty 4-year-olds were administered a test of nonword repetition (to investigate phonological memory), rhyming and phoneme alliteration tasks (to investigate phonological sensitivity), and an incidental word learning task (via a computer-based presentation of a cartoon story). A multiple regression analysis revealed that nonword repetition scores did not contribute significantly to incidental word learning. Phonological sensitivity scores were significant predictors of incidental word learning. These findings provide support for a model of lexical acquisition in which phonological knowledge plays an important role.     

Modulation of N400 in chronic non-fluent aphasia using low frequency Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)

Low frequency Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) has previously been applied to language homologues in non-fluent populations of persons with aphasia yielding significant improvements in behavioral language function up to 43 months post stimulation. The present study aimed to investigate the electrophysiological correlates associated with the application of rTMS through measurement of the semantic based N400 Event-related brain potentials (ERP) component. Low frequency (1 Hz) rTMS was applied to the anterior portion of the homologue to Broca’s area (pars triangularis), for 20 min per day for 10 days, using a stereotactic neuronavigational system. Twelve non-fluent persons with aphasia, 2-6 years post stroke were stimulated. Six participants were randomly assigned to receive real stimulation and six participants were randomly assigned to receive a blind sham control condition. ERP measures were recorded at baseline, 1 week and 2 months subsequent to stimulation. The findings demonstrate treatment related changes observed in the stimulation group when compared to the placebo control group at 2 months post stimulation indicating neuromodulation of N400 as a result of rTMS. No treatment related changes were identified in the stimulation group, when compared to the sham group from baseline to 1 week post stimulation. The electrophysiological results represent the capacity of rTMS to modulate neural language networks and measures of lexical-semantic function in participants with non-fluent aphasia and suggest that time may be an important factor in brain reorganization subsequent to rTMS.     

Adolescent political activism and long-term happiness: a 21-year longitudinal study on the development of micro- and macrosocial worries

Utilizing latent growth modeling, the long-term development of worries among peace movement supporters is examined. Data originate from a seven-wave German longitudinal study started in 1985 with on average 14-year-olds. Waves were interspersed 3 and a half years each. Activists are assumed to have lower (self-related) microworries (Hypothesis 1) and higher macroworries (concerned with larger entities; Hypothesis 2) than nonactivists at the onset of the study. Nonactivists who appraised the threat of nuclear war as high in 1985 are assumed to report worse mental health than their activist age-mates 21 years later (Hypothesis 3). Activists are assumed to express relatively more macroworries than nonactivists in midadulthood (Hypothesis 4). All four hypotheses were confirmed. Results are interpreted in a stress-coping (Lazarus) and resource (Elder) framework, suggesting that refraining from acting out against a perceived sociopolitical threat is a long-term risk for a positive mental health trajectory.