Grading the ‘cultural literacy’ project

The essay examines the argument advanced by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., for instituting ‘cultural literacy’ as a fundamental priority of schools. A number of confusions and equivocations in Hirsch's reasoning are identified, and the propensity of his project to indoctrinate is exposed. Among the features of Hirsch's argument shown to be troubling are his shifting construal of ‘language’, his inconsistency about the requirements of cultural literacy, and his uncritical relation to traditional images of the American past and present. The upshot is to raise the question why Hirsch's project has elicited wide support and praise.     

Hemispheric involvement in shadowing vs. interpretation: a time-sharing study of simultaneous interpreters with matched bilingual and monolingual controls

A time-sharing study used shadowing and interpretation/paraphrasing tasks to evaluate lateralization in professional interpreters individually matched to bilingual and monolingual controls. A two-step multivariate general linear model procedure was used to determine lateralized effects and extent of disruption produced by the tasks. Results revealed the monolingual group to be left lateralized for both tasks, but the two bilingual groups were lateralized in the LH only for shadowing. The monolingual group was significantly different from the bilingual groups in the pattern of hand asymmetry for interpretation/paraphrasing. The findings replicate outcomes of prior repeated measures analysis of variance procedures on percentage of change scores. However, new information is added by the more refined analysis. The findings are also discussed in terms of previous laterality studies using similar tasks and subject samples.     

Referenzsemantik in der Partnermodellierung

How can we explain that an assertion on something perceived can be understood in the same manner by somebody who cannot perceive that scene? This problem bases the interest in computational linguistics in how listener modeling could possibly be harmonized with reference semantics. Mental images substituting real perception appear as a way out. The architecture of the listener model has to be adapted to the creation and use of such pictorial data structures. Furthermore, the relation between the latter and a verbal (i. e., propositional) representation must be understood. The resulting architecture of a listener model with reference semantics can be employed to solve communicational problems from three general classes in a better way, as is demonstrated by an example implementation.     

Measuring and predicting the effects of alcohol consumption on contrast sensitivity for stationary and moving gratings

Contrast sensitivity was measured for 12 healthy young males while sober, after ingestion of an alcohol placebo, and after ingestion of alcohol (95% grain alcohol; mean estimated blood alcohol level = .088%). Observations were made for both stationary gratings and gratings that traveled through a circular path and required pursuit eye movements. The significant alcohol-related reduction in contrast sensitivity was 2.6 times greater for moving (.29-log-unit reduction) than for stationary gratings (.11-log-unit reduction). The loss in contrast sensitivity for the moving gratings of high spatial frequency (12 cpd) was particularly severe (.37 log unit). Estimated blood alcohol level was correlated with the loss in contrast sensitivity for moving gratings (r = .61), but not with the loss for stationary gratings. Estimated blood alcohol level was strongly correlated with the difference between the loss in contrast sensitivity to moving and stationary gratings (r = .75). These results are consistent with reports that alcohol consumption degrades the ability to make pursuit eye movements. Subjects’ perceived intoxication level was not a reliable predictor of any index of visual performance.     

Competent and incompetent criminal defendants: a quantitative review of comparative research

Thirty studies comparing competent and incompetent criminal defendants (N = 8,170) were quantitatively reviewed to identify variables associated with judgments about defendants' competency to stand trial. Effect sizes reflecting the magnitude of the relationship between competency status and defendant characteristics were derived and averaged across studies. The characteristics most strongly related to incompetency were (a) poor performance on psychological tests or interviews specifically designed to assess defendants' legally relevant functional abilities, (b) a psychotic diagnosis, and (c) psychiatric symptoms reflective of severe psychopathology. To a lesser degree, traditional psychological tests, previous psychiatric hospitalization, previous legal involvement, marital resources, and demographic characteristics were also related to competency status. Although these results are generally consistent with the legal standard for competency to stand trial, some of the correlates of competency may reflect potential biases in the decision-making process. Limitations of existing research and directions for future inquiry are discussed.     

A factor analytic study of teachers' ratings of the personality of school children

Teachers' rating on 70 adjectives that described the personality of school children were factor analysed. Four main factors emerged, and the adjectives loading most highly on each were selected to form four subscales of a New Teachers Rating Scale (NTRS). The subscales were named Good Pupil, Extraversion, Psychoticism and Neuroticism. Normative data for the scale were reported. Correlations with self-rated personality inventories such as the JEPQ, JEPI and CPQ indicated that: the Extraversion subscale correlated with JEPI-E and CPQ-Exvia, the Psychoticism subscale correlated with EPQ-P, CPQ-Exvia and CPQ-Anxiety, while the Good Pupil subscale correlated positively with JEPI-E, and negatively with JEPQ-P and CPQ-Anxiety. The Neuroticism subscale did not correspond to Eysenck's measures of Neuroticism but correlated with CPQ-Anxiety. Test-retest reliability of the subscales ranged between 0.75 and 0.92. The usefulness of the NTRS in complementing self-rated personality measures and the need to explore the nature of self-rated and teacher-rated neuroticism were discussed.