Smokers' rights to health care: why the 'restoration argument' is a moralising wolf in a liberal sheep's clothing

Do people who cause themselves to be ill (e.g. by smoking) forfeit some of their rights to healthcare? This paper examines one argument for the view that they do, the restoration argument. It goes as follows. Smokers need more health-resources than non-smokers. Given limited budgets, we must choose between treating everyone equally (according to need) or reducing smokers' entitlements. If we choose the former, non-smokers will be harmed by others' smoking, because there will be less resources available for them than if no-one smoked. This is unfair: why should non-smokers suffer because of others' unhealthy lifestyle choices? We should therefore choose the latter and reduce smokers' entitlements. This paper criticises the restoration argument on the following grounds. In order to avoid generating unpalatable conclusions elsewhere, it must be combined with a principle according to which activities which are sufficiently ‘socially valuable’ (e.g. parenting) are immune from restoration claims. This however means that what was supposed to be one of the argument's most attractive features, its compatibility with ‘liberal neutrality’ with respect to the value of different lifestyles, doesn't really exist. Hence, the restoration argument is nowhere near as attractive as it at first appears to be.     

The cognitive and social-emotional correlates of color deficiency in children: a literature review and analysis.

Although color deficiency is a prevalent problem in childhood, little is known about the cognitive and social-emotional variables linked to this visual deficit. A review of the literature revealed just seven empirical articles designed to explore the psychological functioning of color-deficient children, with the results yielding contradictory findings. An analysis of the literature indicated that the equivocal nature of past research may be due to an inadequate rationale explaining what outcome variables should be tied to color deficiency. This weakness can be remedied, and as a means toward that end, specific investigative recommendations are made to provide a more valid theoretical link between color deficiency and selected cognitive and social-emotional variables.     

Effects of training in visual discrimination after one year: visual analysis of volleyball skills.

Although the effects of specialized training in visual analysis of skills are well documented, whether the effects are lasting is not. The purpose of the present study was to analyze the effect a visual skills training program in volleyball had on participants one year after the completion of a training intervention. Subjects received either traditional performance instruction supplemented with visual training or traditional performance instruction in volleyball only. All subjects remaining in the teacher education program from a previous study were given a visual test on diagnosing errors in three different volleyball skills (the forearm pass, the overhead pass, and the overhead serve). Subjects exposed to visual training remained significantly better at diagnosing errors for the three volleyball skills one year later as compared to those subjects who had not received visual training.     

The reliability and validity of a system for family assessment

The Darlington Family Assessment System (DFAS) is based upon the principles of multisystem-multimethod (MSMM) assessment. In practice it consists of a structured family interview with an integrated rating scale, a number of self-report questionnaries, and a task with an integrated behaviour coding system. This article summarizes the results of a series of empirical evaluations of the DFAS, which concern evaluations of the system as an aid to clinical work with families and as a method for training (at a basic level) in family assessment. The results are presented in terms of their implications for the reliability and validity of the assessment system and discussed from the perspective of their generalizability.     

Growth functions for rapid remembering

Children between ages 9 and 13 were tested for recognizing and remembering words from 6- and 12-word lists. Opportunities for using deliberate mnemonics were severely restricted. Developmental functions showed different growth patterns for remembering the items in a short list than for remembering order, and different patterns for storing items from a long list than for retrieving them. However, none of these functions was parallel to the growth function of rapid word recognition. This absence of parallel growth contradicted a hypothesis that memory develops when item recognition develops. The data suggested, instead, that modest but reliable gains in rapid processes of storage and retrieval contribute to memory development during middle childhood.     

Habit reversal treatment for fingernail biting

A controlled experiment was carried out on 40 habitual fingernail biters to test the following: (1) Whether or not Nunn and Azrin's (1976) ‘habit-reversal’ programme could be simplified and still be effective. (2) Whether or not the use of a competing response is essential for successful outcome. (3) Whether or not a programme of ongoing goals can enhance outcome results.The subjects were equally divided into three experimental groups and a waiting list control group. The experimental groups were: habit reversal plus nail care; habit reversal, nail care plus programme of ongoing target goals; nail care instructions plus programme of ongoing target goals. The dependent variables were length of nails in millimetres and presence or absence of nailbiting. All experimental groups showed significantly greater increases in fingernail length than the control group, but there was no significant difference between the different treatments. However, at follow-up, the two groups incorporating ‘habit reversal’ showed much lower relapse rates than the other experimental group; thus, supporting the argument that use of a competing response is a key component in effective treatment of such compulsive, maladaptive habits.     

Counting strategies and semantic analysis as applied to class inclusion

This study examined strategic and semantic aspects of the answers given by preschool children to class inclusion problems. The Piagetian logical model for class inclusion was contrasted with an alternative, problem processing model in three experiments. A major component of the alternative model is an enumeration strategy which is advantageous for learning reliable counting skills. The counting strategy was found to explain the inclusion errors of young children better than did the logic of the task. It was also found that young children understand the semantics of inclusion but are unable to coordinate their semantic knowledge with their counting strategy. Methodologically, one of the experiments suggested a fruitful extension of task analysis (Simon, 1969) to experimental design.     

Modification of an impulsive cognitive tempo in emotionally disturbed boys

In order to determine the relative effectiveness of verbal self-instructions and training to delay before responding in modifying an impulsive cognitive style, 15 impulsive emotionally disturbed boys were assigned to one of three groups. The cognitive-training group was given practice in verbal self-instructions, the delay-training group received practice in delaying before responding, and the control group received no training. Posttreatment scores on the Matching Familiar Figures Test showed a significant increase in latencies for both the cognitive and delay-training groups. However, only the cognitive-training group, which had recieved practice in verbal self-instructions, made fewer errors following training. Implications for future research and potential treatment strategies for verbal self-instructions are discussed.     

Additivity of components of prismatic adaptation

Ss pointed with each hand at a light or at the unseen toe and looked in the direction of the unseen toe before, during, and after training one arm to point to a visual target which was progressively displaced to one side by a prism. Results show that a proprioceptive change in the trained arm is a universal component of the adaptation. When a change in the eye-head system occurs, it and the proprioceptive change in the arm sum to the total adaptation and it is accompanied by a predictable degree of intermanual transfer of the adaptation, as a felt-position theory of adaptation would predict. However, when there is no change in the eye-head system, the proprioceptive shift is not always sufficient to account for the total adaptive shift.     

Fast Mapping and Exclusion (Emergent Matching) in Developmental Language,Behavior Analysis,and Animal Cognition Research

The Psychological Record - Researchers from behavior analytic, developmental, and comparative perspectives have all investigated the conditions under which new arbitrary (symbolic)...