Inferentialism,degrees of commitment,and ampliative reasoning

Our purpose in this paper is to contribute to a practice-based characterization of scientific inference. We want to explore whether Brandom’s pragmatist–inferentialist framework can suitably accommodate several types of ampliative inference common in scientific reasoning and explanation (probabilistic reasoning, abduction and idealisation). First, we argue that Brandom’s view of induction in terms of merely permissive inferences is inadequate; in order to overcome the shortcoming of Brandom’s proposal, we put forward an alternative conception of inductive, probabilistic reasoning by appeal to the notion of degrees of commitment. Moreover, we examine the sorts of inferential commitments operative in other types of ampliative inferences, such as abduction or reasoning involving idealizations and assumptions. We suggest that agents engaging in these forms of reasoning often undertake restricted inferential commitments, whose scope and reach are more limited that in the case of the commitments associated with full beliefs.

     

Relationships among goal orientations, motivational climate and flow in adolescent athletes: differences by gender

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relationships among perceived motivational climate, individuals' goal orientations, and dispositional flow, with attention to possible gender differences. A sample of 413 young athletes, ages 12 to 16 years, completed the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire-2 (PMCSQ-2) and Perception of Success Questionnaire (POSQ), as well as the Dispositional Flow Scale. Task orientation was positively and significantly related to a perceived task-involving motivational climate and to the disposition to experience flow in the sport. Ego orientation was positively and significantly associated with a perceived ego-involving motivational climate and with dispositional flow. The perceptions of task-involving and ego-involving motivational climates were positively and significantly linked to general dispositional flow. Multiple regression analysis indicated that both task and ego goal orientations and perceived task- and ego-oriented climates predicted dispositional flow. Males displayed a stronger ego orientation, and were more likely to report that they participated in an ego-oriented climate, than did females. To the contrary, the females were more likely to perceive a task-oriented climate than did the males. No meaningful differences were found between males and females in general dispositional flow.     

Inhibition Efficiency in Highly Proficient Bilinguals and Simultaneous Interpreters: Evidence from Language Switching and Stroop Tasks

The present behavioral study aimed to examine the impact of language control expertise on two domain-general control processes, i.e. active inhibition of competing representations and overcoming of inhibition. We compared how Simultaneous Interpreters (SI) and Highly Proficient Bilinguals—two groups assumed to differ in language control capacity—performed executive tasks involving specific inhibition processes. In Experiment 1 (language decision task), both active and overcoming of inhibition processes are involved, while in Experiment 2 (bilingual Stroop task) only interference suppression is supposed to be required. The results of Experiment 1 showed a language switching effect only for the highly proficient bilinguals, potentially because overcoming of inhibition requires more cognitive resources than in SI. Nevertheless, both groups performed similarly on the Stroop task in Experiment 2, which suggests that active inhibition may work similarly in both groups. These contrasting results suggest that overcoming of inhibition may be harder to master than active inhibition. Taken together, these data indicate that some executive control processes may be less sensitive to the degree of expertise in bilingual language control than others. Our findings lend support to psycholinguistic models of bilingualism postulating a higher-order mechanism regulating language activation.     

Conspicuous consumption in a recession: Toning it down or turning it up?

The 2008 recession reportedly led to the demise of conspicuous consumption with wealthy consumers abandoning luxury goods that prominently display their brands for more subdued designs. Utilizing data collected before and in the midst of the recession from designer handbag manufacturers, Louis Vuitton and Gucci, we find products introduced during the recession actually display the brand far more prominently than those products withdrawn. Data from Hermès and luxury ads in Vogue magazine also indicate manufacturers did not tone things down. Our results suggest conspicuous consumption endures in recessions; consumers who do not exit the luxury goods market are still interested in logo‐laden products.     

Différence dans la qualité de logement: Immigrants et non-immigrants à Montréal Toronto et Vancouver

The immigrant population in Canada has risen substantially during the last decades. This increase has produced some tension and raised questions about the institutional arrangements of the host society. In response to these tensions and questions, the government of Canada adopted a policy of multiculturalism in 1971 and promoted the constitutionalization of human rights through the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This response was successful in terms of the evolution of the liberal democracy in Canada, the management of diversity and the building of an inclusive identity. However, it remains to be evaluated in relation to the struggle against discrimination and inequalities. While the reponse has already been evaluated in regard to employment, no evaluation has been undertaken regarding housing. This article tackles this issue through the decomposition of differences in the quality of housing for immigrants and non-immigrants in three metropolitan areas. The quality of housing is measured by the number of rooms per capita and is studied in relation to several variables to estimate the difference between populations. The results show a convergence in the situation in the three metropolitan areas and clearly reveal a difference in the quality of housing for immigrants and non-immigrants.     

Association between bullying victimization and physical fitness among children and adolescents

Background/ObjectiveThe aim of the study was to analyze the relationship between being bullied and the physical fitness components, and to determine whether a healthy physical fitness level is related with lower victimization in children and adolescents with overweight and obesity compared to unfit overweight/obese peers. Method:The present cross-sectional study included a total of 7,714 youths (9-17 years), categorized as normal-weight or overweight/obese and fit or unfit according to sex-specific handgrip strength and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) cut-points. Bullying (physical, verbal, social exclusion, sexual harassment, and cyberbullying) was assessed through the Standard Health Behavior in School-aged Children survey questions. Results:Boys and girls that were categorized as fit (healthy level of CRF) showed lower traditional bullying compared to unfit counterparts. Also, a healthy level of CRF could be a protective factor of traditional bullying among overweight/obese youths compared to unfit overweight/obese peers. Conclusions:CRF is related with lower risk for experiencing traditional bullying in Latino youths with and without obesity, thus emphasizing the role of fitness even among youth with excess of adiposity.     

A single exposure to severe stressors causes long-term desensitisation of the physiological response to the homotypic stressor

Although some laboratories have reported that a single session of stress is able to induce a long-lasting sensitisation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) response to further exposures to stress, we have found that a single exposure to severe emotional (immobilisation, restraint or shock) or systemic (endotoxin) stressors reduces the responsiveness of the HPA to the same, but not to a novel (heterotypic), stressor, in which case a slight sensitisation was observed. Long-term desensitisation has been found to reduce not only secretion of peripheral HPA hormones (ACTH and corticosterone), but also to reduce responses of central components of the HPA axis (c-fos and CRF gene expression at the level of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, PVN). In addition, desensitisation also applies to the impact of the stressor on food intake and, probably, to stress-induced hyperglycaemia. The development of long-term desensitisation of the HPA axis does not appear to be a universal consequence of exposure to severe stressors as it was not observed in response to insulin-induced hypoglycaemia. Whether or not the development of long-term effects of stress depend on the specific pathways activated by particular stressors remains to be tested. The observed desensitisation of the HPA axis in response to the homotypic stressor shows two special features which makes it difficult to be interpreted in terms of an habituation-like process: (a) the effect increased with time (days to weeks) elapsed between the first and second exposure to the stressor, suggesting a progressive maturational process; and (b) the stronger the stressor the greater the long-term desensitisation. Therefore, it is possible that desensitisation of the HPA axis is the sum of two different phenomena: long-term effects and habituation-like processes. The contribution of the former may be more relevant with severe stressors and longer inter-stress intervals, and that of the latter with mild stressors and repeated exposures. Long-term stress-induced changes may not take place at the level of the PVN itself, but in brain nuclei showing synaptic plasticity and putatively involved in the control of the HPA axis and other physiological responses. As for the precise areas involved, these remain to be characterized.     

Measuring the core features of personality disorders in substance abusers using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI)

Personality disorders (PDs) are still classified through categorical taxonomies that are at odds with current research findings. Dimensional models provide a suitable alternative for measuring individual differences. However, as they have traditionally lacked a clear definition of the "disorder" construct, the clinical utility of these models has been limited. This study tests whether Cloninger's dimensional model is able to capture two domains: the features that differentiate PD subtypes from each other and the common core features underlying all PDs. Seventy-four drug dependent patients were independently assessed using the SCID-II and Cloninger's TCI. There was a slight relationship between TCI temperament dimensions and the DSM personality disorder subtypes, but the association was not specific enough to allow differential diagnosis. The character dimension Self-Directedness was strongly associated with the presence and severity of all PDs, irrespective of subtype, correctly classifying 77% of subjects. Character dimensions are a reliable, valid and low-cost tool for detecting PDs in drug abusers and may help to provide an operational definition of the common core features underlying all PDs.     

Low heart rate variability is not caused by typical neuroleptics in schizophrenia patients

Both elevated cardiovascular mortality and low cardio-vagal (parasympathetic) heart rate variability (HRV)--a risk factor for postmyocardial infarction--are reported in schizophrenia (SZ). Since a number of medications have strong effects of cardiac conductivity, we thought it important to examine if typical neuroleptic medications might also affect HRV. We examined cardiac vagal activity during both neuroleptic treatment and a drug-free condition in seven SZ patients who were participating in a pilot double-blind, crossover study of placebo and haloperidol treatment. Twenty-four-hour Holter electrocardiograms were analyzed for high frequency HRV, quantitated as the percent of successive normal interbeat intervals greater than 50 milliseconds (PNN50), which is a good index of parasympathetic cardiac modulation. The patients showed unchanged PNN50 (8.4+/-9.5 versus 8.3+/-10.5; t=.22, df=6, P=.5) between the haloperidol treatment and drug-free conditions. Despite the elapsed time, change in medication, and altered clinical state, the PNN50s were highly correlated (Spearman r=.98, P=.000). SAPS positive symptom scores declined with treatment from 12.8+/-6.5 to 8.5+/-3.5; paired t=3.26: df=6; P=.01. PNN50s were significantly associated with positive (r=-.86, df=6, P=.012) and negative symptom scores (r=-.87, df=6, P=.01). We found low cardiovagal modulation in medication-free SZ patients that was associated with core SZ symptoms and was unchanged by haloperidol and benztropine treatment. The reduced HRV in SZ patients at baseline may render them at greater cardiovascular risk than healthy subjects when treated with medications having strong cardiovascular effects.     

Reports of attempted suicide among Brazilian addicts

Both substance dependence and depressive mood seem to be associated with increased suicide risk. Clinical information on suicide attempts and depressive symptoms were obtained from a sample of 211 psychoactive substance dependents attending a university clinic program for addicts in Brazil. 49 subjects (23.4%) had attempted suicide at least once, and the frequency of reporting attempts was 4.32 times greater among women than among men. Male addicts also tended to engage in potentially more dangerous attempt methods than women. Depressive male addicts were 2.17 times more likely to have attempted suicide than nondepressive addicted men. Among women, no association could be established between having attempted suicide and the presence of depression. Substance addicts have a relatively high risk of attempting suicide and the co-occurrence of depression seems to increase prevalence of suicidal behavior among men.