Knowledge and assertion in “Gettier” cases

Assertion is fundamental to our lives as social and cognitive beings. By asserting, we share knowledge, coordinate behavior, and advance collective inquiry. Accordingly, assertion is of considerable interest to cognitive scientists, social scientists, and philosophers. This paper advances our understanding of the norm of assertion. Prior evidence suggests that knowledge is the norm of assertion, a view known as “the knowledge account.” In its strongest form, the knowledge account says that knowledge is both necessary and sufficient for assertability: you should make an assertion if and only if you know that it is true. The knowledge account has been rejected on the grounds that it conflicts with our ordinary practice of evaluating assertions. This paper reports four experiments that address an important objection of this sort, which focuses on a class of examples known as “Gettier cases.” The results undermine the objection and, in the process, provide further evidence for the knowledge account. The findings also teach some important general lessons about intuitional methodology and the curation of genres of thought experiment.     

Faster,slower or real time? Perceptual-cognitive skills training with variable video speeds

ObjectiveWe examined whether a short-term, off-field training intervention using different video speed manipulations (i.e., normal speed, 75%, and 125% of normal speed), enhances the offside decision-making performance of international level assistant referees. Moreover, we explored the optimal sequence of various video speed manipulations during training.DesignAll groups were exposed to a pre- and posttest. During acquisition, the assistant referees assessed 60 offside video simulations during three different training sessions. The order of the video speed conditions varied during the training intervention depending on participant group assignment: increasing speed group (n = 33; 75%–100%–125%); decreasing speed group (n = 33; 125%–100%–75%); and arbitrary speed group (n = 30; 100%–75%–125%).ResultsFirst, the decision-making accuracy was higher during the presentation of real time and faster video conditions when compared to the slower video condition. Second, only the decreasing speed group improved their offside decision-making performance from pre- to posttest.ConclusionsWe conclude that scheduling a decreasing video speed sequence throughout training is more beneficial to enhance learning than increasing or arbitrary speed conditions. Although it is too premature to replace existing training protocols that typically use constant speed videos, the present study offers evidence to suggest that training interventions for elite performers that decreasing the speed of exposure during the learning process may have some benefits over regular speed presentations.     

The State of Dyadic Methodology: An Analysis of the Literature on Interventions for Military Couples

ABSTRACT

Military members and their spouses experience unique stressors compared with civilian couples, making them distinctively vulnerable to a number of marital and mental health concerns. However, the amount and quality of intervention research to guide treatment for military couples are unknown. Therefore, a systematic literature search of interventions for military couples was completed resulting in 10 articles that met the study's inclusion and exclusion criteria. Further, a rubric to assess dyadic methodology was created and utilized to determine the dyadic quality of the methodology of the sampled articles. The results of the systematic literature review revealed that (a) there are few evidence-based interventions for military couples in which both members of the dyad are included and (b) the methodology by which treatments are evaluated largely do not employ systemic or dyadic measures. Recommendations for future research with military couples includes the need for couple-focused interventions using experimental methodology, systemic theories to guide intervention and research, and appropriate dyadic assessment and analysis tools to determine the effectiveness of couple's interventions for military, reserve, and veteran populations.     

Developing empowering research practices with people who have learning disabilities

In this paper we report an exploratory attempt to design a practice that facilitates the extent to which ‘researched-upon’ and ‘researcher-on’ can be cooperatively involved in the planning, data collection and interpretation of research in the field of learning disability and community living. The informants were four people with learning disabilities who had been residents of long-stay mental hospitals but, at the time of the study, had all been living in the community for at least 1 year. After an extended period of informal familiarization, the research had three main phases. The first phase consisted of five individual, non-directive, depth interviews over a 2-month period. The second phase consisted of a meeting in which each participant became a paid co-researcher involved in the design and planning of the next phase of the research. The third phase consisted of three 1-hour guided neighbourhood tours led by the participants who had become co-researchers. Over the course of the three phases, the role of the researcher gradually became more a ‘newcomer-learner’ as he adopted the role of co-researcher and the role of participants with learning disabilities gradually became more ‘expert-teachers’ as they adopted the role of co-researchers. As the research progressed, the balance of power shifted, although modestly, in favour of those with learning disabilities. This led to an improvement in the quality and effectiveness of communication and understanding and an increase in the satisfaction with and enjoyment of the research process for all those involved. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Theoretically informed qualitative psychotherapy research: A primer

This paper presents an introduction to theoretically informed qualitative psychotherapy research (QPR). Although QPR researchers have traditionally remained silent on theory, we suggest this has resulted in an implicit and unacknowledged use of theory. We argue instead for a clear articulation of qualitative researchers' theory and outline how theory can be incorporated to inform the entire qualitative research process. This approach assumes the research problem is embedded in a clearly defined and articulated theoretical framework, which also informs data collection and data analysis. We outline how researchers can use explicit theoretical frameworks to inform research question formulation, data collection and data analysis and illustrate this with specific applications of the method in practice. We believe that starting from a declared theoretical framework sets up a dialogue between the research problem, the type of data required and their meaningful analysis and interpretation. This aims not only to achieve greater depth in the final product of research, but also to enhance its utility in terms of practice; it contributes to building, altering and differentiating theory; and it allows for greater transparency by openly articulating the theoretical framework that scaffolds the entirety of the research process.     

The interpretation of discrepancies in multimethod research: A comparison of children's negotiations in two research contexts

Although multimethod research has a large number of advocates, problems arise in the interpretation of any discrepancies between results. This paper identifies three approaches to their interpretation: hierarchical validity, cross-validity and triangulation. The first assumes that methods can be ranked in order of validity so that lower ranking methods can be validated against higher ranking methods. The second assumes there is no hierarchy and that multiple methods are desirable to overcome the weaknesses in any one method and, further, that only results obtained from more than one method should be given credence. The third position, which differs from the others in that it arises from a constructionist rather than a positivist framework, holds that multimethods are valuable because of the different insights they produce and focuses attention on the need to examine methods in terms of their contribution in the context of a particular theory. These approaches are discussed in reference to results for children's negotiations from mothers' reports versus those from a quasi-experimental puppets task.     

Science and the Future of Theology: Critical Issues

The ambivalent reputation of theology as an academic discipline is attributed to the often circular character of its procedures based on presumed authoritative sources. Recently, science too has come under the shadow of "postmodernist" critiques but, it is argued, has been able to withstand them successfully and make epistemologically warrantedclaims to be depicting reality—thereby vindicating human rationality. Evolutionary epistemological considerations also reinforce confidence in the more general deliverances of the human exploration of reasonableness through inference to the best explanation (IBE). The consequences of applying IBE, with its associated criteria, in theological investigation are considered in relation to theology as it is and as it might be. A number of issues critical for thedevelopment of a credible theology are identified. In spite of the challenging and somewhat negative view of contemporary theology to which this leads, hope is expressed that a genuinely credible "evangelical,""catholic," and liberal theology may yet emerge for the new millennium.     

Why Do Theologians Need to be Scientists?

The postmodern situation has given rise to a quest for new understandings of the relationship between theology and science. Drawing illustrative material from an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, I look at three paradigmatic answers to the questionn posed in the title—th modern empirical scientific, the renewed medieval, and the post-modern—with the goal of outlining a methodological approach for an engagement between Christian theology and sciencein the post-modern context. Drawing insight from post-empirical philosophy of science and the sociology of knowledge, I argue that both science and theology engage in the task of constructing a world for human habitation.     

The Social Psychology of Groups and Group Psychotherapy: One View of the Next Century

Will fields that study groups in general, such as social psychology, and fields that use groups to achieve therapeutic goals, such as group psychotherapy, move toward unification in the future or will they drift apart? One possible future assumes that these two approaches to groups will become better integrated as (a) societal changes increase individuals' reliance on groups; (b) research and theory on group processes become more sophisticated; and (c) basic and applied researchers work together more closely in examining groups. Such unification requires, however, changes in the training, outlook, and procedures used by both practitioners and researchers.