Rejoinder: Remaining Challenges in Investigating Grade-Retention Effectiveness

This rejoinder, in response to the commentaries of Steiner, Park, and Kim (this issue) and Reshetnyak, Cham, and Hughes (this issue), discusses remaining challenges in grade retention research. First, a same-age comparison assumes that the instruments used in different grades measure ability equally well. We discuss the importance of evaluating the properties of the scaling process to address whether this assumption has been met. Second, we discuss issues in the selection of covariates to be included in the weights. Third, we discuss the unconfoundedness assumption and the problem of remaining imbalance. Finally, we provide an empirical illustration showing that studying grade-retention effectiveness comes with multiple methodological decisions that are rooted in a bias–variance trade-off.     

Testing unidimensionality in polytomous Rasch models

A fundamental assumption of most IRT models is that items measure the same unidimensional latent construct. For the polytomous Rasch model two ways of testing this assumption against specific multidimensional alternatives are discussed. One, a marginal approach assuming a multidimensional parametric latent variable distribution, and, two, a conditional approach with no distributional assumptions about the latent variable. The second approach generalizes the Martin-Löf test for the dichotomous Rasch model in two ways: to polytomous items and to a test against an alternative that may have more than two dimensions. A study on occupational health is used to motivate and illustrate the methods.The authors would like to thank Niels Keiding, Klaus Larsen and the anonymous reviewers for valuable comments to a previous version of this paper. This research was supported by a grant from the Danish Research Academy and by a general research grant from Quality Metric, Inc.     

Professor Fisher on suppositions

I first support Alec Fisher's thesis that premises and conclusions in arguments can be unasserted first by arguing in its favor that only it preserves our intuition that it is at least possible that two arguments share the same premises and the same conclusion although not everything that is asserted in the one is also asserted in the other and second by answering two objections that might be raised against it. I then draw from Professor Fisher's thesis the consequence that in suppositional arguments the falsity (or unacceptability) of a supposition does not tell unfavorably in the evaluation of the argument, because the falsity (or unacceptability) of a (nonredundant) premise counts against an argument if and only if that premise is asserted. Finally, I observe that, despite the fact that they are neither expressed nor even alluded to, implicit assumptions in arguments are always asserted, unless the conclusion, but none of the explicit premisses, is unasserted. Hence, apart from an exceptional case of the kind just mentioned, the falsity (or unacceptability) of implicit assumptions always counts against an argument.I am indebted to Thomas E. Gilbert and Alec Fisher for their criticisms of an earlier draft of this paper.     

记叙文时间转换机制

采用实时窗口阅读技术和再认探测技术,探讨了间断性时间短语与场景跨度的关系对时间转换的影响,对Zwaan提出的强印象假设与Anderson提出的场景模型进行检验。实验1探讨在与Zwaan实验材料相似长度的场景中人们是否会忽略对较短的非连续性时间标记的处理;实验2探讨在时间跨度较大的场景中,与Zwaan实验材料相似长度的间断性时间标记是否会引起时间的转换。结果表明时间信息的间断性只是产生时间转换的必要条件之一,而不是充分条件;读者在处理间断性的时间短语进行时间转换时还会参照时间短语的跨度与场景跨度的比例。     

A Biased Inferential Naivety learning model for a network of agents

We propose a Biased Inferential Naivety social learning model. In this model, a group of agents tries to determine the true state of the world and make the best possible decisions. The agents have limited computational abilities. They receive noisy private signals about the true state and observe the history of their neighbors' decisions. The proposed model is rooted in the Bayesian method but avoids the complexity of fully Bayesian inference. In our model, the role of knowledge obtained from social observations is separated from the knowledge obtained from private observations. Therefore, the Bayesian inferences on social observations are approximated using inferential naivety assumption, while purely Bayesian inferences are made on private observations. The reduction of herd behavior is another innovation of the proposed model. This advantage is achieved by reducing the effect of social observations on agents' beliefs over time. Therefore, all the agents learn the truth, and the correct consensus is achieved effectively. In this model, using two cognitive biases, there is heterogeneity in agents' behaviors. Therefore, the growth of beliefs and the learning speed can be improved in different situations. Several Monte Carlo simulations confirm the features of the proposed model. The conditions under which the proposed model leads to asymptotic learning are proved.     

‘Make sure you keep our house safe!’ Thematic analysis of a children's psychotherapy group

This paper describes a systematic thematic analysis of one particular latency-aged children's group and includes a discussion about potentially helpful outcomes measures. The impetus for our small, practice-based qualitative research project came from the two papers by Reid (1999) and Canham (2002) about children's psychotherapy groups, particularly Canham's (2002) paper, ‘Group and gang states of mind’. Canham and Reid used Bion's theories of group functioning as the basis of their technique with children's groups. We felt that it would be an interesting follow-on from Reid and Canham's findings to explore in some detail the specific therapeutic factors involved in a shift from paranoid–schizoid to depressive functioning in group therapy. We hoped that this might give us some helpful clinical indications as to the circumstances in which group rather than individual psychotherapy and parallel parent work should be considered as the treatment of choice. The paper concentrates exclusively on group work with latency-aged children, therefore referring mainly to the limited number of papers published about psychoanalytic group therapy with this age group.     

Stereokinetic phenomena revisited: The oscillating tilted bar, the swinging gate and the vertical contracting bar

We present here a revised version of our mathematical modelling of the stereokinetic phenomena known as the “oscillating tilted bar”, the “swinging gate” and the stereokinetic phenomenon elicited by a vertical, periodically contracting line segment simultaneously undergoing a lateral displacement from left to right and conversely in the frontal plane of an observer. The criticisms of Liu, Z. [(2004). On the minimal relative motion principle—The oscillating tilted bar. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 48, 196-198] and Rokers and Liu [(2004). On the minimal relative motion principle—Lateral displacement of a contracting bar. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 48, 292-295.] helped us in reformulating our models, eliminating discrepancies and ambiguities. Characteristic of the present modelling is the clear definition of a multi-stage mathematical procedure matching different requirements posed by the Visual System, as we know them from our experimental observations.     

Harmony and Autonomy in Classical Logic

Michael Dummett and Dag Prawitz have argued that a constructivist theory of meaning depends on explicating the meaning of logical constants in terms of the theory of valid inference, imposing a constraint of harmony on acceptable connectives. They argue further that classical logic, in particular, classical negation, breaks these constraints, so that classical negation, if a cogent notion at all, has a meaning going beyond what can be exhibited in its inferential use.I argue that Dummett gives a mistaken elaboration of the notion of harmony, an idea stemming from a remark of Gerhard Gentzen"s. The introduction-rules are autonomous if they are taken fully to specify the meaning of the logical constants, and the rules are harmonious if the elimination-rule draws its conclusion from just the grounds stated in the introduction-rule. The key to harmony in classical logic then lies in strengthening the theory of the conditional so that the positive logic contains the full classical theory of the conditional. This is achieved by allowing parametric formulae in the natural deduction proofs, a form of multiple-conclusion logic.     

Difficult Patients in Group Analysis: The Personification of (ba) I:A/M

Following a discussion of the treatment of difficult patients in group analysis, two theories are proposed concerning a fourth basic assumption in the unconscious life of groups, called Incohesion: Aggregation/Massification or (ba) I:A/M and the personification of basic assumption processes, in particular that of (ba) I:A/M by difficult patients. These theories are illustrated with clinical data. Special attention is given to crustacean and amoeboid forms of encapsulation as a defence against the fear of annihilation within the context of the traumatogenic process. It is suggested that for difficult patients the treatment of choice is dyadic psychotherapy/psychoanalysis followed by group analysis.     

情境模型中的时间表征研究

阅读理解中情境模型的建构是当今阅读研究的热点 ,自Zwaan等人提出事件标记模型理论以来 ,很多研究者对影响情境模型建构的空间维度进行了深入的研究 ,尽管对情境模型中时间维度的研究相对缺乏 ,但仍得出了一些有价值的研究成果。本文对情境模型中时间表征的理论假设、实验研究、技术手段及主要研究结论作了介绍和评析 ,并对未来的研究方向进行了展望。