How navigation systems transform epistemic virtues: Knowledge,issues and solutions

In this paper, we analyse how GPS-based navigation systems are transforming some of our intellectual virtues and then suggest two strategies to improve our practices regarding the use of such epistemic tools. We start by outlining the two main approaches in virtue epistemology, namely virtue reliabilism and virtue responsibilism. We then discuss how navigation systems can undermine five epistemic virtues, namely memory, perception, attention, intellectual autonomy, and intellectual carefulness. We end by considering two possible interlinked ways of trying to remedy this situation: [i] redesigning the epistemic tool to improve the epistemic virtues of memory, perception, and attention; and [ii] the cultivation of cognitive diligence for wayfinding tasks scaffolding intellectual autonomy and carefulness.     

Development and validation of PediaTrac™: A web-based tool to track developing infants

ObjectivePediaTrac™, a 363-item web-based tool to track infant development, administered in modules of ∼40-items per sampling period, newborn (NB), 2­-, 4­-, 6­-, 9­- and 12­-months was validated. Caregivers answered demographic, medical, and environmental questions, and questions covering the sensorimotor, feeding/eating, sleep, speech/language, cognition, social-emotional, and attachment domains.MethodsExpert Panel Reviews and Cognitive Interviews (CI) were conducted to validate the item bank. Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) methods were employed to examine the dimensionality and psychometric properties of PediaTrac with pooled longitudinal and cross-sectional cohorts (N = 132).ResultsIntraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) for the Expert Panel Review revealed moderate agreement at 6 ­months and good reliability at other sampling periods. ICC estimates for CI revealed moderate reliability regarding clarity of the items at NB and 4 months, good reliability at 2-­, 9­- and 12­-months and excellent reliability at 6 ­months. CTT revealed good coefficient alpha estimates (α ≥ 0.77 for five of the six ages) for the Social-Emotional/Communication, Attachment (α ≥ 0.89 for all ages), and Sensorimotor (α ≥ 0.75 at 6-months) domains, revealing the need for better targeting of sensorimotor items. IRT modeling revealed good reliability (r = 0.85–0.95) for three distinct domains (Feeding/Eating, Social-Emotional/Communication and Attachment) and four subdomains (Feeding Breast/Formula, Feeding Solid Food, Social-Emotional Information Processing, Communication/Cognition). Convergent and discriminant construct validity were demonstrated between our IRT-modeled domains and constructs derived from existing developmental, behavioral and caregiver measures. Our Attachment domain was significantly correlated with existing measures at the NB and 2-month periods, while the Social-Emotional/Communication domain was highly correlated with similar constructs at the 6-, 9- and 12-month periods.ConclusionPediaTrac has potential for producing novel and effective estimates of infant development via the Sensorimotor, Feeding/Eating, Social-Emotional/Communication and Attachment domains.     

Trauma is not the whole story: Trajectories of responses to childhood disasters intertwining with Life following the Indian Ocean tsunami

In an era of global threats, understanding the implications of disasters on young people's life course is of central importance. A particular emphasis should be placed on non-Western economically developing societies that are considered as vulnerable and are less studied, and on social groups within these societies that are underrepresented. The present study focuses on young Sri Lankan women who experienced the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami as children. Thirteen young women generated their life stories in semi-structured interviews, 12 years after the disaster had elapsed. Holistic narrative analysis revealed new variations and in-depth meanings in disaster response trajectories and presented the intertwining courses of the responses to the Potentially Traumatic Event (PTE) with ecological aspects throughout development, as in Trajectories intertwining with Life (TiL). This study provides empirical, methodological, conceptual and practical innovations to the study of human development throughout the life course, within the interdisciplinary fields of trauma and disasters.

Highlights

• This research is interested in how childhood disaster response trajectories among an understudied population are understood through an ecological-developmental perspective.
• Life stories uncover Trajectories intertwining with Life (TiL) among Sri Lankan women who were children during the Indian Ocean tsunami.
• The TiL unique outcomes, integrating trauma responses as inseparable from ecological and developmental aspects, offer various theoretical and applied implications.

     

Trajectories of perceived superiority across the transition to marriage

ABSTRACT

Perceived superiority, the tendency to regard one’s own relationship as better than other people’s relationships, is a key relationship maintenance mechanism. Little is known about whether and how it changes during the transition to marriage, a pivotal moment in most couples’ life cycle. In a longitudinal study following 97 couples for three waves across the transition, men presented stable perceived superiority, whereas women presented a curvilinear change in superiority perceptions, with a substantial increase in perceived superiority between T1 and T2 and a significantly reduced change between T2 and T3. In addition, trajectories differed according to partners’ commitment level. More committed and less committed partners both showed a curvilinear change in perceived superiority, though following different patterns. Results point to the functional value of perceived superiority, which emerges as a strategy aimed at sustaining partners through the challenges deriving from the transition to marriage.