EXPERIMENTER CALCULATION ERRORS: A POTENTIAL FACTOR AFFECTING INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS1

Following a study of socially withdrawn children, it was noted that checks of experimenter calculations indicated discrepancies. The present study investigated the magnitude and direction of experimenter errors in data computations. Two full-time research assistants, who served as experimenters, processed the behavioral observation data. These experimenters were referred to as the subjects in this study. Standard data values, against which the subjects' computations were compared, were established by two other research assistants and a computer staff. The results indicated that experimenters' original data values disagreed with the standard data values. The daily errors showed considerable variability for both experimenters. The specific factors accounting for this variability could not be identified, although frequency of experimenter responses required to obtain rate and duration data, time spent calculating, and complexity of task were suggested as possible contributing variables. While disagreements occurred across all experimental days, the magnitude of differences was generally small. An examination of direction of differences in both experimenters' data showed no systematic trends in favor of the experimental hypothesis. Rather, there appeared to be a trend in the other direction. This study suggests that the same research decisions would have been made during the original investigation using either set of data.     

THE EFFECTS OF SINGLE INSTANCE,MULTIPLE INSTANCE,AND GENERAL CASE TRAINING ON GENERALIZED VENDING MACHINE USE BY MODERATELY AND SEVERELY HANDICAPPED STUDENTS

This report provides an experimental analysis of generalized vending machine use by six moderately or severely retarded high school students. Dependent variables were training trials to criterion and performance on 10 nontrained “generalization” vending machines. A multiple-baseline design across subjects was used to compare three strategies for teaching generalized vending machine use. Training occurred with (a) a single vending machine, (b) three similar machines, or (c) three machines that sampled the range of stimulus and response variation in a defined class of vending machines. Results indicated that the third approach was the most effective method of obtaining generalized responding. Methodological implications for the experimental analysis of generalization and programmatic implications for teaching generalized behaviors are discussed.     

Natural law and history in Locke's theory of distributive justice

According to the tradition of natural law justice is inherent to, and should always be observed in, all interpersonal relations: the science of natural law is nothing more or less than the expression of such principles of justice. The theoretical peculiarities that crop up regarding the lawfulness of appropriation are determined by the indirect interpersonal relations that take place within the process of appropriation: though appropriation is an action directed not towards another person or his property, but towards tangible external goods, this action may have important consequences for other people. Therefore Locke's theory of appropriation is a theory of justice.Locke's solution is made possible by the methodological improvement which allows a clear separation between the natural law and the historical and empirical conditions of its application: this improvement is a consequence of the distinction between modes and substances established in Locke's Essay.Locke's theory can be considered an extensive re-elaboration, in polemic against Filmer, of the anti-monopolistic principle characteristic of the whole of Scholastic social thought: this principle is intimately connected with the principle of man's natural liberty.Locke maintains a negative and formal conception of justice: justice prohibits interference with others' liberty of appropriation. Alongside the justice is the positive and conditional obligation of charity which prescribes the transfer of some of one's own goods to others who need them in order to survive. But for Locke there are precise limits on the obligation of charity: the application of charity suspends the application of justice only when the immediate physical survival is at stake; in all other cases justice leaves no room for charity.The Lockian negative conception of justice, which allows unlimited liberty of appropriation, is dependent on the empirical and historical condition of the incommensurability of the main resource. The widespread use of money acts as an accelerating element in the process of exhaustion of the incommensurability of land-resources but, at the same time, it renders self-preservation and appropriation almost completely independent of the natural environment. Money creates an infinite number of opportunities for the outlay of labour irrespective of the availability of land, that is, it renders labour the principal resource of the civilized world, and labour is an incommensurable and infinitely reproducible resource. The incommensurability of the labour resource thus supports the Lockian theory of negative distributive justice; but over the Lockian solution already loomed the threatening shadow of pauperism.The subject of this essay is further dealt with in my book on Locke's political and social philosophy Nel crepuscolo della probabilitá, Bibliopolis, Napoli, 1983. There I develop further the interpretation of Locke's theory of justice presented here and analyse his theoretical and historical presuppositions.     

TEACHING CHILDREN APPROPRIATE SHOPPING BEHAVIOR THROUGH PARENT TRAINING IN THE SUPERMARKET SETTING1

The shopping behavior of three elementary school-age boys was analyzed and parent-child interactions assessed for one boy and his mother. Estimates of parent or consumer satisfaction with child shopping behavior were also obtained. The effects of a parent-mediated treatment package on child behavior were assessed using a multiple-baseline design. Treatment produced significant increases in appropriate shopping behavior in all three children and parents became increasingly satisfied with improved child behavior. Analysis of data for one mother also revealed that her manner of interacting with her child became more positive.     

我国超常儿童研究的进展及其问题

作者在回顾了我国超常儿童研究领域近２０年来的进展,总结了该领域的主要成绩,特别是方法上所取得的成绩的基础上,指出了当前尚存在的若干问题,这些问题的提出可能对今后该领域的研究有一定的目标。     

Ernest Becker and the Psychology of Worldviews

Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski offer experimental confirmation for Ernest Becker's claim that the fear of death is a powerful unconscious motive producing polarized worldviews and scapegoating. Their suggestion that their findings also prove Sigmund Freud's theory of repression, with worldviews as its irrational products, is questionable, although Becker's own statements about worldviews as "illusions" seem to invite such interpretation. Their basic theory does not depend on this, however, and abandoning it would enable them to take better advantage of their finding that worldviews incorporating the values of rationality and tolerance tend to counteract polarization effects.     

Chimpanzee gaze following in an object-choice task

Many primate species reliably track and follow the visual gaze of conspecifics and humans, even to locations above and behind the subject. However, it is not clear whether primates follow a human’s gaze to find hidden food under one of two containers in an object-choice task. In a series of experiments six adult female chimpanzees followed a human’s gaze (head and eye direction) to a distal location in space above and behind them, and checked back to the human’s face when they did not find anything interesting or unusual. This study also assessed whether these same subjects would also use the human’s gaze in an object-choice task with three types of occluders: barriers, tubes, and bowls. Barriers and tubes permitted the experimenter to see their contents (i.e., food) whereas bowls did not. Chimpanzees used the human’s gaze direction to choose the tube or barrier containing food but they did not use the human’s gaze to decide between bowls. Our findings allowed us to discard both simple orientation and understanding seeing-knowing in others as the explanations for gaze following in chimpanzees. However, they did not allow us to conclusively choose between orientation combined with foraging tendencies and understanding seeing in others. One interesting possibility raised by these results is that studies in which the human cannot see the reward at the time of subject choice may potentially be underestimating chimpanzees’ social knowledge. Received: 16 February 1998 / Accepted after revision: 5 July 1998     

从中西医学的竞争和渗透谈现代中医临床思维的变革

现代中医的临床思维正在发生着变革,一个以辨病为纲,辨证为目,辨病论治为经,辨证论治为纬的临床思维新模式,已经呼之欲出。这正是２１世纪中医学发展的必由之路,学术界必从唯物辩证法的角度来审视这场变革,并因其势而利导之。     

Finite Sets and Natural Numbers in Intuitionistic TT Without Extensionality

In this paper, we prove that Heyting's arithmetic can be interpreted in an intuitionistic version of Russell's Simple Theory of Types without extensionality.