Evidential diversity and premise probability in young children's inductive judgment

A familiar adage in the philosophy of science is that general hypotheses are better supported by varied evidence than by uniform evidence. Several studies suggest that young children do not respect this principle, and thus suffer from a defect in their inductive methodology. We argue that the diversity principle does not have the normative status that psychologists attribute to it, and should be replaced by a simple rule of probability. We then report experiments designed to detect conformity to the latter rule in children's inductive judgment. The results suggest that young children in both the United States and Taiwan are sensitive to the constraints imposed by the rule on judgments of probability and evidential strength. We conclude with a suggested reinterpretation of the thesis that children's inductive methodology qualifies them as “little scientists.”     

Occupational Identity,Competence, and Environments Among Adults With and Without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Exploring occupational adaptation among adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is essential due to associated occupational difficulties. Occupational Performance History Interview scales—identity, competence, and environments—were compared between 51 adults with and 50 without ADHD who participated in occupations. Internal and external resources supporting occupational participations were represented by the competence and environment scales, respectively. The group with ADHD reported fewer internal and external occupational resources compared to the group without ADHD, despite occupational identity similarities. Study findings suggest that occupational interventions aimed at increasing internal and external occupational resources may support occupational adaptation among adults with ADHD.     

A pessimistic view of optimistic belief updating

Received academic wisdom holds that human judgment is characterized by unrealistic optimism, the tendency to underestimate the likelihood of negative events and overestimate the likelihood of positive events. With recent questions being raised over the degree to which the majority of this research genuinely demonstrates optimism, attention to possible mechanisms generating such a bias becomes ever more important. New studies have now claimed that unrealistic optimism emerges as a result of biased belief updating with distinctive neural correlates in the brain. On a behavioral level, these studies suggest that, for negative events, desirable information is incorporated into personal risk estimates to a greater degree than undesirable information (resulting in a more optimistic outlook). However, using task analyses, simulations, and experiments we demonstrate that this pattern of results is a statistical artifact. In contrast with previous work, we examined participants’ use of new information with reference to the normative, Bayesian standard. Simulations reveal the fundamental difficulties that would need to be overcome by any robust test of optimistic updating. No such test presently exists, so that the best one can presently do is perform analyses with a number of techniques, all of which have important weaknesses. Applying these analyses to five experiments shows no evidence of optimistic updating. These results clarify the difficulties involved in studying human ‘bias’ and cast additional doubt over the status of optimism as a fundamental characteristic of healthy cognition.     

The cognitive underpinnings of policy process studies: Introduction to a special issue of Cognitive Systems Research

This article introduces the special issue of Cognitive Systems Research on public policy processes. We begin with a discussion of the cognitive foundations of public policy that stem from the complexity of human cognition and emotion. Next, we provide an overview of the articles in the special issue, which occur at the edge of a public policy-cognitive systems boundary. We then turn to a discussion of promising new work in the study of public policy that explores—or may benefit from—the cognitive systems perspective.     

Beyond androgyny: The emergence of sex-role transcendence as a theoretical construct

Recent trends in sex-role research are reviewed with the purpose of showing a paradigm shift in the kinds of issues and questions thought to be important for an understanding of sex-role development. Two recent advances, conceptualizations of androgyny and sex-role transcendence are described with particular emphasis on the emergence of sex-role transcendence as a new theoretical construct. It is argued that while personality, social-learning, and structural-developmental theories account for sex-role identity and androgyny, only structural-developmental theory provides an adequate conceptual framework for the construct of sex-role transcendence. Questions are raised concerning the empirical demonstration of the concept.     

Do infants perceive the social robot Keepon as a communicative partner?

This study investigates if infants perceive an unfamiliar agent, such as the robot Keepon, as a social agent after observing an interaction between the robot and a human adult. 23 infants, aged 9–17 month, were exposed, in a first phase, to either a contingent interaction between the active robot and an active human adult, or to an interaction between an active human adult and the non-active robot, followed by a second phase, in which infants were offered the opportunity to initiate a turn-taking interaction with Keepon.The measured variables were: (1) the number of social initiations the infant directed toward the robot, and (2) the number of anticipatory orientations of attention to the agent that follows in the conversation. The results indicate a significant higher level of initiations in the interactive robot condition compared to the non-active robot condition, while the difference between the frequencies of anticipations of turn-taking behaviors was not significant.     

“Paid to Endure”: Paid Research Participation,Passivity, and the Goods of Work

A growing literature documents the existence of individuals who make a living by participating in phase I clinical trials for money. Several scholars have noted that the concerns about risks, consent, and exploitation raised by this phenomenon apply to many (other) jobs, too, and therefore proposed improving subject protections by regulating phase I trial participation as work. This article contributes to the debate over this proposal by exploring a largely neglected worry. Unlike most (other) workers, subjects are not paid to produce or achieve anything but to have things done to them. I argue that this passivity is problematic for reasons of distributive justice. Specifically, it fails to enable subjects to realize what Gheaus and Herzog call “the goods of work”—a failure not offset by adequate opportunities to realize these goods outside of the research context. I also consider whether granting subjects worker-type protections would accommodate this concern.     

《易纬·乾凿度》的哲学思考

《易纬·乾凿度》是汉代一部非常重要的易学和哲学著作 ,其用象数方式编织的天道观 ,不仅包含了阴阳卦气思想 ,同时还继承了老子和《中庸》的本体论思想以及儒家的价值理想 ,是我们研究汉代哲学思想不可或缺的资料。《乾凿度》提出的“易者 ,易也 ,变易也 ,不易也”勾画出了一幅理想的宇宙社会图景 ,其中既有高妙的本体论思想 ,又有对社会秩序的思考。《乾凿度》还借助道家思想和孟京以来的卦气说 ,建构了一套完整的宇宙生成模式。尽管这种生成模式不甚深刻 ,也有一定缺陷 ,但却体现出很强的时代特色。同时 ,在这个宇宙生成模式背后包含着作者深切的人文精神和深沉的忧患意识 ,体现了汉代易学“天人之学”的精神实质     

Envisioning human service organizations free of microaggressions

Microaggressions refer to verbal or non-verbal communications that invalidate those with non-dominant group identities across all dimensions of human diversity. Within human service organizations (HSOs), microaggressions may lower therapeutic alliance, reduce retention, and result in negative outcomes. While understanding the type, frequency, and damaging impact of microaggressions are useful and well established in research, less is known about the organizational policies, practices, behaviors, and values needed to reduce or eradicate microaggressions within human service contexts. Utilizing three focus groups and four individual interviews with adults who received services from HSOs, this qualitative study explored: What would HSOs need to learn, practice, and believe in order to be free of microaggressions? Sixteen participants reported on the provider's knowledge and behaviors, organizational environment, and institutional characteristics needed to create an organization free of microaggressions. Limitations of existing approaches and implications to develop more equitable practices within HSOs are discussed.     

The role of television in language acquisition

The conventional view among developmental psychologists is that television viewing does not contribute to a young viewer's language acquisition. That assumption is challenged. Evidence is presented that suggests that children can learn about language as they view television: (1) From age 2, children attend to television and view in an active, purposeful manner. (2) Some programs present dialogue in an attention-getting, content-redundant context. (3) Children can learn word meanings when viewing. (4) Children draw upon television as a source of verbal routines for their own play interactions.