From stratospheric ozone to climate change: Historical perspective on precaution and scientific responsibility

The issue of the impact of human activities on the stratospheric ozone layer emerged in the early 1970s. But international regulations to mitigate the most serious effects were not adopted until the mid-1980s. This case holds lessons for addressing more complex environmental problems. Concepts that should inform discussion include “latency,’ ‘counter-factual scenario based on the Precautionary Principle,’ ‘inter-generational burden sharing,’ and ‘estimating global costs under factual and counter-factual regulatory scenarios.’ Stringent regulations were adopted when large scientific uncertainty existed, and the environmental problem would have been prevented or more rapidly mitigated, at relatively modest incremental price, but for a time delay before more rigorous Precautionary measures were implemented. Will history repeat itself in the case of climate change?     

The relationship between miscellaneous symptoms and major symptom factors in obsessive-compulsive disorder

The diverse symptomatology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is being increasingly regarded as reducible to a few symptom dimensions. However, prevailing factor-analytically derived models of symptom structure omit a number of the well-recognized “miscellaneous” symptoms of OCD. This study sought to determine whether miscellaneous OCD symptoms, ascertained by the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale symptom checklist, could be differentially and reliably predicted by four symptom factors (obsessions and checking, symmetry and ordering, contamination and cleaning, and hoarding) in two independent groups of individuals with OCD (n = 381 and n = 107). Logistic regression analyses were used to determine the association of each of the miscellaneous symptoms with the symptom factors; then a single confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the model of associations in the smaller sample. Sixteen (89%) of the 18 symptoms examined were reliably predicted by one (11 items) or two (5 items) of the factors, with obsessions and checking and symmetry and ordering emerging as foremost predictors. The expanded four-factor model showed good fit with data from the second sample. Results are conceptually meaningful, but suggest the inadequacy of groupings based solely upon overt behaviors. These findings may aid clinical understanding of OCD and be of value to studies using symptom factors to guide investigation of its causes and correlates.     

On the origin and preservation of cumulative record in its struggle for life as a favored term

This paper offers a case study of the origins, emergence, and evolution of the term cumulative record as the name for the means by which B. F. Skinner brought his behavior under the control of his subject matter. Our methods included on-line searches, reviews of Skinner's publications, and journal codings and counts. The results reveal that the term is not originally attributable to Skinner, but emerged earlier in ordinary language and in another discipline--education. It was not even original to Skinner in print in his own science. Still, the term was once original to him, which we address with additional analyses of his having originated and advanced it. We conclude with a discussion the constraints of our methods, suggestions for future research, and the variable appreciation of technology and terminology in science studies.     

Asymptotic biases in exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling

Formulas for the asymptotic biases of the parameter estimates in structural equation models are provided in the case of the Wishart maximum likelihood estimation for normally and nonnormally distributed variables. When multivariate normality is satisfied, considerable simplification is obtained for the models of unstandardized variables. Formulas for the models of standardized variables are also provided. Numerical examples with Monte Carlo simulations in factor analysis show the accuracy of the formulas and suggest the asymptotic robustness of the asymptotic biases with normality assumption against nonnormal data. Some relationships between the asymptotic biases and other asymptotic values are discussed.The author is indebted to the editor and anonymous reviewers for their comments, corrections, and suggestions on this paper, and to Yutaka Kano for discussion on biases.     

Naming our concerns about neuroscience: a review of Bennett and Hacker's philosophical foundations of neuroscience

Bennett and Hacker use conceptual analysis to appraise the theoretical language of modern cognitive neuroscientists, and conclude that neuroscientific theory is largely dualistic despite the fact that neuroscientists equate mind with the operations of the brain. The central error of cognitive neuroscientists is to commit the mereological fallacy, the tendency to ascribe to the brain psychological concepts that only make sense when ascribed to whole animals. The authors review how the mereological fallacy is committed in theories of memory, perception, thinking, imagery, belief, consciousness, and other psychological processes studied by neuroscientists, and the consequences that fallacious reasoning have for our understanding of how the brain participates in cognition and behavior. Several behavior-analytic concepts may themselves be nonsense based on thorough conceptual analyses in which the criteria for sense and nonsense are found in the ways the concepts are used in ordinary language. Nevertheless, the authors' nondualistic approach and their consistent focus on behavioral criteria for the application of psychological concepts make Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience an important contribution to cognitive neuroscience.     

Evolutionary preference/utility functions: A dynamic perspective

The collection of repeated measures in psychological research is one of the most common data collection formats employed in survey and experimental research. The behavioral decision theory literature documents the existence of the dynamic evolution of preferences that occur over time and experience due to learning, exposure to additional information, fatigue, cognitive storage limitations, etc. We introduce a Bayesian dynamic linear methodology employing an empirical Bayes estimation framework that permits the detection and modeling of such potential changes to the underlying preference utility structure of the respondent. An illustration of revealed stated preference analysis (i.e., conjoint analysis) is given involving students’ preferences for apartments and their underlying attributes and features. We also present the results of several simulations demonstrating the ability of the proposed procedure to recover a variety of different sources of dynamics that may surface with preference elicitation over repeated sequential measurement. Finally, directions for future research are discussed.The authors wish to acknowledge and thank the Editor, the Associate Editor, and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive and insightful comments. Duncan K.H. Fong’s work was sponsored in part by a research grant from the Smeal College.This revised article was published online in August 2005 with the PDF paginated correctly.     

A conversation with Dr Michael Fordham. Interview by James Astor

In this interview in Dr Fordham's 83rd year he describes how he started to work with children, and how Mrs Jung was supportive. He talks about the initial suspicion this interest generated in the wider Jungian community. He refers to his acceptance of and interest in the psychotic elements in child analysis and his transference-based approach to working with these elements. He reflects on his own birth, his work with evacuee children in hostels during the war years and the politics of supervision. He describes the core Jungian concepts which underpinned his work and the theoretical differences from the Kleinian and Anna Freudian positions.