Must Differences in Cognitive Value be Transparent?

Frege’s ‘differential dubitability’ test is a test for differences in cognitive value: if one can rationally believe that p while simultaneously doubting that q, then the contents p and q amount to different ‘cognitive values’. If subject S is rational, does her simultaneous adoption of different attitudes towards p and q require that the difference between p and q (as cognitive values) be transparent to her? It is natural to think so. But I argue that, if attitude anti-individualism is true, then rational differential dubitability does not presuppose that differences in cognitive value are transparent. The significance of this argument lies in what it tells us, both about the notion of cognitive value and its relation to the differential dubitability test, but also about the prospects for a Burge-type position which aims to combine attitude anti-individualism with a (qualified) reliance on the differential dubitability test.

“<Emphasis Type="Italic">Do the very best you can</Emphasis>”: The third-grade class test

The aim of this study was to examine third-graders’ test situations such as they appeared in the day-to-day functioning of the school. The research was ethnographic, focusing on the test situations of one third-grade class in the mother tongue and mathematics during one school year. Our analyses suggest that third-graders no longer see the test practices as objects of learning but rather as a familiar part of their everyday schoolwork. The test-taking practices have been mastered, but preparation for the test still needs to be emphasized and practised. And, according to our findings, cheating is an object of practice as well. To third-graders, test situations appear as ‘real tests’: the evaluative import of these situations seems clear to them. The teacher and the school institution reach for maximal proficiency and performance so as bring out the pupils’ ‘pure’ ability and performance in the class test. The class teacher must deal with the ever-strengthening evaluative significance of the test in relation to both the pupils and the school administration: we find that in the test situation the class teacher creates a social-psychological we-group—an alliance of the teacher and the pupils versus the test writer—as comes out particularly clearly in connection with national tests. The findings of the study are discussed with special reference to the ways in which the class test constructs the selective-restrictive sphere of education.     

Consenting to uncertainty: challenges for informed consent to disease screening—a case study

This paper uses chronic beryllium disease as a case study to explore some of the challenges for decision-making and some of the problems for obtaining meaningful informed consent when the interpretation of screening results is complicated by their probabilistic nature and is clouded by empirical uncertainty. Although avoidance of further beryllium exposure might seem prudent for any individual whose test results suggest heightened disease risk, we will argue that such a clinical precautionary approach is likely to be a mistake. Instead, advice on the interpretation of screening results must focus not on risk per se, but on avoidable risk, and must be carefully tailored to the individual. These points are of importance for individual decision-making, for informed consent, and for occupational health.

Defense Mechanism Test (DMT) and Kernberg's theory of personality organization related to adolescents in psychiatric care

75 adolescent psychiatric patients were diagnosed with the perceptual projective test the Defense Mechanism Test (DMT) and also according to Kernberg's theory of personality organization (PO). The test protocols were scored in respect of 130DMT variables and analyzed by means of partial least squares (PLS) discriminant analysis. The objective was to try to separate the three types of PO, psychotic (PPO), borderline (BPO) and neurotic (NPO) by means of the DMT and also to compare the results with a similar study on adult psychiatric patients. The results showed that it is possible to separate significantly the three groups of PO. The BPO group seemed to be heterogeneous. The results were fairly similar to those obtained with adult psychiatric patients. The overall results supported the concurrent validity of Kernberg's theory of PO and for the DMT as well. The DMT seems to be a useful diagnostic method in respect of adolescent psychiatric patients.     

Describing the elephant: Structure and function in multivariate data

There is a unity underlying the diversity of models for the analysis of multivariate data. Essentially, they constitute a family models, most generally nonlinear, for structural/functional relations between variables drawn from a behavior domain.     

Distress and Divorce: Establishing Cutoff Scores for the Marital Status Inventory

This study was designed to identify Marital Status Inventory (MSI) scores that could be used as cutoff points for degrees of marital distress. Cutoff scores are useful in clinical work as a way to estimate degrees of marital distress, differentiate couples for treatments, and to provide uniformity across studies. Subjects consisted of 474 couples requesting marital therapy at a university-based clinic. Based on their individual Marital Adjustment Test (MAT) scores, participants were placed in severely distressed, moderately distressed, and non-distressed groups. Using a discriminant analysis, MSI scores of 4 for husbands and 5 for wives were found to be useful cutoff points for severe distress.