The Truth-Conduciveness Problem of Coherentism and a Sellarsian Explanatory Coherence Theory

According to the truth-conduciveness problem of coherentism, the coherence theory of justification can hardly show that coherentist justification is truth-conducive. This problem is generally conceived as the most recalcitrant problem with the coherence theory. The purpose of this paper is to show that it does not pose a serious problem for a certain version of coherentism, namely a Sellarsian explanatory coherence theory of justification combined with the deflationary theory of truth. On this version of coherentism, our epistemic goal is to gradually improve our conceptual framework so as to maximize its explanatory coherence, and there is no substantial norm of truth independent of the norms of justification, so that we cannot evaluate the truth-conduciveness of a belief independently of the norms of justification. I argue that this version of coherentism can cope with the truth-conduciveness problem.     

社区暴力暴露与初中生外化问题行为的关系:一个有调节的中介模型

本研究采用问卷法对1041名初一中学生进行调查,考察了结交越轨同伴在社区暴力暴露与青少年外化问题行为关系间的中介作用,以及该过程是否受母子关系和/或父子关系的调节。结果发现：（1）在控制了年龄、性别、亲子关系、父母受教育水平、家庭类型、家庭人均月收入后,社区暴力暴露对初中生外化问题行为仍具有显著的正向预测作用;（2）社区暴力暴露不仅可以直接正向预测青少年外化问题行为,还可以通过结交越轨同伴而间接预测初中生外化问题行为;（3）母子关系显著调节社区暴力暴露对结交越轨同伴的影响,而父子关系显著调节结交越轨同伴对初中生外化问题行为的影响。     

The Moderation Role of Self‐perceived Maternal Empathy in Observed Mother–Child Collaborative Problem Solving

Based on L. S. Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, previous scaffolding studies have examined some factors associated with adjustment of parental support during collaborative problem solving. However, a factor that remains unexplored in the literature is the potential relationship between parental empathy and parental support in collaborative problem solving. The present study addresses this question through the observation of 45 preschool children and their mothers cooperating in a problem‐solving task with two levels of difficulty. Teachers rated the children's fine motor skills, and sampled mothers reported their empathy levels towards their children. Consistent with the notion of scaffolding, negative correlations were found between observed maternal verbal support (cognitive, autonomy, and emotional) and child age, and between observed maternal cognitive support and teacher reports of child motor skills. An analysis of covariance revealed significant empathy‐by‐difficulty interactions for physical and cognitive support after controlling for the effect of child motor skills. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the role of child motor skills and the importance of parental empathy in collaborative problem solving. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Teacher Beliefs and Responses Toward Student Misbehavior: Influence of Cognitive Skill Deficits

This study aimed to examine whether having knowledge of student cognitive skill deficits changes teacher beliefs and responses in regard to classroom misbehavior. Teachers (N = 272) were randomly assigned to an experimental or control condition. Although teachers in both conditions read the same vignette describing a student's misbehavior, the experimental group also reviewed information about the student's cognitive skill deficits. Teachers provided with cognitive skill deficit information were, on average, less likely to believe the student had control over the misbehavior, suggesting perceptions of unintentionality. Furthermore, they were significantly more likely to indicate positive emotional responses. Results suggest that school psychologists may consider sharing cognitive skill deficits information with teachers who are working with students displaying challenging behavior.     

Further evaluation of leisure items in the attention condition of functional analyses

Research suggests that including leisure items in the attention condition of a functional analysis may produce engagement that masks sensitivity to attention. In this study, 4 individuals' initial functional analyses indicated that behavior was maintained by nonsocial variables (n = 3) or by attention (n = 1). A preference assessment was used to identify items for subsequent functional analyses. Four conditions were compared, attention with and without leisure items and control with and without leisure items. Following this, either high- or low-preference items were included in the attention condition. Problem behavior was more probable during the attention condition when no leisure items or low-preference items were included, and lower levels of problem behavior were observed during the attention condition when high-preference leisure items were included. These findings suggest how preferred items may hinder detection of behavioral function.     

MODELING RELATIONS

In the ordinary way of representing relations, the order of the relata plays a structural role, but in the states themselves such an order often does not seem to be intrinsically present. An alternative way to represent relations makes use of positions for the arguments. This is no problem for the love relation, but for relations like the adjacency relation and cyclic relations, different assignments of objects to the positions can give exactly the same states. This is a puzzling situation. The question is what is the internal structure of relations? Is the use of positions still justified, and if so, what is their ontological status? In this paper mathematical models for relations are developed that provide more insight into the structure of relations “out there” in the real world.     

The Newxin puzzle

A variety of thought experiments suggest that, if the standard picture of practical rationality is correct, then practical rationality is sometimes an obstacle to practical success. For some, this in turn suggests that there is something wrong with the standard picture. In particular, it has been argued that we should revise the standard picture so that practical rationality and practical success emerge as more closely connected than the current picture allows. In this paper, I construct a choice situation—which I refer to as the Newxin puzzle—and discuss its implications in relation to the revisionist approach just described. Using the Newxin puzzle, I argue that the approach leads to a more radically revisionist picture of practical rationality than current debate suggests.

Optimal Partitioning of a Data Set Based on the p-Median Model

Although the K-means algorithm for minimizing the within-cluster sums of squared deviations from cluster centroids is perhaps the most common method for applied cluster analyses, a variety of other criteria are available. The p-median model is an especially well-studied clustering problem that requires the selection of p objects to serve as cluster centers. The objective is to choose the cluster centers such that the sum of the Euclidean distances (or some other dissimilarity measure) of objects assigned to each center is minimized. Using 12 data sets from the literature, we demonstrate that a three-stage procedure consisting of a greedy heuristic, Lagrangian relaxation, and a branch-and-bound algorithm can produce globally optimal solutions for p-median problems of nontrivial size (several hundred objects, five or more variables, and up to 10 clusters). We also report the results of an application of the p-median model to an empirical data set from the telecommunications industry.     

School outcomes of a community-wide intervention model aimed at preventing problem behavior

The Early Intervention for Children at Risk for Developing Behavioral Problems (EICR) is a community-wide intervention model preventing and treating problem behavior and promoting social competence in children. The aim of the study was to test whether EICR would result in fewer incidences of problem behavior and improved learning climate in elementary schools in a Norwegian municipality. The municipality was divided in two, each section having equal chance of being assigned to the intervention condition. Participants were principals and school staff. One year after the initiation of EICR, the prevalence of student problem behavior was significantly lower, and student relations were significantly better for schools located in the intervention area than for schools located in the comparison area. The findings support further development, implementation and research on the EICR model.