Epistemic Contextualism: An Idle Hypothesis

Epistemic contextualism is one of the most hotly debated topics in contemporary epistemology. Contextualists claim that ‘know’ is a context-sensitive verb associated with different evidential standards in different contexts. Contextualists motivate their view based on a set of behavioural claims. In this paper, I show that several of these behavioural claims are false. I also show that contextualist test cases suffer from a critical confound, which derives from people's tendency to defer to speakers’ statements about their own mental states. My evidence consists in results from several behavioural experiments. I conclude that contextualism is an idle hypothesis and I propose some general methodological lessons.     

The assessment of knowledge and learning in competence spaces: The gain–loss model for dependent skills

The gain–loss model (GaLoM) is a formal model for assessing knowledge and learning. In its original formulation, the GaLoM assumes independence among the skills. Such an assumption is not reasonable in several domains, in which some preliminary knowledge is the foundation for other knowledge. This paper presents an extension of the GaLoM to the case in which the skills are not independent, and the dependence relation among them is described by a well‐graded competence space. The probability of mastering skill s at the pretest is conditional on the presence of all skills on which s depends. The probabilities of gaining or losing skill s when moving from pretest to posttest are conditional on the mastery of s at the pretest, and on the presence at the posttest of all skills on which s depends. Two formulations of the model are presented, in which the learning path is allowed to change from pretest to posttest or not. A simulation study shows that models based on the true competence space obtain a better fit than models based on false competence spaces, and are also characterized by a higher assessment accuracy. An empirical application shows that models based on pedagogically sound assumptions about the dependencies among the skills obtain a better fit than models assuming independence among the skills.     

To know you is to love you: Effects of intergroup contact and knowledge on intergroup anxiety and prejudice among indigenous Chileans

Two surveys were conducted in Chile with indigenous Mapuche participants (N study 1: 573; N study 2: 198). In line with previous theorising, it was predicted that intergroup contact with the non‐indigenous majority reduces prejudice. It was expected that this effect would be because of contact leading to more knowledge about the outgroup, which would then lead to less intergroup anxiety. The two studies yielded converging support for these predictions.     

Who Knows? Knowledge Activation,Belief in Certainty of Knowledge,Maximization Tendencies and Need for Cognition in Answerability Judgments

In this study, investigating answerability judgments, 123 participants judged whether each of 46 general knowledge questions could currently be answered by themselves, by someone else, or by no one. There were 26 consensus questions (high expected consensus about their answerability) and 20 non-consensus questions. Before each question, half of the participants rated the extent of their knowledge related to the question. Results showed that answering consensus questions compared with non-consensus led to a lower proportion of “No one knows” answers. Moreover, in the knowledge rating condition compared with the control condition, participants choose “No one knows” proportionally less. Participants’ ratings of belief in certainty of knowledge were associated with more “Someone else knows” for the non-consensus questions. Moreover, tendency to maximization led to a higher proportion of “Someone else knows” options for the non-consensus questions. Finally, high need for cognition was associated with fewer choices of “Someone else knows.”     

Effects of an Occupational Therapy Hand Dominance Transfer Intervention for Soldiers With Crossed Hand-Eye Dominance

Crossed dominance (CD) is defined as an individual's dominant hand and dominant eye being on opposite sides of the body. CD negatively impacts an individual's ability to accurately aim and fire long-barreled guns. The authors developed and evaluated a hand dominance transfer (HDT) intervention to improve the M16 rifle shooting accuracy, efficiency, and skill transfer. Twenty-four U.S. Army soldiers with CD were taught how to handle and fire an M16 rifle using the nondominant hand. Training was conducted at a military, indoor laser-equipped weapons simulator. Accuracy for shooting 40 rounds at baseline with the nondominant eye and dominant hand (NDE/DH) was 22.12 compared to shooting 30.46 with the dominant eye and nondominant hand (DE/NDH). This difference was statistically significant with p = .000. The transfer of shooting accuracy skill (retention) following the HDT intervention was 33.42 with a comparative p value of .100. Efficiency of shooting 10 rounds at baseline with the NDE/DH was 6.3 compared to shooting 7.3 with the DE/NDH. This difference was not statistically significant (p = .107). The transfer of shooting efficiency skill (retention) was 7.96 with a comparative p value of .349. This study supports shooting with the DE/NDH. HDT could be further developed to address the soldiering skill of shooting an M16.     

默读和出声阅读的副中央凹预视效应

以往研究大多考察默读中是否存在副中央凹预视效应及存在何种类型的预视效应,很少有研究探讨出声阅读中的副中央凹预视效应以及阅读中预视信息提取的时间进程。本研究采用边界范式,通过两个眼动实验考察默读和出声阅读中的副中央凹预视效应及预视信息提取的时间进程。实验1发现在默读和出声阅读中都存在副中央凹预视效应,但是默读中副中央凹预视效应更大。实验2发现出声阅读中在注视中央凹词汇的早期不能提取副中央凹处信息。两个实验的结果表明默读和出声阅读条件下的副中央凹加工是不同的,需要用不同的眼动模型解释。     

Seeing is Knowing: On the Predictive Accuracy of Self‐ and Informant Reports for Prosocial and Moral Behaviours

Under certain circumstances, well‐known others (so‐called informants) may possess unique insights into targets' personality traits beyond the targets' self‐views. Specifically, as proposed by the self–other knowledge asymmetry model, an incremental predictive ability of informants is most likely for traits and corresponding behaviours that are clearly visible to others and highly evaluative in nature. In two studies, we provide an empirical test of this proposition and extend prior research to one of the most important domains of interpersonal interaction: prosocial and moral behaviours. Specifically, we investigate the unique predictive power of informant reports in trait Honesty–Humility for fairness in the dictator game and dishonesty in a cheating paradigm. Importantly, while both these classes of behaviour are highly evaluative in nature, only fairness is clearly visible to others. Correspondingly, in line with the self–other knowledge asymmetry model, our results reveal unique predictive accuracy of informant reports for fairness. For dishonesty, by contrast, there was no conclusive evidence for incremental predictive power of informant reports. This implies that informants may indeed provide valuable information beyond targets' self‐reports on trait aspects driving fair behaviour, but that targets themselves are their own best experts when it comes to judging trait aspects driving dishonest behaviour. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology     

行动语义、客体背景和判断任务对客体动作承载性的影响

客体动作承载性指人们知觉客体时同时激活的针对客体的行动。当Gibson最初提出动作承载性概念时, 他认为客体的这种属性是可以自动激活的。然而近年来越来越多的证据显示, 在知觉和行动的关系中, 行动语义知识和客体所处背景对客体动作承载性具有调节作用, 表现在人们可以根据这些自上而下的信息选择针对客体的适当的行动。此外, 不同的判断任务在引发客体动作承载性效应上具有特异性, 表现在若判断任务仅需知觉客体表层属性时, 不能激活对客体的动作, 进而不能产生客体动作承载性; 若判断任务需要对客体进行深层加工时, 才会激活对客体的动作。未来研究还需要进一步探究行动语义知识和客体所处背景影响客体动作承载性发生的原因和机制, 以及不同判断任务中出现结果特异性的原因。     

Civic Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Alternative Paths to the Development of Political Knowledge and Democratic Values

Despite the proliferation of civic education programs in the emerging democracies of Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe, there have been few recent evaluations of the effectiveness of civics instruction in achieving changes in democratic orientations among student populations. We present findings from a study conducted in 1998 that examined the impact of democratic civic education among South African high school students. Using a battery of items to gauge democratic orientations, including measures of political knowledge, civic duty, tolerance, institutional trust, civic skills, and approval of legal forms of political participation, we find that civic education had the largest effects on political knowledge, with the magnitude of the effect being approximately twice as large as the recent Niemi and Junn (1998 ) finding for the United States. Exposure to civic education per se had weaker effects on democratic values and skills; for these orientations, what matters are specific factors related to the quality of instruction and the use of active pedagogical methods employed by civics instructors. Further, we find that civic education changed the structure of students' orientations: a "democratic values" dimension coalesces more strongly, and in greater distinction, from a "political competence" dimension among students exposed to civic education than among those with no such training. We discuss the implications of the findings for our theoretical understanding of the role of civic education in fostering democratic attitudes, norms, and values, as well as the practical implications of the results for the implementation and funding of civic education programs in developing democracies in the future.