Seemingly Anomalous WISC-IV Full Scale IQ Scores in the American and Canadian Standardization Samples

The American and Canadian standardization samples for the fourth edition of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children were used to ascertain the prevalence of “seemingly anomalous” Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) scores for all possible sums of scaled scores combinations of the Verbal Comprehension Index, Perceptual Reasoning Index, Working Memory Index, and Processing Speed Index. About 1% of FSIQ scores in both samples were anomalous (that is, fell outside the range of the four indices). Interestingly, the prevalence of anomalous scores was higher at the extremes of the FSIQ distribution. Moreover, anomalous FSIQ scores occurring above or below the mean of the FSIQ distribution (that is, 100) were larger or smaller, respectively, than any of the four indices. Furthermore, if the range of the four indices did contain the FSIQ (the non-anomalous case), when the FSIQ was below or above 100 it tended to be located distally in the half-segment of the range furthest below or above 100, respectively. A non-technical intuitive analogy from Olympic sports and a statistical explanation for the findings are provided. Important implications for practitioners are also presented. Portions of this paper were presented March 17, 2006 at the 20th annual Joseph R. Royce Research Conference, Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta.     

Identifying g: A review of current factor analytic practices in the science of mental abilities

Factor analysis is arguably one of the most important tools in the science of mental abilities. While many studies have been conducted to make recommendations regarding “best practices” concerning its use, it is unknown the degree to which contemporary ability researchers abide by those standards. The current study sought to evaluate the typical practices of contemporary ability researchers. We analyzed articles reporting factor analyses of cognitive ability tests administered to adult samples over a 12 year period. Results suggest that, in aggregate, the science of mental abilities seems to be doing well with respect to the issues of sample size, number of indicators (relative to number of factors) and breadth of indicators. Further, our results suggest that the majority of ability researchers are using methods of factor analysis that allow for the identification of a g factor. However, 14.57% failed to use a method that allowed a common factor to emerge. These results provide insights regarding the methodological quality of the science of mental abilities, and will hopefully encourage further “introspective” research into the science of mental abilities.     

Visual versus phonological abilities in Spanish dyslexic boys and girls

Phonological and visual theories propose different primary deficits as part of the explanation for dyslexia. Both theories were put to test in a sample of Spanish dyslexic readers. Twenty-one dyslexic and 22 typically-developing children matched on chronological age were administered phonological discrimination and awareness tasks and coherent motion perception tasks. No differences were found between groups on the coherent motion tasks, whereas dyslexic readers were impaired relative to controls on phonological discrimination tasks. Gender differences followed the opposite pattern, with no differences on phonological tasks, and dyslexic girls performing significantly worse than dyslexic boys in coherent motion perception. These results point to the importance of phonological deficits related to speech perception in Spanish, and to possible gender differences in the neurobiological bases for dyslexia.     

Which is the real intelligence? A reply to Robinson (1999)

Robinson's ([Robinson, D.L. (1999). The ‘IQ’ factor: implications for intelligence theory and measurement. Personality and Individual Differences, 27, 715–735]) arguments that crystallized intelligence represents the “one valid intelligence factor” are disputed. It is argued that Robinson seriously underestimated the relevance of fluid abilities to “intelligence”, by using an inappropriate criterion for assessing the intelligence-saturation of cognitive ability variables. The relevance of fluid and crystallized abilities to popular, psychometric, and biological conceptions of intelligence is discussed, and the issue of age-related changes in fluid and crystallized intelligence is also addressed.     

高中生成就动机、物理学习成绩对其自我监控的影响

随机选取高中生314名,采用量表和问卷法探讨了成就动机、物理学习成绩对中学生物理问题解决自我监控能力发展的影响。结果表明：1、不同层次的动机,其自我监控能力不同,即高学习目标低成绩目标者监控水平最高,其次是高学习目标高成绩目标者,再是低学习目标低成绩目标者,最后是高成绩目标低学习目标者;2、物理学习成绩越好,中学生物理学习自我监控能力的水平越高。     

Reason,Education and Liberalism: Family Resemblance within an Overlapping Consensus

This paper focuses on recent debates over the nature ofliberalism and its central feature of reason, both inside and outside ofeducational philosophy. Central ideas from Jonathan and Hirst contributeas do those from Rawls, Gadamer, Wittgenstein, Taylor, and Ackermantoward a less traditional contextualized and contingent view.     

老年人日常认知研究评述

日常认知一直是临床心理学家和老年心理学家关注的重点之一, 日常认知的研究主要集中于概念、评估方法和工具、日常认知与智力和执行功能的关系以及相关的干预训练等方面。日常认知概念的深化和相应评估工具的出现, 推动了日常认知研究的深入发展：一方面研究者通过寻找对日常认知有重要作用的基本认知变量, 探究日常认知与智力的关系; 另一方面, 与日常认知有关的训练项目的开发也一直是研究者和老年群体关注的话题, 现有的训练研究提供了很多有启发性的结果。日常认知是老年人身心健康的重要影响因素, 对于保持或提高老年人的生活质量非常重要。     

Assessing the process of desensitization therapy: Five practical measures

Assessment of phobic behavior has included self-report, physiological, and in vivobehavioral measures. While self-report measures are convenient, they suffer from subject bias and a low predictive validity. Physiological and in vivobehavioral measures are often too cumbersome to implement in standard clinical practice. The current study investigated the validity of five convenient measures of phobic behavior during the process of desensitization therapy. Responses of 14 clinically phobic patients were compared on phobic and neutral scenes presented within the context of systematic desensitization therapy. Phobic scenes resulted in less clarity of scene visualization, a longer latency to clear scene visualization, higher subjective units of discomfort (SUDs) at clear visualization, a longer latency to relaxation, and higher SUDs at relaxation. The measures seemed to reflect accurately the process and stages of desensitization therapy and showed low to high intercorrelations. The pragmatic value of these measures is discussed, as well as suggestions for future validational research.     

Prima facie and seeming duties

Sir David Ross introduced prima facie duties, or acts with a tendency to be duties proper. He also spoke of general prima facie principles, wwhich attribute to acts having some feature the tendency to be a duty proper. Like Utilitarians from Mill to Hare, he saw a role for such principles in the epistemology of duty: in the process by means of which, in any given situation, a moral code can help us to find out what we ought to do.After formalizing general prima facie principles as universally quantified conditionals I will show how seeming duties can be detached from them. There will be examples involving lies, burnt offerings and the question of whether to have a napkin on your lap while eating asparagus. They will illustrate the defeasibility of this detachment, how it can lead into dilemmas, and how general prima facie principles are overridden by more specific ones.I've been lucky to discuss parts of this project with among others Jeff Horty, Paul McNamara, Alasdair MacIntyre, Wlodek Rabinowicz and Michael Slote. Thanks, too, to Henry Prakken and the reviewers for Studia Logica