Basic Infobase Change

Generalisations of theory change involving arbitrary sets of wffs instead of belief sets have become known as base change. In one view, a base should be thought of as providing more structure to its generated belief set, and can be used to determine the theory change operation associated with a base change operation. In this paper we extend a proposal along these lines by Meyer et al. We take an infobase as a finite sequence of wffs, with each element in the sequence being seen as an independently obtained bit of information, and define appropriate infobase change operations. The associated theory change operations satisfy the AGM postulates for theory change. Since an infobase change operation produces a new infobase, it allows for iterated infobase change. We measure iterated infobase change against the postulates proposed by Darwiche et al. and Lehmann.     

听障儿童错误信念理解与谎言理解的关系：情绪理解的调节作用

本研究主要探讨听障儿童自我/他人错误信念理解与谎言理解各层面的关系,以及情绪理解在其中的调节作用。实验1采用错误信念理解和谎言理解来探讨自我/他人错误信念理解与谎言理解各层面的关系。实验2增加了情绪理解任务,并探讨情绪理解在错误信念理解和谎言理解之间关系的机制。结果发现：（1）听障儿童他人错误信念理解、真假信息辨别、谎言意图理解的正确率显著不如典型发展儿童,且他人错误信念理解越好,越容易进行真假信息辨别和谎言意图理解;（2）典型发展儿童自我/他人错误信念理解越准确,谎言意图理解越好;（3）当听障儿童情绪理解得分较高时,自我/他人错误信念理解对谎言行为判断具有正向预测作用;（4）典型发展儿童情绪理解得分较高时,自我错误信念理解对真假信息辨别有正向预测作用,他人错误信念理解对谎言行为判断、真假信息辨别有正向预测作用。这些研究结果不仅表明听障儿童他人错误信念理解对谎言理解具有解释作用,而且表明高情绪理解在谎言理解中有促进作用以及表明高情绪理解在对错误信念理解与谎言理解中的调节作用更加显著。     

COMMENTS ON SIX RESPONSES TO DEMOCRACY AND TRADITION

This paper is a rejoinder to papers by Sabina Lovibond, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Sumner B. Twiss, G. Scott Davis, M. Cathleen Kaveny, and John Kelsay on the author's recent book Democracy and Tradition. The argument covers a host of topics, ranging from epistemology and methodology to human rights, the common law, and Islamic ethics.     

Measuring misinformation in repeat trial pick 1 of 2 tests

An extension is described to a product testing model to account for misinformation among subjects. A misinformed subject is one who associates the taste of product A with product B and vice-versa; thus, the subject would tend to perform incorrectly on pick 1 of 2 tests. A likelihood ratio test for the presence of misinformation is described. The model is applied to a data set, and misinformation is found to exist. Biases due to model misspecificationand other implications for product testing are discussed.The first author is currently on leave from Carnegie Mellon University.     

Statistical inference based on latent ability estimates

The quality of approximations to first and second order moments (e.g., statistics like means, variances, regression coefficients) based on latent ability estimates is being discussed. The ability estimates are obtained using either the Rasch, or the two-parameter logistic model. Straightforward use of such statistics to make inferences with respect to true latent ability is not recommended, unless we account for the fact that the basic quantities are estimates. In this paper true score theory is used to account for the latter; the counterpart of observed/true score being estimated/true latent ability. It is shown that statistics based on the true score theory are virtually unbiased if the number of items presented to each examinee is larger than fifteen. Three types of estimators are compared: maximum likelihood, weighted maximum likelihood, and Bayes modal. Furthermore, the (dis)advantages of the true score method and direct modeling of latent ability is discussed.     

Unbiased estimators of ability parameters,of their variance,and of their parallel-forms reliability

Given known item parameters, unbiased estimators are derived i) for an examinee's ability parameter and for his proportion-correct true score, ii) for the variances of and across examinees in the group tested, and iii) for the parallel-forms reliability of the maximum likelihood estimator .This work was supported in part by contract N00014-80-C-0402, project designation NR 150-453 between the Office of Naval Research and Educational Testing Service. Reproduction in whole or in part is permitted for any purpose of the United States Government.     

REALISM AND OPENNESS IN SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY

Abstract. Intrinsic to rigorous knowledge of God is the recognition that positive theological concepts and statements about God arising under the compelling claims of God's reality upon the human mind must have an open revisable structure. A similar combination of critical realism and ontological openness is apparent in the profound change that has taken place in the rational structure of rigorous science from the radical dualism and closed causal system of classical mechanics to the unifying world view and open dynamic field-theories of modern physics. It is argued that the intersection of theological and natural science in their epis-temological foundations can enhance their ontological commitment and heuristic thrust.     

THEORIZING RELIGION AND QUESTIONING THE FUTURE OF ISLAM AND SCIENCE

Will there be any joint future for science and Islam? Although such questions have recently received considerable attention, more basic questions are often ignored. This article aims at addressing some of those more basic questions through exploring the assumptions that underlie different possible understandings of the question about the future of Islam and science. By investigating the relation between conceptualizations of religion and the question about the future of Islam and science, it will be argued that different understandings of the concept of religion (i.e., whether it denotes real objects, whether it is universal, and whether it is belief centered) lead to extremely different readings of the question. Besides, it will be argued that different answers to the question about the future of Islam and science can be understood in terms of the inference to best theological explanation; thus, the criteria that one assumes for the best theological explanation result in different criteria for evaluation of the answers.     

父母的经济人信念对自身信任及儿童信任的影响

经济人信念认为人是自私的与理性的,研究者发现,经济人信念会破坏人际信任。然而,以上研究均是以大学生为被试的启动研究,限制了结论的可推广性。本研究编制了经济人信念量表,测量了351名成年被试的经济人信念及他们在投资博弈中的信任水平,以及其子女的信任水平,以考察父母的经济人信念对自身信任和其子女信任的影响。结果发现:(1)研究所编制的经济人信念量表信效度良好;(2)父母和儿童在投资博弈中均表现出了一定水平的信任;(3)父母的经济人信念能够预测其在投资博弈中的信任水平;(4)父母的经济人信念能够预测男孩在投资博弈中的投资额,主要表现为父亲的经济人信念能够负向预测男孩的投资额。