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.

荣格的情结理论探析

在精神分析学界,对情结的研究以荣格的贡献为最。荣格通过自己的研究独立地发现了情结,并据此建构了他的情结理论体系。随着研究的深入,荣格不袒从情结中发现了导致神经机能病的病理性原因,甚至进一步阐释了“集体潜意识原型”和“精神救赎”等更为深远的内容。     

“<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.

焦虑障碍的虚拟现实暴露疗法研究述评

虚拟现实暴露疗法(VRET)是传统的行为疗法的一种转换形式, 也是经典的现实情境暴露疗法的替代性治疗形式。虚拟现实整合了即时计算机图形学、身体感觉传感、视觉成像技术, 给来访者提供近似真实的、可以沉浸(immersion)和交互作用的虚拟环境。研究者采用虚拟现实暴露疗法治疗幽闭恐怖症、恐高症、飞行恐怖症、创伤后应激障碍、惊恐障碍等焦虑障碍, 并且关注虚拟现实暴露疗法的认知机制以及心理生理机制。实验研究表明, 虚拟现实暴露疗法在治疗焦虑障碍时是有效的。被试经过治疗之后, 对情境的控制感和自我效能感提升, 消极自我评价降低, 对创伤事件的容忍力提高, 重新获得对情境的控制感。与心率指标相比, 皮肤电是预测虚拟现实暴露疗法治疗效果更好的指标。虚拟现实暴露疗法还处于实验验证阶段, 并没有应用到实际临床中, 需要更加规范的实验设计验证该疗法的认知机制以及心理生理机制。虚拟现实暴露疗法结合功能磁共振成像(FMRI)用于心理治疗, 会是未来发展的新方向。     

Different practice effects for males and females by psychometric and chronometric mental-rotation tests

Gender differences in the psychometric mental-rotation test are usually larger than in the chronometric version. In both tests, practice effects appear for males and females. In this study, 104 participants (54 females, 50 males, age: 21.72 years) completed both tests in counterbalanced order. In the chronometric test, only males reacted and rotated significantly faster after the practice with the psychometric test. A strong practice effect independently of gender was found in the psychometric test and a gender difference in accuracy in favour of males. Males reported more confidence and females rated the perceived pressure of the time limit of the psychometric test higher than males. Consequently, differences in confidence after the practice could partly explain the gender differences in the improvements of reaction time and rotational speed. Practice from one mental-rotation test on the performance in another seems to be dependent of participants’ gender and the type of the test.     

Rank‐permutation tests for behavior analysis,and a test for trend allowing unequal data numbers for each subject

We advocate for rank‐permutation tests as the best choice for null‐hypothesis significance testing of behavioral data, because these tests require neither distributional assumptions about the populations from which our data were drawn nor the measurement assumption that our data are measured on an interval scale. We provide an algorithm that enables exact‐probability versions of such tests without recourse to either large‐sample approximation or resampling approaches. We particularly consider a rank‐permutation test for monotonic trend, and provide an extension of this test that allows unequal number of data points, or observations, for each subject. We provide an extended table of critical values of the test statistic for this test, and both a spreadsheet implementation and an Oracle® Java Web Start application to generate other critical values at https://sites.google.com/a/eastbayspecialists.co.nz/rank-permutation/ .     

European and American WAIS IV norms: Cross‐national differences in perceptual reasoning,processing speed and working memory subtest scores

International comparisons of IQ test norms show differences between nations. In the present study, nonverbal reasoning, processing speed and working memory subtest scores of the US, German, French, Finnish, and Scandinavian (combined Swedish‐Norwegian‐Danish sample) WAIS IV standardization samples were compared. The European samples had higher scores on the reasoning subtests compared to the American sample, corroborating earlier studies. The Finnish and Scandinavian samples had lower processing speed and working memory scores than the American, German, and French samples. Mechanisms that may underlie the observed national IQ profiles include: (1) test‐taking attitudes—in tests that require balancing speed and accuracy of performance Americans may prioritize fast performance while Europeans avoid mistakes; (2) differences between languages in digit articulation times; and (3) educational factors—the European advantage on reasoning subtests may be based on there being better educational systems in Europe as compared to the US.     

What is so frightening about spiders? Self‐rated and self‐disclosed impact of different characteristics and associations with phobia symptoms

Spider phobia is a common and impairing mental disorder, yet little is known about what characteristics of spiders that spider phobic individuals find frightening. Using screening data from a clinical trial, we explored which characteristics that spider‐fearful individuals (n = 194) rated as having the greatest impact on fear, used factor analysis to group specific characteristics, and explored linear associations with self‐reported phobia symptoms. Second, a guided text‐mining approach was used to extract the most common words in free‐text responses to the question: “What is it about spiders that you find frightening?” Both analysis types suggested that movement‐related characteristics of spiders were the most important, followed by appearance characteristics. There were, however, no linear associations with degree of phobia symptoms. Our findings reveal the importance of targeting movement‐related fears in in‐vivo exposure therapy for spider phobia and using realistically animated spider stimuli in computer‐based experimental paradigms and clinical interventions such as Virtual Reality exposure therapy.     

The evil eye effect: vertical pupils are perceived as more threatening

Popular culture has many examples of evil characters having vertically pupilled eyes. Humans have a long evolutionary history of rivalry with snakes and their visual systems were evolved to rapidly detect snakes and snake-related cues. Considering such evolutionary background, we hypothesised that humans would perceive vertical pupils, which are characteristics of ambush predators including some of the snakes, as threatening. In seven studies (aggregate N?=?1458) conducted on samples from American and Turkish samples, we found that vertical pupils are perceived as more threatening on both explicit (Study 1) and implicit level (Studies 2–7) and they are associated with physical, rather than social, threat (Study 4). Findings provided partial support regarding our hypothesis about the relevance of snake detection processes: Snake phobia, and not spider phobia, was found to be related to perceiving vertical pupils as threatening (Study 5), however an experimental manipulation of saliency of snakes rendered no significant effect (Study 6) and a comparison of fears of snakes, alligators, and cats did not support our prediction (Study 7). We discuss the potential implications and limitations of these novel findings.