Is I Guaranteed to Refer?

Abstract: One claim about I , regularly made and almost universally endorsed, is that uses of the term are logically guaranteed to refer successfully (if they refer at all). The claim is only rarely formulated perspicuously or argued for. Such obscurity helps disguise the fact that those who profess to advance the claim actually turn out to support not a logical guarantee at all but merely high security through fortunate coincidence. This is not surprising. For we have no good reason to accept the claim – granted, any use of I is apt to refer successfully; but that can be explained by pragmatic features of its use. And we have some reason to reject the claim – it is notoriously difficult to see how genuine reference and guaranteed success do not exclude each other when considered as properties of the logic of any term.     

Violent crime, sociopathy and love deprivation among adolescent delinquents

Ever since Wechsler observed that the adolescent sociopath characteristically scored higher on the performance section of the Wechsler IQ scale relative to the verbal section, psychologists have been debating its meaning. This study examines the relationships between P-V discrepancy scores, love deprivation, and juvenile delinquency among a sample of juvenile probationers. P greater than V scores were significantly related to love deprivation and violent crimes. It was determined that much of the explanatory power of P greater than V with regard to violent delinquent behavior was mediated by love deprivation. We also found that P greater than V scores could not be explained away by social class, low verbal scores, or lower full-scale scores. Only love deprivation was found to be significantly related to P greater than V scores in our path model, thus offering some support to the assertions of some authors that early emotional stresses affect subsequent autonomic nervous system function.     

Love deprivation, Wechsler performance greater than verbal discrepancy, and violent delinquency

This study explored the relationship among love deprivation, Performance greater than Verbal discrepancy, and violent crime in a sample of juvenile probationers. Love deprivation and P greater than V discrepancy was significantly related to violent delinquency after adjusting for the effects of both race and social class, two variables often closely associated with violent delinquency. Also, love deprivation was strongly related to P greater than V discrepancy. We speculated that high performance IQ scores relative to verbal scores are a function of a lack of disruption in the short-term memory mechanisms of high P greater than V subjects, that this nondisruption is a function of hyporeactive autonomic nervous systems, and that this hyporeactivity could itself be a function of early love deprivation.     

Thought control and the first amendment

This article explores the application of the free speech clause of the First Amendment to the purported right of an individual to think socially stigmatized thoughts—for example, psychotic or sexually sadistic thoughts. The state may attempt to control such thoughts either by imposing a thought-control technology on the thinker or by prohibiting the thinker from voluntarily using thought-control technology of his own. Thought-control technologies embrace antipsychotic drugs, hallucinogenic drugs, pornography, and other mind-altering devices. Two underlying models of the free speech clause are proposed—a strong model and a weak model. Despite the apparent endorsement of the strong model by the United States Supreme Court, courts in fact vacillate between the two models and are, apparently, reluctant to utilize the First Amendment as a tool to enforce any right to think wicked thoughts. This reluctance, it is proposed, may well have a religious basis in an equation of wicked thoughts with sin.     

The effects of gendered information in stories on preschool children’s development of gender stereotypes

Social-cognitive theory posits that children learn gender stereotypes through gendered information. The present study examined whether children learn new gender stereotypes from stories when unknown words are linked to a gendered protagonist or context information. In Experiment 1, 40 3- to 6-year-old preschoolers were read stories with either a gendered protagonist embedded within a non-gendered context, or a non-gendered protagonist embedded within a gendered context. In Experiment 2, the same sample of children were read stories with the protagonist and the context displaying congruent or incongruent gender information. Each story featured an unknown activity linked with the stereotypical content. Both experiments indicate that the children rated the activity according to both the gender of the context and of the protagonist; however, the effect of the latter was stronger. In addition, children showed higher interest in the unknown activity if the protagonist’s gender matched their own sex. Thus, gender information in stories influences how children perceive unknown words.     

Top-down processing and the suffix effect in young and older adults

The suffix effect has generally been viewed as reflecting an automatic component involving the terminal item and a component susceptible to top-down influences involving the preterminal items (Balota & Engle, 1981). Recent findings have raised questions about this widely accepted view of the suffix effect by showing that the terminal component is not insensitive to top-down influences (Bloom & Watkins, 1999). In the present study, we attempted to uncover the source of these contradictory findings by assessing whether the terminal item's susceptibility to top-down influences might depend on subjects' first-hand experience of the extent to which recall is affected by the suffix. Furthermore, we examined whether age differences in the suffix effect could be attributed to age-related declines in inhibitory processes. Our findings supported both predictions.     

The role of locomotion in the acquisition and transfer of spatial knowledge in children

The role of locomotion in the acquisition and transfer of spatial knowledge was investigated in 144 five-, seven- and eleven-year-old children. Two experiments were conducted in the Kiel locomotor maze. In the first experiment, one group of children explored the spatial layout by walking through the maze, while another learned the maze by surveying the layout. In the second experiment, children were exposed to one of two orientation tests in the maze, one of which could be solved using "landmark orientation", the other only using a "relational place orientation". Children sitting by the side of the experimental chamber surveying the maze needed fewer trials to learn the spatial layout than children exploring the environment in the locomotion condition, but in the orientation test demanding the "relational place orientation" children who had explored the maze in the locomotion condition outperformed the children in the non-locomotion condition. Results are discussed in the context of cognitive mapping models.     

The Accuracy of Academic Gender Stereotypes

This research assessed the accuracy of academicgender stereotypes. Approximately 9% of participantswere nonwhite (mostly African American and Hispanic).Participants' estimates of the percentage of female and male students and their GPAs were comparedto the actual percentage of female and male students andtheir actual GPAs in 12 majors. Participantssignificantly underestimated the percentage of female students regardless of the gendertype of themajor. Females and males made more accurate percentageestimates for gender-congruent majors. Participantsoverestimated the GPAs of male students significantly more than the GPAs of female students. This wasespecially pronounced for masculine majors. Althoughfemale participants estimated the GPAs of their in-groupmore accurately than the GPAs of the out-group, the reverse was true for male participants. Theimplications of this evidence for inaccurate genderstereotypes regarding academic competence arediscussed.     

The Burden of Dementia: A Medical and Research Perspective

Alzheimer's disease remains the most common form of dementia. Dementia symptoms vary depending on individual personality, life experience, and social and cultural influences. As dementia progresses, involvement of multi-disciplinary health care professionals is needed to manage the disease. Alzheimer research is progressing rapidly. While 5% of all Alzheimer's disease may be genetically determined, the majority is not. Susceptibility genes can reveal the risk of contracting Alzheimer's disease. Early life risk factors such as education, nutrition, and vascular disease may increase the likelihood of dementia in later life. In the United States, two acetylcholinesterase inhibitors have been approved as cognitive enhancers. Possible prevention and symptomatic treatment interventions have focused on estrogen replacement therapy, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory medications. Research advances have improved the clinical management of dementia. Ethical implications to the patient, family, and society are multiple and remain challenging.