Introduction and overview: Global information ethics

This is an introduction to a set of papers on Computer Ethics from the conference ETHICOMP95. Taken as a whole, the collection of papers provides arguments and concepts to launch a new development in computer ethics: ‘Global Information Ethics’. A rationale for globalization is provided, as well as some early efforts which move in that direction. ETHICOMP95, an international conference on Computer Ethics, was held 28–30 March 1995 at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. Co-directors were Terrell Ward Bynum and Simon Rogerson.     

Adult age, gender, and race group differences in images of aging

Younger and older African American and Caucasian American adults, who were matched by age (M age = 40.63 years), completed a survey on perceptions of aging and subjective age. The 2 groups did not differ in the age they considered someone to be old (M age = 74.5 years). However, when asked which age was the happiest age, African Americans chose a significantly younger age (M age = 18.26 years) than did Caucasian Americans (M age = 31.32 years), and this racial group difference interacted with age differences such that older Caucasian Americans named an older age than did younger Caucasian Americans. The authors found no such age difference for African Americans. When asked if old age was a happy time, 60% of Caucasian Americans answered yes, whereas only 2% of African Americans answered yes. These and other differences in images and concerns of old age and subjective age suggest a far more negative view of aging for African Americans and a need for changes in the provision of positive information about aging for this group.     

Factors Associated with Transposition Behavior of Preschool Children

To assess ideas, derived from a contextual paradigm, stressing the influence of adolescents' perceptions of the physical and social components of their school environment on their self-esteems and academic performances, 183 black early adolescents (mean age = 12.1 years, SD = .5 years; 54.6% female) were administered five semantic differential scales. The first provided a measure of self-esteem, while the remaining four provided measures of perceptions of the social environment of the school (i.e., of peers and of teachers) and of the physical environment of the school (i.e., of the classroom and of the school building). There were few systematic sex differences in responses to the scales. As predicted, school environment perceptions were significantly related to self-esteem in both males and females. However, although self-esteem and a report of grade point average, as a measure of academic performance, were significantly related, there was no relation between school environmental perceptions and reported grade point average.     

Number-related discrimination and summation by squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus sciureus and S. boliviensus boliviensus) on the basis of the number of sides of polygons

In Experiment 1, with the number of sides or angles of irregular polygons as cues, programmed training, and a 90% correct criterion (36 of 40), 2 squirrel monkeys' (Saimiri sciureus sciureus and S. boliviensus boliviensus) best performances were to discriminate heptagons from octagons, a 3rd's best was hexagons from heptagons, and a 4th's best was pentagons from heptagons. In Experiment 2, on most trials 2 polygons on one or both discriminanda had to be summed to determine which discrimination had the total fewer sides. Only 1 monkey met criterion (27 of 30) on the 2 tasks, 6 vs. 8 and 7 vs. 8 sides, but the other 3 performed better than chance on the 6 vs. 8 task. We conclude that previous studies of animals' discrimination of polygons in terms of complexity were minimally relevant to this work, and counting and subitizing were rejected in favor of a prototype-matching process to explain our monkeys' performances.