Intelligence and teachers' ratings as predictors of abstract and concrete learning

This study concerned the prediction of children's learning with an individual measure of intelligence and teachers' evaluations. Eight abstract and eight concrete nouns were paired with nonsense geometric figures and presented to 60 elementary school children in a three-trial paired-associate (PA) learning task. Subjects' IQ scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised and teachers' ratings of learning proficiency were used to predict children's performance on the PA task. Multiple correlations favored abstract learning with verbal scale intelligence, accounting for the majority of the variability. Teachers' ratings provided a surprising degree of predictive efficiency for abstract recall which was redundant with verbal intelligence.     

An experimental analysis of social traps

Social traps, such as the overgrazing of pasturelands, overpopulation, and the extinction of species, are situations where individuals in a group respond for their own advantage in a manner damaging to the group. A laboratory analog was devised to simulate conditions that produce social traps. The traps were constructed by superimposing schedules of reinforcement. Single responses were followed by multiple consequences which were opposite in valence, with the negative consequence delayed. Subjects in groups of three could respond individually for points that applied toward class credit. Each ten presses of a button added one point to the subject's total and subtracted one point from a common pool. The pool was replenished with points at fixed rates. If subjects responded for points faster than the replenishment rates, the pool would empty and the experiment would terminate before subjects could accumulate maximum credit. In addition, the maximum pool size and the ability to communicate were varied. Main effects were found for both, which indicated the least effective resource management occurred when the pool was small and no communication allowed. An analysis of cumulative records showed differing response patterns across conditions.     

ANDREW DICKSON WHITE AND THE HISTORY OF A RELIGIOUS FUTURE

Andrew Dickson White played a pivotal role in constructing the image of a necessary, and even violent, confrontation between religion and science that persists to this day. Though scholars have long acknowledged that his position is more complex, given that White claimed to be saving religion from theology, there has been no attempt to explore what this means in light of his overwhelming attack on existing religions. This essay draws attention to how White's role as a historian was decisive in allowing him to posit a future for religion purified of dogma by science. It argues, furthermore, that this effort is better understood as religious innovation, rather than a plea for strictly secular science. In so doing it hopes to lay the foundation for a more fruitful historical treatment of White, and a range of other figures whose devotion to science has otherwise been difficult to grasp.     

Teachers as raters of aberrant behavior

This study estimated the validity and interrater reliability for the Devereux Child Behavior Rating Scale when completed by classroom teachers. The behavior of 90 preadolescent males who were diagnosed as either normal, hyperactive, or emotionally disturbed was rated by two classroom teachers using the DCB. Interrter reliability estimates found between teachers' rating were not significantly different than those reported with mental health professionals. A stepwise discriminant analysis was used to evaluate the utility of teachers' ratings in predicting group membership. Results indicated teachers' ratings on the DCB differentiated significantly between diagnostic categories.     

DRAPER IN SPAIN: THE CONFLICTING CIRCULATION OF THE CONFLICT THESIS

This article delves into the reception of John W. Draper's History of the Conflict between Religion and Science in Spain. With two translations into Spanish appearing almost simultaneously in 1876, the conflict became a weapon in a long political dispute. The tensions between conservatives and liberals, between monarchists and republicans had the university and pedagogical reforms as one of the main battlefields. One of the chief reformist movements was informed by “Krausism,” an ideology that had academic freedom as one if its central tenets. The similarities between the educational agenda of Draper and that of Krausists explain why the former's book resonated among members of the latter group. The article argues that in order to understand the reception of Draper in Spain, one should pay attention to the disputes about national identity and educational reforms, so as to place the so‐called conflict thesis in the context of opposing Spanish patriotisms.     

Adaptive logics using the minimal abnormality strategy are $$\Pi^1_1$$ -complex

In this article complexity results for adaptive logics using the minimal abnormality strategy are presented. It is proven here that the consequence set of some recursive premise sets is -complete. So, the complexity results in (Horsten and Welch, Synthese 158:41–60, 2007) are mistaken for adaptive logics using the minimal abnormality strategy.     

A test of the distraction explanation of disfluency modification in stuttering

The distraction explanation of changes in stuttering rate was examined in the present experiment. Twelve stutterers were compared with 12 nonstutterers who were matched for age, sex, and level of education. Subjects were tested for disfluency production under conditions designed to reflect the dimension of distraction. These conditions were: (a) over attention to speech (counting speaking errors). (b) “normal” conditions (no additional task), and (c) distraction (pursuit tracking of an irregular target). The results showed no effect on stuttering rate that could be attributed to the distraction conditions. However, stutterers rated the difficulty of these conditions in concordance with the distraction theory. It was suggested that, while stutterers' perceptions may account for the popularity of the distraction explanation, evidence supporting the theory is lacking.