Number Of Possible Responses Research Articles

Human agency and the technoscientific dilemma: Contesting the role of technology in shaping our collective futures

The launch of ChatGPT created a tidal wave of interest, rapid uptake of the app and a surge of capital investment. It quickly became clear that what was now being called ‘generative AI’ would have multiple impacts and implications across the board. The paper begins by outlining aspects of the context from which these innovations arose. They include Neoliberalism and the ‘playbook’ of careless, ‘non-legal’ innovation that occurred during the early rise of social media platforms. The paper also critiques Silicon Valley, both for its one-sided culture and its obsession with marketing. It specifically draws attention to the characteristics and limitations of ‘technoscientific’ outlooks and the way they conceal, or edit out, key aspects of human existence. A summary of the attributes of technoscience suggests a number of possible responses. Behind these, however, is a widely ignored dilemma - the proposition that a continuation of further stages of high-tech innovation benefits the human enterprise. Yet many high-tech developments are unambiguously sociopathic. They project extreme danger and dysfunction out onto innocent people and unprepared social environments. The paper summarises recent attempts to come to terms with a radically transformed, technology saturated environment and concludes with suggestions for enhancing human agency.

Jesus’s Confession of Ignorance and Consubstantiality

This essay argues that Jesus’s confession of ignorance about the day and hour of his return (Matt. 24:36; Mark 13:32) is logically inconsistent with the Nicene-Constantinopolitan doctrine of his “consubstantiality” (homoousia) with God the Father. The essay first defines “consubstantiality”, then presents three formulations of the argument, and finally rebuts a number of possible responses: from the textual originality of the phrase “nor the Son”; from the reinterpretation of “knows” as “makes known”; from the ideas of partitive exegesis and communicatio idiomatum; and from the question of the Holy Spirit’s knowledge of the things of God.

Possibility, relevant similarity, and structural knowledge

Recently, interest has surged in similarity-based epistemologies of possibility. However, it has been pointed out that the notion of ‘relevant similarity’ is not properly developed in this literature. In this paper, I look at the research done in the field of analogical reasoning, where we find that one of the most promising ways of capturing relevance in similarity reasoning is by relying on the predictive analogy similarity relation. This takes relevant similarity to be based on shared properties that have structural relations to the property of interest. I argue that if we base our epistemology of possibility on similarity reasoning on the predictive analogy similarity relation, we require prior knowledge of the specifics of these structural relations. I discuss a number of possible responses to this on behalf of the similarity theorists given their methodological approach to the epistemology of modality more generally. They could either opt for making explicit the metaphysics underlying these structural relations, in which case they need to spell out how we can come to know these relations. Or they could opt for developing a theory that explains why we do not need to have explicit knowledge of these structural relations; for example by suggesting that we make use of epistemic shortcuts.

Adapting to the challenges of the global pandemic on genetic counselor education: Evaluating students' satisfaction with virtual clinical experiences.

Travel restrictions, physical distancing, and limits to clinical placements due to the global pandemic raised enormous challenges for genetic counseling education in 2020. In response, we created authentic virtual clinical experiences in our Master of Genetic Counseling program, mimicking clinical practice: virtual simulation with standardized clients, and virtual clinical placements, including intake calls, triage, consultations, teamwork and time management, and genetic counseling with standardized clients. The virtual clinical experiences involved online pre‐brief, simulation, and debrief. We aimed to evaluate students’ satisfaction with this learning method. Between April and November 2020, we distributed an anonymous online survey to all participating students using a modified version of a validated satisfaction with simulation scale. We analyzed the combined responses from first‐ and second‐year virtual clinical experiences using descriptive statistics and content analysis. The total number of possible responses was 120. The mean response rate was 68.36% (n = 82.03), with a mean of 16.41 participants responding to each survey from each year group. Of the first‐year participants, 53% (n = 10) had not observed a genetic counseling consultation before attending the virtual clinical placement. Overall, 92.5% of responses indicated that students were satisfied with the virtual clinical experiences (SD = 0.05). 100% (n = 82) of responses indicated that working with standardized clients was beneficial to learning, encouraged reflection on clinical ability and was a valuable learning experience overall. However, 37.78% (n = 17) of those who participated in the virtual simulation found that the use of Zoom detracted from their clinical learning. The virtual clinical experiences increased first‐year students’ confidence about clinical placement and prepared second‐year students for telehealth. In conclusion, the adaptation to virtual clinical experiences enhanced learning for most students, prepared them for practice, met the requirements of the accreditation body and enabled all of our final year students to graduate on time.

Counterpossibles, story prefix and trivialism

The aim of this paper is to argue in favor of the view that some counterpossibles are false. This is done indirectly by showing that accepting the opposite view, i.e., one that ascribes truth to each and every counterpossible, results in the claim that every necessarily false theory has exactly the same consequences. Accordingly, it is shown that taking every counterpossible to be true not only undermines the value of debates over various alternative theories and their consequences, but also puts into question the very possibility of such debates. In order to explicate this thesis, the close bond between counterpossibles and the so-called story prefix (i.e., the sentential operator ‘According to fiction F, P’) is explored. A number of possible responses to this criticism are also presented, and it is argued that none of them address the main problem.

The pregnant female surgical resident.

BackgroundSurgery continues to be an intense, time-consuming residency. Many medical students decide against surgery as a profession due to the long work hours and family strain. The pregnant female surgical resident has an added stress factor compared to her male counterpart.MethodsWe distributed an electronic, online 26-question survey to 32 general surgery programs in the southwestern region of the United States. Each program distributed our survey to the female surgical residents who had been pregnant during residency in the last 5 years. Each program was re-contacted 6 weeks after the initial contact. Most questions were in a 5-point Likert scale format. The responses were collected and analyzed using the Survey Monkey website.ResultsAn unvalidated survey was sent to 32 general surgery programs and 26 programs responded (81%). Each program was asked for the total number of possible responses from female residents that met our criteria (60 female residents). Seven of the programs (27%) stated that they have had zero residents pregnant. We had 22 residents respond (37%). Over half of the residents (55%) were pregnant during their 2nd or 3rd year of residency, with only 18% pregnant during a research year. Thirty-one percent had a lower American Board of Surgery In-Training Exam (ABSITE) score. Ninety percent of the residents were able to take 4 weeks or more for maternity leave. Most of the residents (95%) stated that they would do this again during residency given the opportunity, but many of the residents felt that returning back to work with a child at home was the most difficult part.ConclusionOur preliminary study shows that the programs surveyed were accommodating to the female surgical resident. Nevertheless, despite adequate support from their program and an overall positive experience, many residents indicated that they had a decline in their education and performance.

Elucidating the Functional Relationship Between Speed of Information Processing and Speed-, Capacity-, and Memory-Related Aspects of Psychometric Intelligence.

Numerous studies reported a positive relationship between speed of information processing (SIP) and the g factor of intelligence. Only very few studies, however, examined SI P’s relationship to speed-, capacity-, and memory-related aspects of psychometric intelligence. In order to further elucidate this relationship, a Hick reaction time task and the Berlin Intelligence Structure (BIS) test were administered to 240 participants. From the BIS test, indicators of BIS -Capacity, BIS -Speed, and BIS -Memory were determined. By means of fixed-links modeling, we subdivided variance in reaction time from the Hick task into a component representing individual differences in speed directly related to the systematically increased number of possible responses and another component representing individual differences in speed associated with residual sources unrelated to the experimental variation of response alternatives. While the former speed component was primarily related to BIS -Capacity and, to a lesser extent, to BIS -Speed, the latter one was only weakly related to BIS -Speed but unrelated to BIS -Capacity. None of the two speed components from the Hick task showed an association with BIS -Memory. Our findings indicate that individual differences in SI P caused by experimentally increasing the number of possible responses were more strongly associated with capacity- than with speed-related aspects of psychometric intelligence. In addition, individual differences in SI P not associated with the experimental manipulation of response alternatives showed rather weak relationships to each of the three BIS operations and could be considered equally strong.

Kant’s Transcendental Deduction, Non-Conceptualism, and the Fitness-for-Purpose Objection

AbstractThe subject of this article is a powerful objection to the non-conceptualist interpretation of Kant’s transcendental deduction of the categories. Part of the purpose of the deduction is to refute the sort of scepticism according to which there are no objects of empirical intuition that instantiate the categories. But if the non-conceptualist interpretation is correct, it does not follow from what Kant is arguing in the transcendental deduction that this sort of scepticism is false. This article explains and assesses a number of possible responses to this objection.

The Dorsal Medial Prefrontal Cortex Is Recruited by High Construal of Non-social Stimuli.

The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) is part of the mentalizing network, a set of brain regions consistently engaged in inferring mental states. However, its precise function in this network remains unclear. It has recently been proposed that the dmPFC is involved in high-level abstract (i.e., categorical) identification or construction of both social and non-social stimuli, referred to as “high construal.” This was based on the observation of greater activation in the dmPFC shared by a high construal social condition (trait inference based on visually presented behavior) and a high construal non-social condition (categorization of visually presented objects) vs. matched low construal conditions (visual description of the same pictures). However, dmPFC activation has been related to task contexts requiring responses based on self-guided generation of mental content or decisions as compared to responses more directly determined by the experimental context (e.g., free vs. rule-governed choice). The previously reported dmPFC activity may reflect differences in task constraint (i.e., the extent to which the task context guided the process) confounded with the construal manipulation. Therefore, in the present study, we manipulated construal level and constraint independently, while participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). As before, participants visually described (low level construal) or categorized (high level construal) pictures of objects. Orthogonal to this, the description or categorization task had to be performed on either one object (low constraint) or on two objects simultaneously (high constraint), limiting the number of possible responses. Statistical analysis revealed common greater activation in both high construal conditions (high and low constraint) than in their low construal counterparts, replicating the influence of construal level on dmPFC activation (greater involvement in high than low construal), but no influence of constraint. In line with previous proposals and earlier work, we suggest that the dmPFC is involved in high-construal abstraction across different domains.

The Identification of High-pitched Sung Vowels in Sense and Nonsense Words by Professional Singers and Untrained Listeners

High-pitched sung vowels may be considered phonetically "underspecified" because of (i) the tuning of the F1 to the f0 accompanying pitch raising and (ii) the wide harmonic spacing of the voice source resulting in the undersampling of the vocal tract transfer function. Therefore, sung vowel intelligibility is expected to decrease as the f0 increases. Based on the literature of speech perception, it is often suggested that sung vowels are better perceived if uttered in consonantal (CVC) context than in isolation even at high f0. The results for singing, however, are contradictory. In the present study, we further investigate this question. We compare vowel identification in sense and nonsense CVC sequences and show that the positive effect of the context disappears if the number of legal choices in a perception test is similar in both conditions, meaning that any positive effect of the CVC context may only stem from the smaller number of possible responses, i.e., from higher probabilities. Additionally, it is also tested whether the training in production (i.e., singing training) may also lead to a perceptual advantage of the singers over nonsingers in the identification of high-pitched sung vowels. The results show no advantage of this kind.

That Dawn to Be Alive

That Dawn to Be Alive Andrew Gibson, Intermittency: The Concept of Historical Reason in Recent French Philosophy, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2012, 326 pp, £70 hardcoverUnder long shadow of postmodernism, project of assigning any final meaning to history has come to be considered by many as naive, if not dangerous. A conception of human story which moves towards a future end point - a final totality associated with Hegel or Marx - is routinely dismissed by both critical theorists and empirical historians alike. Damning such theories at one moment, however, in next very same thinkers will replicate narratives of progress and development; statements aligned with a linear model if ever there were. Between such a linear model and pure relativity it falls to critical theory to provide some new alternatives. It is into this space that Andrew Gibson intrepidly goes with his work Intermittency.The new approach to historical reason that Gibson proposes is smuggled out of France in guise of a review of contemporary continental theorists. However, as Alain Badiou states in both a foreword and a dusk jacket quotation, it remains 'the most subtle and original study of a crucial orientation' to have been written: suggesting Gibsonian 'intermittency' may become a theory in its own right. Presented through work of five philosophers (Alain Badiou, Francoise Proust, Christian Jambet, Guy Lardreau and Jacques Ranciere), 'intermittent' approach to history is to see it as a series of rupture points, crises, or Events, which shatter an otherwise concrete normality. Drawing on Jambet's conception of esoteric Islam, Gibson suggests these moments to be 'a juddering series of unpredictable and discrete singularities, the multiplied one, 1X1X1X1X1 ...' (p8). History is not linear, like a melody, it is not even staccato, as each of notes appears in middle of a profound silence, each representing a new beginning. Once new moment of history happens, one is then defined in terms of how one relates to new Event. Gibson fittingly presents each of his five readings as distinct responses to central insight of theory of intermittency.The general outline of theory will be familiar to readers of Badiou's two-part magnum opus Being and Event, and Logics of Worlds, and it is from this philosopher's works that central concept of intermittency is excavated within first chapter. Badiou 'rethinks world from ground up on basis of absolute philosophical privilege of contingency' (p24), reemerging into ethics, politics and truth through a commitment to Event. The 'exceptional value' springs from morass of 'unexceptional non-value' (p52) and it is on these rare occasions, occurring intermittently within history, that theory and practice unite in authentic response. Such a response is found in Francoise Proust's reading of Kant's 'exceptional value' of Sublime: 'Critique does not get its truth from history. The historical and critical events are rather two coincident presents' (p80). Kant enters modernity without an end in sight; his 'Enlightenment' is a process of becoming and, through Proust's encounter with Critiques, Gibson aligns it with project of historical intermittency. This early negotiation of Badiou and Proust's Kant erects banner under which Gibson will march for rest of book: History happens, get used to it.So how do we get used to it, or, in more academic terms, how is one to align one's subjectivity in response to Event? Through his readings of Jambet, Lardreau and Ranciere, Gibson suggests a number of possible responses, each of which reframes initial conception of Event in its elaboration. Christian Jambe t's study of Islamic gnosticism presents most insightful historical example of 'intermittency' in practice. In medieval Ismaili stronghold of Alamut, society lives in an 'imaginal world' ruled over by an absent God who is 'not of whole or One, but of lack'. …

Addressing a ‘New’ Form of ‘Loyalist’ Extremism? Reflections on the Legacy of the Northern Ireland Conflict

AbstractThis article presents an examination of the capacity for existing Loyalist paramilitary structures and actors to engage with ‘far right’ wing action‐based and value‐based extremism. The author argues that Northern Ireland faces a similar threat posed by far right groups as the rest of the United Kingdom and that utilising a strategic theory approach reveals a number of possible responses to the threat posed by far right extremism.

Acetylcholine-Based Entropy in Response Selection: A Model of How Striatal Interneurons Modulate Exploration, Exploitation, and Response Variability in Decision-Making

The basal ganglia play a fundamental role in decision-making. Their contribution is typically modeled within a reinforcement learning framework, with the basal ganglia learning to select the options associated with highest value and their dopamine inputs conveying performance feedback. This basic framework, however, does not account for the role of cholinergic interneurons in the striatum, and does not easily explain certain dynamic aspects of decision-making and skill acquisition like the generation of exploratory actions. This paper describes basal ganglia acetylcholine-based entropy (BABE), a model of the acetylcholine system in the striatum that provides a unified explanation for these phenomena. According to this model, cholinergic interneurons in the striatum control the level of variability in behavior by modulating the number of possible responses that are considered by the basal ganglia, as well as the level of competition between them. This mechanism provides a natural way to account for the role of basal ganglia in generating behavioral variability during the acquisition of certain cognitive skills, as well as for modulating exploration and exploitation in decision-making. Compared to a typical reinforcement learning model, BABE showed a greater modulation of response variability in the face of changes in the reward contingences, allowing for faster learning (and re-learning) of option values. Finally, the paper discusses the possible applications of the model to other domains.

Visual Experience and Demonstrative Thought

AbstractI raise a problem for common-factor theories of experience concerning the demonstrative thoughts we form on the basis of experience. Building on an insight of Paul Snowdon 1992, I argue that in order to demonstratively refer to an item via conscious awareness of a distinct intermediary the subject must have some understanding that she is aware of a distinct intermediary. This becomes an issue for common-factor theories insofar as it is also widely agreed that the general, pre-philosophical or ‘naïve’ view of experience does not accept that in normal perceptual cases one is consciously aware of non-environmental (inner, mental) features. I argue then that the standard common-factor view of experience should be committed to attributing quite widespread referential errors or failures amongst the general, non-philosophical populace – which seems an unattractively radical commitment. After clarifying the various assumptions I am making about experience and demonstrative thoughts, I consider a number of possible responses on behalf of the common-factor theorist. I finish by arguing that my argument should apply to any common-factor theory, not just avowedly ‘indirect’ theories.

Validation of a Visual Function and Quality of Life Instrument in an Urban Indian Population with Uncorrected Refractive Error Using Rasch Analysis

Purpose: To develop and validate a patient-reported outcome measure of refractive error for persons living in developing countries.Methods: A 21-item visual function questionnaire was developed from existing instruments through pilot testing in 51 urban Indian adults with refractive error. This was then administered to 400 adults aged 18 to 45 in Delhi, India. Rasch analysis was performed to determine item fit, differential item functioning (DIF), targeting of the instrument to the study population, and instrument precision.Results: The removal of 5 items from the instrument resulted in better fit to the Rasch model. Reducing the number of possible responses from five to four further improved fit. Analysis of the person-item map including the Fisher information function demonstrated acceptable targeting of the instrument to this population. The person separation index was good (2.03), demonstrating ability to differentiate between 3 strata of respondents.Conclusions: Revisions to existing instruments to measure visual function in persons with refractive error resulted in an instrument that conformed to the Rasch model. Identifying activities that are more difficult to perform with refractive error in this setting might further improve the instrument. The 16-item instrument was able to differentiate among levels of impairment due to uncorrected refractive error and could be used to assess refractive programs in similar settings.

Ethics, Equity, and English-Language Learners: A Decision-Making Framework

Ethics, Equity, and English-Language Learners: A Decision-Making Framework

Engagement, Withdrawal, and Social Reform: Confucian and Contemporary Perspectives

Concern with social and moral reform plays an important thematic role in the Analects , and the text discusses a number of possible responses to a morally failing society. This essay offers an account of engagement, withdrawal, and social reform in the Analects , then places the issue of social reform in a contemporary context through a comparative and critical discussion of the Analects and the book Habits of the Heart , by Robert Bellah et al. It is argued that Confucius rejects the option of complete withdrawal from society, even where such withdrawal aims to preserve personal moral integrity. However, Confucius also cautions against deep involvement with corrupt regimes and suggests that reformers must withdraw from particular institutions when moral engagement is impossible within them. The recommendations found in Habits of the Heart strikingly parallel many of those in the Analects , particularly in emphasizing individual engagement and reinvigoration of tradition as sources of social renewal. Although traditions require critical examination in contemporary contexts, the idea—found in both texts—that engagement in social reform can benefit the reformer as well as society more broadly remains important and relevant today.

PLURALISM, TOLERATION, AND ETHICAL PROMISCUITY

ABSTRACTThis paper argues that from an ethical point of view tolerance, which is simply one of a number of possible responses to ethical pluralism, is not an acceptable ideal. It fails to acknowledge and appreciate the good in other forms of life and thereby does not adequately respect the people who live these lives. Toleration limits the range of goods we might appreciate in our own lives and in the lives of those we care most about, and it tends to lead to a number of deformations or personal failures of character. In place of tolerance, we should embrace ethical promiscuity—a view that not only acknowledges ethical pluralism but also offers good reasons to celebrate this state of affairs.

Tight Data-Robust Bounds to Mutual Information Combining Shuffling and Model Selection Techniques

The estimation of the information carried by spike times is crucial for a quantitative understanding of brain function, but it is difficult because of an upward bias due to limited experimental sampling. We present new progress, based on two basic insights, on reducing the bias problem. First, we show that by means of a careful application of data-shuffling techniques, it is possible to cancel almost entirely the bias of the noise entropy, the most biased part of information. This procedure provides a new information estimator that is much less biased than the standard direct one and has similar variance. Second, we use a nonparametric test to determine whether all the information encoded by the spike train can be decoded assuming a low-dimensional response model. If this is the case, the complexity of response space can be fully captured by a small number of easily sampled parameters. Combining these two different procedures, we obtain a new class of precise estimators of information quantities, which can provide data-robust upper and lower bounds to the mutual information. These bounds are tight even when the number of trials per stimulus available is one order of magnitude smaller than the number of possible responses. The effectiveness and the usefulness of the methods are tested through applications to simulated data and recordings from somatosensory cortex. This application shows that even in the presence of strong correlations, our methods constrain precisely the amount of information encoded by real spike trains recorded in vivo.

Response selection influences inhibition of return

Previous work has suggested that there may be a relationship between the magnitude of inhibition of return (IOR) and the number of possible responses in the perceptual‐motor task. To test this possibility, the present experiment used a display that contained four horizontally aligned cue/target locations. In different blocks of trials, subjects responded to the target either with a one‐response detection key press, a two‐response localisation key press, or a four‐response localisation key press. The results showed the largest magnitude of IOR was found in the one‐response condition and the least in the four‐response condition. These results suggest that IOR may be most effective in inhibiting relatively prepotent responses and the inhibitory effect weakens when responses require more intricate sensorimotor mappings.