bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
On the Ministerial Archive of Academic Acts
Authors: Clark William 
Published: September 2008

The ArgumentUsing a pernicious Foucaultian reading of Weber's rationalization theories, I endeavor in this essay to illuminate academic acts as kept in the Brandenburg-Prussian state archive in Berlin, with some comparison to others, chiefly those in the Bavarian state archive in Munich. The essay concerns the microtechniques of marking, collecting and keeping records, and the form and content of archives of academic acts – interesting for the reason that paperwork circumscribes the state ministry's ability to recollect academic acts and hence its power and knowledge over academics. I consider mostly acts relating to the early modern “Arts and Philosophy Faculty,” which corresponds more or less to the present-day “Division of Arts, Letters and Sciences.” The transformation, traced from the Baroque to the Romantic era, is understood as a process of “ministerial-market rationalization” of German academia: I try to show how central German ministries, as reflected in archival acts, altered the academic persona to suit themselves and the market, and how professorial appointments were rationalized accordingly.
Making a Paradigmatic Convention Normal: Entrenching Means and Variances as Statistics
Authors: Krieger Martin H. 
Published: September 2008

The ArgumentMost lay users of statistics think in terms of means (averages), variances or the square of the standard deviation, and Gaussians or bell-shaped curves. Such conventions are entrenched by statistical practice, by deep mathematical theorems from probability, and by theorizing in the various natural and social sciences. I am not claiming that the particular conventions (here, the statistics) we adopt are arbitrary. Entrenchment can be rational without its being as well categorical (excluding all other alternatives), even if that entrenchment claims also to provide for categoricity. 1 provide a detailed description of how a science is “normal” and conventionalized. A characteristic feature of this entrenchment of conventions by practice, theorems, and theorizing, is its highly technical form, the canonizing work enabled by apparently formal and esoteric mathematical means.
Irenism and Natural Philosophy in Rudolfine Prague: The Case of David Gans
Authors: Efron Noah J. 
Published: September 2008

The ArgumentDavid Gans (1541–1613), a German Jew who was educated in Poland and spent his adulthood in Prague, produced over his lifetime a large and unprecedented corpus of Hebrew introductions to various liberal disciplines, chiefly astronomy. Gans believed that the disciplines he described might help to mediate between Christians and Jews, by serving as a shared subject of study. He considered these subjects to be uniquely apt for shared study because they took them to be theologically neutral.Gans's hopes went unfulfilled, and most of his books remained unpublished and ignored. Still, his own firm belief in the plausibility of his project implies that it was not a foregone conclusion near the start of the seventeenth century that astronomy and other liberal disciplines would find no purchase among Central European Jews. It also suggests that the mutual alienation between intellectuals of different confessions that has been emphasized by some historians might have been less pronounced than is often imagined. Further, Gans's belief that these disciplines could encourage interdenominational discourse and respect, and his intimation that such beliefs were shared by Kepler and Brahé, suggest the intriguing possibility that natural philosophy was valued by at least some of its early modern practitioners as an irenic undertaking.
Newtonian,Converso, and Deist: The Lives of Jacob (Henrique) de Castro Sarmento
Authors: Goldish Matt 
Published: September 2008

The ArgumentJacob (Henrique) de Castro Sarmento was a descendent of New Christians in Portugal who made his way to London in the early eighteenth century. There he professed Judaism openly, but he also advanced his scientific and medical pursuits, becoming particularly enamored of the Newtonian world view. This paper argues that Sarmento's attachment to Judaism was essentially a function of his personal relationship with Hakham David Nieto, and that Sarmento's Judaism was never really the full synthesis of scientific outlook and Jewish theology toward which Nieto pushed him. Rather, after Nieto's death Sarmento identified himself with scientific Newtonianism increasingly openly, while his religious identitly waned. Apparently he found science a more useful outlook in approaching the world, as did many Newtonians of that generation.
Lowering The Burden of Hereditary Diseases in a Traditional, Inbred Community: Ethical Aspects of Genetic Research and Its Application
Authors: Carmi Rivka , Elbedour Khalil , Wietzman Dahlia , Sheffield Val , Shoham-Vardi Ilana 
Published: September 2008

The ArgumentThe remarkable progress in modern genetic technology enables the identification of genes causing devastating diseases and thereby the development of tools for prenatal diagnosis and carrier detection. To implement the results of genetic research in traditional societies, where genetic diseases are more prevalent due to inbreeding, necessitates a culturally appropriate approach that also promotes traditional and societal values important to the relevant community. This paper presents our experience with implementing the results of modern genetic research among the traditional community of the Negev Bedouin of Israel. Although the benefit of using those results for the prevention of genetic diseases seems obvious, successful implementation relies on a carefully designed educational program aimed at changing culturally related attitudes and perceptions. Such a program should attend to the needs of the community and be sensitive to its traditional values.
The History of Scientific Expert Testimony in the English Courtroom
Authors: Golan Tal 
Published: September 2008

The ArgumentThis paper provides a historical perspective to one of the liveliest debates in common law courts today — the one over scientific expert testimony. Arguing against the current tendency to present the problem of expert testimony as a late twentieth-century predicament which threatens to spin out of control, the paper shows that the phenomena of conflicting scientific testimonies have been perennial for at least two centuries, and intensely debated in both the legal and the scientific communities for at least 150 years.
The Lawyer and the Lightning Rod
Authors: Riskin Jessica 
Published: September 2008

The ArgumentIn the summer of 1783, a trial took place in the French city of Arras. One M. de Vissery, a resident of the nearby village of St. Omer, was appealing a decision by his local aldermen, who required him to remove a lightning rod he had put on his chimney. His young defense lawyer was Maximilien Robespierre, who made a name for himself by winning the case. In preparation, Robespierre and his senior colleague corresponded with natural philosophers and jurisconsultants. Robes- pierre then persuasively resolved the crucial problem, namely, the proper relations of scientific to legal authority. He exploited the empiricist dogma common to contemporary physics and jurisprudence to argue that judges need not defer to scientific experts, but must only consider the facts, which required no expertise. It was a first approximation of an argument Robespierre would make with mounting authority over the next decade.
Sanctioning Models: The Epistemology of Simulation
Authors: Winsberg Eric 
Published: September 2008

The ArgumentIn its reconstruction of scientific practice, philosophy of science has traditionally placed scientific theories in a central role, and has reduced the problem of mediating between theories and the world to formal considerations. Many applications of scientific theories, however, involve complex mathematical models whose constitutive equations are analytically unsolvable. The study of these applications often consists in developing representations of the underlying physics on a computer, and using the techniques of computer simulation in order to learn about the behavior of these systems. In many instances, these computer simulations are not simple number-crunching techniques. They involve a complex chain of inferences that serve to transform theoretical structures into specific concrete knowledge of physical systems. In this paper I argue that this process of transformation has its own epistemology. I also argue that this kind of epistemology is unfamiliar to most philosophy of science, which has traditionally concerned itself with the justification of theories, not with their application. Finally, I urge that the nature of this epistemology suggests that the end results of some simulations do not bear a simple, straightforward relation to the theories from which they stem.
The Cultural Origins of the Dutch Economic Modeling Practice
Authors: van den Bogaard Adrienne 
Published: September 2008

The ArgumentThe Netherlands has been a pioneering country in the development of macroeconometric modeling and its use in economic policy. The paper shows that the model was used to overcome the fragmented culture of Dutch pillarization. It proves that the specific use (and institutionalization) of modeling in the policy process is at least partly shaped by a nation's (historical) social structure. The case study relates to the outcome of a controversy within the social democratic pillar in the Netherlands in the period 1930–50 as to how to plan the economic system in the context of the social developments leading up to the crisis, World War II, and the postwar recovery.
Factors affecting discrimination of infant cries
Authors: Freeburg Thomas J. , Lippman Marcia Z. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThe effects of five factors on the sensitivity of 36 women to infant cries were studied. The variables were listener experience (none, one month, four months), age of crying infant (one month, four months), type of cry (tired, angry, hungry), cry typicality (prototypical, moderately typical) and cry length (fixed, variable). A five-way analysis of variance was performed after scores were converted to the signal detection measure of sensitivity, d′. In addition to several main effects, significant age of infant × typicality × cry type, typicality × listener experience, and typicality × cry length interactions were found. The finding of an influence of cry length provided a possible explanation for the discrepancy in results in the infant cry literature, since the better discriminated single cries of variable length were typical of those cry signals used in studies reporting successful discrimination, and the poorly discriminated 15 sec fixed-length cry sequences were typical of those used in the studies failing to find discrimination of infant cries.
Young children pronounce object words more accurately than action words
Authors: Camarata Stephen , Leonard Laurence B. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTYoung children's productions of novel words serving as names of objects and actions were compared. Although the object and action names were matched according to consonant and syllable structure, accurate production of newly emerging consonants was greater for the object words for each of the measures used: spontaneous production and unsolicited imitation during the word exposure sessions, and responses to production probes administered during and following the exposure sessions. These findings are attributed to the fact that action words have greater semantic complexity than object words, and that the increased processing requirements involved in referring to actions reduce the capacity to use newly developing sounds in these words.
The effect of feedback on young children's inappropriate word usage
Authors: Chapman Kathy L. , Leonard Laurence B. , Mervis Carolyn B. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThis study compared the effects of three types of adult feedback (acceptance, correction with joint labelling, and correction with explanation) on young children's inappropriate word usage. Four children were visited in their homes twice a week, from the time they were between 1;1 and 1;3 until they were approximately 1;7. Differential feedback was applied by the experimenter whenever the children extended a term to referents that were inappropriate, but similar to appropriate ones. Comprehension and production probes were administered prior to, during, and following the feedback trials to assess changes in word usage over time. Results indicated that the three types of feedback varied in their relative effectiveness in facilitating a positive change in word usage. Correction with explanation was more effective than correction with joint labelling, which in turn was more effective than simple acceptance.
The acquisition of colour terms
Authors: Andrick Gail Rex , Tager-Flusberg Helen 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThe acquisition of colour terms in pre-school-aged children was investigated in two studies. The first study explored the role of conceptual factors in 2-, 3- and 4-year-old children's performance on two tasks. Comprehension and production of basic colour words were tested using stimuli that varied in focality. The results confirmed earlier research demonstrating the important and early influence of focality on children's colour concepts and developing colour lexicon. However, only moderate support was obtained for the order-of-acquisition hypothesis proposed by Berlin & Kay (1969). Quite large discrepancies between comprehension and production were found in this study, with no clear relationship between these two performances. In the second study the role of maternal input on children's learning of colour words was investigated, using the spontaneous speech transcripts from Adam, Eve and Sarah. Significant correlations between mothers' and children's uses of specific colour words were found across all three subjects. The findings from both studies confirm that both conceptual and environmental factors are important in shaping the child's developing colour concepts and colour lexicon, particularly for mapping out the boundaries of the basic colour spaces, which are culturally, rather than innately, determined.
An experiment involving comprehension of intonation in children from 7 to 10
Authors: Cruttenden A. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTA frequent claim has been made that the acquisition of intonation precedes other language learning. Little is known about developing comprehension of language in general and of intonation in particular. This article reports the result of an experiment testing the comprehension of certain intonation patterns between the ages of seven and ten. It is found that development is still going on during these years and is not wholly complete by the end of this period. Some suggestions are made about the order of acquisition.
Cognitive principles underlying children's errors in pronominal case-marking
Authors: Tanz Christine 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTData on children's errors in marking pronominal case are surveyed and the pattern of errors described: children substitute objective forms for nominative ones but do not commit substitution errors in the opposite direction. It is proposed that two general cognitive principles underlying language acquisition might explain the uniformities in the data: avoid exceptions, and pay attention to the ends of words. It is further suggested that the last of these should be extended in scope, to cover short-term processing of larger constituents.
Imitation and recall of optionally deletable sentences by young children
Authors: Thieman Thomas J. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTA set of sentences written in either an expanded or optionally deleted form were read for imitation and delayed recall to a group of nursery school children. A similar set of sentences had been presented for recall to adults. The older children and adults tended to recall the sentences in deleted forms, regardless of their input form. The youngest child tested, however, recalled the sentences in a fully expanded form, even when they had been presented and imitated in deleted form. The results offer support for the hypothesis of memory for non-linguistic ideas by both children and adults, as well as a demonstration of Slobin's (1973) universal operating principle that when children are first gaining control of an optionally deletable linguistic entity, they will often produce only its full form.
Some facts one simply cannot deny
Authors: Villiers Jill G. De , Flusberg Helen B. Tager 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTTwo-, three-, and four-year-old children were tested on a variation of Wason's (1965) procedure for testing the effects of plausibility on the comprehension of negative statements. It was found that negatives about an exceptional item in an array, i.e. plausible negatives, were understood before implausible negatives. Reaction time data revealed that plausible negatives were also processed more rapidly for three- and four-year-olds. An additional effect on plausibility, namely the degree of confusability between the different items in an array, was proposed, and was found to become increasingly salient with age.
Speech codes and speech variants: social class and task differences in children's speech
Authors: Edwards A. D. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThe speech of children aged 11, in socially contrasted groups, was analysed across a range of communicative tasks. On most ‘traditional’ measures, consistent group differences did not appear. There were significant differences on measures directly derived from the ‘planning principles’ said by Bernstein to underlie restricted and elaborated codes. Even on these, however, there was considerable task variation. There was no evidence of rigidity in the speech of the lower-working-class children, and no evidence of a persistent orientation to one code rather than the other.
The acquisition of tone in Mandarin-speaking children
Authors: Li Charles N. , Thompson Sandra A. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTUntil now, although there has been research on the acquisition of intonation and stress, there has been no systematic study of the acquisition of lexical tone. Based on data collected during eight months of field work with 17 children of Mandarin-speaking families in Taipei, we have found that (1) tone acquisition is accomplished within a relatively short period of time; (2) mastery of tones occurs well in advance of mastery of seg-mentals; (3) the Mandarin high-level and falling tones are acquired before the rising and dipping tones; (4) the rising and dipping tones are substituted for each other throughout the tone acquisition process; (5) unstressed syllables are treated as if they were stressed, the tone assigned to them being an approximation of the phonetically conditioned pitch which they carry; (6) the tone sandhi phenomena associated with the dipping tone in Mandarin are acquired with very little error as soon as propositional utterances begin to be created. Explanations for these facts can be given in terms of the relative ease of learning to control glottal pitch as opposed to articulatory mechanisms, the relative difficulty of rising pitch, and the relative salience of tone in Mandarin.
Does comprehension precede production? The development of children's responses to telegraphic sentences of varying grammatical adequacy
Authors: Petretic Patricia A. , Tweney Ryan D. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThe comprehension ability of 36 children at three stages of telegraphic speech (mean length of utterance 1·45, 2·03, and 2·76 morphemes) was assessed using active behavioural responses to declarative and imperative sentences. Both forms were varied in syntactic and semantic complexity. The responses were scored in terms of objects used by the child, whether or not the child's actions were appropriate, and whether or not appropriate verbalization accompanied the actions. A significant increase in verbal and behavioural appropriateness with age was found for both imperative and declarative forms. Consistent with Shipley, Smith & Gleitman's (1969) results, advanced telegraphic speakers responded most often to adult stimulus forms. However, contrary to Shipley et al.'s findings, all children, even the earliest telegraphic speakers, were more accurate in responding to adult forms than to child forms, suggesting that ability to comprehend adult linguistic forms is present even at the earliest stages of telegraphic speech. The findings imply that re-evaluation of the development of comprehension ability in telegraphic speakers is necessary.
Children's reproductions: effects of event order and implied vs. directly stated causation
Authors: Homzie M. J. , Gravitt Carol B. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTThe utterance The man fell down because he slipped on a banana peel is a verbal statement in which causation is stated directly, and the major events are not reported in the perceptual order of occurrence. Surprisingly, in retelling 20 ‘stories’, 23 nursery-school children often refused to produce sentences in which causation was stated directly, but readily retold causationimplied utterances; performance was worst for unrelated (control) stories. Moreover, backward temporal order hurt performance only when causation was stated directly. Except for this latter condition, memory was best for the first half of the stories regardless of the temporal arrangement of the clauses. Finally, the majority of the story events were reproduced in the linguistic order in which they had been originally presented.
Comprehension of before and after in logical and arbitrary sequences
Authors: French Lucia A. , Brown Ann L. 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTPre-school children were required to act out a series of two-event sequences conjoined by either before or after. The sentences to be acted out consisted of either a meaningfully or an arbitrarily ordered sequence of events. Performance was markedly superior for meaningfully ordered sequences. It is suggested that the meanings of before and after must be acquired in situations which provide contextual support, and only then can be applied in situations which do not provide such support.
Comprehension of two-word instructions by children in the one-word stage
Authors: Sachs Jacqueline , Truswell Lynn 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTTwelve one-word-stage children (aged 1; 4 to 2; 0) were given minimally contrasting two-word instructions, e.g. kiss duck, kiss car, bang duck and bang car. Since non-linguistic cues were eliminated, comprehension involved making non-syntactic inferences from the word combinations. The children could respond correctly to some of the instructions, and even carried out some unfamiliar activities such as tickle book. Observations of mother–child interactions revealed play routines that may help the child learn to understand more than one word at a time.
An experimental investigation of adult perception of one-word utterances
Authors: Olney Rachel L. , Scholnick Ellin Kofsky 
Published: September 2008

ABSTRACTIn order to examine the extent to which adult judgments of first words depend on visual and auditory cues, spontaneous utterances were collected for boys and girls of 1; 5, 1; 6 and 1; 10 as well as adults naming the same toys. Vocalizations clearly appropriate to the original visual context were dubbed onto new contexts varying in the number of phonetic features (0-2) by which the first phoneme of the utterance differed from the initial phoneme labelling the visual context. College students' perceptual accuracy declined with degree of mismatch, although the identical speech occurred in each context. The older the speaker, the less perception was affected by visual context. Whereas the meaning of child speech was judged by visual cues, adult meanings were judged mostly by auditory input. Biases in perceiving early speech may prompt reconsideration of current methodology and theory in early language acquisition.