Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Psychology, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (Proquest, viewed on Aug. 20, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 70-75). Also issued in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1983. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 33-35).

According to H. H. Price in "Our Evidence for the Existence of Other Minds", the belief in the existence of other minds is not one that can be strictly proven. The most that can be obtained in support of the belief is good reasons for holding it. Price suggests that the best evidence derives from one's understanding of language. An exposition of, and a commentary on, Price's paper are given. Price argues that if I can verify a sentence which I hear and which I did not utter but which states something I was not in a position to know, or did not at the moment of hearing believe—then the utterance stands as good evidence for the existence of an other mind. From analogy he argues that since he uses symbols to refer to objects in the world, the foreign use of the same symbols must have occurred as a result of perceiving and thinking on the part of the other user. If the foreign utterance gave old information or was a platitude I already believed, then it is not impossible that the hearer was unconsciously the cause of the symbolic noises coming from the other body. There are, according to Price, factual examples of intrusions of words and sentences from one's own 'unconscious'. In the commentary, criticism is directed at Price's belief that he learns that symbols mean by introspecting how he uses them. Also, the need, for the purposes of his argument, to verify alleged foreign utterances is challenged. This raises a discussion of Price's use of a theory of 'unconscious believings'. It is concluded that Price was barking up the wrong tree in replacing solipsism by the possibility of one's unconscious animation of other bodies. The suggestion is put forward that reference to the understanding of language as a means of settling the other minds problem is inadequate if it does not take into account the scheme of personal pronouns, particularly the pronoun 'I', since the rules governing their use are like rules for the separating of things, similar to the distinguishing of things in the world in order to make up a game. As an attempt to make up for the inadequacy mentioned, a study of aspects of the concept of speech is made in part III. It emerges that the existence of a plurality of speakers is a presupposition of saying that someone says something, or even that propositions say something. Reference is made to the common grammar of 'I'. Relevant passages regarding 'I' in Wittgenstein's The Blue and Brown Books and Ryle1s The Concept of Mind are examined. It is concluded that the primary sense of 'I* refers to, or, indicates the speaker, and that philosophically important senses of ‘I’ derive from that original sense. The speaker is claimed to be outside the mind-body problem as well as the other minds problem. Consequently, though it is possible for a speaker to refer to himself in the solipsis-tic manner, or to entertain doubts about the reality of other people's feelings, it makes no sense for him to imagine that his role as a speaker in a community of speakers thereby vanishes. / Arts, Faculty of / Philosophy, Department of / Graduate

From surveys of achievement in reading, it is evident that many people in our society do not learn to read adequately. It is also evident that the majority of the children who have difficulty in learning to read are boys who have emotional problems related to their reading behaviour. Through a review of the literature on identification, sex-role learning and the differential treatment of boys and girls in schools it was suggested that the numerical predominance of male over female retarded readers is related to the difference in connotative meanings that boys and girls attach to significant figures in their home and school environments. It was hypothesized that the connotative meanings that certain concepts have for boys would be significantly related to their reading ability. It was further hypothesized that no such relationship would exist for girls. To test the hypothesis measures were made of reading ability and connotative meanings certain concepts have for boys and girls in the second grade. Meaning was measured by means of the semantic differential. To assess the relative importance of the meanings of - the concepts measured as predictor variables of reading achievement, assessments of intelligence and socio-economic status were also made. Contrary to the hypothesis the findings indicated that for children in general the concepts measured seem to be more highly related to the reading achievement of girls than of boys. The one concept that appears to be significantly related to the reading achievement of both boys and girls is the female child, Janet, a literary figure in the basal reading series used in the school district selected for the study. Analysis of the data from individual classrooms suggests factors affecting reading achievement may be peculiar to a particular classroom. Future research may attempt to analyse the complex interaction of teacher, students, and reading material and then try to isolate the factors most relevant to reading achievement. Multiple regression analysis indicated that some of the concepts measured accounted for significantly more variance in reading ability than other factors such as intelligence sub-test scores and socio-economic status which are widely assumed to be related to reading ability. It was suggested that the failure to find any significant association between connotative meaning and reading achievement for boys may have been due to the level of reading ability measured by standardized reading tests. It was suggested that future research might look at the association between connotative meaning and independent and instructional levels of reading ability. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

Subjects viewed luminous targets in a dark room. Target size and composition were varied to determine their effect on subjects' reports of complete figure disappearances. The number of complete target disappearances decreased as the size of the retinal image increased. Fragmentations related to meaning and shape were also greatest under viewing conditions involving small retinal images. Subjects showed no preference when they were given the opportunity to respond to either shape of conceptual similarities in the target. Prior perceptual learning experiences were also varied. Evidence for perceptual learning on a specific target (PPL) was not found with subjects who reported that they had astigmatism. Perceptual learning was demonstrated using either a within-S or between-S design, and was found to decay rapidly over time. More meaningful training stimuli produced a greater degree of learning. Evidence for stimulus generalization was also found using a perceptual learning exercise. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

M.Ed. / The world today is filled with instability and uncertainty. This is especially true to South Africa. Many experience difficult circumstances, and sometimes struggle to work through these negative and destructive motions. The meaning in life is something that most people start to explore at a young age (Kinnier, Kernes, Tribbensee & Puymbroeck 2006:7). People have searched for the answers in many places and in doing so, have sometimes experienced more harm than good. Ultimately, not finding meaning in life can be detrimental to a person's mental health. Much earlier, researchers such as Bollnow (1950), Garbers (1957), and others have researched this phenomenon in Europe, especially after the Second World War. However, not much research has been done in the field of late adolescents in the South African context. The purpose of this research study was to provide psycho-educational guidelines for late adolescents, to clarify what their meaning in life is. This can sometimes be a difficult concept to explore, as not all people have certainty of what gives them meaning. This is why a purposive selection of participants was chosen. These participants were between the ages of 18 and 24 years. All of them should have undergone an existential crisis at least 6 months prior to the study. This, in theory, ensures that the participants were in a place in their lives where they had questioned the meaning in life, and had time to process their findings, if any. One open ended question was asked: "What gives you meaning in your life?" The findings can be summed up as follows: Meaning in life equals relationship.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2001. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-127). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Rolf A. Zwaan, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology. Title and description from dissertation home page (June 18, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Sociology, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 135 p.; also includes graphics. Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-123).