Guest editor's introduction: Tool and methodology evaluation

The first ACM Sigsoft-sponsored Software Engineering Symposium focused on the issue of evaluating the effectiveness of software engineering tools, techniques, methods, and environments. In this paper we overview and summarize a collection of symposium papers that collectively indicate the state of development in the area of tool and methodology evaluation.     

Origins of Systems Biology in William Harvey’s Masterpiece on the Movement of the Heart and the Blood in Animals

In this article we continue our exploration of the historical roots of systems biology by considering the work of William Harvey. Central arguments in his work on the movement of the heart and the circulation of the blood can be shown to presage the concepts and methods of integrative systems biology. These include: (a) the analysis of the level of biological organization at which a function (e.g. cardiac rhythm) can be said to occur; (b) the use of quantitative mathematical modelling to generate testable hypotheses and deduce a fundamental physiological principle (the circulation of the blood) and (c) the iterative submission of his predictions to an experimental test. This article is the result of a tri-lingual study: as Harvey’s masterpiece was published in Latin in 1628, we have checked the original edition and compared it with and between the English and French translations, some of which are given as notes to inform the reader of differences in interpretation.     

Turning tradition into an instrument of research: The editorship of William Nicholson (1753–1815)

Mainly known for its links to the periodical market and radical politics, this article recontextualizes the editorship of William Nicholson (1753–1815) in terms of its roots in the metropolitan natural philosophical circles of the second half of the 18th century as well as its impact on experimenters and men of science after 1797. The article argues that Nicholson's editorship of the Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts was a means to expand his philosophical significance among natural philosophers at home and abroad—and was, in fact, a form of epistemological subversion that challenged the “Banksian Learned Empire.”     

传播媒介的使用与误用——雷蒙德·威廉斯的传播异化批判理论

雷蒙德.威廉斯是英国文化研究的开拓者之一,在文学、文化与社会等研究领域取得了巨大的成就,但他在传播领域所进行的革命性探索却很容易为人们所忽视,这种探索也并没有为后来的英国文化研究者所继承。在传播媒介无孔不入的今天,如何建构一种真正健康的大众文化,从而建构一个文化民主的共同体,是我们要面对的问题。重新审视威廉斯的传播思想会让我们有所收获。     

Ursula Bellugi and Edward S. Klima.

Ursula Bellugi and Edward S. Klima are cited for their contributions to the neuropsychology of language. They have pursued over many years a program of rigorous behavioral research, guided by a commitment to the key theoretical issues of their field. Their systematic research into the normal structure and function of American Sign Language (ASL); their groundbreaking studies of ASL aphasia; and their ambitious, cross-disciplinary program of research into Williams syndrome will help determine how language relates, psychologically and neurologically, to general cognitive function. A biography and selected bibliography are provided for both Bellugi and Klima, as well as a discussion of the research they have conducted jointly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

William A. Hunt (1903–1986).

William A. Hunt was one of our country's early scientist-clinicians. He began his career with study of a psychology that was a meld of Titchener's structuralism and Harvard's functionalism and completed it 50 years later in the field of health psychology. Hunt spent all but a few of those 50 years as a full-time teacher, at schools that included Dartmouth College, Connecticut College for Women, and Northwestern University. While doing his dissertation, he had mastered and used the structuralist's experimental method of introspection, applying it to the study of human emotion, specifically the James-Lange theory. In 1941, Hunt entered the Navy. He discerned that the screening for military duty of some 15 million women and men required an approach suited to the rapid, albeit individual, screening of large numbers of such personnel. His teaming up with a psychiatrist, Cecil Wittson, led to their joint development of a screening interview lasting one to two minutes that, with continued refinement, proved remarkably effective. Their goals as the mental health specialists participating in the medical examination conducted at this intake station were twofold: (a) to improve the efficiency of the Navy by removing those neuropsychiatric high-risk recruits who were potential psychiatric casualties if they continued in the Navy and (b) by such removal, to save these recruits the disastrous personal experience of subsequent breakdown during military duty. In his own still active research in the 1960s and 1970s Hunt continued to apply the same methods he earlier had used (in his Navy research) to the judgmental processes clinical psychologists used to identify psychological test responses that were pathognomonic of schizophrenia, mental retardation, and related forms of psychopathology. Hunt remained, until his death at age 82, an active scientist-clinician. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introspecting in the spirit of William James: Comment on Fox, Ericsson, and Best (2011).

Fox, Ericsson, and Best's (2011) thoughtful justification of the use of think-aloud protocols for revealing the stream of consciousness comes on the centennial of the death of William James, history's greatest practitioner and advocate of introspection. This confluence naturally invites speculation about how James might have responded to the analysis of Fox et al. I suggest that although James would likely view the think-aloud procedure as a scientifically rigorous form of introspection, he would also admonish us not to overlook its limitations. Most notably, although the think-aloud procedure readily captures substantive verbal thoughts, it is less able to capture inchoate cognitions. The conclusion that verbal protocols are nonreactive also raises several additional issues. First, the nonreactivity of thinking aloud does not necessarily speak to its validity. Second, the conclusion that verbal protocols are benign is at odds with recent findings in which verbalization impairs performance on various tasks. I suggest that whereas James might express some concerns regarding aspects of conscious thought that may be overlooked by the think-aloud procedure as well as some caution regarding the possible situations in which thinking aloud might still be reactive, he would almost certainly be pleased to see introspection finally getting the scientific grounding that it deserves. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The radical empiricism of William James and philosophy of history.

William James's philosophy of history is explored in his classic psychological and philosophical works and in 2 articles he devoted specifically to the topic. Historical issues are set forth in terms of James's individualism, pragmatism, and radical empiricism. It is argued that a Jamesian philosophy of history provides a reasoned and believable middle way between the extremes of realism and constructionism. James believed that historical change is brought about both by the contributions of individuals and by forces in cultures and the environment that help shape the direction of things. Finally, the author explores implications of James's pluralism for history and his quarrel with absolutistic conceptual schemes that attempt to reduce all things to 1 thing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)