A study of the factors thought to be relevant in moral judgements in E.S.N. children

The study was designed to investigate the factors thought to be relevant in the attainment of maturity of moral judgement in educationally sub-normal children: those of age, intelligence, and family influence, the last being specifically concerned with social position, parental discipline and family relationships. Sex differences in the development of moral judgement wee also considered. The subjects were 50 pupils, aged 11 to 16, of a day special school for E.S.N. children and measures used were a test of moral judgement, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, attainment tests of reading and vocabulary, the Bane-Anthony Family Relations Test, a test of parental discipline, and a social class assessment. Results showed the general low level of moral maturity in E.S.N. children but the expected age trend was barely evident. Intelligence was found to be significantly related to the development of moral judgement in E.S.N. boys, particularly where there were verbal factor or when in terms of mental age; findings for the girls were either inconclusive or less pronounced. Some of the related aspects of intelligence were of the type which are influenced by social factors. Results of comparisons between moral judgement and tests of verbal attainment were mainly inconclusive. The differences between social classes in maturity of moral judgements of both boys and girls were positive though non-significant, but moral maturity was not related to size of family or to major involvements with particular members of the family. Sensitisation-type maternal discipline was found to be very highly related to the development of moral judgement in E.S.N. boys, and there was a high negative relationship between psychological-type discipline and development of moral judgement in girls

Gravity and Matter in Causal Set Theory

The goal of this paper is to propose an approach to the formulation of dynamics for causal sets and coupled matter fields. We start from the continuum version of the action for a Klein-Gordon field coupled to gravity, and rewrite it first using quantities that have a direct correspondent in the case of a causal set, namely volumes, causal relations, and timelike lengths, as variables to describe the geometry. In this step, the local Lagrangian density $L(f;x)$ for a set of fields $f$ is recast into a quasilocal expression $L_0(f;p,q)$ that depends on pairs of causally related points $p \prec q$ and is a function of the values of $f$ in the Alexandrov set defined by those points, and whose limit as $p$ and $q$ approach a common point $x$ is $L(f;x)$. We then describe how to discretize $L_0(f;p,q)$, and use it to define a discrete action.Comment: 13 pages, no figures; In version 2, friendlier results than in version 1 are obtained following much shorter derivation

Quantum Gravity Phenomenology, Lorentz Invariance and Discreteness

Contrary to what is often stated, a fundamental spacetime discreteness need not contradict Lorentz invariance. A causal set's discreteness is in fact locally Lorentz invariant, and we recall the reasons why. For illustration, we introduce a phenomenological model of massive particles propagating in a Minkowski spacetime which arises from an underlying causal set. The particles undergo a Lorentz invariant diffusion in phase space, and we speculate on whether this could have any bearing on the origin of high energy cosmic rays.Comment: 13 pages. Replaced version with corrected fundamental solution, missing m's (mass) and c's (speed of light) added and reference on diffusion on the three sphere changed. Note with additional references added and addresses updated, as in published versio

Spacelike distance from discrete causal order

Any discrete approach to quantum gravity must provide some prescription as to how to deduce continuum properties from the discrete substructure. In the causal set approach it is straightforward to deduce timelike distances, but surprisingly difficult to extract spacelike distances, because of the unique combination of discreteness with local Lorentz invariance in that approach. We propose a number of methods to overcome this difficulty, one of which reproduces the spatial distance between two points in a finite region of Minkowski space. We provide numerical evidence that this definition can be used to define a `spatial nearest neighbor' relation on a causal set, and conjecture that this can be exploited to define the length of `continuous curves' in causal sets which are approximated by curved spacetime. This provides evidence in support of the ``Hauptvermutung'' of causal sets.Comment: 32 pages, 16 figures, revtex4; journal versio

The optical polarization of Epsilon Aurigae through the 1982-84 eclipse

About 350 nights observations on the 61-cm telescope at Pine Mt. Observatory were made of the variable polarization of Eps. Aurigae during 1982-85, in the U, B, and V color bands. The V data are the most complete and are shown. In terms of the overall features the curves in all three colors are quite similar. The typical errors per nightly point in the V curves are about 0.015% for either of the two normalized, equatorial Stokes parameters Q and U. Note that there is a large background or constant component of some 2.5%, position angle around 135 deg. This is presumably largely interstellar, and the intrinsic polarization probably does not much exceed the amplitude of the variable component, approx. 0.5%. A few field-star polarizations were measured but a very clear pattern was not obtained in this part of the sky

Feynman Propagator for a Free Scalar Field on a Causal Set

The Feynman propagator for a free bosonic scalar field on the discrete spacetime of a causal set is presented. The formalism includes scalar field operators and a vacuum state which define a scalar quantum field theory on a causal set. This work can be viewed as a novel regularisation of quantum field theory based on a Lorentz invariant discretisation of spacetime.Comment: 4 pages, 2 plots. Minor updates to match published versio