Charpentier (1891) on the size-weight illusion

This paper offers background for an English translation of an article originally published in 1891 by Augustin Charpentier (1852-1916), as well as a summary of it. The article is frequently described as providing the first experimental evidence for the size-weight illusion. A comparison of experiments on the judged heaviness of lifted weights carried out by Weber (1834) and by Charpentier (1891) supports the view that Charpentier's work deserves priority; review of other experimental studies on the size-weight illusion in the 1890s suggests that the idea that the illusion depended on "disappointed expectations," especially with respect to speed of lift, became dominant almost immediately following the publication of Charpentier's paper. The fate of this and other ideas, including "motor energy," in 20th-century research on the illusion is briefly described.     

Ontogeny of the Ponzo illusion: Effects of age,schooling, and environment(1)

Subjects were 384 Moroccan males (age range 6–22 yrs.), divided into 16 equal groups, according to the factorial design: age (4) × schooling (2) × environment (2). Subjects were tested on four Ponzo configurations (differing in contextual information) from Leibowitz et al. (1969), the Ponzo perspective stimulus from Segall et al. (1966), the CEFT from Witkin et al. (1971), and a measure of pictorial depth perception. Individual measures of contact with mass-media and urban life were collected on each subject. Analyses indicated that all main factors of age, schooling, and environment played important, and differing, roles in inducing illusion susceptibility. Piaget's (1969) theory of primary and secondary illusions was found useful in understanding the results of the Ponzo configurations used in the study. Primary illusion configurations were found to be relatively insensitive to experiential variables, and illusion susceptibility decreased with chronological age. In contrast, secondary illusion configurations were affected by many experiential factors, and illusion susceptibility was mediated through perceptual development and pictorial depth perception rather than chronological age. It was concluded that single-factor theories of ontogenetic change in illusion susceptibility were inadequate to explain the complex interactions found in this study.     

Psychological testing and assessment in the 21st century.

As spin-offs of the current revolution in the cognitive and neurosciences, clinical neuropsychologists in the 21st century will be using biological tests of intelligence and cognition that record individual differences in brain functions at the neuromolecular, neurophysiologic, and neurochemical levels. Assessment of patients will focus more on better use of still intact functions, as well as rehabilitating or bypassing impaired functions, than on diagnosis, as is the focus today. Better developed successors to today's scales for assessing personal competency and adaptive behavior, as well as overall quality of life, also will be in wide use in clinical settings. With more normal individuals, use of new generations of paper-and-pencil inventories, as well as biological measures for assessing differences in interests, attitudes, personality styles, and predispositions, is predicted.     

Trauma, change, and psychological health in the 21st century

The impact of stressful life events on health has been the object of inquiry for decades. Health care professionals have studied how stressful life events may precipitate or contribute to the onset of illness. Traumatic events and experiences can profoundly affect physical and psychological well-being, which in turn may predispose an individual to greater resilience or greater vulnerability to life stresses. Examined herein is the relationship between life stresses--including social stressors, political stressors, and environmental stressors--and the critical health related issues that psychologists need to prepare for in both the science and the practice of psychology over the next decade and during the 21st century.     

21世纪新发传染病--非典型肺炎

传染性非典型肺炎 (SARS)是全球人类健康非常严重的威胁 ,是由一种新病毒———SARS冠状病毒引起的新发传染病。具有全球大流行的潜在可能。面对一种新发传染病做好宣传教育工作 ,动员全社会参与尤为重要 ,信息发布要选择合适的途径、合适的对象、合适的信息和合适的时间。即使暴发过去了 ,详细的流行病学及环境调查分析 ,会丰富我们的认识 ,并可防止疫情的蔓延和再次暴发。控制新发传染病不是局部问题 ,是超越地域及政府界限的 ,需要全球支持 ,国际合作与协调 ,共同努力把疾病控制在萌芽之中。     

神圣与世俗之间——论道教在21世纪的发展

充满希望的２１世纪已经到来了。在新世纪开始之际,有着近二千年历史的中国道教的发展既面临着机遇,也面临着挑战。这是不言而喻的事实。问题在于道教怎样去面对机遇与挑战？如何在新世纪对人类的文明与和平事业发挥更大的作用？这不仅是每一个教内人士必须认真思考的问题,也是道教研究者应该认真研究的问题。 从根本上看,宗教起源于人对自己生存状态的认识,并企望通过这种认识而建构一条解脱现实苦难,确立终极意义世界的通途。道教从创立之初,就以老子《道德经》为理论基点,围绕着人应当如何修身养性才能达到升玄之境而建立了以“…     

Women's health. Review and research agenda as we approach the 21st century

This article reviews past research and projects future research directions regarding women's health. Sex differences in mortality and morbidity, along with evidence that the quality and quantity of these differences are changing, are examined. Over the past decade, concurrent with dramatic changes in lifestyle and social roles for women, mortality rates have shifted, resulting in a decreasing advantage for women. Explaining the consequences of these dynamic changes requires understanding the health effects of such variables as perceived control, the experience of life roles, perceived and actual social support, and redefinition of gender roles. The future portends additional changes that will significantly affect women's health. In establishing an explicit psychological research agenda on women's health, (a) general recommendations for research are provided and (b) important issues that have not yet received a great deal of research attention (e.g., women and AIDS, psychopharmacology, reproductive technologies) are highlighted. This article expands the current discourse in health psychology and raises a number of issues for serious consideration.     

Anisotropic perception of visual angle: implications for the horizontal-vertical illusion, overconstancy of size, and the moon illusion.

Three experiments investigated anisotropic perception of visual angle outdoors. In Experiment 1, scales for vertical and horizontal visual angles ranging from 20 degrees to 80 degrees were constructed with the method of angle production (in which the subject reproduced a visual angle with a protractor) and the method of distance production (in which the subject produced a visual angle by adjusting viewing distance). In Experiment 2, scales for vertical and horizontal visual angles of 5 degrees-30 degrees were constructed with the method of angle production and were compared with scales for orientation in the frontal plane. In Experiment 3, vertical and horizontal visual angles of 3 degrees-80 degrees were judged with the method of verbal estimation. The main results of the experiments were as follows: (1) The obtained angles for visual angle are described by a quadratic equation, theta' = a + b theta + c theta 2 (where theta is the visual angle; theta', the obtained angle; a, b, and c, constants). (2) The linear coefficient b is larger than unity and is steeper for vertical direction than for horizontal direction. (3) The quadratic coefficient c is generally smaller than zero and is negatively larger for vertical direction than for horizontal direction. And (4) the obtained angle for visual angle is larger than that for orientation. From these results, it was possible to predict the horizontal-vertical illusion, over-constancy of size, and the moon illusion.     

Wegner on hallucinations,inconsistency, and the illusion of free will. Some critical remarks

Wegner’s argument on the illusory nature of conscious will, as developed in The Illusion of Conscious Will (2002) and other publications, has had major impact. Based on empirical data, he develops a theory of apparent mental causation in order to explain the occurrence of the illusion of conscious will. Part of the evidence for his argument is derived from a specific interpretation of the phenomenon of auditory verbal hallucinations as they may occur in schizophrenia. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the validity of the evidence on auditory verbal hallucinations as employed by Wegner. I conclude that auditory hallucinations do not provide solid evidence for Wegner’s theory. Moreover, the phenomena in schizophrenia provide, in fact, an argument against part of Wegner’s theory of apparent mental causation.     

Grolar bears,social class,and policy relevance: Extraordinary agendas for the emerging 21st century

This Agenda article first considers whether social psychology is in the best or worst of times and suggests that we are instead in extraordinary times, given exciting agendas and potential policy relevance, if we are careful. The article illustrates with two current research agendas—the hybrid vigor of multiple categories and the psychology of social class—that could inform policy. The essay then reflects on how we know when our work is indeed ready for the public arena. Regarding hybrids: world immigration, social media, and global businesses are increasing. How will this complicate people's stereotypes of each other? One agenda could build on the existing social and behavioral science of people as social hybrids, emerging with a framework to synthesize existing work and guide future research that better reflects our changing world. Policy implications already emerge from our current knowledge of hybrids. Regarding the social psychology of social class: We do not know enough yet to give advice, except to suggest questioning some common stereotypes, for example, about the economic behavior of lower‐income people. Before the budding social psychology of class can be ready for policy export, the research results need replication, validation, and generality. Overall, principles of exportable policy insights include peer‐reviewed standards, honest brokering, nonpartisan advice, and respectful, trustworthy communication. Social psychology can take advantage of its extraordinary times to be innovative and useful.     

Straight lines, 'uncurved lines', and Helmholtz's 'great circles on the celestial sphere'

Helmholtz's famous pincushioned chessboard figure has been used to make the point that straight lines in the world are not always perceived as straight and, conversely, that curved lines in the world can sometimes be seen as straight. However, there is little agreement as to the cause of these perceptual errors. Some authors have attributed the errors to the shape of the retina, or the amount of cortex devoted to the processing of images falling on different parts of the retina, while others have taken the effects to indicate that visual space itself is curved. Helmholtz himself claimed that the 'uncurved lines on the visual globe' corresponded to 'direction circles' defined as those arcs described by the line of fixation when the eye moves according to Listing's law. Careful re-reading of Helmholtz together with some additional observations lead us to the conclusion that two other factors are also involved in the effect: (i) a lack of information about the distance of peripherally viewed objects and (ii) the preference of the visual system for seeing the pincushion squares as similar in size.     

Measurement invariance of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) across Bulgarian,Dutch and Greek samples

The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM; Phinney, 1992) is a widely used instrument to quantify the way people think, feel, and behave regarding their ethnic origin. This instrument is commonly used to compare groups of people from different ethnic and/or cultural backgrounds. However, in order for these comparisons to be accurate, measurement invariance between groups needs to be tested and this is what has been done in the current study. First, confirmatory factor analyses were conducted separately for data sets with Bulgarian, Dutch, and Greek adolescents. Second, configural and scalar invariance were tested. Finally, comparisons between Bulgarian, Dutch, and Greek adolescents were made on their scores on MEIM.     

Comparison of grouping abilities in humans (Homo sapiens) and baboons (Papio papio) with the Ebbinghaus illusion

This research comparatively assessed grouping mechanisms of humans (n = 8) and baboons (n = 8) in an illusory task that employs configurations of target and surrounding circles arranged to induce the Ebbinghaus (Titchener) illusion. Analyses of response behaviors and points of subjective equality demonstrated that only humans misjudged the central target size under the influence of the Ebbinghaus illusion, whereas baboons expressed a more veridical perception of target sizes. It is argued that humans adopted a global mode of stimulus processing of the illusory figure in our task that has favored the illusion. By contrast, a strong local mode of stimulus processing with attention restricted to the target must have prevented illusory effects in baboons. These findings suggest that monkeys and humans have evolved modes of object recognition that do not similarly rely on the same gestalt principles.