A house divided? Cognitive functioning with callosal agenesis

An anatomical and behavioral review of 29 reported cases of corpus callosum agenesis is presented. This review addresses itself to two questions: (1) Do acallosals manifest split-brain symptoms? (2) Is the corpus callosum necessary for the establishment of lateralization? Unlike the commissurotomy cases, acallosals show few symptoms of hemispheric disconnection. Behavioral strategies, use of noncallosal commissures, elaboration of ipsilateral pathways, and bilateral representation of function are discussed and evaluated as possible mechanisms of compensation. An impairment in spatiomotor functioning often accompanies callosal agenesis. Results of acallosal lateralization testing are examined and problems in interpretation are discussed. Current evidence does not conclusively establish that the corpus callosum is needed for lateralized development of some functions. However, the corpus callosum may play a role in the satisfactory performance of “lateralized” (i.e., spatial, linguistic) functions.     

Is Hume's shade of blue a red herring?

The existence of an idea of a missing shade of blue contradicts Hume's first principle that simple ideas all derive from corresponding simple impressions. Hume dismisses the ‘exception’ to his principle as unimportant. Why does he do so? His later account of distinctions of reason suggests a systematic way of dealing with simple ideas not derived from simple impressions. Why does he not return to the problem of the missing shade, having offered that account? Several suggestions as to Hume's solution of the problem of the missing shade (not all appealing to distinctions of reason) are explored with an eye both to their adequacy as Humean solutions and their value as clues to his dismissal of the problem. Hypotheses concerning the latter perplexity are formulated and discussed as well. Senses in which the missing shade of blue is or may be a red herring are identified. In course, this author names Hume's missing shade ‘marjorie grene’. Historians of philosophy will want to adopt this nomenclature.     

The triumph of the segregationists? A historiographical inquiry into psychology and the Brown litigation

Psychologists testified at the trials of Brown v. Board of Education and helped write briefs that were submitted to the Supreme Court on appeal. Psychologists were once proud of what they did in Brown but are now seen as liberal reformers who masked their political wishes in the guise of social science. The argument that psychologists involved with Brown were social reformers rather than objective scientists dates to the segregationist critique of Brown. The author traces the history of the critique of the Brown psychologists from its segregationist origins to its acceptance by mainstream social scientific and historical scholars. The author concludes that the critique is based on a misreading of what the Brown psychologists did during the litigation.     

A ratio principle for a red/green and a yellow/blue channel?

There is strong empirical evidence that, under adaptation to another achromatic color stimulus, the lightness of an achromatic color stimulus depends on the ratio of the luminances of the two stimuli. In the present study, the suitability of this ratio principle is tested for two chromatic postreceptoral opponent channels. A Hering red/green channel and a non-Hering yellow/blue channel are specified as chromatic channels. The yellow/blue channel is defined by extrapolating the plane corresponding to unique green-white linearly to the reddish part of color space, using the plane’s surface as the channel’s equilibria. The experiment was run on an isoluminant plane, measured individually for each observer. Moving along an observer’s measured opponent axes, eight adaptation stimuli were selected for each channel and spanned the whole range of the channel’s coordinates. Red/green equilibria or yellow/blue equilibria were measured as excursions along the adaptation axes. For both presumed channels, the ratios of the equilibrium coordinates of test and adaptation stimuli were essentially constant. This supports the principle’s suitability. However, small asymmetries were found with respect to each channel’s opponent hues. The status of the proposed yellow/blue channel is discussed, as are conditions that might have favored the present findings.     

The psychology of self-esteem: Promise or peril?

The psychology of self-esteem bypasses consequential issues of everyday behavior and moral responsibility in favor of pursuing a global goal of enhanced self-esteem on the assumption that happiness, success, and responsible behavior will automatically follow. The goal is vague and ways of achieving it are confused and conflicting. Greater attention to concrete tasks and challenges and sensitivity to moral issues could help make therapy more clear, effective, and socially useful.     

Who talks? The social psychology of illness support groups

More Americans try to change their health behaviors through self-help than through all other forms of professionally designed programs. Mutual support groups, involving little or no cost to participants, have a powerful effect on mental and physical health, yet little is known about patterns of support group participation in health care. What kinds of illness experiences prompt patients to seek each other's company? In an effort to observe social comparison processes with real-world relevance, support group participation was measured for 20 disease categories in 4 metropolitan areas (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas) and on 2 on-line forums. Support seeking was highest for diseases viewed as stigmatizing (e.g., AIDS, alcoholism, breast and prostate cancer) and was lowest for less embarrassing but equally devastating disorders, such as heart disease. The authors discuss implications for social comparison theory and its applications in health care.     

How social was personality? The Allports' "connection" of social and personality psychology

This paper investigates three conflicting reconstructions of the historical relationship between personality and social psychology and addresses questions they raise regarding the subdisciplinary status of personality in the 1920s and the way in which the field gradually emerged as a separate area of psychology. Contesting claims that Floyd Allport first connected social psychology to a separate "branch" of personality psychology in the 1920s, I argue that he drew upon earlier work of psychologists and sociologists who treated personality as a central topic of social psychology. I compare Floyd Allport's views with those of Gordon Allport, who endeavored to establish personality as a separate subdiscipline.     

Is self special? A critical review of evidence from experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience

Varied research findings have been taken to support the claim that humans' representation of the self is "special," that is, that it emerges from systems that are physically and functionally distinct from those used for more general purpose cognitive processing. The authors evaluate this claim by reviewing the relevant literatures and addressing the criteria for considering a system special, the various operationalizations of self, and how the studies' findings relate to the conclusions drawn. The authors conclude that many of the claims for the special status of self-related processing are premature given the evidence and that the various self-related research programs do not seem to be illuminating a unitary, common system, despite individuals' subjective experience of a unified self.     

The effects of divided attention on encoding processes under incidental and intentional learning instructions: Underlying mechanisms?

Divided attention (DA) at encoding has been shown to significantly disrupt later memory for the studied information. However, what type of processing gets disrupted during DA remains unresolved. In this study, we assessed the degree to which strategic effortful processes are affected under DA by comparing the effects of DA at encoding under intentional and pure incidental learning instructions. In three experiments, participants studied list of words or word pairs under either full or divided attention. Results of three experiments, which used different methodologies, converged to show that the effects of DA at encoding reduce memory performance to the same degree under incidental and intentional learning. Secondary task performance indicated that encoding under intentional learning instructions was more effortful than under incidental learning instructions. In addition, the results indicated enhanced attention to the initial appearance of the words under both types of learning instructions. Results are interpreted to imply that other processes, rather than only strategic effortful ones, might be affected by DA at encoding.     

On “The private life of the psychotherapist” and the psychology of caring

This paper is an extended book review of The private life of the psychotherapist by James Guy, an associate professor of psychology at Biola University. This review discusses the joys, stresses and realities of being a therapist. After an overview of joining, remaining in, and retiring from the profession, the next sections deal with the relation between the core skills of psychotherapy as a generic form and the psychological consequences that they are likely to produce.     

A jungian view of postmodernism: A response to “psychology and postmodernity”

The soul of teaching

Parker J. Palmer (1998). The Courage to Teach: Exploring the inner Landscape of a Teachers Life. San Francisco: JosseyBass. pp 199. $22.00

Tripping on the cosmic game

The Cosmic Game: Explorations of the Frontiers of Human Consciousness, State University of New York Press, 1998, $19.95.

Heidegger, daseinsanalysis and psychotherapy

Martin Heidegger's Impact on Psychotherapy by Gion Condrau. Vienna, Austria: Edition Mosaic, 1998.     

Blue or red? The effects of colour on the emotions of Chinese people

Two experiments were performed to examine the effects of red and blue on the emotional pleasure of Chinese people. Experiment 1 explored the effects of the ‘physical’ colours red and blue on emotion, and the results showed that red induced positive and negative emotion, while blue only induced positive emotion. Experiment 2 further explored the effects of the ‘verbal’ colours red and blue on emotion, and the results showed that red induced only positive emotion, while blue induced neither positive nor negative emotion. The findings indicate that the influence of colour on emotion is rooted in both natural and social associations. For Chinese, the associations between blue and positive emotion, and red and negative emotion, were natural associations; however, the associations between red and positive emotion were social associations. Moreover, physical colour and verbal colour stimuli induced emotions by activating different mechanisms: physical colour induced emotions via both natural and social associations, whereas verbal colour induced emotions via social associations.     

Münsterberg's nightmare: psychology and history in fin-de-siècle Germany and America

This article demonstrates that Hugo Münsterberg's presidential address "Psychology and History," delivered to the American Psychological Association in 1898, should be understood in the German context of the 1890s. It constituted a response to a central feature of fin-de-siècle culture in Europe, the revolt against positivism. To be more precise, Münsterberg reacted against a new intellectual trend that was arising in Germany in the middle 1890s: the call for a historically oriented social psychology put forward by Wilhelm Dilthey-who was explicitly attacking Münsterberg's physiological conception of psychology-and new cultural historians like Karl Lamprecht and others who seemed to be putting Dilthey's program into practice.