A further look at the "language-as-fixed-effect fallacy".

The proper analysis of experiments using language materials has been a source of controversy and debate among researchers. We summarize the main issues and discuss the solutions that have been presented. Even though the major issues have been dealt with extensively in the literature, there still exists quite a bit of confusion about how to analyze the data from such experiments. We discuss a number of the most frequently voiced objections. In particular, we discuss the issue of what happens if in a counterbalanced design only some of the items show the treatment effect. Finally, a possible solution is discussed for the case where only partial matching of items between conditions is possible.     

Visiting Santa: a further look

An informal enquiry of the facial expressions of children as they queued up to meet Santa Claus during the 2003 Yuletide season showed that about 8 out of 10 children appeared to be indifferent to seeing Santa. This replication of the study in 2004 resulted in an approximately similar finding. A repeat of these enquiries, in 2005, suggested that the indifference rate appeared to lessen (being somewhat more cheerful) the closer was Christmas.     

A legal look at the retention-promotion controversy

The authors find that courts generally defer to the promotion-retention decisions of school officials. However, courts may demand officials to provide additional justification for retention decisions based on a single criteria and are likely to overturn school retention decisions based on a single criteria that have a disproportionate impact on minority students.     

A fresh look at perversion

The history of ideas about perversion is considered, along with an examination of whether the concept is clinically useful. Three cases of varying degrees of severity are presented, illustrating the clinical value of the concept in the analytic situation. All three cases are women, and the particular usefulness of the concept of perversion for women is noted. The place of aggression and the pleasure resulting from its expression are highlighted.     

A fresh look at the retention-promotion controversy

This article provides an overview of several issues relative to retention of school children. Included is a historical perspective on the present retention-promotion controversy, information on retention policies and retention prevalence rates, a review of research on the effectiveness of retention, and a discussion of several factors that should be considered by psychologists faced with the problem of making retention and promotion recommendations.     

A Strawsonian look at desert

P.F. Strawson famously argued that reactive attitudes and ordinary moral practices justify moral assessments of blame, praise, and punishment. Here we consider whether Strawson's approach can illuminate the concept of desert. After reviewing standard attempts to analyze this concept and finding them lacking, we suggest that to deserve something is to justifiably receive a moral assessment in light of certain criteria – in particular, eligibility criteria (a subject's properties that make the subject principally eligible for moral assessments) and assignment criteria (particulars about the subject, act, and circumstances that justify assessments such as blame in a particular case). Strawson's analysis of the ordinary attitudes and practices of moral assessment hints at these criteria but does not unequivocally ground a notion of desert. Following Strawson's general naturalistic approach, we show that recent psychological research on folk concepts and practices regarding freedom, moral responsibility, and blame illuminates how people actually arrive at moral assessments, thus revealing the very eligibility criteria and assignment criteria we suggest ground a concept of desert. By pushing the Strawsonian line even further than Strawson did, by empirically investigating actual moral practice and folk understandings, we can illuminate desert and lend credence to Strawson's general anti-metaphysical position.     

A closer look at the relationship between the default network,mind wandering,negative mood,and depression

By a systematic analysis of the current literature on the neural correlates of mind wandering, that is, the default network (DN), and by shedding light on some determinative factors and conditions which affect the relationship between mind wandering and negative mood, we show that (1) mind wandering per se does not necessarily have a positive correlation with negative mood and, on the higher levels, depression. We propose that negative mood as a consequence of mind wandering generally depends on two determinative conditions, that is, whether mind wandering is with or without meta-awareness and whether mind wandering occurs during high or low vigilance states; (2) increased activity of the DN is not necessarily followed by an increase in unhappiness and depression. We argue that while in some kinds of meditation practices we witness an increase in the structure and in the activity of the DN, no increase in unhappiness and depression is observed.     

A look at social support patterns

The issue of how to provide support for patients with a life-threatening illness continues to be a problem for pastors and chaplains. The authors discuss the significance and reasons for looking at the present day social support patterns as an unnatural problem. Unless the unnatural nature of support in the modern medical setting is understood pastors and chaplains can miss the target on answering the question of how to provide support. The authors conclude the article by addressing this question from the position of reserving the unnatural nature of providing support.Dr. Bergen is Professor of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH 03755. Dr. Nelson is affiliated with the Chaplain Service, Veterans Administration Center, White River Junction, VT 05001 and Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School.     

A nonsexist look at the shift to risk

This paper reports the results of a study in which male and female subjects are exposed to standard shift-to-risk dilemmas in which the central character is either male or female, rather than just male as in previous research. It was found that, while subjects shift to risk on dilemmas with male characters, they generally do not show such shifts on dilemmas with female characters. Results are discussed in terms of major theories of the shift to risk and sex bias on the part of researchers in this area.