视觉工作记忆参与融景知觉

融景知觉现象是指观察者任意时刻虽然只能观察到部分刺激模式,却能基于部分刺激模式形成完整知觉。完成融景知觉的关键在于需要将时间序列上的信息进行整合。根据视知觉与视觉工作记忆动态交互模型,完成信息整合需视觉工作记忆的参与。然而以往研究均关注融景现象的知觉加工特性,尚未涉及视觉工作记忆在该现象中的作用机制。笔者采用双任务范式,要求被试完成规则或不规则刺激模式的融景知觉,同时操纵工作记忆负荷,以考察记忆负荷对融景知觉的影响。结果发现,高记忆负荷显著降低不规则刺激的融景知觉绩效(实验一);且该效应并非由记忆负荷对融景刺激维持阶段的影响所致(实验二)。上述结果说明,至少对不规则图形的融景知觉需要视觉工作记忆参与。     

In Memory: Rene A. Ruiz

The life and professional contributions of Rene A. Ruiz are remembered by family, friends, and colleagues. Ruiz's trailblazing work on Hispanic issues in counseling and psychology places him among the ranks of the true pioneers in the field. His career as a counselor, teacher, writer, and researcher spanned three decades prior to his untimely death in 1982. On December 13, 1982, a heart attack claimed the life of Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences Book Review Editor Rene A. Ruiz at the young age of 53. His death was unexpected as he was in good health. With his death, his friends have lost a witty and charming man of high ideals and moral integrity. (Padilla, 1983, p. 137)     

Working Memory In Individuals With Fragile X Syndrome

The present research tests the hypothesis that fragile X syndrome (FXS) is associated with a deficit in working memory (WM) and the deficit is more pronounced the higher the control requirements of the task. To this purpose, 15 boys with FXS and 15 typically developing children, matched for mental age, assessed with Logical Operation Test, were tested with batteries of 4 verbal and 4 visuospatial WM tasks requiring different levels of control. Children with FXS showed a performance equal to controls, in WM tasks requiring low and medium-low control but significant impairment in correspondence with greater control requirements. Results show that boys with FXS present a WM deficit only when high control is required by the task, supporting the hypothesis that control can be a critical variable distinguishing WM functions and explaining intellectual differences. On the contrary the hypothesis that the FXS is associated with a visuospatial deficit was not supported.     

In Loving Memory of Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz

This article by the late Nora Mindell was first published in The Fountain of the Love of Wisdom: An Homage to Marie-Louise von Franz (2006). Nora Mindell recounts her first meeting with Marie-Louise von Franz who, over the years, became her mentor and dear friend. She shares personal communications with von Franz, focusing on a mysterious handwritten note on number by C. G. Jung. This note sums up Jung’s insights on the archetypal dimension of numbers and inspired von Franz’s pioneering works Number and Time and Psyche and Matter.