Displaced aggression is alive and well: a meta-analytic review

Content analysis of 122 social psychology textbooks confirmed that displaced aggression received a surge of attention immediately following J. Dollard, L. W. Doob, N. E. Miller, O. H. Mowrer, and R. R. Sears (1939), but subsequent interest sharply declined. Contemporary texts give it little attention. By contrast, meta-analysis of the experimental literature confirms that it is a robust effect (mean effect size = +0.54). Additionally, moderator analyses showed that: (a) The more negative the setting in which the participant and target interacted, the greater the magnitude of displaced aggression; (b) in accord with N. E. Miller's (1948) stimulus generalization principle, the more similar the provocateur and target, the more displaced aggression; and (c) consistent with the contrast effect (L. Berkowitz & D. A. Knurek, 1969), the intensity of initial provocation is inversely related to the magnitude of displaced aggression.     

Attribution of success and failure revisited, or: The motivational bias is alive and well in attribution theory

Do causal attributions serve the need to protect and / or enhance self-esteem? In a recent review, Miller and Ross (1975) proposed that there is evidence for self-serving effect in the attribution of success but not in the attribution of failure; and that this effect reflects biases in information-processing rather than self-esteem maintenance. The present review indicated that self-serving effects for both success and failure are obtained in most but not all experimental paradigms. Processes which may suppress or even reverse the self-serving effect were discussed. Most important, the examination of research in which self-serving effects are obtained suggested that these attributions are better understood in motivational than in information-processing terms.     

Illusory conjunctions are alive and well: a reply to Donk (1999).

When presented with a red T and a green O, observers occasionally make conjunction responses and indicate that they saw a green T. These errors have been interpreted as reflecting separable processing stages of feature detection and integration with the illusory conjunctions arising from a failure at the integration stage. Recently, M. Donk (1999) asserted that the phenomenon of illusory conjunctions is an artifact. Conjunction reports are actually the result of confusing a nontarget item (O in the example above) for a target item (the letter T) and (correctly) reporting the color associated with the (incorrectly) selected target. The authors demonstrate that although target-nontarget confusion errors are a potential source of conjunction reports, there is a plethora of findings that cannot be accounted for by this confusion model. A review of the literature indicates that in many studies, illusory conjunctions do result from a failure to properly integrate features.     

My mind is alive and well and fouling up the system: existential-phenomenological considerations in family therapy

It is customary amongst family therapists who work within a general systems framework to reject any consideration of individual phenomenology in their evaluation and treatment of family difficulties. One of the reasons often cited for this is the supposed incompatibility between the systems and intrapsychic perspectives. It is argued in this paper (a) that the two perspectives, while derived from two different levels of conceptualization, are not mutually exclusive or unconnected; (b) that an understanding of the experiential world of family members as this contributes to family interaction patterns can promote effective intervention. A framework is suggested drawing on existential (experiential) concepts and the thesis is illustrated by means of a case-study.     

Why g is not an adaptation: a comment on Kanazawa (2004)

In S. Kanazawa's evolutionary theory of general intelligence (g), g is presented as a species-typical information-processing mechanism. This conceptualization of g departs radically from the accepted conceptualization of g as a source of individual differences that is manifest in the positive manifold. Kanazawa's theory is thus problematic in the sense that it concerns a purely hypothetical, and empirically unsupported, conceptualization of g. The authors argue that an evolutionary account of g should address it as a source of individual differences--that is, in a manner that is consistent with the empirical support for g.     

The benefits of a "sidelong" approach to self-esteem need satisfaction: comment on Crocker and Park (2004)

J. Crocker and L. E. Park (2004) have achieved an admirable integration of the self-esteem literature with their claim that self-esteem is better conceived of as a dynamic human striving, rather than as a passive state or personality characteristic. However, the costs of self-esteem striving may be overstated--these costs may arise only in certain constrained cases. Also, although Crocker and Park suggested that self-esteem is not a true psychological need, there is evidence that humans in all cultures need to feel a positive sense of self-worth (K. M. Sheldon, in press). Problems may arise only when people strive too directly for this feeling, rather than deriving it as a natural concomitant of non-self-focused goals. A "sidelong" approach to self-esteem need satisfaction is advocated in this commentary.     

The transmission of support: a Bayesian re-analysis

Crispin Wright’s discussion of the notion of ‘transmission-failure’ promises to have important philosophical ramifications, both in epistemology and beyond. This paper offers a precise, formal characterisation of the concept within a Bayesian framework. The interpretation given avoids the serious shortcomings of a recent alternative proposal due to Samir Okasha.     

Risk dishabituation: in repeated gambling, risk is reduced following low-probability "surprising" events (wins or losses)

In path-dependent risk taking, like playing a slot machine, the wager on one trial may be affected by the outcome of the preceding trial. Previous studies have shown that a person's risk-taking preferences may change as a result of the preceding trial (win or loss). For example, the "house money effect" suggests that risk taking may increase after a win, whereas the "break even effect" posits that risk taking increases after a loss. Independent of those findings, a person's emotional state has been found to influence risk taking. For example, the "mood maintenance hypothesis" supports the notion that positive affect decreases risk taking, and related research finds that increased negative affect increases risk taking. Because winning and losing may influence one's emotional state, we sought to investigate how both previous outcomes, as well as a person's emotional responses to those outcomes, independently influence subsequent risk taking. To do this, data were collected using three simplified slot machines where the chance of winning each trial was set to 13%, 50%, and 87%, respectively. Evidence for the break even and house money effects were found on the 13% and 87% games, respectively. Likewise, emotional valence was found to predict risk taking on these two tasks, with emotional valence fully explaining the break even effect observed on the 13% game. In addition to these results, the present research revealed that risk taking is reduced following low-probability ("surprising") events (i.e., a win in the 13% condition or loss in the 87% condition). Dubbed "risk dishabituation," this phenomenon is discussed, along with its likely corresponding emotional experience--surprise.     

Learning to walk is still an "old" problem: a reply to Zelazo (1983)

Zelazo (1983) proposes that two cognitive prerequisites are necessary for the development of locomotion: The conversion of neo-natal reflexive stepping into instrumental behavior and a shift from stereotypical to relational play. I argue that these cognitive assumptions are unnecessary. The disappearance of neo-natal stepping can be explained as a result of increasing leg mass, and the retention of this reflex with practice may be simply an exercise effect. Comparative and evolutionary evidence suggests that locomotion is not associated with abstract reasoning ability. Learning to walk is a complex, gradual process of maturation of motivation, the integration of subcortical pattern-generating centers with the neural substrate for control of posture and balance, and important changes in body proportions and bone and muscle strength. The control of walking is likely the province of mechanism phylogenetically more primitive than the human cerebral cortex. There is no need to invoke cortical explanations when more simple ones are sufficient.     

“Love is only between living beings who are equal in power”: On what is alive (and what is dead) in Hegel's account of marriage

The paper develops a conception of marital love as a complex recognitive relation, which I articulate by juxtaposing it against other recognitive relations that figure in Hegel's theory of modern civil society (i.e., respect and esteem). Drawing on Hegel's early writings, I argue that, if love is to provide its unique sort of recognition, it must obtain between “living beings who are equal in power”—a peculiar form of equality that I name (drawing on Stanley Cavell's work) “dynamic equality.” I conclude that it is by Hegel's own lights that we should reject his notorious conception of the sexual difference. However, I also offer reasons why, from Hegel's early 19th century perspective, he could consider the following two conditions as compatible: (1) equality within marriage and (2) sexual hierarchy outside marriage, namely, in civil society.     

Avoiding death or engaging life as accounts of meaning and culture: comment on Pyszczynski et al. (2004)

Terror management theory emphasizes that self-esteem consists of a sense of meaning and significance, which serves mainly to defend against death awareness. The current authors counter that people's search for meaning and significance cannot be wholly reduced to defensive processes because it also reflects intrinsic developmental processes. Sociometer theory similarly offers a mainly defensive account of self-esteem, and its exclusive focus on belongingness versus exclusion ill equips it to deal with the multiple needs underlying self-esteem. The current authors suggest that self-esteem resulting from defenses against anxiety (whether about death or exclusion) is akin to contingent self-esteem, whereas true self-esteem is based in ongoing satisfaction of needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness.     

Orthogonality is not a panacea: backpropagation and "catastrophic interference"

Connectionist models with the backpropagation learning rule are said to exhibit catastrophic interference (or forgetting) with sequential training. Subsequent works showed that interference can be reduced by using orthogonal inputs. This study investigated, with a more rigorous assessment method, whether all orthogonal inputs lead to comparable extent of interference using three coding schemes. The results revealed large differences between the coding schemes. With larger networks, dense inputs led to severer interference compared with sparse inputs. With smaller networks, all the three schemes led to comparable extent of interference. Therefore, this study proved that not all the orthogonal inputs cause the same extent of interference, and that severity of interference depends on the interaction of the input coding scheme and the network size.     

Shape parameters explain data from spatial transformations: comment on Pearce et al. (2004) and Tommasi & Polli (2004)

In 2 recent studies on rats (J. M. Pearce, M. A. Good, P. M. Jones, & A. McGregor, see record 2004-12429-006) and chicks (L. Tommasi & C. Polli, see record 2004-15642-007), the animals were trained to search in 1 corner of a rectilinear space. When tested in transformed spaces of different shapes, the animals still showed systematic choices. Both articles rejected the global matching of shape in favor of local matching processes. The present authors show that although matching by shape congruence is unlikely, matching by the shape parameter of the 1st principal axis can explain all the data. Other shape parameters, such as symmetry axes, may do even better. Animals are likely to use some global matching to constrain and guide the use of local cues; such use keeps local matching processes from exploding in complexity.     

Active masks and active inhibition: a comment on Lleras and Enns (2004) and on Verleger, Jaskowski, Aydemir, van der Lubbe, and Groen (2004)

Verleger, Jaskowski, Aydemir, van der Lubbe, and Groen and Lleras and Enns have argued that negative compatibility effects (NCEs) obtained with masked primes do not reflect self-inhibition processes in motor control. Instead, NCEs are assumed to reflect activation of the response opposite to the prime, triggered by the presence of prime/targetlike features in the mask. Thus, no NCEs should be elicited when masks do not contain such task-relevant features. In Experiments 1 and 3, the authors demonstrate that NCEs can be obtained when masks contain only irrelevant features. Experiment 2 demonstrates that positive compatibility effects (PCEs) will occur with such masks when masked primes are presented peripherally. These results are inconsistent with the mask-induced activation accounts but are in line with the self-inhibition hypothesis of the NCE. Although perceptual interactions and mask-induced motor activations may contribute to NCEs under certain conditions, they cannot provide a full explanation for these effects.