What do sensory scales measure?

It is indeed an honour to have drawn Professor Stevens' fire (1964), in view of the magnitude of his research achievement in the field of sensory scaling. If I shall differ with him on certain of his conclusions, it is in full awareness of the debt we all owe him for the experimentation and thinking which has provided much of the factual basis and theoretical stimulus to further research and development in this area.

Professor Stevens (1960, 1964) advocates a psychophysical power law, while I have questioned it (Treisman, 1961, 1962, 1963a, 1963b, 1964a). I shall here examine the main points of disagreement lying behind these differing positions.     

Human sensitivity to reinforcement in operant choice: How much do consequences matter?

The results of many human operant conditioning experiments appear to show that humans are less sensitive than nonhumans to operant consequences, suggesting species discontinuities in basic behavioral processes. A reanalysis of 31l data sets from 25 studies employing variable-interval schedules of reinforcement designed to assess sensitivity to reinforcement corroborates the claim that human behavioral allocation among alternatives often deviates from predictions based on rates of experimentally programmed consequences. Close inspection of the studies in question, however, suggests that methodological issues contribute heavily to the differences noted so far between humans and nonhumans and that an explanation based upon species discontinuities is not tenable.     

Cognitions associated with attempts to empathize: how do we imagine the perspective of another?

Although the theoretical importance of perspective taking has long been recognized, surprisingly little work has documented the cognitions associated with attempts to imagine another's point of view. To explore this issue and to determine whether perspective taking increases the likelihood of self-related thoughts, two experiments were carried out. In the first, a thought-listing procedure was used to assess observer cognitions; in the second, a less reactive measure was used. Instructions to imagine the self in the target's position and instructions simply to imagine the target's perspective produced increased levels of self-related cognition relative to a traditional control condition; the imagine-self condition also produced more self-thoughts and fewer target thoughts than did the imagine-target condition. The control condition produced thoughts suggesting that the observers were distancing themselves from the target. Observers receiving no instructions at all reported cognitions that closely resembled those of observers who received imagine-target instructions.     

When deaf signers read English: do written words activate their sign translations?

Deaf bilinguals for whom American Sign Language (ASL) is the first language and English is the second language judged the semantic relatedness of word pairs in English. Critically, a subset of both the semantically related and unrelated word pairs were selected such that the translations of the two English words also had related forms in ASL. Word pairs that were semantically related were judged more quickly when the form of the ASL translation was also similar whereas word pairs that were semantically unrelated were judged more slowly when the form of the ASL translation was similar. A control group of hearing bilinguals without any knowledge of ASL produced an entirely different pattern of results. Taken together, these results constitute the first demonstration that deaf readers activate the ASL translations of written words under conditions in which the translation is neither present perceptually nor required to perform the task.     

Tower of London: What Level of Planning Does it Measure?

We examined which of two levels of planning, namely action and operations planning, are involved in Tower of London (TOL). One hundred nine university students (79 females; mean age = 20.81 years) from China were assessed on measures of action planning (Crack the Code), operations planning (Planned Connections, Planned Codes, Matching Numbers), and on TOL. The results of factor analysis showed first that TOL, scored as total number of correct responses, had a split loading on action and operations planning. TOL, scored as first move time, loaded on the same action planning factor represented by Crack the Code first move time. These findings suggest that different TOL scores may capture different levels of planning. The implications of these findings especially for clinical diagnosis and rehabilitation are briefly discussed.     

When do ego threats lead to self-regulation failure? Negative consequences of defensive high self-esteem

High self-esteem (HSE) is increasingly recognized as heterogeneous. By measuring subtypes of HSE, the present research reevaluates the finding that HSE individuals show poor self-regulation following ego threat (Baumeister, Heatherton, & Tice, 1993). In Experiment 1, participants with HSE showed poor self-regulation after ego threat only if they also were defensive (high in self-presentation bias). In Experiment 2, two measures--self-presentation bias and implicit self-esteem--were used to subtype HSE individuals as defensive. Both operationalizations of defensive HSE predicted poor self-regulation after ego threat. The results indicate that (a) only defensive HSE individuals are prone to self-regulation failure following ego threat and (b) measures of self-presentation bias and implicit self-esteem can both be used to detect defensiveness.     

Moral conviction: another contributor to attitude strength or something more?

Attitudes held with strong moral conviction (moral mandates) were predicted to have different interpersonal consequences than strong but nonmoral attitudes. After controlling for indices of attitude strength, the authors explored the unique effect of moral conviction on the degree that people preferred greater social (Studies 1 and 2) and physical (Study 3) distance from attitudinally dissimilar others and the effects of moral conviction on group interaction and decision making in attitudinally homogeneous versus heterogeneous groups (Study 4). Results supported the moral mandate hypothesis: Stronger moral conviction led to (a) greater preferred social and physical distance from attitudinally dissimilar others, (b) intolerance of attitudinally dissimilar others in both intimate (e.g., friend) and distant relationships (e.g., owner of a store one frequents), (c) lower levels of good will and cooperativeness in attitudinally heterogeneous groups, and (d) a greater inability to generate procedural solutions to resolve disagreements.     

Can attention be allocated to sensory modalities?

Three experiments examined the effects of attention allocation to the modalities of vision, audition, and touch. The first two experiments utilized a simultaneous-successive comparison. The simultaneous procedure involved simultaneous monitoring of all three sensory modalities for the presence of a near-threshold stimulus. The successive condition allowed S to give his full attention to each sensory modality in turn. There was no advantage for the successive condition, whether the task consisted of detection of a single stimulus (Experiment I) or detection of the absence of one of many stimuli (Experiment II). Experiment III used a different paradigm to extend these results and bridge the gap between these results, those of Eijkman and Vendrik (1965), and those of Moray (1973a, b). We concluded that selective allocation of attention to sensory modalities does not affect the early stages of perceptual processing.     

Does rule recursion make melodies easier to reproduce? If not, what does?

Two experiments examined the effects of variations in melodic rule structure and rhythm upon the ability of musically sophisticated listeners to reproduce auditory patterns. These experiments were designed to evaluate different theoretical perspectives on auditory pattern perception and the role of rule structure in perceiving and remembering. Predictions of a coding model, which emphasizes the impact of rule recursion, were contrasted with those of an accent model, which emphasizes the relative timing of melodic and temporal accents. Effects of recursive (hierarchical) and nonrecursive (linear) rule arrangements were studied in contexts where pattern contour differences were controlled for. Rhythm was also varied. Measured pauses were inserted between certain tones to make a rhythm compatible or incompatible with melodic rule phrases. Experiment 1 showed that pattern simplicity was determined not by rule recursive codes, but by the number and timing of contour changes and melodic rule breaks. Experiment 2 examined additional effects of rhythm on listeners' response to rule recursion and melodic phrasing in melodies of equivalent contour. Although modest effects of rule recursion appeared, these effects were again outweighed by large performance differences due to the relative timing of changes in contour and melodic rule structure. Implications of the accent model for dynamic attending are discussed in the context of a new proposal involving temporal phasing of accents.     

Interpersonal consequences of forgiveness: Does forgiveness deter or encourage repeat offenses?

Benefits of forgiveness have been well documented, but past research has not directly addressed the crucial question of whether forgiveness deters or invites repeat transgressions. Our research indicates that expressing forgiveness typically discourages future offenses. In Study 1, participants playing a form of the prisoner’s dilemma game were more likely to repeat their transgressions against unforgiving victims than forgiving victims, especially when victims had no chance to retaliate. In response to a hypothetical scenario presented in Study 2, participants reported that they would be less likely to risk offending someone for a second time if that person had forgiven their first offense. In Study 3, participants’ autobiographical recollections of their prior transgressions revealed that receiving forgiveness predicted higher repentance motivation.     

So . . .What Does Rock Climbing Have to Do with Career Planning?

This paper reports on the design and operation of a four-day wildeness camp for single mothers on welfare. As participants in a job readiness program, these women are encouraged to challenge themselves physically and psychologically. They are given the opportunity to address their feelings of powerlessness and low self-esteem through participation in such activities as rock climbing, rappelling, problem solving, and a low-ropes course. Themes such as risk-taking, stepping out of one's "comfort zone," trust building, and developing support systems are developed and explored. Client self-reports and facilitator observations suggest that feelings of power and achievement emerge in the camp setting. These are often translated into a higher sense of personal worth and efficacy as they develop and begin to implement career goals. The paper concludes with recommendations for research.     

Homelessness: What is a psychologist to do?

Contrasts person-centered and structural explanations for homelessness. Methodological problems in studies of homeless people tend to exaggerate the role of individual deficits as causes of homelessness. A review of data on the distribution of poverty and of inadequate and unaffordable housing, with special emphasis on families, suggests the importance of structural causes. Data from 700 families requesting shelter and 524 families randomly drawn from the public assistance case load in New York City provide more support for a structural than for an individual deficit model. Individual demographic factors are also important. Implications are drawn for research and action by psychologists.     

Reciprocity: weak or strong? What punishment experiments do (and do not) demonstrate

Economists and biologists have proposed a distinction between two mechanisms--"strong" and "weak" reciprocity--that may explain the evolution of human sociality. Weak reciprocity theorists emphasize the benefits of long-term cooperation and the use of low-cost strategies to deter free-riders. Strong reciprocity theorists, in contrast, claim that cooperation in social dilemma games can be sustained by costly punishment mechanisms, even in one-shot and finitely repeated games. To support this claim, they have generated a large body of evidence concerning the willingness of experimental subjects to punish uncooperative free-riders at a cost to themselves. In this article, I distinguish between a "narrow" and a "wide" reading of the experimental evidence. Under the narrow reading, punishment experiments are just useful devices to measure psychological propensities in controlled laboratory conditions. Under the wide reading, they replicate a mechanism that supports cooperation also in "real-world" situations outside the laboratory. I argue that the wide interpretation must be tested using a combination of laboratory data and evidence about cooperation "in the wild." In spite of some often-repeated claims, there is no evidence that cooperation in the small egalitarian societies studied by anthropologists is enforced by means of costly punishment. Moreover, studies by economic and social historians show that social dilemmas in the wild are typically solved by institutions that coordinate punishment, reduce its cost, and extend the horizon of cooperation. The lack of field evidence for costly punishment suggests important constraints about what forms of cooperation can or cannot be sustained by means of decentralised policing.     

Does training have consequences for the walk-run transition speed?

A number of authors when studying the walk-run transition phenomenon focused either on the mechanical or energy expenditure whilst only a few used both parameters concurrently. Moreover the literature demonstrates that the contribution of these variables changes along with the level and method of training. Consequently the purpose of this study is to find, by analyzing concurrently these two variables, if the walk-run transition speed is linked to the type of training. To this end we calculated two theoretical transition speeds: one based on the metabolic energy expenditure St(1) and the second one based on the internal work St(2). Subjects were divided into three groups (untrained, sprint and endurance-trained men) who were required to walk and run on a treadmill at increasing speeds. Firstly we show that the relationship between St(1) and St(2) differs depending on the groups. Sprinters have a significantly lower St(2) than St(1) whereas the opposite is found for untrained subjects. We also show that the transition speed is linked to the subject's type of training. To conclude it seems that acquiring running techniques through specific training has consequences for the walk-run transition phenomenon.     

Does She Do or Does She Don't?: Reply to Commentary

This reply clarifies the ideas originally presented in “Beyond Milk and the Good Breast: Reconfiguring Psychoanalytic Dyads” (PD 9/5, 1999) in response to Steven Reisner's commentary. It faults Dr. Reisner's reading of Lacan and Kristeva, as well as his use of male-gendered metaphors to transform my clinical material into a different analytic treatment. I conclude that, by arriving at such differing conclusions regarding theory and clinical treatment, he inadvertently proves, and enacts, the basis of my argument: that the gender of the analyst is an important variable that affects psychoanalytic formulations, treatment, and outcome.     

Just do it? When to do what you judge you ought to do

While it is generally believed that justification is a fallible guide to the truth, there might be interesting exceptions to this general rule. In recent work on bridge-principles, an increasing number of authors have argued that truths about what a subject ought to do are truths we stand in some privileged epistemic relation to and that our justified normative beliefs are beliefs that will not lead us astray. If these bridge-principles hold, it suggests that justification might play an interesting role in our normative theories. In turn, this might help us understand the value of justification, a value that’s notoriously difficult to understand if we think of justification as but a fallible means to a desired end. We will argue that these bridge-principles will be incredibly difficult to defend. While we do not think that normative facts necessarily stand in any interesting relationship to our justified beliefs about them, there might well be a way of defending the idea that our justified beliefs about what to do won’t lead us astray. In turn, this might help us understand the value of justification, but this way of thinking about justification and its value comes with costs few would be willing to pay.     

Learning lyrics: To sing or not to sing?

According to common practice and oral tradition, learning verbal materials through song should facilitate word recall. In the present study, we provide evidence against this belief. In Experiment 1, 36 university students, half of them musicians, learned an unfamiliar song in three conditions. In the sung-sung condition, the song to be learned was sung, and the response was sung too. In the sung-spoken condition, the response was spoken. In the divided-spoken condition, the presented lyrics (accompanied by music) and the response were both spoken. Superior word recall in the sung-sung condition was predicted. However, fewer words were recalled when singing than when speaking. Furthermore, the mode of presentation, whether sung or spoken, had no influence on lyric recall, in either short- or long-term recall. In Experiment 2, singing was assessed with and without words. Altogether, the results indicate that the text and the melody of a song have separate representations in memory, making singing a dual task to perform, at least in the first steps of learning. Interestingly, musical training had little impact on performance, suggesting that vocal learning is a basic and widespread skill.