Temperature sensitivity: One subjective continuum or two?

An experiment is reported on the effect of six consecutive days of exposure to distortions of binaural time and intensity cues on the localization function for tones of 350, 1000, and 4000 Hz. Tests were conducted under “free-field” conditions. The changes in auditory spatial orientation indicate that adjustments to binaurally distorted temporal and intensive cues can occur. Reorientation does not appear to depend upon the existence of veridical auditory cues.     

Transcortical motor aphasia: One or two aphasias?

The name "transcortical motor aphasia" has been used to refer to two different types of language alterations: damage in the left supplementary motor area and Luria's dynamic aphasia. It is proposed that they represent two types of language disturbances different enough to be considered two different forms of aphasia.     

Only one or two cultures?

One Culture: Essays in Science and Literature, edited by George Levine, Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987, 359 pages, hb $45, pb $12.95     

Whistleblowing of bullying in professional football: To report or not to report?

Only recently has research begun to focus on workplace bullying within organizations outside of traditional white-collar industries, such as professional football. While this is an important development, there remains a lack of understanding around the reporting of bullying in professional sport. In this paper, the authors explore how the professional football workplace shapes perceptions of whistleblowing and unearths individual perceptions around reporting bullying behavior. We used a phenomenological approach to gain rich experiential data from eighteen male professional football players in the UK. Interview data were analyzed in accordance with the principles of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Two superordinate themes were identified from the analysis, (a) professional football’s influence on whistleblowing, and (b) the challenges of reporting bullying. These themes highlighted that the unique, institutionalized nature of professional football interacts with participants’ ability to report bullying behavior. The participants’ accounts revealed divergent perceptions around how professional football shapes the degree to which players feel they can report bullying behavior. It was apparent that the authoritarian, often abusive and intimidatory nature of professional football significantly impacts whistleblowing. Our findings demonstrate the importance of workplace context when exploring the reporting of bullying behavior. They also demonstrate the need to address organizational culture and differentiate bullying education programs to alternative workplaces.     

Looking for two targets at the same time: One search or two?

A considerable amount of evidence suggests that, under conditions of high discriminability, subjects are able to process multiple elements in a visual display simultaneously when searching for a single target among distractors. Relatively little emphasis, however, has been placed on the question of whether subjects can search for and detect multiple targets simultaneously. This latter question is the focus of the present report. In two experiments, we compare performance in single-target and multiple-target detection tasks in order to investigate whether or not multiple targets can be detected simultaneously. In Experiment 1, subjects searched for one or two targets that were defined by color. In Experiment 2, subjects searched for a color and/or a letter target. When the two targets were presented in the same location (e.g., a red X when Target 1 was red and Target 2 was an X), they seemed to be detected simultaneously. Implications for object-based processing of visual information are discussed.     

Schema anticipation in recall: memory process or report strategy?

Summary This article reports an experimental investigation testing the hypothesis that recall reports are systematically biased by the recaller's knowledge about who is to receive the recall report, while that bias is absent from a recognition test. Subjects listened to one of two versions of a story recounting John's visit to the doctor. After the story was read, subjects were asked to recall the story either with standard-recall instructions or with instructions to recall for peers, for Martians, or for a contest. In a fifth condition, subjects performed a filler activity, viz., the recall of a personal experience. After the recall test subjects were administered a recognition test. Between the groups no systematic differences in memory performance were observed in the recognition test. Recall for peers appeared to be poorer than recall in the other conditions. Subjects in the recall for a contest condition scored higher than the subjects in the other groups. Not only did groups differ with respect to bias, but there were also systematic differences in the memory or discrimination scores. The findings are discussed within the framework of schema theory.     

One blue colour channel or two?

Contrary to the general belief that the yellow-blue mechanism has lower spatial resolution than the red-green mechanism, it has been recently claimed that both mechanisms have similar spatial sensitivity (McKeefry et al, 2001 Vision Research 41 245-255). Studying high-spatial-frequency tritanopia (a colour illusion based on spatio-chromatic interactions in human vision), we found strong evidence for the existence of two blue mechanisms-with low and high spatial-frequency resolution. If confirmed, this may resolve the apparent paradox concerning spatial resolution of the yellow-blue mechanism.     

Visual short-term memory for two sequential arrays: One integrated representation or two separate representations?

Two dot arrays, each containing a different set of six randomly selected locations from a 5 × 5 matrix, were presented briefly and were separated by an interstimulus interval (ISI) of 0, 200, 500, or 1,500 msec. Subjects were asked to remember these locations and to report whether a probe dot matched the locations in memory. To find out whether the subjects had formed an integrated representation of the two arrays, the probe dot was accompanied by matrix elements from the first array, from the second array, or from both arrays. Memory for Array 1 was significantly impaired when the retrieval context was drawn from Array 2, and vice versa, suggesting that the two arrays were represented separately. This effect was observed only at an ISI of 500 msec or longer. We propose that as Array 1 is better consolidated, its representation becomes more separated from that of Array 2.     

Instrumental and expressive representations of aggression: One scale or two?

The Expagg questionnaire was developed to measure a subject's view of their own aggression as a relatively instrumental or relatively expressive act. Two issues have been raised pertaining to the dimensional structure of the questionnaire: the use of principal components analysis on dichotomous responses and the possibility that instrumental and expressive representations might be independent dimensions rather than opposite ends of a single continuum. In study 1, dichotomous Expagg data from 405 subjects were subjected to microfact, principal components, and factor analysis. Each produced a first general factor, and the correlations between the item loadings were in excess of r = .99. In study 2, a 40‐item Likert scale version of Expagg was given to 295 subjects. Principal components analysis, paired item correlations, and subscale correlations suggested partial independence of instrumental and expressive items. Two new 8‐item scales measuring instrumental and expressive representations were constructed that maximise their independence. Potential uses of these revised scales are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 25:435–444, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The phonological store of working memory: is it phonological and is it a store?

The phonological store construct of the working memory model is critically evaluated. Three experiments test the prediction that the effect of irrelevant sound and the effect of phonological similarity each survive the action of articulatory suppression but only when presentation of to-be-remembered lists is auditory, not visual. No evidence was found to support the interaction predicted among irrelevant speech, modality, and articulatory suppression. Although evidence for an interaction among modality, phonological similarity, and articulatory suppression was found, its presence could be diminished by a suffix, which is an acoustic, not a phonological factor. Coupled with other evidence--from the irrelevant sound effect and errors in natural speech--the action attributed to the phonological store seems better described in terms of a combination of auditory-perceptual and output planning mechanisms.     

Memory and metamemory performance in older adults: One deficit or two?

In two separate experiments, three groups of older adults (50-80 years old) were shown lists of forename-surname pairs. At test subjects were cued with the surname and asked whether they knew the forename (prospective evaluation). Subjects attempted recall for those items they claimed to know and rated their confidence in their answer (retrospective evaluation). In Experiment 1 subjects saw the name list on 5 successive occasions and attempted recall after each. The older subjects recalled fewer items, but there were no age differences on retrospective memory evaluation. There was a marginally significant age effect on the prospective memory evaluation, which on closer inspection appeared to be a scaling effect related to recall performance. Experiment 2 verified this conclusion in a sample of older adults taking part in a training study extended over many weeks. The main implication of this work is that studies that compare metamemory accuracy in groups that differ in baseline memory performance should be careful before drawing conclusions about metamemory independently of memory performance.     

Memory retrieval given two independent cues: cue selection or parallel access?

A basic but unresolved issue in the study of memory retrieval is whether multiple independent cues can be used concurrently (i.e., in parallel) to recall a single, common response. A number of empirical results, as well as potentially applicable theories, suggest that retrieval can proceed in parallel, though set forth a model that denies that possibility. In this paper, five quantitative models are developed to test broad candidate principles. In multiple experiments, subjects were trained to retrieve a vocal digit response for each member of a set of letter or color cues. In subsequent test and transfer phases, single cue trials were randomly mixed with dual cue trials on which the two cues always required the same response. For the first few repetitions of each new set of dual cue items, there was no evidence of parallel retrieval over any part of the RT distribution. After more repetitions, dual cue trials were performed faster than single cue trials, but only under conditions that were favorable to development of a "chunked" dual cue representation. These results indicate that associative independence is an important modulating variable that must be heeded in any general model of attention and memory retrieval. Further, the results are most consistent with a model that places the performance bottleneck prior to the retrieval stage of processing.     

One or two? A Process View of pregnancy

Philosophical Studies - How many individuals are present where we see a pregnant individual? Within a substance ontological framework, there are exactly two possible answers to this question. The...     

One concept or two? A reply to Raine

It is suggested that Raine's criticisms of the paper by Barbour-McMullen, Coid and Howard rest on misconceptions, particularly regarding the nature of the supposed conceptual dichotomy between “North American” and “European” concepts of psychopathy. Several points of clarification are offered. It is maintained that psychopathy is indeed a dual, rather than a unitary, concept.     

Partial information or facilitation? Different interpretations of results from speed-accuracy decomposition

The speed-accuracy decomposition technique was developed by Meyer, Irwin, Osman, and Kounios (1988) to examine the time course of information processing. The technique allows for the estimation of the accuracy of guesses that are induced by the presentation of a response signal on a proportion of trials. Estimated guessing accuracy has been found to be above chance and to increase as time of guessing increases, suggesting that guesses are based on partial information that has accumulated prior to a response decision (sophisticated guesses). In this paper, a different interpretation of these data is presented. Results suggest that response signals may enhance the speed of regular processes, thereby violating the temporal-independence assumption that underlies the decomposition technique. As shown by Monte Carlo simulations, such facilitating effects of response signals can explain the results from the decomposition technique at least in part and possibly in full, even when guesses are actually at chance accuracy (pure guesses). The pure-guess model was supported by the results from an experiment designed to test between the alternative interpretations. These results point to the need for great caution in the attempt to infer the time course of information processing from guessing accuracies as estimated by the speed-accuracy decomposition technique.