Proximity and hierarchy: orthogonal dimensions of family interconnectedness

The purpose of this research was to develop logical and empirically valid conceptual tools for investigating relationships between family patterns of interconnectedness and psychosocial functioning of children in the family. The family systems concept of boundary was analyzed into two component concepts: Proximity (interpersonal boundaries) and generational Hierarchy (subsystem boundaries). These concepts were operationalized as dimensions, and eight families were assessed by means of interaction coding, interview, and Kinetic Family Drawing to yield empirical verification of these dimensions. Findings indicated that Proximity and Hierarchy are reliable, valid, and independent dimensions of family interconnectedness. Weak generational Hierarchy was associated with increased levels of psychological dysfunction for both identified patients and their siblings. High Proximity was similarly associated with psychological dysfunction, but only for identified patients. The hypothesis that enmeshment is a composite pattern of high Proximity and weak Hierarchy was disconfirmed. Suggestions for future research include systemic analysis of deviation-counteracting and -amplifying relationships between patterns of Proximity and Hierarchy, on the one hand, and psychosocial dysfunction, on the other.     

Stability of biodata keys and dimensions across English-speaking countries: A test of the cross-situational hypothesis

Questions have been raised about the generalizability of biodata instruments across situations. In the present study, the stability of a biodata scoring key and factor structure was examined across two situations—the insurance industry in the United States and the United Kingdom/Republic of Ireland. Results indicated that the validity of a biodata scoring key could be successfully transported. Confirmatory factor analysis, using a maximum likelihood estimation procedure (LISREL), also indicated that the biodata factor structure was stable across the countries and cultures. The reliability and validity of the dimension scores also were successfully transported. The results provide new support for the contention that biodata keys, as well as underlying dimensional structures, can generalize across situations, specifically English-speaking countries and cultures.This research was conducted while the first two authors were at LIMRA, International.     

Serial pattern complexity: irregularity and hierarchy.

In perception research, various models have been designed for the encoding of, for example, visual patterns, in order to predict the human interpretation of such patterns. Each of these encoding models provides a few coding rules to obtain codes for a pattern, each code expressing regularity and hierarchy in that pattern. Some of these models employ the minimum principle which states that the human interpretation of a pattern is reflected by the simplest code for that pattern, ie the simplest code according to a given complexity metric. In this paper a new complexity metric is proposed. This metric is based on a formal analysis of the concept of regularity. Some conclusions of this analysis are sketched. The new metric does not depend on artifacts of the coding rules. It accounts for the amounts of irregularity and hierarchy as represented in a code of a pattern, such that these two amounts can be added to determine the complexity of a code. An experiment is discussed that shows that the new metric performs significantly better than the metrics used previously. In particular, the new metric predicts more local pattern organizations than the old metrics. This implies that various local pattern organizations do not falsify the minimum principle anymore.     

Processing of sequential tactile patterns: effects of a neutral stimulus

The perception of a target pattern may be interfered with by the presentation of a nontarget pattern in close temporal and spatial proximity with it. The results from previous studies suggested that much of this interference is the result not of masking but of response competition, subjects responding with the nontarget instead of the target. Using a 4-to-2 paradigm in which four target patterns are mapped onto two responses, it was shown that neutral patterns (i.e., patterns with no responses associated with them) produce considerable interference. The amount of interference is less than that produced by patterns associated with incorrect responses but greater than that produced by patterns associated with correct responses. The amount of interference produced by neutral patterns did not vary as a function of the form of the neutral pattern (Experiments 1 and 2); however, the amount of interference did depend on the degree and nature of the similarity between the neutral and target patterns (Experiments 3 and 4). The results indicate that recent studies have underestimated the amount of interference due to masking and overestimated the amount due to response competition. Response competition may either hinder or help target categorization depending on the nontarget pattern.     

On a conceptual hierarchy of time,space, and other dimensions

Several observations about the way humans conceive of attributes, changes and covariation of stimuli are presented as indications for the existence of a conceptual hierarchy of dimensions in which time dominates space, and space dominates every other dimension.     

Normalization of irrelevant dimensions in stimulus comparisons

When subjects compared two multidimensional stimuli with respect to a single (relevant) dimension in a same-different task, variation in the irrelevant dimension systematically affected reaction times. For same trials, reaction times increased monotonically with the amount of disparity between the stimuli on the irrelevant dimension. The dimensions were heights and widths of ellipses or hues and tints of color patches. The results were interpreted in terms of a normalization process that internally transforms the irrelevant dimensions of the two stimuli until they are equal. The amount of normalization, and hence same reaction time, increased with increasing disparity on the irrelevant dimension. These results suggest that in order to decide that two objects are equivalent in some criterial respect, it is often necessary to normalize irrelevant disparities.     

Lightness constancy: a direct test of the illumination-estimation hypothesis

Many models of color constancy assume that the visual system estimates the scene illuminant and uses this estimate to determine an object's color appearance. A version of this illumination-estimation hypothesis, in which the illuminant estimate is associated with the explicitly perceived illuminant, was tested. Observers made appearance matches between two experimental chambers. Observers adjusted the illumination in one chamber to match that in the other and then adjusted a test patch in one chamber to match the surface lightness of a patch in the other. The illumination-estimation hypothesis, as formulated here, predicted that after both matches the luminances of the light reflected from the test patches would be identical. The data contradict this prediction. A second experiment showed that manipulating the immediate surround of a test patch can affect perceived lightness without affecting perceived illumination. This finding also falsifies the illumination-estimation hypothesis.     

Intentional control of attention: action planning primes action-related stimulus dimensions

Neurophysiological observations suggest that attending to a particular perceptual dimension, such as location or shape, engages dimension-related action, such as reaching and prehension networks. Here we reversed the perspective and hypothesized that activating action systems may prime the processing of stimuli defined on perceptual dimensions related to these actions. Subjects prepared for a reaching or grasping action and, before carrying it out, were presented with location- or size-defined stimulus events. As predicted, performance on the stimulus event varied with action preparation: planning a reaching action facilitated detecting deviants in location sequences whereas planning a grasping action facilitated detecting deviants in size sequences. These findings support the theory of event coding, which claims that perceptual codes and action plans share a common representational medium, which presumably involves the human premotor cortex.     

Left-side infant holding: a test of the hemispheric arousal-attentional hypothesis

When asked to hold a young infant in their arms, most adults hold on the left side (Harris, 1997). In a prior study, we found the same bias when we asked adults merely to imagine holding an infant in their arms (Harris, Almerigi, & Kirsch, 1999). It has been hypothesized that the left-side bias is the product of right-hemisphere arousal accompanying certain aspects of the act, causing attention to be driven to the contralateral, or left, side of personal space. Left-side holding, whether actual or imagined, thus would be consistent with the direction to which the holder's attention has been endogenously directed. We tested this hypothesis by giving 250 college students the "imagine-holding" task and then, as an independent measure of lateralized hemispheric arousal, a 34-item Chimeric Faces Test (CFT). On the "imagine" test, a significant majority reported a left-side hold, and, on the CFT, left-side holders had a significantly stronger left-hemispace bias than right-side holders, although both left- and right side holders had left-hemispace CFT biases. The results thus support the attentional-arousal hypothesis but indicate that other factors are contributing as well.     

Beliefs and inferences—a test of a rational-emotive hypothesis: 3. On expectations about enjoying a party

Ninety-six subjects were asked to imagine that they were going to a party. They were further asked to imagine (a) that they adhered to a rational or an irrational belief; (b) that they had jilted or been jilted by a partner with whom they were having an intimate relationship; and (c) that they knew or did not know other friends who would be going to the party. Whilst in role, subjects were asked to make inferences about various aspects of their enjoyment of the party. The results supported the hypothesis that holding an irrational belief leads to more negatively distorted inferences than holding a rational belief, and that having been jilted by a partner would have a similar effect. There was only limited support for the hypothesis that the second two independent variables would have a moderating or amplifying effect on the negativity of inferences through interaction with the belief variable. The implications of these findings for counselling are discussed, especially with respect to challenging irrational beliefs.     

Estimation of the hypothesis hierarchy in probabilistic inference tasks*

Is there a hierarchical order among the hypotheses about functional rules in probabilistic inference tasks, i.e. what is the construction and the procedure of the “hypothesis sampling mechanism” employed by the subjects in this kind of task? According to the hypothesis sampling model initially proposed by Brehmer (1974) there should be a hierarchical order among the hypotheses in the subject's hypothesis pools. The procedures of hypothesis sampling and testing ought to follow this strict data independent order (see e.g. Sniezek, 1986; Brehmer, 1987). Knez (1991a, b) showed, however, that this assumption may be incorrect. As a follow up to these results the question regarding the construction of the subject's hypothesis pools was reapproached in the present study. The results indicated a consistency with the hierarchical assumption (Brehmer, 1974) only regarding the relation between the linear and nonlinear rules but not within these types of rules.     

Processing of stimulus properties: evidence for dual-task integrality

The conditions under which dual-task integrality can be fostered were assessed in a study in which we manipulated four factors likely to influence the integrality between tasks: intertask redundancy, the spatial proximity of primary and secondary task displays, the degree to which primary and secondary task displays constitute a single object, and the resource demands of the two tasks. The resource allocation policy is inferred from changes in the amplitude of the P300 component of the event-related brain potential. Twelve subjects participated in three experimental sessions in which they performed both single and dual tasks. The primary task was a pursuit step tracking task. The secondary tasks required subjects to discriminate between different intensities or different spatial positions of a stimulus. Task pairs that required the processing of different properties of the same object resulted in better performance than task pairs that required the processing of different objects. Furthermore, these same object task pairs led to a positive relation between primary task difficulty and the resources allocated to secondary task stimuli. Intertask redundancy and the physical proximity of task displays produced similar effects of reduced magnitude.     

Reduced-frequency concurrent and terminal feedback: a test of the guidance hypothesis

In 2 experiments, the authors manipulated the frequency of concurrent feedback to discern the effects on learning. In each experiment, participants (N = 48, Experiment 1; N = 36, Experiment 2) attempted to reproduce a criterion force-production waveform (5 s in duration) presented on the computer monitor. Consistent with the guidance hypothesis, the results of Experiment 1 indicated very strong guiding effects of concurrent feedback and strong dependence on the feedback, as indicated by participants' extremely poor performance upon feedback withdrawal in retention. As predicted by the guidance hypothesis, dependence on the feedback was reduced as a result of reducing the frequency of the concurrent feedback. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that one can enhance learning by providing concurrent and terminal feedback on 1 trial, with no feedback on the subsequent trial. In that way, the strong guiding effects of concurrent feedback could be realized and the beneficial effects of terminal feedback could also be achieved.     

Mental abilities and school achievement: A test of a mediation hypothesis

This study analyzes the interplay of four cognitive abilities - reasoning, divergent thinking, mental speed, and short-term memory - and their impact on academic achievement in school in a sample of adolescents in grades seven to 10 (N = 1135). Based on information processing approaches to intelligence, we tested a mediation hypothesis, which states that the complex cognitive abilities of reasoning and divergent thinking mediate the influence of the basic cognitive abilities of mental speed and short-term memory on achievement. We administered a comprehensive test battery and analyzed the data through structural equation modeling while controlling for the cluster structure of the data. Our findings support the notion that mental speed and short-term memory, as ability factors reflecting basic cognitive processes, exert an indirect influence on academic achievement by affecting reasoning and divergent thinking (total indirect effects: β = .22 and .24, respectively). Short-term memory also directly affects achievement (β = .22).     

The one-target advantage: a test of the movement integration hypothesis.

Two experiments were conducted to compare the temporal structure of single aiming movements to two-component movements involving either a reversal in direction or an extension. For reversal movements, there was no cost associated with the movement time for the first segment of the movement. However, regardless of movement direction, initiation instructions, handedness or effector, two-component extension movements were always associated with a longer movement time for the first movement segment. This disadvantage for extension movements, but not reversal movements, is consistent with the notion that there is interference between the execution of the first movement and implementation of the second movement. By contrast, because the muscular force used to break the first movement is also used to propel the second movement, reversal movements are organised as an integrated unit.