Shape and contour: the points of maximum change are least useful for recognition

Attneave hypothesized that recognition of a shape would be best if the eye was given those parts of the shape most different from a straight line, ie regions of maximum direction change (MAX points). Experiments are reported which show that MIN points-the points midway between MAX points-are actually better for shape recognition. But by far the best parts of the shape for recognition were found to be the regions intermediate between MAX points and MIN points. It is suggested that these regions are especially suitable for shape extrapolation and interpolation because they are evenly distributed.     

Logical examination of physical theory

Part II of Duhem 1917, pp. 151–57, translated by Peter Barker and Roger Ariew; published also by Duhem in Duhem 1913a, pp. 737–40.     

层次图(混合Horn)公式的部分极大可满足性

本文为解决一类混合Horn公式([13,14]),又称为层次图公式([15])的MAXSAT问题进行了基于随机局部搜索过程的经验研究。具体地,我们首先在随机CNF公式的MAX2SAT及MAX3SAT问题上进行WalkSAT和Tabu-Sat(及其变种)的比较,其次,我们在层次图公式上比较了上述过程的改进版本,这些公式编码了随机生成层次图的最小化跨边问题。本文所引入的Tabu-Sat过程,当在搜索空间中检测到一个圈的时候,动态地改变Tabu长度参数。另一个被称为Vector-Tabu-Sat的过程,对所有的布尔变元进行独立的Tabu长度参数管理。一些数值实验的结果显示,我们改进的Tabu-Sat变种在子句个数增长的时候优于Walksat.     

Modal Platonism: an Easy Way to Avoid Ontological Commitment to Abstract Entities

Modal Platonism utilizes “weak” logical possibility, such that it is logically possible there are abstract entities, and logically possible there are none. Modal Platonism also utilizes a non-indexical actuality operator. Modal Platonism is the EASY WAY, neither reductionist nor eliminativist, but embracing the Platonistic language of abstract entities while eliminating ontological commitment to them. STATEMENT OF MODAL PLATONISM. Any consistent statement B ontologically committed to abstract entities may be replaced by an empirically equivalent modalization, MOD(B), not so ontologically committed. This equivalence is provable using Modal/Actuality Logic S5@. Let MAX be a strong set theory with individuals. Then the following Schematic Bombshell Result (SBR) can be shown: MAX logically yields [T is true if and only if MOD(T) is true], for scientific theories T. The proof utilizes Stephen Neale’s clever model-theoretic interpretation of Quantified Lewis S5, which I extend to S5@.     

Taking the MAX from neuronal responses

By taking the MAX from their inputs, neurons in the ventral visual pathway might preserve their selectivity even when stimulated with natural scenes. This computational hypothesis has received recent direct physiological evidence from recordings of V4 neuronal responses, in a recent study by Gawne and Martin (2002). Object vision might rely more heavily on parallel processing than generally thought.     

Book Reviews

Book Reviews in this Articles: Good and Evil: an absolute conception Raimond Gaita A Critical Dictionary of Educational Concepts, ROBIN BARROW 81 GEOFFREY MILBURN Educating the Virtues: an essay on the philosophical psychology of moral, development DAVID CARR Effectiveness in Education and Training: the theory and practice of moral development, MAX TAYLOR Against Liberation: putting animals in perspective, MICHAEL P. T. LEAHY Valuing Life, JOHN KLEINIG The Ethics of Environmental Concern (2nd edition), ROBIN ATTFIELD Animals in Circuses and Zoos: Chiron's world? MARTHE KILEY- WORTHINGTON Business Ethics: the state of the art, EDWARD FREEMAN The Soul of the Salesman: the moral ethos of personal sales, GUY OAKES     

The prevalence of suicidal ideation among college students

A total of 737 university students were surveyed using a psychometrically sound self-report measure of suicidal ideation. Over 43% of those participating were found to have experienced some level of suicidal ideation during the previous year. Of those found to have had suicidal thoughts, 14.9% in some way acted on those thoughts without actually making suicide attempts. An additional 5.5% were found to have made attempts on their lives. Serious suicidal ideation and actual attempts were related to several demographic traits, and implications of the results are discussed. In general, findings indicate that the problem of youth suicide may involve a greater percentage of young people than previously thought. Moreover, findings provide indirect support for the hypothesis that the difference in male-female completed suicide rates is primarily a function of the lethality of the attempts.     

A comprehensive assessment of human strivings: test-retest reliability and validity of the Reiss Profile

Sensitivity theory provides an analysis of personality based on what people say motivates their behavior. After Reiss and Havercamp (1998) confirmed a 15-factor solution to self-reported human strivings, the Reiss Profile of Fundamental Goals and Motivation Sensitivities (Reiss & Havercamp, 1998) psychometric instrument was standardized. In 3 studies, the Reiss Profile was shown to possess good test-retest and internal reliability and concurrent and criterion validity. Ten independent samples of adults (n = 764) and a comparison group (n = 737) participated in these studies. Pearson product-moment correlations between the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960) and the Reiss Profile ranged in absolute value from .01 to.39 (M =.16). How people self-reported their trait motives correlated with how they behaved in the "real world." The Reiss Profile can be used to study motivational traits.     

Predicting Deliberate Self‐Harm in Adolescents: A Six Month Prospective Study

Few studies have investigated the extent to which psychosocial/psychological factors are associated with the prediction of deliberate self‐harm (DSH) among adolescents. In this study, 737 pupils aged 15–16 years completed a lifestyle and coping survey at time one and 500 were followed up six months later. Six point two percent of the respondents (n = 31) reported an act of DSH between Time 1 and Time 2. In multivariate analyses, worries about sexual orientation, history of sexual abuse, family DSH, anxiety, and self‐esteem were associated with repeat DSH during the course of the study, but history of sexual abuse was the only factor predictive of first‐time DSH. The findings suggest that school‐based programs focused on how young people cope with psychosocial stressors may offer promise.     

An integrative model of suicidal ideation

An integrative path model is presented that details the relationships among several demographic variables, life stress, depression, hopelessness, social support, and suicidal ideation. The sample consisted of 737 university students, 287 males and 450 females. Negative life stress was found to be a significant predictor of both depression and hopelessness, which, in turn, mediated the relationship between life stress and suicidal ideation. Contrary to previous findings, depression proved to be a better predictor of suicidal ideation than hopelessness. Findings also illustrated the importance of including social support measures in the model, as significant relationships were discovered between social support and both life stress and suicidal ideation. The model accounted for a total of 34% of the variance in suicidal ideation. Individual findings are interpreted; the ways in which they reflect on previous research, and future efforts, are discussed.     

THE STRUCTURE OF CONSCIENTIOUSNESS: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION BASED ON SEVEN MAJOR PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRES

The purpose of this study was to identify the underlying structure of the trait domain of Conscientiousness using scales drawn from 7 major personality inventories. Thirty-six scales conceptually related to Conscientiousness were administered to a large community sample ( N = 737); analyses of those scales revealed a hierarchical structure with 6 factors: industriousness, order, self-control, responsibility, traditionalism, and virtue. All 6 factors demonstrated excellent convergent validity. Three of the 6 factors, industriousness, order, and self-control, showed good discriminant validity. The remaining 3 factors—responsibility, traditionalism and virtue—appear to be interstitial constructs located equally between Conscientiousness and the remaining Big Five dimensions. In addition, the 6 underlying factors had both differential predictive validity and provided incremental validity beyond the general factor of Conscientiousness when used to predict a variety of criterion variables, including work dedication, drug use, and health behaviors.     

Minimal and maximal goal orientation and reactions to norm violations

Violations of social norms can either be evaluated in an absolute or in a gradual fashion depending on whether group goals are represented as minimal or maximal goals. Recent research has shown that absolute versus gradual deviations lead to increased levels of demanded punishment and inclination to exclude the deviant from the respective moral community. In this article, we investigate whether individual differences in orientation towards setting goals in either minimal or maximal terms predict reactions to norm violation. In three studies we found that a dominant minimal goal orientation (MIN) relative to maximal goal orientation (MAX) increased punishment inclinations and social exclusion tendencies towards norm violators. These effects were mediated by affective reaction and proved to be unique goal orientation effects when possible effects of need for closure, intolerance of ambiguity and regulatory focus were controlled for. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploring moderators of the relationship between adolescents' social responsibility and civic actions

Scholars have regarded social responsibility as a motivator of civic actions. Social responsibility, however, does not consistently lead to civic actions. Informed by sociopolitical development theory and social cognitive theory, the present study examined critical reflection about societal inequalities and intentional self-regulation as potential moderators of the relationships between adolescents' social responsibility and political activities, social activism and community service. Survey data were collected from 737 adolescents in the Northeastern United States (M_age = 14.52, 58.2% girls, 57.5% White/European American). Path analysis indicated that social responsibility was associated with all three types of civic actions, and critical reflection moderated the relationship between social responsibility and political activities. We discussed limitations, implications and directions for future research. See Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement .     

Exploring levels of face familiarity by using an indirect face-matching measure

An experiment is reported in which participants matched complete images of unfamiliar, moderately familiar, and highly familiar faces with simultaneously presented images of internal and external features. Participants had to decide if the two images depicted same or different individuals. Matches to internal features were made faster to highly familiar faces than both to moderately familiar and to unfamiliar faces, and matches to moderately familiar faces were made faster than to unfamiliar faces. For external feature matches, this advantage was only found for "different" decision matches to highly familiar faces compared to unfamiliar faces. The results indicate that the differences in familiar and unfamiliar face processing are not the result of all-or-none effects, but seem to have a graded impact on matching performance. These findings extend the earlier work of Young et al (1985 Perception 14 737-746), and we discuss the possibility of using the matching task as an indirect measure of face familiarity.     

Exploring types of career orientation: A latent class analysis approach

Career literature has been discussing the decline of the traditional career. Despite this debate, systematic information on the prevalence of contemporary career types is lacking. Two studies with large samples of employees aimed to determine types of career orientation, to explore their prevalence, and to validate these types by testing hypotheses relating each of the career orientations to work attitudes and sociodemographical variables. In study 1 (N = 835), we identified four types of career orientation – traditional/promotion, traditional/loyalty, independent, disengaged – applying exploratory latent class analysis. These were confirmed in study 2 (N = 737) with confirmatory latent class analysis. The variables associated with the career orientation types mostly followed the predicted pattern. Almost two thirds reported a traditional career orientation, while one fifth each expressed an independent and a disengaged orientation. This finding shows that people’s career orientation does not reflect the changes that many authors argue have been occurring.     

Contextual determinants of anger and other negative expressions in young infants

Two experiments examined how different frustration contexts affect the instrumental and emotional responses of 4- to 5-month-old infants. Three different frustrating contexts were investigated: loss of stimulation (extinction), reduction in contingent stimulation (partial reinforcement), and loss of stimulus control (noncontingency). In both experiments, changes in arm activity and facial expressions of anger and sadness coded according to the Maximally Discriminative Facial Movement Coding System (MAX) were the measures of frustration. Both experiments showed that (a) arm responses increased when the contingent stimulus was lost or reduced but decreased when control of the stimulus was lost under noncontingency, (b) MAX-coded anger, but not MAX-coded sad or blends of anger and sad, was associated with frustration, and (c) the pattern of anger and arm responses varied with the frustration context. When contingent stimulation was lost or reduced, both anger and arm responses increased, but when expected control was lost under noncontingency, arm responses decreased while anger increased.     

Mexican‐Origin Parents’ Stress and Satisfaction: The Role of Emotional Support

Guided by a process model of parenting and the integrative model, this study examined sources of emotional support (i.e., partner, maternal, paternal) as related to stress and satisfaction resulting from the parenting role in a sample of Mexican‐origin young adult parents who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) during Wave IV. Participants were male and female parents (26–35 years of age; 59% female; N = 737) who had children and a partner. Results from structural equation modeling revealed support from mothers as salient; high levels of maternal support were associated with high levels of parenting satisfaction. Tests of indirect effects suggested that parenting satisfaction played an intervening role in the link between maternal support and parenting stress. The pattern of results held across levels of linguistic acculturation but varied by gender. Understanding the mechanisms that predict parenting stress and satisfaction within the Mexican‐origin population may help in the identification of culturally sensitive intervention strategies.     

Generalizability of career orientations: A comparative study in Switzerland and Great Britain

This study examined the generalizability of types of career orientation. Exploratory latent class analyses were used to examine whether structurally the same career orientations can be found across a large sample of Swiss German (N=737), Swiss French (N=319), and British (N=1,002) employees. The finding showed that the generalizability of career orientations was not supported across the two countries and not even between the German‐ and French‐speaking parts of Switzerland. At least four career orientations were found in all samples. Country‐specific inspection of these four career orientations showed that they differed in terms of their combinations of specific components (boundaryless, protean, advancement, and time orientation). Mixtures of types of career orientations exist and make it difficult to identify fully the same type of career orientation across different cultural contexts. Explanations for differences in career orientation are discussed focusing on the cultural and economic context of Switzerland and Great Britain. Implications for organizational career management practices as well as theory of the career orientation concept are discussed.     

Relational similarity and the nonindependence of features in similarity judgments

Four experiments examined the hypothesis that simple attributional features and relational features operate differently in the determination of similarity judgments. Forced choice similarity judgments ("Is X or Y more similar to Z?") and similarity rating tasks demonstrate that making the same featural change in two geometric stimuli unequally affects their judged similarity to a third stimulus (the comparison stimulus). More specifically, a featural change that causes stimuli to be more superficially similar and less relationally similar increases judged similarity if it occurs in stimuli that already share many superficial attributes, and decreases similarity if it occurs in stimuli that do not share as many superficial attributes. These results argue against an assumption of feature independence which asserts that the degree to which a feature shared by two objects affects similarity is independent of the other features shared by the objects. The MAX hypothesis is introduced, in which attributional and relational similarities are separately pooled, and shared features affect similarity more if the pool they are in is already relatively large. The results support claims that relations and attributes are psychologically distinct and that formal measures of similarity should not treat all types of matching features equally.     

An evaluation of the quantity and quality of empirical research in three pastoral care and counseling journals, 1990-1999: has anything changed?

This article summarizes a review of all articles published in Pastoral Psychology, The Journal of Rleigion and Health, and The Journal of Pastoral Care between 1900 and 1999, identifying a total of 737 scholarly articles, of which 165 (22.4%) were research studies. The proportion of research studies, especially quantitative studies, increased significantly between the first and second half of the study period (p < .05). There was a significant positive correlation between compliance with three out of four criteria of internal validity. Three of five criteria of external validity were also positively related to one another. Compared to previous research using identical criteria to assess quantitative studies in the same journals in 1980-1989, the 1990-1999 sample showed improved compliance with respect to specifying the sampling method (p < .001), reporting the response rate (p < .05), and discussing the limitations of research studies (p < .001). However, the overall findings suggest that many researchers in the field do not have a sophisticated knowledge of statistical sampling, statistical analysis, or research design. Several recommendations for increasing the quality of quantitative research are offered.