SOME VIEWPOINTS ON WOMAN'S INNER SPACE

In this paper, illusion is examined as a prerequisite and necessary medium for the analysand's finding the genuine subjective reality of his own in the psycho-analytic interaction. Two kinds of illusion are discussed The first of them, transference illusion, is well-known, as is its understanding as a simultaneous existence of experiences stemming from different levels of reality. At its side, the author introduces the concept of developmental illusion, as an essential constituent of the analytic process. As contrasted to transference illusion, the wishes inherent in a developmental illusion have never become meaningfully represented in the analysand's mind. These interrupted developmental needs attaining shape and meaning, and thus the possibility to develop further in the analytic relationship, is dependent on the analyst's ability and ways to receive and meet the analysand's activated developmental illusion. The rôle of the analyst's ways to reach and convey his understanding is considered decisive in this process.     

Effect of contrast level and temporal order on the Ebbinghaus circles illusion

Forty-eight undergraduates between 17 and 24 years of age judged the size of the central circle in Ebbinghaus figures presented under either simultaneous or successive viewing conditions. Successive presentation diminished the magnitude of illusion produced by the underestimated Ebbinghaus figure and totally eliminated the illusion normally produced by the overestimated figure. Variations in lightness contrast of the central and surrounding circles significantly altered the magnitude of illusion produced by both simultaneous Ebbinghaus figures as well as that produced by the successive underestimated figure. These data suggest the presence of a contour interaction process in both simultaneous Ebbinghaus illusions.     

Ebbinghaus illusions: Size contrast or contour interaction phenomena?

Forty-eight graduate and undergraduate students between 17 and 30 years of age judged the size of the central circle in Ebbinghaus figures presented under either simultaneous or successive viewing conditions. Successive presentation eliminated the illusion produced by the normally overestimated figure and diminished that produced by the underestimated figure. Under simultaneous viewing conditions, increasing the number of surrounding circles reduced the magnitude of the reversed illusion produced by the normally overestimated figure but had no effect on the illusion produced by the underestimated figure. Under successive viewing conditions, increasing the number of surrounding circles had no effect on the magnitude of illusion produced by the normally overestimated figure but increased the illusion produced by the underestimated figure. These data were interpreted as inconsistent with a size contrast explanation of the Ebbinghaus illusions and suggested that these illusions may be produced by a contour interaction process.     

Discrimination of simultaneous and successive tones

A series of discrimination tasks involving simultaneous and successive presentation of pairs of piano notes was given to 27 Ss. The listeners exhibited less-than-perfect ability to “hear out” the component notes in simultaneous presentations. This finding, in agreement with the results of previous investigators, demonstrated the limitation of Ohm’s law of acoustical analysis. It was also found that changes in successive notes fOllowing simultaneous notes were discriminated more accurately than changes in simultaneous notes following successive notes. This was interpreted as suggesting that listeners are better able to analyze than to synthesize the components of complex tones.     

Parents' gender-stereotyped perceptions of Newborns: The Eye of the Beholder revisited

Sex Roles - This study sought to update and extend J. Z. Rubin, F. J. Provenzano, and Z. Luria's [(1974) “The Eye of the Beholder: Parents' Views on Sex of Newborns,” American...     

Illusion magnitude as a function of visual field exposure

Forty-eight right-handed subjects divided into four groups, each consisting of six males and six females, were employed in an investigation of cerebral hemispheric influence on the perception of tachistoscopically presented simultaneous and successive versions of the Mueller-Lyer figure. The simultaneous version exposed in the left visual field resulted in a larger effect than did right visual field exposures. The successive version exposed in the right visual field resulted in a larger illusion magnitude than it did in the left visual field. The magnitude of visual field differences in response to the successive version was greater than visual field differences found in response to the simultaneous version     

Increment of the extinction illusion by long stimulation

We quantitatively examined the effect of stimulus duration on the extinction illusion. A white disc was presented or not presented at an intersection of a grey grid (intersection configuration) or on a homogeneous background (background configuration). The extinction illusion was quantified as the subtraction of no-disc responses in the background configuration (ie baseline) from no-disc responses in the intersection configuration, when the disc was presented. Experiment 1 showed a temporal effect: the extinction illusion increased as stimulus duration increased; this temporal effect was observed when the disc was presented at 9 deg from the fixation point and when the stimulus duration was 1000-6000 ms. Experiment 2 showed a visual field anisotropy: the extinction illusion occurred more frequently in the upper visual field than in the lower visual field, when the stimulus duration was 200 ms; the anisotropy was not observed when the stimulus duration was 6000 ms. Experiment 3 showed an alley-length effect: when the grid alley was long, the extinction illusion occurred more frequently in the 6000 ms condition than in the 200 ms condition; the temporal effect was not observed when the grid alley was short. These results suggest that the temporal effect of the extinction illusion might be due to perceptual filling-in of luminance information of the grid alley.     

Kant and the Problem of Simultaneous Causation

The argument of Kant's Second Analogy provides only for causal connections between successive appearances, but, as Kant himself immediately notes, in many cases cause and effect are simultaneous. This essay examines Kant's solution to the resulting problem of simultaneous causation. I argue that there are, in fact, at least two distinct problems falling together under the rubric 'simultaneous causation', both reflecting significant features of paradigmatic causal-explanatory scenarios within Newtonian mechanics - a problem about the 'persisting simultaneity' of a continuous or sustaining cause with its effect, and a problem about the 'instantaneous simultaneity' of what Kant calls the causality of a cause with the onset of its effect. An exploration of the ingenious conceptual resources which Kant brings to bear on these problems turns out to yield interesting and important insights regarding his philosophy of mathematics as well.     

Simultaneous and successive syntheses and intelligence

Recent studies on information processing have developed an alternative model of mental abilities which constitutes an integration of Russian clinical research and North American factor analytic research. This model proposes that information may be processed in a simultaneous synthesis or a successive synthesis. The present study examines variations in these syntheses in three intelligence groups in order to identify the types of information processing characteristic of different intelligence groups. A stratified sampling of verbal and nonverbal IQ was used to select 60 boys of age 9–10 in each of three verbal IQ ranges: 71–90, 91–110, and 111–130. A battery of tests used in previous research was administered to all subjects. Multivariate analyses of variance and discriminant analyses indicated that the IQ groups differed markedly on tests used to identify simultaneous synthesis, most notably Raven's Progressive Matrices, and differed slightly less on tests of successive synthesis. Factor analyses of the test intercorrelations for each group revealed more factorial invariance across the IQ groups than had been suggested by a previous exploratory study. It was concluded that strong individual differences exist in simultaneous and successive syntheses over the major portion of the standardized intelligence range, and no high degree of specialization of information processing was characteristic of an intelligence group.     

Positive illusions about a partner's physical attractiveness and relationship quality

The present research examined the existence of positive illusions about a partner's physical attractiveness and its relations to relationship quality. Positive illusions were assumed to exist when individuals rated their partner as more attractive than their partner rated him or herself. In two Dutch community samples of 117 and 203 married or cohabiting heterosexual couples, both partners rated their own and their partner's facial and bodily attractiveness. In Study 2, both partners completed three measures of relationship quality. Both studies found evidence for the existence of positive illusions about a partner's physical attractiveness. Moreover, Study 2 found clear positive illusion actor effects for relationship quality. This association differed by age of couples.     

Perception,illusion, and hallucination

Patrick Suppes' set-theoretical approach to the analysis of theories, and Joseph D. Sneed's metatheory are briefly outlined. The notions of observation, illusion and hallucination are reconstructed according to these approaches. It is argued that the terms ‘perception’ and ‘truth’ are theoretical with respect to observation but nontheoretical with respect to illusion and hallucination. Hallucination is construed as a special kind of illusion.     

Apparent equivalence between perception and imagery in the production of various visual illusions

The ability of high and low imagers (as assessed by the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire) to utilize imagery in the production of a visual illusion was examined in three experiments. In Experiment 1, subjects were to imagine noninducing elements oi the Ponzo figure. In Experiment 2, subjects were asked to imagine the inducing angle of the Ponzo figure. Subjects were requested to imagine the inducing diagonals of the Hering and Wundt figures in Experiment 3. Regardless of which figure was presented, high imagers consistently reported an illusion whether it was produced by real or imagined lines. Also, the imagery-produced illusion was equivalent in magnitude to the actual illusion (when all lines are physically present). Low imagers reported an illusion only when lines were physically present. These results were interpreted in terms of Finke’s (1980) equivalence theory.     

INTERPRETING PUTNAM'S DIALECTICAL METHOD IN PHILOSOPHY

Abstract: Hilary Putnam's philosophical views have undergone extensive interpretation over many years. One such interpretive work is George Myerson's book Rhetoric, Reason and Society. Myerson's interest in dialogic rationalism leads him to examine the views of many theorists of rationality, philosophers and nonphilosophers alike. As a prominent philosopher of rationality, Putnam is at the very center of this examination. Notwithstanding this fact, I contend that Myerson misinterprets the dialectical character of Putnam's philosophy in general and of Putnam's views on rationality in particular. This misinterpretation, I argue, is revealing of an illusion of thought to which Myerson is subject, an illusion that makes it seem that it is possible to theorize intelligibly about rationality from a metaphysical standpoint. This same illusion, I claim, also makes it seem that Myerson's positive views on rationality are intelligible. Employing a close textual analysis of Myerson's book, I argue that neither scenario is the case.     

The Illusion of Transparency: Assessment of Sex Differences in Showing and Hiding Disgust

The illusion of transparency occurs when one overestimates the ability of others to discern one's internal states, including emotions. Two experiments demonstrated this illusion using the emotion of disgust. Male and female tasters were given drinks, including one that was very unpleasant tasting. Tasters either displayed spontaneous facial expressions (Experiment 1) or tried to conceal their expressions (Experiment 2). Male and female observers rated tasters' expressions and tried to identify the disgusting drink based on the tasters' facial expressions. Results demonstrated the illusion of transparency (e.g., tasters overestimated the percentage of observers who correctly identified the disgusting drink) and suggested that the illusion was partly attributable to the inability of people to set aside their own knowledge when considering the perception of others who do not share this knowledge. Females were less successful than males at hiding their disgust but there was no sex difference in the susceptibility to the illusion.     

Illusory Personal Control as a Determinant of Bet Size and Type in Casino Craps Games1

Langer's (1974, 1975) theory regarding the conditions under which subjects performing a chance task will suffer from an illusion of control over the outcome has specified 6 conditions proposed to enhance the illusion ofcontrol in chance tasks. A number of studies have applied her theory and predictions to gambling, a real‐world arena of chance tasks where participants have been observed to act as if the outcomes are controllable by the use of various “logical” (acting on the “gambler's fallacy”) and superstitious strategies (e. g., blowing on dice). Thus far, however, these studies have not been conducted in naturalistic gaming environments and have yielded mixed results regarding the operation of the illusion of control. The present research offers the first study of the operation of the illusion of control in such a real‐world context. In order to examine the effects of active vs. passive task participation (a variable hypothesized by Langer to affect the illusion of control), patrons of Reno casinos were observed placing craps bets on their own and another yoked patron's dice rolls. It was hypothesized that subjects would (a) place higher bets and (b) place more “difficult” bets (e. g., where only one specific number, as opposed to any of several numbers, may win) on their own rolls (when they would experience the illusion of control over the outcome) than on other patrons' roles (when they would not experience such an illusion). That is, players were expected to generally adopt riskier betting strategies when throwing the dice. Results supported the hypotheses.     

Explaining age and sex differences in children's handwriting: A neurobiological approach

The present study aimed to assess the effect of age and sex on children's writing performance, as well as to investigate possible age and sex differences between proficient, intermediate and poor writers. Two hundred and ten children aged 7 to 12 years were examined during spontaneous writing, copying and writing to dictation, using the writing scale of the Luria – Nebraska neuropsychological battery. Results showed a significant effect of age in writing performance. The trend towards writing proficiency in childhood was found to be sex related, while boys were overrepresented among the poor writers. The findings are interpreted on the basis of the neurobiological theories of brain development as well as on the different rates of cerebral maturation between the sexes.     

Individual differences in the rubber-hand illusion: Predicting self-reports of people's personal experiences

Can we assess individual differences in the extent to which a person perceives the rubber-hand illusion on the basis of self-reported experiences? In this research, we develop such an instrument using Rasch-type models. In our conception, incorporating an object (e.g., a rubber hand) into one's body image requires various sensorimotor and cognitive processes. The extent to which people can meet these requirements thus determines how intensely people experience and, simultaneously, describe the illusion. As a consequence, individual differences in people's susceptibility to the rubber-hand illusion can be determined by inspecting reports of their personal experiences. The proposed model turned out to be functional in its capability to predict self-reports of people's experiences and to reliably assess individual differences in susceptibility to the illusion. Regarding validity, we found a small, but significant, correlation between individual susceptibility and proprioceptive drift. Additionally, we found that asynchrony, and tapping rather than stroking the fingers constrain the experience of the illusion.     

NOTE ON THE SYSTEMATIC ERROR OF ESTIMATION AS A FUNCTION OF STIMULUS MAGNITUDE

On the basis of a discussion of Weber's law the prediction was made that the systematic errors of estimation are linear functions of stimulus magnitude. As a special case it is suggested that the size of a geometrical illusion generally is a linear function of the size of the illusion figure. The result of an experiment with Oppel's illusion is in agreement with this prediction.—During successive estimations practice did not decrease the amount of illusion.     

Stimulus interaction and transfer of discrimination in children

Two discrimination learning experiments on third- and fourth-grade children are reported. In Expt I, Ss received either simultaneous or successive pretraining followed by simultaneous or successive transfer tasks in which an irrelevant dimension was varied either between or within settings. With the incorporation of a response-produced cues proposal, a modified version of the Hull-Spence theory (C. C. Spiker, Psychological Review, 1970, 77, 496–515) accounted for 81.2% of the variance of the group means and provided a satisfactory method of both quantifying and manipulating the mechanisms of associative transfer, even when the dimensions of pretraining and transfer differed. Because simultaneously pretrained Ss performed more as was expected than did successively pretrained Ss, it was hypothesized that Ss have an extraexperimental tendency to respond to dimensions varying within settings. This hypothesis was supported by the results of Expt II, in which an extensive shaping procedure was used for simultaneous, successive or control pretraining tasks followed by a successive transfer task in which the arrangement of two irrelevant dimensions was manipulated.     

Horizontal-vertical illusion: continuous decrement or the deviant first guess?

Numerous studies have reported that repetitive or extensive inspection leads to short-term decrement of the horizontal-vertical illusion. The present experiment explored whether this decrement reflects a gradual decline, as previously assumed, or is better described as a singular drop-off beyond the initial evaluation. 111 student participants adjusted vertical or horizontal lines such that they appeared equally long with a perpendicular standard. There were 8 successive adjustment trials for each subject. The results suggest that a substantial component of the illusion depends on the first impression assessment. The earlier anatomical and cognitive theories of the horizontal-vertical illusion cannot incorporate this datum. However, recent findings suggest that a motor theory of illusion might accommodate the observed one-step decrement in the illusion.