Tactile Ranschburg effects: facilitation and inhibitory repetition effects analogous to verbal memory

The present paper examines the effect of within-sequence item repetitions in tactile order memory. Employing an immediate serial recall procedure, participants reconstructed a six-item sequence tapped upon their fingers by moving those fingers in the order of original stimulation. In Experiment 1a, within-sequence repetition of an item separated by two-intervening items resulted in a significant reduction in recall accuracy for that repeated item (i.e., the Ranschburg effect). In Experiment 1b, within-sequence repetition of an adjacent item resulted in significant recall facilitation for that repeated item. These effects mirror those reported for verbal stimuli (e.g., Henson, 1998a Henson, R. N. A. (1998a). Item repetition in short-term memory: Ranschburg repeated. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 24(5), 1162–1181. doi:doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.24.5.1162[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]. Item repetition in short-term memory: Ranschburg repeated. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 24(5), 1162–1181. doi:doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.24.5.1162). These data are the first to demonstrate the Ranschburg effect with non-verbal stimuli and suggest further cross-modal similarities in order memory.     

Double Decomposition of Level-1 Variables in Multilevel Models: An Analysis of the Flynn Effect in the NSLY Data

This paper introduces an extension of cluster mean centering (also called group mean centering) for multilevel models, which we call “double decomposition (DD).” This centering method separates between-level variance, as in cluster mean centering, but also decomposes within-level variance of the same variable. This process retains the benefits of cluster mean centering but allows for context variables derived from lower level variables, other than the cluster mean, to be incorporated into the model. A brief simulation study is presented, demonstrating the potential advantage (or even necessity) for DD in certain circumstances. Several applications to multilevel analysis are discussed. Finally, an empirical demonstration examining the Flynn effect (Flynn, 1987 Flynn, J. R. (1987). Massive IQ gains in 14 nations: What IQ tests really measure. Psychological Bulletin, 101(2), 171. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0090408.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), our motivating example, is presented. The use of DD in the analysis provides a novel method to narrow the field of plausible causal hypotheses regarding the Flynn effect, in line with suggestions by a number of researchers (Mingroni, 2014 Mingroni, M. A. (2014). Future efforts in Flynn effect research: Balancing reductionism with holism. Journal of Intelligence, 2(4), 122. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence2040122.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Rodgers, 2015 Rodgers, J. L. (2015). Methodological issues associated with studying the Flynn effect: Exploratory and confirmatory efforts in the past, present, and future. Journal of Intelligence, 3(4), 111. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence3040111. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]).     

Proactive interference and concurrent inhibitory processes do not differentially affect item and associative recognition: Implication for the age-related associative memory deficit

Previous studies have suggested an associative deficit hypothesis [Naveh-Benjamin, M. (2000 Naveh-Benjamin, M., &; Guez, J. (2000). The effects of divided attention on encoding and retrieval processes: Assessment of attentional costs and a componential analysis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26(6), 1461–1482.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Adult age differences in memory performance: Tests of an associative deficit hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26, 1170–1187] to explain age-related episodic memory declines. The hypothesis attributes part of the deficient episodic memory performance in older adults to a difficulty in creating and retrieving cohesive episodes. In this article, we further evaluate this hypothesis by testing two alternative processes that potentially mediate associative memory deficits in older adults. Four experiments are presented that assess whether failure of inhibitory processes (proactive interference in Experiments 1 and 2), and concurrent inhibition (in Experiments 3 and 4) are mediating factors in age-related associative deficits. The results suggest that creating conditions that require the operation of inhibitory processes, or that interfere with such processes, cannot simulate associative memory deficit in older adults. Instead, such results support the idea that associative memory deficits reflect a unique binding failure in older adults. This failure seems to be independent of other cognitive processes, including inhibitory and other resource-demanding processes.     

Response to Pashler et al. (2016)

Pashler, Rohrer, Abramson, Wolfson, and Harris (2016/this issue) in their critique of Chatterjee, Rose, and Sinha (2013 Chatterjee, P., Rose, R., &; Sinha, J. (2013). Why money meanings matter in decisions to donate time and money. Marketing Letters, 24, 109–118. doi:10.1007/s11002-012-9215-0[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) data argue that (a) large effect sizes in Study 1 and Study 2 undermine the credibility of the data; (b) in a lexical task that is part of Study 3, a concentration of participants in (5,0) and (0,5) benefit/cost word data points and the similarity of 9 neutral word responses at these points are extremely unlikely; and (c) there are apparent errors in the execution of Study 3. In this response, I examine these issues in detail. A recent review of money prime literature (Vohs, 2015 Vohs, K. (2015). Money priming can change people’s thoughts, feelings, motivations, and behaviors: An update on 10 years of experiments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 144(4), e86–e93. doi:10.1037/xge0000091[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) notes many effect sizes that are as big as or bigger than ours. Although 8 coding errors were discovered in Study 3 data and this particular study has been retracted from that article, as I show in this article, the arguments being put forth by the critics are untenable. For instance, my analysis shows that results hold even without the concentration of (5,0) and (0,5) participants, and I offer statistical simulations to counter critics’ arguments. Regarding the apparent errors in Study 3, I find that removing the target word stems SUPP and CE do not influence findings in any way. I also report findings from MacDonnell and White (2015 MacDonnell, R., &; White, K. (2015). How construals of money versus time impact consumer charitable giving. Journal of Consumer Research, 42, 551–563. doi:10.1093/jcr/ucv042[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), who replicate the basic finding of Chatterjee et al. in a different context.     

Calling the beautiful game ugly: A response to Davis

In a previous article (Kretchmar 2005 Kretchmar, S. 2005. Game flaws. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, XXXII(1): 36–48.  [Google Scholar]), I identified problems in a certain species of games and traced these harms to something I called a ‘game flaw’. Unfortunately, ‘the beautiful game’ is a member of that species. I say it is unfortunate because Paul Davis (2006 Davis, P. 2006. Game strengths. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, XXXIII(1): 50–66.  [Google Scholar]), when taking me to task for providing an argument that, in his terms, was ‘not especially compelling’, focused on the game of soccer (hereafter, football). The issue over which we contended is one of ‘time management’– that is, how game initiation, duration and closure are structured. I suggest that two basic methods for managing such requirements are available. Games take place during a stipulated amount of time or for a specified number of events. In my original article, I identified four fundamental problems that may accompany time-regulated games. In this essay, I attempt to fortify those claims against Davis's criticisms.     

A Broader View of “Self” in Egocentric Social Judgment: Current and Possible Selves

Virtually all previous research addressing the self as a standard of comparison in social judgment defined the self to be one's current-held characteristics. We extended research on egocentric definitions of social categories (Dunning, Perie, & Story, 1991 Dunning, D, Perie, M and Story, AL. 1991. Self-serving prototypes of social categories. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61: 1–12. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and the self-image bias (Lewicki, 1983 Lewicki, P. 1983. Self-image bias in person perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45: 384–393. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) by measuring a broader definition of “self” which includes possible selves. In two studies, measures of college students' self-systems (current and possible selves together) accounted for three times as much variance in social judgments (M?=?12.9%) than did measures of their current selves alone (M?=?4.2%). We argue for the theoretical and empirical benefits of using a broader definition of self in social judgment research.     

An Introduction to Marie-Louise von Franz’s Number and Time

Number and Time: Reflections Leading toward the Unification of Depth Psychology and Physics, by Marie-Louise von Franz (1974 von Franz, M.-L. (1974). Number and time: Reflections leading toward the unification of depth psychology and physics (A. Dykes, Trans.). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. [Google Scholar]), explores parallels between the understanding of psychological healing in Jungian psychology and the theory of subatomic particles in quantum physics. Von Franz compares number symbolism in dreams with the mathematical structure of matter to link these two realms of life. The parallel role of numbers in the psyche and in matter is described to explain the interrelationship of our inner images and the outer world, as well to represent fundamental processes of personal development.     

Adrian van Kaam, (1920–2007)

On the 10th anniversary of her doctoral dissertation on the psychology of fame and celebrity, Donna Rockwell shares a journal entry from that time related to working with her qualitative data. Donna was mentored by the late Clark Moustakas, Ph.D., at the Center for Humanistic Studies (now the Michigan School of Professional Psychology), in both Heuristic and Transcendental Phenomenological research methods (Moustakas, 1990 Moustakas , C. ( 1990 ). Heuristic research. Design, methodology, and applications . Newbury Park , CA : Sage .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 1994 Moustakas , C. ( 1994 ). Phenomenological research methods . Thousand Oaks , CA : Sage .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Exploring the mysteries of human experience as sacred ground, Donna describes her way of being-with the lived-world of her research participants.     

More dead than dead? Attributing mentality to vegetative state patients

In a recent paper, Gray, Knickman, and Wegner (2011) present three experiments which they take to show that people perceive patients in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) to have less mentality than the dead. Following on from Gomes and Parrott (forthcoming Gomes, A., &; Parrott, M. (forthcoming). Epicurean aspects of mental state attributions. Philosophical Psychology. [Google Scholar]), we provide evidence to show that participants' responses in the initial experiments are an artifact of the questions posed. Results from two experiments show that, once the questions have been clarified, people do not ascribe more mental capacity to the dead than to PVS patients. There is no reason to think that people perceive PVS patients as more dead than dead.     

Dualisms,Dichotomies and Dead Ends: Limitations of Analytic Thinking about Sport

In this essay I attempt to show the limitations of analytic thinking and the kinds of dead ends into which such analyses may lead us in the philosophy of sport. As an alternative, I argue for a philosophy of complementation and compatibility in the face of what appear to be exclusive alternatives. This is a position that is sceptical of bifurcations and other simplified portrayals of reality but does not dismiss them entirely. A philosophy of complementation traffics in the realm of ambiguities, paradoxes, differences by degree, tendencies, mixtures, polarities, tensions, complexes, transitions and all other forms of messiness. I note that this position has been generated, in part, by work conducted in the empirical sciences and that complementation provides a paradigm that is useful across the academic disciplines.

To show the ways in which analytic thinking leads to dead ends, I analyse the epistemological debate over ‘broad internalism’ engaged in by Russell (1999 Russell, J. S. 1999. Are rules all an umpire has to work with?. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, XXVI: 27–49. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar], 2004 Russell, J. S. 2004. Moral realism in sport. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, XXXI: 142–160. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]), Dixon (2003 Dixon, Nicholas. 2003. Canadian figure skaters, French judges, and realism in sport. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, XXX: 103–116. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]), Simon (2000 Simon, Robert. 2000. Internalism and internal values in sport. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, XXVII: 1–16. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar], 2004 Simon, Robert. 2004. From ethnocentrism to realism: Can discourse ethics bridge the gap?. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, XXXI: 122–141. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) and Morgan (2004 Morgan, William. 2004. Moral antirealism, internalism, and sport. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, XXXI: 61–83.  [Google Scholar]). Evidence for the claim that they reached a mostly unhelpful stalemate is based on the fact that they did not provide any third option and moreover that the analytic tools and ground rules they employ prevent its discovery. I suggest that all four authors are comfortable with the analytic tendency to bifurcate reality and require choices among exclusionary alternatives. I also claim that they treat reason as if it were generated by a ‘mind from nowhere’. Philosophical anthropology, I suggest, provides much-needed somatic grounding that would reign in excessively optimistic views of reason (Dixon, Simon and Russell) or excessively plastic interpretations of mind (Morgan). It can also provide evidence that could help us understand why hominids (even modern ones) are so attracted to dichotomies and why we have so much trouble in reconciling apparent incompatibilities.     

What makes us believe a conditional? The roles of covariation and causality

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the roles of covariation and of causality in people's readiness to believe a conditional. The experiments used a probabilistic truth-table task (Oberauer & Wilhelm, 2003 Oberauer, K. and Wilhelm, O. 2003. The meaning(s) of conditionals: Conditional probabilities, mental models, and personal utilities. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 29: 680–693. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) in which people estimated the probability of a conditional given information about the frequency distribution of truth-table cases. For one group of people, belief in the conditional was determined by the conditional probability of the consequent, given the antecedent, whereas for another group it depended on the probability of the conjunction of antecedent and consequent. There was little evidence that covariation, expressed as the probabilistic contrast or as the pCI rule (White, 2003 White, P. A. 2003. Making causal judgements from the proportion of confirming instances: The pCI rule. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 29: 710–727.  [Google Scholar]), influences belief in the conditional. The explicit presence of a causal link between antecedent and consequent in a context story had a weak positive effect on belief in a conditional when the frequency distribution of relevant cases was held constant.     

Groupness and Leadership Perceptions in Relation to Social Identity in Youth Sport

Despite support for a number of consequences emanating from social identity in sport, much less is known pertaining to potential antecedents. This study sought to extend preliminary findings from recent youth sport research (e.g., Bruner et al., 2015 Bruner, M. W., Eys, M. A., Evans, M. B., &; Wilson, K. (2015). Interdependence and social identity in youth sport teams. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 27, 351–358.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) by investigating perceptions of groupness and leadership status in relation to social identity in 480 athletes. Results indicated that perceptions of groupness at the individual and team levels were positively related to social identity, as was being a formal or informal leader. As such, both identifying as a leader and perceiving an increased amount of groupness among teammates increased social identity.     

Cyberbullying Victimization in Adolescents as Related to Body Esteem,Social Support,and Social Self-Efficacy

ABSTRACT

The authors examined cyberbullying victimization in the context of issues of key importance to youth: body esteem, social support, and social self-efficacy. Research has found that traditional peer-bullying victimization is significantly correlated with low body esteem in Western societies, especially pertaining to weight (R. Puhl & J. Luedicke, 2012 Puhl, R., & Luedicke, J. (2012). Weight-based victimization among adolescents in the school setting: Emotional reactions and coping behaviors. Journal of Youth & Adolescence, 41, 27–40. [Google Scholar]). Studies have also found a relationship among bullying victimization, appearance-related bullying, low body esteem, and psychosocial difficulties among youth (L. E. Park, R. M. Calogero, A.F. Young, & A. Diraddo, 2010 Park, L. E., Calogero, R. M., Young, A. F., & Diraddo, A. (2010). Appearance-Based Rejection Sensitivity predicts Body Dysmorphic Disorder symptoms and cosmetic surgery acceptance. Journal Of Social & Clinical Psychology, 29, 489–509. [Google Scholar]). However, the emergence of cyberbullying, characterized by its own special features (P. K. Smith et al., 2008 Smith, P. K., Mahdavi, J., Carvalho, M., Fisher, S., Russell, S., & Tippett, N. (2008). Cyberbullying: Its nature and impact in secondary school pupils. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49, 376–385. [Google Scholar]), has raised a salient need to explore the relationship between cyber victimization and body esteem, no less important with social framework, because both are key components in adolescents' lives that may be associated with cyberbullying victimization. The authors examined these relationships among 204 Israeli adolescents 14–16 years old. The results indicate a noteworthy prevalence (45%) of cyber victims. Cyber victimization is significantly correlated with low body esteem and low social support and social self-efficacy. Low body esteem and low social support predicted the probability of being a cyber victim. The results extend the knowledge about potential personal and social risk factors for cyber victimization during adolescence. Implications for specific intervention programs are discussed.     

The illusion of the positive: The impact of natural and induced mood on older adults' false recall

ABSTRACT

Recent research suggests that affective and motivational processes can influence age differences in memory. In the current study, we examine the impact of both natural and induced mood state on age differences in false recall. Older and younger adults performed a version of the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM; Roediger & McDermott, 1995 Roediger III, H. L. and McDermott, K. B. 1995. Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21: 803–814. doi:10.1037/0278–7393.21.4.803[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21, 803) false memory paradigm in either their natural mood state or after a positive or negative mood induction. Results indicated that, after accounting for age differences in basic cognitive function, age-related differences in positive mood during the testing session were related to increased false recall in older adults. Inducing older adults into a positive mood also exacerbated age differences in false memory. In contrast, veridical recall did not appear to be systematically influenced by mood. Together, these results suggest that positive mood states can impact older adults' information processing and potentially increase underlying cognitive age differences.     

The ‘inseparable bond between cure and research’: clinical case study as a method of psychoanalytic inquiry

Abstract

Since Freud's own time, there has been great deal of debate about the most appropriate research methodology for investigating psychoanalytic psychotherapy [Fonagy, Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 29 (2): 129 – 136, 2003 Fonagy, P. 2003. ‘The research agenda: the vital need for empirical research in child psychotherapy’. Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 29(2): 129–136. [Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]; Rustin, Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 29 (2): 137–145, 2003 Rustin, M. 2003. ‘Research in the consulting room’. Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 29(2): 137–145. [Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]]. The single case study, which has a long tradition both within child psychotherapy and the wider research field, has been widely criticised as an approach to research, even while its contribution to clinical practice, the development of new ideas and teaching have been acknowledged. After reviewing the history of case study as a research method, this paper argues that there are a broad range of approaches to the study of the single case, each of which may be appropriate depending on the particular research question. Each of these approaches, however, must respond to the three perceived weaknesses of the clinical case study as a research method: the ‘data problem’, the ‘data analysis problem’ and the ‘generalisability problem’. This paper outlines the nature of these criticisms and, using many examples of actual research projects, suggests various ways in which the criticisms can be addressed, in order for the single case study to re-gain its place at the heart of psychoanalytic research.     

Constructivism and the Inescapability of Moral Choices: A Response to Raskin and Debany

In their article on ethics, Raskin and Debany (this issue Raskin, J. D., &; Debany, A. E. (this issue). The inescapability of ethics and the impossibility of “anything goes”: A constructivist model of ethical meaning making. Journal of Constructivist Psychology. (Reprinted from Ethics in action: Dialogue between knowledge and practice (pp. 13–32), by S. Cipolletta &; E. Gius (Eds.), 2012, Milan, Italy: LED) [Google Scholar]) raise a number of important issues that merit discussion and have implications for a constructivist stance on ethics, an issue that has dogged constructivist and social constructionist theory and has, in the past, been the focus of a good deal of debate. In my response to their article, I focus on two issues before going on to consider what these imply for a constructivist ethics. The first is the status of “reality”; drawing on the work of French philosophers, discursive psychology, and symbolic interactionism, I argue that the constructivist conception of reality has been widely misunderstood and will outline what I regard as a defensible construction of reality. The second issue concerns the relationship between the individual and the social world; drawing again on earlier work in microsociology, I argue that the “constructed” individual must be understood as emerging from the social realm rather than preexisting it, and I argue for personal construct psychology as a candidate for filling the subjectivity “gap” in social constructionism. Finally, I use these conceptualizations of reality and the person to argue for an ethical stance of “radical doubt” for constructivism.     

Cultural Stereotypes and Personal Beliefs About Individuals With Dwarfism

ABSTRACT

Three studies assessed the content of cultural stereotypes and personal beliefs regarding individuals with dwarfism among “average height” (i.e., non-dwarf) individuals. In Studies 1 and 2, undergraduates from three separate institutions selected adjectives to reflect traits constituting both the cultural stereotype about dwarves and their own personal beliefs about dwarves (cf. Devine & Elliot, 1995 Devine, P. G. and Elliot, A. J. 1995. Are racial stereotypes really fading? The Princeton trilogy revisited. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21: 1139–1150. doi:10.1177/01461672952111002[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The most commonly endorsed traits for the cultural stereotype tended to be negative (e.g., weird, incapable, childlike); the most commonly endorsed traits for personal beliefs were largely positive (e.g., capable, intelligent, kind). In Study 3, undergraduates from two separate institutions used an open-ended method to indicate their personal beliefs about dwarves (cf. Eagly, Mladinic, & Otto, 1994 Eagly, A. H., Mladinic, A. and Otto, S. 1994. Cognitive and affective bases of attitudes toward social groups and social policies. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 30: 113–137. doi:10.1006/jesp.1994.1006[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Responses contained a mixture of positive and negative characteristics, suggesting a greater willingness to admit to negative personal beliefs using the open-ended method.     

Institutional creativity and pathologies of potential space: The modern university

Abstract

This paper proposes the applicability of object relations psychoanalytic conceptions of dialogue (Ogden, 1986 Ogden, T. 1986. The matrix of the mind, London: Karnac.  [Google Scholar], 1993 Ogden, T. 1993. “On potential space”. In In one's bones: The clinical genius of Winnicot, Edited by: Goldman, D. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aaronson.  [Google Scholar]) to thinking about relationships and relational structures and their governance in universities. It proposes that:

• the qualities of dialogic relations in creative institutions are the proper index of creative productivity; that is of, as examples, ‘thinking’ (Evans, 2004 Evans, M. 2004. Killing thinking: The death of the universities, London: Continuum.  [Google Scholar]), ‘emotional learning’ (Salzberger-Wittenburg et al., 1983 Salzberger-Wittenburg, I., Henry, G. and Osborne, E. 1983. The emotional experience of learning and teaching, London: Routledge.  [Google Scholar]) or ‘criticality’ (Barnett, 1997 Barnett, R. 1997. Higher education: A critical business, Buckingham: Open University Press.  [Google Scholar]);

• contemporary institutions' explicit preoccupation in assuring, monitoring and managing creative ‘dialogue’ can, in practice, pervert creative processes and thoughtful symbolic productivity, thus inhibiting students' development and the quality of ‘thinking space’ for teaching and research.

In this context the paper examines uncanny and perverse connections between Paulo Freire's (1972 Freire, P. 1972. Pedagogy of the oppressed, London: Penguin.  [Google Scholar]) account of educational empowerment and dialogics (from his Pedagogy of the oppressed) to the consumerist (see, for example, Clarke & Vidler, 2005 Clarke, J. and Vidler, E. 2005. Creating citizen-consumers: New labour and the remaking of public services. Public Policy and Administration, 20: 19–37.  [Google Scholar]) rhetoric of student empowerment, as mediated by some strands of managerialism in contemporary higher education. The paper grounds its critique of current models of dialogue, feedback loops, audit and other mechanisms of accountability (Power, 1997 Power, M. 1997. The Audit Society: Ritual's of verification, Oxford: Oxford University Press.  [Google Scholar]; Strathern, 2000 Strathern M. Audit cultures: Anthropological studies in accountability, ethics and the academy London Routledge 2000 [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), in a close analysis of how creative thinking emerges.

The paper discusses the failure to maintain a dialogic space in humanities and social science areas in particular, exploring psychoanalytic conceptions from Donald Winnicott (1971 Winnicott, D. W. 1971. Playing and Reality, London: Routledge.  [Google Scholar]), Milner (1979 Milner, M. 1979. On not being able to paint, New York: International Universities Press.  [Google Scholar]), Thomas Ogden (1986 Ogden, T. 1986. The matrix of the mind, London: Karnac.  [Google Scholar]) and Csikszentmihalyi (1997 Csikszentmihalyi, M. 1997. Creativity, New York: Harper Perennial.  [Google Scholar]). Coleridge's ideas about imagination as the movement of thought between subjective and objective modes are discussed in terms of both intra- and inter-subjective relational modes of ‘dialogue’, which are seen as subject to pathology in the pathologically structured psychosocial environment. Current patterns of institutional governance, by micromanaging dialogic spaces, curtail the ‘natural’ rhythms and temporalities of imagination by giving an over-emphasis to the moment of outcome, at the expense of holding the necessary vagaries of process in the institutional ‘mind’. On the contrary, as this paper argues, creative thinking lies in sporadic emergences at the conjunction of object/(ive) outcome and through (thought) processes.     

Interactive insight problem solving

Insight problem solving was investigated with the matchstick algebra problems developed by Knoblich, Ohlsson, Haider, and Rhenius (1999 Knoblich, G., Ohlsson, S., Haider, H. and Rhenius, D. 1999. Constraint relaxation and chunk decomposition in insight problem solving. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 25: 1534–1555. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). These problems are false equations expressed with Roman numerals that can be made true bymoving one matchstick. In a first group participants examined a static two-dimensional representation of the false algebraic expression and told the experimenter which matchstick should be moved. In a second group, participants interacted with a three-dimensional representation of the false equation. Success rates in the static group for different problem types replicated the pattern of data reported in Knoblich et al. (1999 Knoblich, G., Ohlsson, S., Haider, H. and Rhenius, D. 1999. Constraint relaxation and chunk decomposition in insight problem solving. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 25: 1534–1555. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). However, participants in the interactive group were significantly more likely to achieve insight. Problem-solving success in the static group was best predicted by performance on a test of numeracy, whereas in the interactive group it was best predicted by performance on a test of visuo-spatial reasoning. Implications for process models of problem solving are discussed.     

An Introduction to Kristof’s Theorem for Solving Least-Square Optimization Problems Without Calculus

Kristof’s Theorem (Kristof, 1970 Kristof, W. (1970). A theorem on the trace of certain matrix products and some applications. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 7(3), 515–530. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-2496(70)90037-4[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) describes a matrix trace inequality that can be used to solve a wide-class of least-square optimization problems without calculus. Considering its generality, it is surprising that Kristof’s Theorem is rarely used in statistics and psychometric applications. The underutilization of this method likely stems, in part, from the mathematical complexity of Kristof’s (1964 Kristof, W. (1964). Die beste orthogonale Transformation zur gegenseitigen Uberfiihrung zweier Faktorenmatrizen. Diagnostica, 10, 87–90. [Google Scholar], 1970 Kristof, W. (1970). A theorem on the trace of certain matrix products and some applications. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 7(3), 515–530. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-2496(70)90037-4[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) writings. In this article, I describe the underlying logic of Kristof’s Theorem in simple terms by reviewing four key mathematical ideas that are used in the theorem’s proof. I then show how Kristof’s Theorem can be used to provide novel derivations to two cognate models from statistics and psychometrics. This tutorial includes a glossary of technical terms and an online supplement with R (R Core Team, 2017 R Core Team (2017). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Retrieved from https://www.R-project.org/ [Google Scholar]) code to perform the calculations described in the text.