A theoretical reconciliation of competing views of time perception.

The time-perception literature is oriented around two opposing traditions, one of which, set forth by Ornstein in 1970, views time estimation as linearly and positively related to stimulus complexity, while the other, as published by Priestly in 1968, sees time as essentially linearly but negatively associated with the experiential complexity with which given intervals are filled. However, careful reading of the literature suggests that, contrary to the Ornstein and Priestly models, a linear correlation between stimulus complexity and time perception should not be expected to fully describe the range of possible relationships. What researchers appear to have ignored is the interrelated impact on time perception of the widely reported inverted-U effects of stimulus complexity and the conceptually related dimension of extroversion. With these latter considerations, comparative time perception thus becomes not a linear but rather a curvilinear, U-shaped function of both personality and stimulus complexity dimensions. The conceptual reconciliation growing out of the present literature review thus offers an explanation for previously reported empirical inconsistencies and suggests the redirection of future comparative time perception research.     

Legal consequences of dating violence: A critical review and directions for improved behavioral contingencies

As researchers and clinicians seek to better understand, prevent, and address violence in dating relationships among adolescents and young adults, there is also a need to better explore the possible legal consequences for perpetrators of aggression. The purpose of this paper is to review legal involvement in violent intimate relationships, with a specific focus on dating relationships, as these sanctions represent possible punishing consequences for violent perpetration. Punishing consequences of aggression, including legal interventions, could serve to lessen or eliminate violence in the current relationship and also circumvent possible aggression in future relationships. Implications of this review for clinicians, law enforcement, judiciary officials, and prevention programmers addressing dating violence are provided, along with directions for future research.     

Control by reinforcers across time and space: A review of recent choice research

Reinforcers affect behavior. A fundamental assumption has been that reinforcers strengthen the behavior they follow, and that this strengthening may be context‐specific (stimulus control). Less frequently discussed, but just as evident, is the observation that reinforcers have discriminative properties that also guide behavior. We review findings from recent research that approaches choice using nontraditional procedures, with a particular focus on how choice is affected by reinforcers, by time since reinforcers, and by recent sequences of reinforcers. We also discuss how conclusions about these results are impacted by the choice of measurement level and display. Clearly, reinforcers as traditionally considered are conditionally phylogenetically important to animals. However, their effects on behavior may be solely discriminative, and contingent reinforcers may not strengthen behavior. Rather, phylogenetically important stimuli constitute a part of a correlated compound stimulus context consisting of stimuli arising from the organism, from behavior, and from physiologically detected environmental stimuli. Thus, the three‐term contingency may be seen, along with organismic state, as a correlation of stimuli. We suggest that organisms may be seen as natural stimulus‐correlation detectors so that behavioral change affects the overall correlation and directs the organism toward currently appetitive goals and away from potential aversive goals. As a general conclusion, both historical and recent choice research supports the idea that stimulus control, not reinforcer control, may be fundamental.     

Empirical and theoretical issues in the perception of time to contact.

Four questions concerning the perceptual source of information about time to contact (tc) are addressed: (a) What conditions are required for the optic variable tau to play a role in the perception of tc? (b) When these conditions are met, does tau alone provide sufficient information for accurate timing of interceptive actions? (c) Does a distance divided by velocity account of tc perception provide a convincing alternative to an account that is based on tau? (d) Is there any empirical evidence that distinguishes the two accounts? A "global" type of tau variable and a "local" type of tau variable are distinguished, each with different limitations. The discussion is largely concerned with local tau variables, 2 versions of which are identified. It is concluded that tau alone cannot provide sufficient information for skilled timing. An extended tau-based account presented in an earlier article (Tresilan, 1990) is discussed. It is argued that no extant empirical data can distinguish the extended account from the distance divided by velocity account.     

Cognitive neuroscience: the biology of the mind and findings and current opinion in cognitive neuroscience

Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind by Michael Gazzaniga, Richard Ivry and George Mangun, W.W. Norton, 1998. ￡24.95 (xv+587 pages) ISBN 0 393 97219 4 Findings and Current Opinion in Cognitive Neuroscience by Larry Squire and Stephen Kosslyn, MIT Press, 1998. $35.00 (vii+381 pages) ISBN 0 262 69204 X.     

Subjective time perception and behavioral activation system strength predict delay of gratification ability

This study investigated the relationship between subjective time perception and behavioral impulsivity in a healthy, undergraduate population. Data were collected from 62 participants on internal clock speed (ICS, a measure of subjective time perception), behavioral impulsivity, intelligence, and Behavioral Inhibition and Activation Strengths (BIS and BAS). As expected, after controlling for other significant predictors, ICS accounted for a significant amount of variance in behavioral impulsivity. Surprisingly, participants who had slower ICSs were more behaviorally impulsive than participants who had faster ICSs. In addition, and as anticipated, participants who had less accurate ICSs were significantly more impulsive than participants who were more accurate. Last, higher BAS significantly predicted decreased behavioral impulsivity. Results are discussed in terms of current theory relating ICS to impulsivity, and a new theoretical framework is advanced.     

The development of cognitive empathy and concern in preschool children: A behavioral neuroscience investigation

This developmental neuroscience study examined the electrophysiological responses (EEG and ERPs) associated with perspective taking and empathic concern in preschool children, as well as their relation to parental empathy dispositions and children's own prosocial behavior. Consistent with a body of previous studies using stimuli depicting somatic pain in both children and adults, larger early (~200 ms) ERPs were identified when perceiving painful versus neutral stimuli. In the slow wave window (~800 ms), a significant interaction of empathy condition and stimulus type was driven by a greater difference between painful and neutral images in the empathic concern condition. Across early development, children exhibited enhanced N2 to pain when engaging in empathic concern. Greater pain‐elicited N2 responses in the cognitive empathy condition also related to parent dispositional empathy. Children's own prosocial behavior was predicted by several individual differences in neural function, including larger early LPP responses during cognitive empathy and greater differentiation in late LPP and slow wave responses to empathic concern versus affective perspective taking. Left frontal activation (greater alpha suppression) while engaging in affective perspective taking was also related to higher levels of parent cognitive empathy. Together, this multilevel analysis demonstrates the important distinction between facets of empathy in children; the value of examining neurobehavioral processes in development. It provides provoking links between children's neural functioning and parental dispositions in early development.     

Distance perception and the ambiguity of visual stimulation: A theoretical note

Certain current views postulate that visual perception, especially of distance, is a function of optical stimulation alone. It is shown here that the optical array does not, in fact, specify absolute distance unambiguously, for either a stationary or a moving O. In view of this ambiguity of optical information, a more complex theory, comprising both visual and nonvisual information, as needed to explain, veridical perception.     

Intelligence: new findings and theoretical developments

We review new findings and new theoretical developments in the field of intelligence. New findings include the following: (a) Heritability of IQ varies significantly by social class. (b) Almost no genetic polymorphisms have been discovered that are consistently associated with variation in IQ in the normal range. (c) Much has been learned about the biological underpinnings of intelligence. (d) "Crystallized" and "fluid" IQ are quite different aspects of intelligence at both the behavioral and biological levels. (e) The importance of the environment for IQ is established by the 12-point to 18-point increase in IQ when children are adopted from working-class to middle-class homes. (f) Even when improvements in IQ produced by the most effective early childhood interventions fail to persist, there can be very marked effects on academic achievement and life outcomes. (g) In most developed countries studied, gains on IQ tests have continued, and they are beginning in the developing world. (h) Sex differences in aspects of intelligence are due partly to identifiable biological factors and partly to socialization factors. (i) The IQ gap between Blacks and Whites has been reduced by 0.33 SD in recent years. We report theorizing concerning (a) the relationship between working memory and intelligence, (b) the apparent contradiction between strong heritability effects on IQ and strong secular effects on IQ, (c) whether a general intelligence factor could arise from initially largely independent cognitive skills, (d) the relation between self-regulation and cognitive skills, and (e) the effects of stress on intelligence.     

Observational goals and schema activation: A theoretical framework for behavior perception

A framework for behavioral observation is described in which the processing of a stream of behavior is influenced by an individual's prior knowledge about behavior, organized into cognitive “schemas.” It is proposed that observational goals determine the selection of goal-relevant schemas which, in turn, influence the observer's processing of an actor's behavior. Subjects watched a series of videotaped sequences featuring a female actor with instructions either to form an impression of her or to remember the details of the tasks she engaged in. They were then asked to answer questions that were either consistent or inconsistent with these instructions. Subjects were also instructed to unitize the actions or events that occurred in the sequence (D. A. Newtson, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1973, 28 28–38). According to the unitizing measure, subjects observing with different goals attended to different behavioral features. Further, impression-forming subjects were apparently more influenced by their implicit theories of personality than were task-learning subjects when asked to give ratings of the actor's personality, and task-learning subjects were relatively more accurate in recalling task-related details. Implications of this framework and these results for research in behavioral unitization and implicit personality theory are discussed.     

Identity: recent findings and clinical implications

After a review of foundational contributions to the concept of identity, including Erikson's, the author discusses the research methods and findings of the Personality Disorders Institute of the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University regarding the concepts of normal identity and identity diffusion, toward an elucidation of the psychopathology of personality disorders--their etiology, diagnosis, and treatment. The application of an object relations theory model to analyze the development of identity clarifies the relationship of individual identity with the social and cultural frame that influences identity formation and may amplify the effects of pathological identity development. Detailed excerpts are presented from a diagnostic structural interview at the Personality Disorders Institute.     

Cognitive neuroscience from a behavioral perspective: A critique of chasing ghosts with geiger counters

Cognitive neuroscience is a growing new discipline concerned with relating complex behavior to neuroanatomy. Relatively new advances in the imaging of brain function, such as positron emission tomography (PET), have generated hundreds of studies that have demonstrated a number of interesting but also potentially problematic brain-behavior relations. For example, cognitive neuroscientists largely favor interpretations of their data that rely on unobserved hypothetical mechanisms. Their reports often contain phraseology such as central executive, willed action, and mental imagery. As B. F. Skinner argued for decades, cognitive constructs of neurological data may yield nothing more than a conceptual nervous system.     

Correlates of youth sport attrition: A review and future directions

ObjectivesThis review aims to (a) identify correlates of youth sport attrition, (b) frame correlates within a multilevel model of youth sport participation (i.e., biological, intra-personal, inter-personal, institutional, community, and policy levels), and (c) assess the level of evidence for each correlate.DesignReview paper.MethodsSystematic review method.ResultsEntering relevant search terms into PubMed, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus and Web of Knowledge databases identified 23 articles with a total of 8345 participants. Satisfactory articles largely examined sport-specific attrition and sampled youth from western countries (e.g., Canada, France, Spain, United States). Of the 141 correlates examined, most were framed at the intrapersonal (90) and inter-personal levels (43). The level of evidence for each correlate (i.e., high, low, insufficient) was systematically assessed based on the quantity and quality of supporting articles. In total, 11 correlates were categorized as having a high quality level of evidence and 10 as having a low quality. High quality correlates included, among others, age, autonomy, perceived competence, relatedness, and task climate.ConclusionsOverall, established correlates of youth sport attrition are largely social in nature. Future directions surrounding (a) the need to examine correlates at lower (i.e., biological level) and higher (i.e., institutional, community, policy) analytic levels, (b) to sample participants from more culturally diverse societies and (c) to examine sport-general attrition are offered.     

Ministerial effectiveness: A review of recent research

Effectiveness of ministers is difficult to measure. Ideally, the goal would be to find out if they have been helpful in reconciling people to God and to each other. However, these criteria can only be assessed indirectly. This essay proposes a model of effectiveness and reviews several studies designed to assess one or more of its facets. Although results are only somewhat conclusive, the methods are promising and future research on this foundation is indicated.     

Naming our concerns about neuroscience: a review of Bennett and Hacker's philosophical foundations of neuroscience

Bennett and Hacker use conceptual analysis to appraise the theoretical language of modern cognitive neuroscientists, and conclude that neuroscientific theory is largely dualistic despite the fact that neuroscientists equate mind with the operations of the brain. The central error of cognitive neuroscientists is to commit the mereological fallacy, the tendency to ascribe to the brain psychological concepts that only make sense when ascribed to whole animals. The authors review how the mereological fallacy is committed in theories of memory, perception, thinking, imagery, belief, consciousness, and other psychological processes studied by neuroscientists, and the consequences that fallacious reasoning have for our understanding of how the brain participates in cognition and behavior. Several behavior-analytic concepts may themselves be nonsense based on thorough conceptual analyses in which the criteria for sense and nonsense are found in the ways the concepts are used in ordinary language. Nevertheless, the authors' nondualistic approach and their consistent focus on behavioral criteria for the application of psychological concepts make Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience an important contribution to cognitive neuroscience.     

The behavioral immune system: Current concerns and future directions

The behavioral immune system is a motivational system that helps minimize infection risk by changing cognition, affect, and behavior in ways that promote pathogen avoidance. In the current paper, we review foundational concepts of the behavioral immune system and provide a brief summary of recent social psychological research on this topic. Next, we highlight current conceptual and empirical limitations of this work and delineate important questions that have the potential to drive major advances in the field. These questions include predicting the ontological development of the behavioral immune system, specifying the relationship between this system and the physiological immune system, and distinguishing conditions that elicit direct effects of situational pathogen threats versus effects that occur only in interaction with dispositional disease concerns. This discussion highlights significant challenges and underexplored topics to be addressed by the next generation of behavioral immune system research.