Stimulus congruity,irrelevant spatial SR correspondence,and display-control arrangement correspondence: A reply to O'Leary,Barber, and Simon (1994)

Summary We recall how Hasbroucq and Guiard (1991) defined stimulus (S) congruity, the SS-correspondence factor they demonstrated to account for both the Simon effect and the Hedge and Marsh effect, and how they explained the mechanisms that bring S congruity into play in the verbal and nonverbal versions of the Simon task and in the Hedge and Marsh task. We show that, contrary to O'Leary, Barber, and Simon's claim, Hasbroucq and Guiard used a consistent definition of S congruity across the various tasks of interest. Finally, we recognize that Hasbroucq and Guiard's experiments produced no direct falsification of the display control arrangement correspondence (DCC) hypothesis — the special-purpose hypothesis put forward by Simon and his group as an attempt to reconcile the Hedge and Marsh effect with their interpretation of the Simon effect in terms of irrelevant spatial SR correspondence —, but we argue that the DCC account is unnecessary and implausible.     

Attention and spatial stimulus coding in the Simon task: a rejoinder to van der Lubbe and Abrahamse (2010)

Hommel (2011-this issue) has reviewed the major lines of research and ongoing controversies on and around the Simon effect. Van der Lubbe and Abrahamse (2010) take issue with Hommel's assessment of the role of attention shifting in the Simon effect. This rejoinder argues that van der Lubbe and Abrahamse's criticism is off target because it (a) fails to distinguish between the attention-shifting account of (spatial stimulus coding in) the Simon effect—which Hommel discusses and criticizes—and the premotor theory of attention—which Hommel does not discuss; (b) confuses the relationship between the attention-shifting account and the referential-coding account of spatial stimulus coding in the Simon effect—the actual topic of Hommel's discussion—with the relationship between the premotor theory and the theory of event coding—which the criticism focuses on; and (c) confuses the uncontroversial role of attention in stimulus selection with the controversial role of attention in the generation of location codes.     

Spatial Compatibility Effects With Unimanual and Bimanual Wheel-Rotation Responses: An Homage to Guiard (1983)

ABSTRACT. Y. Guiard (1983) reported a prescient study of compatibility effects in response times for clockwise/counterclockwise wheel rotations to stimuli in left/right locations. Left-right coding of responses predominated in his study, but some results suggested that unimanual versus bimanual operation was also a factor. The authors report 3 experiments directly examining whether there is a difference in spatial compatibility effects obtained with wheel-rotation responses executed bimanually or unimanually (with left or right hand). Adopting a right-to-clockwise or left-to-counterclockwise mapping was advantageous for top, side, and bottom hand placements. This benefit interacted neither with unimanual or bimanual responding nor with the response hand. The results confirm that the critical relation is between the wheel and stimulus position, and is not effector dependent. This finding is in agreement with results from studies using discrete keypress responses, emphasizing that spatial coding of stimuli, actions, and their goals is of central importance in response-selection decisions.     

Filling-in models of completion: rejoinder to Kellman, Garrigan, Shipley, and Keane (2007) and Albert (2007)

There has been a growing interest in understanding the computations involved in the processes underlying visual segmentation and interpolation in conditions of occlusion. P. J. Kellman, P. Garrigan, T. F. Shipley, and B. P. Keane and M. K. Albert defended the view that identical contour interpolation mechanisms underlie modal and amodal completion. In the current rejoinder, the author provides further psychophysical evidence against this view and argues that no physiological data support the claim that modal and amodal contours are represented identically at any stage of processing. The author also shows that the illusory glass surfaces that Kellman et al. and Albert upheld as evidence against his arguments about luminance constraints in completion are explained by theoretical principles that he has previously articulated, and variants of these illusions receive no explanation within either of the models Kellman et al. and Albert propose. The author shows that the principles needed to explain these percepts embody fundamental asymmetries in the way that relative depth shapes segmentation and interpolation processes and that models of completion that lack these constraints--such as P. J. Kellman, P. Garrigan, and T. F. Shipley's and M. K. Albert's --cannot account for a host of documented completion phenomena.     

A rejoinder to Pribram

Summary Contrary to Pribram's assertion, Köhler proposed a functional isomorphism between brain processes and phenomenal events; the sense organs are not implied in the isomorphism principle. With respect to the facts of the Köhler-Pribram collaboration reliance on the written record is recommended.     

Negation: A rejoinder to Wales and Grieve

Wales and Grieve (1969) report an experiment in which they show that a factor of “confusability” affects the comprehension of affirmative and negative sentences, and then claim that this is a relevant factor in explaining the difficulty of negatives. The present paper submits arguments and experimental evidence to dispute this claim.     

Fantasy,wishful thinking,and statistical hokuspokus. A rejoinder to De Raad and Ostendorf (1996)

De Raad and Ostendorf (1996) sharply criticize a paper of mine (Henss, 1995). However, their critique is seriously flawed. In this paper, I discuss some of the most important shortcomings of De Raad and Ostendorf's article.     

The MCMI and DSM-III: a brief rejoinder to Million (1985)

Millon (1985) presented eight criticisms of the article by Widiger, Williams, Spitzer, and Frances (1985) on the MCMI as a measure of DSM-III. This article is a brief rejoinder. The major point we wish to make is that one should be cautious in interpreting the MCMI as a measure of DSM-III disorders because there has not yet been any research published on the relationship between the MCMI and DSM-III. We believe this position has not been refuted by Millon's critique.     

Attitude-behavior congruity, mindfulness, and self-focused attention: A behavior-analytic reconstruction

Social psychologists have responded to research reporting low agreement between attitude measures and related behavior with attempts to explain the incongruities and enhance agreement. This article examines attitude-behavior incongruity from a behavior-analytic point of view. Traditional and behavior-analytic views of attitudes and behaviors are compared. In the behavior-analytic view, answering an attitude scale should be considered as behavior displayed by a person under rather unusual social conditions, not as a reflection of an enduring personal disposition. Reasons why questionnaire-answering behavior will not resemble behavior in other functionally different social conditions are reviewed. Special attention is extended to two representative lines of attitude-behavior research: mindfulness and self-focused attention. Discriminative stimuli in both areas of study have produced more predictable agreement between questionnaire-answering behavior and behavior in other settings.     

Further considerations in the decline and stabilization of managerial motivation: A rejoinder to Bartol,Anderson, and Schneier (1980)

Previously published data in J. B. Miner and N. R. Smith (1982, Journal of Applied Psychology, 67, 297–305) and K. M. Bartol, C. R. Anderson, and C. E. Schneier (1980, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 17, 22–32; 1981, Journal of Applied Psychology, 66, 40–44) are in direct conflict as to whether managerial motivation merely stabilized at a low level among business administration students during the late 1970s or reversed the previous decline. Conflict also exists between the two sources as to whether prior sex differences favoring males disappeared in the 1970s or continued. Data are presented indicating substantial differences in scoring the Miner Sentence Completion Scales used in the Bartol et al. study between the original scorers and both Miner and Ebrahimi. These differences appear sufficient to account for the reversals and continued sex differences reported by Bartol et al. Analyses are presented to indicate that in all likelihood the Bartol et al. results are a consequence of scoring errors of a type often found among less experienced scorers.     

A questionable questionnaire: a rejoinder to Marks

In a recent article Marks argues that two previous articles in this journal in 1986 and 1988, questioning the construct validity of the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire, should be dismissed due to methodological flaws and overwhelming evidence to the contrary. In this response to Marks, the methodologies of the two studies in question are clarified and defended. Research and other evidence supporting the two Chara studies are presented. It is concluded that the construct validity of the imagery questionnaire has not been established and that further investigations of the questionnaire, and particularly its rating scale, are warranted.     

Reply to My Critics: (Re-)Defining Racism: A Philosophical Analysis

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice - In (Re-)Defining Racism, I offer the first comprehensive examination of the philosophical literature on racism and argue for a new methodological approach that I...