Participation in Religious Groups as a Function of Group Composition: A Self-Attention Perspective1

A self-attention approach to the effect of the group on the individual is applied to the phenomenon of participation in religious groups. Previous work indicates that group members become more self-attentive, and thus more concerned with matching to standards of appropriate behavior, as the relative size of their subgroup decreases. This suggests that, in the context of religious groups, members of a congregation will be more self-attentive, and thus more likely to participate in the religious group, when there are fewer congregation members relative to the number of ministers. The results of analysis of ten archival records of participation in religious groups support this perspective. The importance of self-attention processes in religious group settings is discussed.     

Stuttering,Audience Size,and the Other-Total Ratio: A Self-Attention Perspective1

The effect of audience size on verbal disfluences in stutterers is considered from the perspective of self-attention theory. Two secondary analyses conducted using original data from studies (Hahn, 1940; Porter, 1939) which observed the effects of audience size on stuttering, reveal an increase in stuttering as a negatively accelerating function of audience size. These results confirm the utility of the self-attention theory Other-Total Ratio in characterizing the effect of the group on the individual.     

Ethics in the Humanities: Findings from Focus Groups

This project examined the ethical issues faced by academics and professionals in the Humanities. We conducted focus groups to gather information about the ethical concerns in these fields and used the qualitative data arising from the discussions to create a taxonomy that represents the structure of ethical issues in the Humanities. A key implication of our findings is that while the focus of ethics research and interventions has been primarily on the sciences and engineering, academics and professionals in other fields also encounter some unique critical ethical dilemmas that require further research and methods of intervention.     

Global Dominance Outside the Focus of Attention

Identification of the local aspect of a relevant compound stimulus has been found to be delayed by the presence of target-set members at the global aspect of an irrelevant compound stimulus, whereas identification of the global aspect is unaffected by the presence of local target-set members within the irrelevant object (Paquet & Merikle, 1988). This effect has been termed the global category effect , and it suggests that global dominance occurs for objects located outside the attentional focus, as well as within an attended hierarchical object. In the present experiments, attention was directed to the relevant one of two compound stimuli by using either shape information (Experiments 1 and 2) or a 100-msec peripheral rapid onset precue (Experiment 3). Results revealed a global category effect even when the physical features of the displays containing global target-set members within the irrelevant object were closely matched with those of the control displays. Critically, the magnitude of the global category effect was affected by how well attention could be focused on the relevant compound stimulus. These findings suggest (a) that the analysis of global information for irrelevant objects is more elaborate than the simple detection of features; and (b) that both perceptual and attentional mechanisms are involved in global dominance.     

Focus of Attention and Employee Reactions to Job Change1

Two hundred and five telecommunications field-service technicians underwent a job change and responded to our questionnaire. The amount of time since experiencing the job change was measured for each technician. We found support for the hypothesis that the more an employee focuses on his or her job, the stronger that employee will react to a job change. Technicians who focused highly on their jobs reported fewer excused absences and were more job involved as time passed after the change, compared to technicians who focused little on their jobs. Moreover, high off-job focused technicians became less committed, less job involved, less satisfied, and more likely to leave over time. Focus also was related to perceptions of job complexity, and moderated the relationship between complexity and employee responses. These findings provide further support for hypotheses posited by Gardner, Dunham, Cummings, and Pierce (1987a, 1989) regarding employee focus of attention.     

Selective Attention and Anxiety: A Perspective on Developmental Issues and the Causal Status

A plethora of studies on selective information processing in anxiety have been carried out over the past two decades. One of the most robust findings is that anxiety is associated with selective attention (SA) for threatening information. The rationale of research into SA is that it is assumed to play a vital role in the maintenance, and even in the etiology of anxiety disorders. It is the aim of this paper to explicate on the validity of this assumption. There is ample evidence that anxiety enhances SA. Although there is a lack of studies on the effect of SA on anxiety, there is now some evidence that SA increases the level of anxiety. This leads us to conclude that SA is not a by-product of anxiety only. Hence, the suggestion that SA plays a role in the maintenance of anxiety disorders seems to be justified. Studies on SA in children suggest that if SA plays any role at all in the development of anxiety disorders, it is not the SA in itself that is a vulnerability factor, but the continuation of this SA. Individuals who develop an anxiety disorder could have difficulty learning to inhibit this SA. Considering the finding that SA increases the level of anxiety, the authors suggest that anxiety in childhood causes failure to inhibit SA, which in turn enhances the vulnerability to anxiety disorder in adulthood.     

Infants Determine Others' Focus of Attention by Pragmatics and Exclusion

ABSTRACT

Children learning a verb may benefit from hearing it across situations . At the same time, in everyday contexts, situations in which a verb is heard will be interrupted by distracting events. Using Structural Alignment theory as a framework, Study 1 asks whether children can learn a verb when irrelevant, interleaved events are present. Two½- and 3½-year-old children saw dynamic events and were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions (differing in orders of events) or one of two control conditions. They extended the verbs in the experimental conditions, and not the control conditions. Three ½-year-olds were more successful than 2½-year-olds, though the younger children could extend verbs. A more difficult task is segmenting dynamic action into subevents that could be relevant for a verb (e.g., finding “chopping” in a cooking scene). In Study 2, 2½-, 3½-, and 4½-year-old children were assigned to experimental conditions in which relevant events flowed into irrelevant events (or vice versa) or to a control. Two½-year-olds failed to extend the verbs at test, differing from the older children; children in experimental conditions extended the verbs while children in the control condition did not. Altogether, these results show children can ignore irrelevant events (and subevents), and extend new verbs by 3½ years. Results are important to understand learning in everyday contexts in which verbs are heard in varied situations over time.     

对注意的再思考:一个注意的强化学习模型

本文在分析总结现有注意理论的基础上,假设注意是一种信息选择现象,而非心理结构或资源。通过借鉴人工智能领域强化学习算法的思想,笔者提出了一种可以表现出注意现象的人类强化学习模型。该模型描述了人与环境交互的过程:人接受环境的反馈,根据自身心理状态调整行为策略,以最大化所获收益。该过程中,注意体现为高价值信息逐渐获得优先加工的现象。因此,本文对注意的本质进行了重新思考,为未来注意研究提供了新思路。     

Making Meaning of the September 11 Attacks: Spanish- and Mandarin-Speaking Focus Groups

This article examines experiences and perceptions related to the September 11, 2001, attacks among members of two immigrant groups (Spanish-speaking and Mandarin-speaking) in New York City. Focus groups were conducted 1–2 years after the attacks. Qualitative analysis was conducted using ATLAS.ti. Three major themes emerged: (a) Immediate Experience of the Attacks, (b) Evolving Psychological Adjustment, and (c) Long-Term Issues of Public Concern. The groups’ discussions diverged with temporal progression across these themes, reflecting increasing congruence with broad conceptualizations of their respective cultures. The findings suggest that, over time, culture increasingly influenced the meaning these people made of the disaster.     

EMG Activity as a Function of the Performer's Focus of Attention

In previous studies of attentional focus effects, investigators have measured performance outcome. Here, however, the authors used electromyography (EMG) to determine whether differences between external and internal foci would also be manifested at the neuromuscular level. In 2 experiments, participants (N = 11, Experiment 1; N = 12, Experiment 2) performed biceps curls while focusing on the movements of the curl bar (external focus) or on their arms (internal focus). In Experiment 1, movements were performed faster under external than under internal focus conditions. Also, integrated EMG (iEMG) activity was reduced when performers adopted an external focus. In Experiment 2, movement time was controlled through the use of a metronome, and iEMG activity was again reduced under external focus conditions. Those findings are in line with the constrained action hypothesis (G. Wulf, N. McNevin, & C. H. Shea, 2001), according to which an external focus promotes the use of more automatic control processes.     

注意焦点转换中的返回抑制与更新过程有关

从认知过程的角度考察注意焦点转换中的返回抑制产生的原因。两个实验要求被试为三个图形分别保持一个数字。实验1设置两种任务:"提取且更新任务"要求被试每次提取一个图形的数字,并对数字进行更新;"提取任务"要求被试只需提取图形的数字,而无需对数字进行更新。实验2设置"更新任务",要求被试只需更新图形的数字,而无需对数字进行提取。实验同时设置抑制转换类型和控制转换类型,以考察返回抑制现象。结果表明,在"提取且更新任务"和"更新任务"中存在返回抑制现象,而在"提取任务"中未发现返回抑制现象。这说明,注意焦点转换中的返回抑制现象与更新过程有关。     

Attention in Sentence Processing: A Review

This review looks at the relationship between attention and language. There have been many studies that have shown a certain role of attention on sentence and spoken word processing. At the same time some other studies have observed that language processing is autonomous. In this review an attempt has been made to review the empirical evidence from sentence processing in reading, auditory processing and speaking domains to see if attentional manipulations cause interference with processing. The review suggests currently available evidence is rather mixed and it is still a long way to fully explore the attentional basis of sentence processing.     

Support Groups: A Conceptualization

A conceptualization of support groups, differentiating them from counseling and psychotherapy groups, is offered, and its implications for group formation, membership;, and format are discussed.     

Iona College Community Centered Family Health History Project: Lessons Learned from Student Focus Groups

The Community Centered Family Health History project was initiated to create accessible family health history tools produced by and for the community. The project goal was to promote increased community engagement in health education by encouraging conversations among family members that would translate knowledge of family health history into healthy lifestyle choices. As one of seven community partners, Iona College participated in customizing and beta-testing the Does It Run in the Family? toolkit. Twenty-nine college students were engaged to recruit three relatives related by blood to provide feedback on the utility of the toolkit. The toolkit consists of two booklets—“A Guide to Family Health History” and “A Guide to Understanding Genetics and Health”—explaining the importance of knowing and talking about health within the family as well as basics about how conditions are passed down through generations. Twenty-two of the twenty-nine students participated in focus groups to discuss their reactions to participation in the project. Students in the focus group reported that the study participants—students and their family members—found the toolkit to be user friendly and the experience a valuable one that prompted many to take positive steps toward good health.     

Infant Attention Grows Up: The Emergence of a Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective

Visual attention has long been regarded as a tool for studying the development of basic cognitive skills in infancy and early childhood. However, over the past decade, the development of attention in early life has emerged as an important topic of research in its own right. This essay describes recent changes in the methods used to study attention in infancy, and in the nature of inferences about the early development of attention, as both research and theory in the area have become progressively integrated with models of attention from cognitive science and neuroscience.     

时间洞察力的心理结构、特征及研究焦点

概述了五种有关时间洞察力心理结构的观点：二因素、三因素、四因素、五因素和综合的观点;较详细地说明了时间洞察力的心理特征;并对时间洞察力的研究焦点做了总结;最后指出了以前研究中存在的问题和时间洞察力的未来研究方向。     

Schism in Groups: A Social Psychological Account

Far from being monoliths, groups tend to be internally subdivided into competing factions that, in some cases, may leave the parent group thereby causing a schism. Although schisms are complex phenomena, research has revealed the existence of specific social psychological patterns that different schisms seem to have in common. A schism is normally triggered by the perception that a change (i.e., either the adoption of a new norm or the revision of an old norm) endorsed by the group majority denies the group identity and constitutes a rupture with its historically sedimented essence. Members of the faction opposing the change may or may not decide to leave the group, depending on their perceived ‘voice’ within the group. Feeling marginalised and discriminated against, rather than valued and respected within, the group will increase chances of joining a schism.     

Attention Deficit Disorder: A Neuropsychoanalytic Sketch

A neuropsychoanalytic sketch of attention deficit disorder (ADD) is presented. The syndrome is defined in terms of its core symptoms, and discussed from the perspective of etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and treatment. Also unique is the effort to describe the patient's inner experiences and begin to map these onto the external perspective of what is happening psychologically and neurologically, that is, inside the patient's brain (chemically, anatomically, and neurophysiologically). A number of speculations are thus created regarding the role of the executive control network (ECN), particularly, that of the basal ganglia, cerebellum, anterior cingulate, and those parts of the ECN that are responsible for such things as cognitive shifting between low-level routine information processing modes and those used for high-level processing applicable for sensitive or complex analysis. The effects of trauma on the tagging of memories are also considered. In this manner the research of Shevrin et al., Posner and Raichle, Gedo, Levin, and a number of others integrating mind and brain is brought to bear on an illness with known cognitive and personality disordering. This paper complements a companion paper on the subject of learning disability (Orenstein and Levin, in press).