The Downs and Ups of Mechanistic Research: Circadian Rhythm Research as an Exemplar

In the context of mechanistic explanation, reductionistic research pursues a decomposition of complex systems into their component parts and operations. Using research on the mechanisms responsible for circadian rhythms, I consider both the gains that have been made by discovering genes and proteins that figure in these intracellular oscillators and also highlight the increasingly recognized need to understand higher-level integration, both between cells in the central oscillator and between the central and peripheral oscillators. This history illustrates a common need to complement reductionistic inquiry with investigations at higher-levels. Unlike most other accounts of reduction, the mechanistic framework accommodates this complementary relationship between reductionistic and systems approaches.     

Defense Mechanism Card Pull in TAT Stories

This study investigates the question of whether different Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Murray, 1943 Murray, H. (1943). Thematic Apperception Test manual. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Google Scholar]) cards are likely to prompt stories that are characterized by different defense mechanisms. This condition is known as card pull and refers to the probability that different TAT cards elicit different personality scores for the same variable. If so, the assessment of defense use would be importantly influenced by the TAT cards used in an assessment. TAT stories from 3 different community samples were examined (Ns = 91, 98, 121), using a statistical method developed by Stein et al (2014 Stein, M. B., Slavin-Mulford, J., Siefert, C. J., Sinclair, S. J., Renna, M., Malone, J., … Blais, M. A. (2014). SCORS–G stimulus characteristics of select Thematic Apperception Test cards. Journal of Personality Assessment, 96, 339–349.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The results indicated that different TAT cards pull for different defenses, as assessed by the Defense Mechanism Manual (DMM: Cramer, 1991b Cramer, P. (1991b). The development of defense mechanisms: Theory, research and assessment. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). However, the nature of card pull was not always consistent across samples. These dissimilarities could be due to group differences, or to the presence of different TAT cards used in the test battery, indicating that card pull is importantly determined by context.     

Ups and Downs in Auditory Development: Preschoolers’ Sensitivity to Pitch Contour and Timbre

Much research has explored developing sound representations in language, but less work addresses developing representations of other sound patterns. This study examined preschool children's musical representations using two different tasks: discrimination and sound–picture association. Melodic contour—a musically relevant property—and instrumental timbre, which is (arguably) less musically relevant, were tested. In Experiment 1, children failed to associate cartoon characters to melodies with maximally different pitch contours, with no advantage for melody preexposure. Experiment 2 also used different‐contour melodies and found good discrimination, whereas association was at chance. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 2, but with a large timbre change instead of a contour change. Here, discrimination and association were both excellent. Preschool‐aged children may have stronger or more durable representations of timbre than contour, particularly in more difficult tasks. Reasons for weaker association of contour than timbre information are discussed, along with implications for auditory development.     

Dealing with the Ups and Downs of Life: Positive Dispositions in Coping with Negative and Positive Events and Their Relationships with Well-Being Indicators

Journal of Happiness Studies - In a four-wave, longitudinal study (N?=?323), we tested the relationships between five positive dispositions—mindfulness, self-compassion,...     

The Metaphysics of Mash‐Ups

Accounts of the ontology of musical works seek to uncover what metaphysically speaking a musical work is and how we should identify instances of musical works. In this article, I examine the curious case of the mash‐up and seek to address two questions: are mash‐ups musical works in their own right and what is the relationship between the mash‐up and its source materials? As mash‐ups are part of the broader tradition of rock, I situate this discussion within an ontology of rock as defended by Theodore Gracyk and Stephen Davies and offer some interpretation as to what their positions might be in regard to mash‐ups. Finally, I argue that the account of mash‐ups that best makes sense of our evaluative practices would hold that they are emergent musical works that are distinct in their own right and yet also happen to be cases of musical works that instantiate parts of other musical works.     

Exploring fantasies of TAT reliability

It has been argued that low TAT stability estimates are an artifact of retest instructions to be original and creative. This view was supported in a recent study by Winter and Stewart (1977) who found that test-retest reliability was higher when subjects were told on the second occasion to write the same stories than when they were told to write different stories. This study attempted to replicate Winter and Stewart's results and also to determine whether the similarity of stories did vary as hypothesized. The replication was only partially successful. More importantly, it was concluded that while instructions to write similar stories did improve reliability, the increase reflected only subjects' memory capabilities and not greater stability in motive expression. While true TAT stability may still be commonly underestimated, altering retest instructions to improve reliability does not appear to be the solution.