Does attention follow the motion in the "shooting line" illusion?

When a line is presented in the vicinity of a recent luminance change (peripheral cue), it is perceived to be drawn over time away from its "cued" end even though the line is actually presented all at once. This study was designed to determine whether attention, exogenously attracted to the cue, would come under the exogenous control of this illusory motion and follow the drawing motion from the cued end to its terminus. Each trial began with the display of four small squares at the corners of an imaginary square centered about fixation. On the critical trials, one of the four squares brightened briefly, after which a horizontal line was presented joining either the two upper or the two lower squares. Shortly thereafter, the distribution of attention was determined by asking the observer to indicate the nature of a change that was equally likely to occur to one of the squares. Responses to targets presented at a noncued location that was at the end of an illusorily drawn line were as fast as those to targets at the cued location and were much faster than those to targets at the remaining noncued locations. This pattern was not shown when the line preceded the cue, strongly suggesting that attention follows the motion in this illusion.     

Is the concept of "repression" useful for the understanding chronic PTSD?

Theories concerning the value of avoiding versus attending to trauma-related thoughts provide mixed support for specific coping strategies such as repression. The goal of this study is to examine the usefulness of the concept of repression in understanding chronic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). One hundred and fifty individuals who had been in a motor vehicle accident were included. Participants were classified into four groups (repressors, low anxious, high anxious, and defensively high anxious) based on methodology introduced by Weinberger et al. [J. Abnormal Psychol. 88 (1979) 369]. These four groups were compared on measures of PTSD symptomatology, anxiety, depression, and where appropriate, perceived pain and disability. Results revealed a fairly consistent pattern of group differences such that repressors reported fewer PTSD symptoms, fewer additional anxiety disorders, less depression, and less physical disability due to pain relative to the high anxious and defensively high anxious groups. Regression analyses examining the separate and interactive effects of anxiety and social desirability to predict PTSD symptomatology showed that the majority of the variance was explained by anxiety. In many respects, these data suggest that repression may not be a useful concept for understanding chronic PTSD.     

Should the "slow code" be resuscitated?

Most bioethicists and professional medical societies condemn the practice of "slow codes." The American College of Physicians ethics manual states, "Because it is deceptive, physicians or nurses should not perform half-hearted resuscitation efforts ('slow codes')." A leading textbook calls slow codes "dishonest, crass dissimulation, and unethical." A medical sociologist describes them as "deplorable, dishonest and inconsistent with established ethical principles." Nevertheless, we believe that slow codes may be appropriate and ethically defensible in situations in which cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is likely to be ineffective, the family decision makers understand and accept that death is inevitable, and those family members cannot bring themselves to consent or even assent to a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order. In such cases, we argue, physicians may best serve both the patient and the family by having a carefully ambiguous discussion about end-of-life options and then providing resuscitation efforts that are less vigorous or prolonged than usual.     

Beyond the medical model? Disability,formal justice,and the exception for the "profoundly impaired"

The formal justice model proposed by Anita Silvers in Disability, Discrimination, and Difference emphasizes the social model of disability and the need for full equality of opportunity, and it suggests that a distributive model of justice that gives special benefits to individuals with disabilities is self-defeating. Yet in that work, Silvers allows an exception for the "profoundly impaired." In this paper, I show how the formal justice theory falls short when it comes to defining and dealing with "profoundly impaired" individuals and explore the ways in which making the exception raises serious theoretical concerns for the grounding of the formal justice model.     

Take the best or look at the rest? Factors influencing "one-reason" decision making

Aspects of an experimental environment were manipulated in 3 experiments to examine the parameters under which the "take-the-best" (TTB) heuristic (e.g., G. Gigerenzer & D. G. Goldstein, 1996) operates. Results indicated TTB use to be more prevalent when the cost of information was high, when validities of the cues were known, and when a deterministic environment was used. However, large individual variability in strategy use was observed as well as a significant proportion of behavior inconsistent with TTB, expecially its stopping rule. The results demarcate some of the heuristic's boundary conditions and also question the validity of TTB as a psychologically plausible and pervasive model of behavior.     

Subgroup conflicts? Try the psychodramatic "double triad method"

The present article suggests the application of a psychodramatic action method for tackling subgroup conflicts in which the direct dialogue between representatives of two opposing subgroups is prepared step by step through an indirect dialogue strategy within two triads, a strategy known as the Double Triad Method (DTM). In order to achieve integration in the group as a whole, it is important that all the members of both subgroups participate actively during the entire process. The first part of the article briefly explores the theoretical background, with a special emphasis on the Phenomenological-Dialectical Personality Model (Phe-Di PModel). In the second part, the DTM procedure is systematically described through its five action stages, each accompanied with 1) a spatial representation of the consecutive actions, 2) some illustrative statements for each stage, and 3) a theoretical interpretation of the dialectically involved personality dimensions in both protagonists. The article concludes with a discussion and suggestions for more extensive applications of the DTM method, including the question of its relationships to Agazarian's functional subgrouping, psychodrama, and sociodrama.     

Last of the mohicans? James McCosh and psychology "old" and "new"

This paper addresses the history of a rhetorical tradition in psychology that made a distinct division between old and new psychology and denigrated the old. The views of James McCosh, a transitional old psychologist and Princeton's president from 1868 to 1888, are analyzed to evaluate the stereotypical view of old psychology as antiscience and dogmatic. The evidence of James McCosh's writings and his actions while president of Princeton suggest the need for a more nuanced interpretation of the relationship between the old and the new. While McCosh did not share the new psychologists' valuation of experimental psychology, this was because of a disagreement over the correct methods of science, not a rejection of science itself. Therefore, the negative view of old psychology is better understood as a rhetorical strategy on the part of new psychologists who had professional reasons to distance themselves from their old psychology heritage.     

Experiences with the René Bloch "multidimensional art test"

The Multidimensional Drawing Test of René B l o c h is a little-known projective test method in psychological diagnosis. In a series of 30 pictures, free associations are recorded graphically, with a time limit of 60 seconds per picture. The test material consists of a DIN A 6 jotting pad and seven felt pens, red, orange, yellow, blue, brown, green, and black. The test results can be equated with statistically determined combined variables, and thus enable differential diagnosis distinction between acute and chronic schizophrenia, hebephrenia, "schizoaffective psychoses", and more especially, endogenous and other forms of depression. The test can also be used in psychotherapy.     

"Time flies in the presence of angry faces"… depending on the temporal task used!

A number of studies have reported that the perception of an arousing emotional stimulus, such as an angry face, results in temporal overestimations which are probably due to the speeding up of a clock-like system. The aim of the present study was to examine whether this emotional effect can be generalized to all temporal tasks irrespective of the underlying cognitive processes involved in each task. Five different temporal tasks involving the presentation of neutral and angry faces were therefore tested: bisection, generalization, verbal estimation, production and reproduction. Our results showed an overestimation of time for the angry compared to the neutral faces in the temporal bisection, verbal estimation and production tasks but not in the temporal generalization and reproduction tasks. Moreover, the results obtained in the temporal verbal estimation and production tasks suggest that this temporal overestimation of the angry faces was associated with relatively more accurate estimates. The involvement of both arousal and attention mechanisms in the effect of emotional facial expressions on time perception is discussed in the light of the differences in the impact of the same emotional stimulus as a function of the temporal task considered.     

Is Posner's "beam" the same as Treisman's "glue"?: On the relation between visual orienting and feature integration theory

In the present study we investigated whether the visually allocated "beam" studied by Posner and others is the same visual attentional resource that performs the role of feature integration in Treisman's model. Subjects were cued to attend to a certain spatial location by a visual cue, and performance at expected and unexpected stimulus locations was compared. Subjects searched for a target letter (R) with distractor letters that either could give rise to illusory conjunctions (PQ) or could not (PB). Results from three separate experiments showed that orienting attention in response to central cues (endogenous orienting) showed similar effects for both conjunction and feature search. However, when attention was oriented with peripheral visual cues (exogenous orienting), conjunction search showed larger effects of attention than did feature search. It is suggested that the attentional systems that are oriented in response to central and peripheral cues may not be the same and that only the latter performs a role in feature integration. Possibilities for future research are discussed.     

Adolf Strümpell and the issue of "traumatic neurosis"

By his introduction of the term "psychisches Trauma", Strümpell exerted an influence on Oppenheims concept of traumatic neurosis. What he termed "Begehrensvorstellungen", too, had an important part to play in the ensuing discussion on the origin of traumatic neuroses. That the two sides in dispute nonetheless appealed to the authority of the internist and neurologist Strümpell in matters of expert opinion, is an indication of his discernment in these problematic open questions.     

Does the "eyes lead the hand" principle apply to reach-to-grasp movements evoked by unexpected balance perturbations?

A fundamental principle that has emerged from studies of natural gaze behavior is that goal-directed arm movements are typically guided by a saccade to the target. In this study, we evaluated a hypothesis that this principle does not apply to rapid reach-to-grasp movements evoked by sudden unexpected balance perturbations. These perturbations involved forward translation of a large (2 × 6 m) motion platform configured to simulate a “real-life” environment. Subjects performed a common “daily-life” visuo-cognitive task (find a telephone and make a call) that required walking to the end of the platform, which was triggered to move as they approached a handrail mounted alongside the travel path. A deception was used to ensure that the perturbation was truly unexpected. Eleven of 18 healthy young-adult subjects (age 22-30) reached to grasp or touch the rail in response to the balance perturbation. In support of the hypothesis, none of these arm reactions was guided by concurrent visual fixation of the handrail. Seven of the 11 looked at the rail upon first entering the environment, and hence may have used “stored” central-field information about the handrail location to guide the subsequent arm reaction. However, the other four subjects never looked directly at the rail, indicating a complete reliance on peripheral vision. These findings add to previous evidence of distinctions in the CNS control of volitional and perturbation-evoked arm movements. Future studies will determine whether similar visuo-motor behavior occurs when the available handhold is smaller or when subjects are not engaged in a concurrent visuo-cognitive task.     

In search of "master mindreaders": are psychics superior in reading the language of the eyes?

Much of the effort to understand the brain substrate of theory of mind and empathy has involved the study of individuals with deficits in that domain, such as those on the autism spectrum. Studying individuals with presumed superior abilities in picking up social signals may yield important additional information. We predicted that psychic readers may have superior abilities and tested this by contrasting a group of 22 professional psychic readers with matched controls on a measure of theory of mind ("Reading the Mind in the Eyes" test) and a multidimensional measure of empathy [Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)]. Although psychic readers were not superior in reading the language of the eyes, they were shown to have more cognitive empathy, as measured with the "Fantasy" subscale of the IRI. We discuss the merits of research involving "experts" in social cognition and propose other possible groups of "master mindreaders."     

Minds at rest? Social cognition as the default mode of cognizing and its putative relationship to the "default system" of the brain

The “default system” of the brain has been described as a set of regions which are ‘activated’ during rest and ‘deactivated’ during cognitively effortful tasks. To investigate the reliability of task-related deactivations, we performed a meta-analysis across 12 fMRI studies. Our results replicate previous findings by implicating medial frontal and parietal brain regions as part of the “default system”.However, the cognitive correlates of these deactivations remain unclear. In light of the importance of social cognitive abilities for human beings and their propensity to engage in such activities, we relate our results to findings from neuroimaging studies of social cognition. This demonstrates a remarkable overlap between the brain regions typically involved in social cognitive processes and the “default system”.We, henceforth, suggest that the physiological ‘baseline’ of the brain is intimately linked to a psychological ‘baseline’: human beings have a predisposition for social cognition as the default mode of cognizing which is implemented in the robust pattern of intrinsic brain activity known as the “default system”.     

Introduction to the Special Theme "Daoist Philosophy Ⅱ:Contemporary Explorations in the Thought of the Laozi'

The present issue of Frontiers of Philosophy in China (FPC),"Special Issue on Daoist Philosophy Ⅱ:Contemporary Explorations in the Thought of the Laozi,"is a companion to a previous issue of FPC,"Daoist Philosophy and Philosophical Daoism:Conceptual Distinctions" (volume 12,no.1).Where that issue offered four original English-language articles on topics in Daoist philosophy mainly from Western perspectives,this issue presents four original Chinese-language articles in translation focused on topics in Daoist philosophy from the Chinese perspective.