The Role of Integrative Complexity in Military Leadership: Robert E. Lee and His Opponents1

Paragraphs selected from material written by Gen. Robert E. Lee between 1839 and 1867, and by Union generals who opposed him in six major battles, were scored for integrative complexity. This characteristic is defined by the degree of differentiation and integration that the individual demonstrates in processing information, ranging from low or simple (rigid, all-or-none, egocentric) to high or complex (flexible, information-oriented, integrated) on a 1–7 scale. Gen. Lee showed a high level of complexity as a stable characteristic, with changes downward in periods of particular stress. Lee was able to defeat superior enemy forces in battles where his level of complexity was substantially higher than that of the opposing commander; this was not the case when the levels were closer together or when (as with Grant) he faced an opponent whose complexity was actually higher than his own. These findings support previous research on the effects of stress, and emphasize the nature of information processing complexity as both a “trait” and a “state” variable.     

Operationalism as the Philosophy of Soviet Physics: The Philosophical Backgrounds of L. I. Mandelstam and His School

This article is dedicated to the philosophy ofscience which was developed by the outstanding Soviet physicist and leader of a powerful scientificcommunity, L. I. Mandelstam. It is shown that thisphilosophy can be summed up under the heading operationalism. A comparison with the paradigmaticoperationalism of Percy Bridgman is undertaken andthe German positivist roots of Mandelstam's philosophyare indicated. The final section reconstructs the principle ofexpedient idealization, the principle which was putforward by Mandelstam's disciples in the spirit of hisoperationalism to solve problems of the theory ofnon-linear oscillations.     

Peer Commentaries on Marcy A. Kingsbury and Barbara L. Finlay’s The cortex in multidimensional space: where do cortical areas come from?

Elizabeth Bates, Brain evolution and development: passing through the eye of the needle, p. 143 Serena M. Dudek, Multidimensional gene expression in cortical space, p. 145 Henry Kennedy and Colette Dehay, Gradients and boundaries: limits of modularity and its influence on the isocortex, p. 147 Sarah L. Pallas, Specification of mammalian neocortex: the power of the evo–devo approach in resolving the nature–nurture dichotomy, p. 148 Michel Roger, Embryonic stage of commitment of neocortical cells to develop area‐specific connections, p. 151 M.W. Spratling and M.H. Johnson, Activity‐dependent processes in regional cortical specialization, p. 153