What has happened to Pr?gnanz? Coding, stability, or resonance.

Three theoretical measures of Pr?gnanz were compared with four data sets. The theoretical measures were a stimulus-coding one (structural information load, SIL), a measure related to within memory processes (stability), and one based on the interaction of perception and memory (resonance). The four data sets were obtained in two experiments and involved goodness rating, grouping, and immediate and delayed recall. A complete set of seven-element binary serial patterns was used in each experiment. Both SIL and resonance were shown to correlate reliably with the data sets across tasks. The resonance measure, however, performed best. Pr?gnanz thus appears to be explained better by resonance than by stimulus coding or memory storage. Resonance explained all systematic variance in the recall tasks, but not in the other tasks. Regarding these, partial-correlation analyses showed that the effect of stability could be fully reduced to resonance. SIL could not be similarly reduced. Therefore, additional perceptual constraints, other than resonance, would be needed for a complete account of goodness in the judging or grouping tasks.     

The dynamics of Prägnanz

Summary There is quite wide-spread agreement about the relevance of pattern Pragnanz (Koffka, 1935) with respect to the human interpretation of visual patterns. There is less agreement about whether pattern Pragnanz is based solely on pattern information (static) or also on the history of the perceiver (dynamic). In Van Leeuwen and Van den Hof (1991), experimental data concerning serial patterns are presented within the framework of the dynamic-network approach initiated by Buffart (1986, 1987). These experimental data are claimed to give evidence against the static-coding approach initiated by Leeuwenberg (1969, 1971). In the present paper, however, I show first that Buffart's theoretical basis is incorrect, and that in fact Leeuwenberg's static-coding approach is the basis for the dynamic-network approach. Second, I show that those experimental data rather give evidence in favor of the static-coding approach, by using those same data for a test of the most recent static-coding model (Van der Helm & Leeuwenberg, 1991; Van der Helm, Van Lier, & Leeuwenberg, 1992). Finally, I propose a reconciliation between the two approaches, in the sense that the dynamic-network model could be shaped in such a way that it yields a simulation, and maybe even an enrichment, of the static-coding model.     

Rediscovering Nagy: What happened to contextual therapy?

Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy, originator and leading proponent of contextual family therapy, has been addressing relational ethics for more than 40 years. During the 1980s there was a proliferation of contextual publications. Great interest in the approach seemed to peak and then ebb silently. What happened to contextual therapy? Why has contextual therapy not taken its place among the other widely used and recognized therapeutic models? This article addresses these questions through a review of family therapy literature.     

Quantitative Versuche über die Prägnanz von Punktmustern

Summary The intention of the paper is to describe Prägnanz-phenomena in terms of information theory. Two different concepts for the application of informational variables to perceptual processes are discriminated. For several reasons, Attneave's concept (1951) is preferred: In the sense of information theory single figures can be treated as signal structures; thus the degree of regularity in them should be specifiable in terms of informational variables.Two quasi-informational parameters are used to describe the degree of regularity in simple dot patterns.It was expected that perceived figural quality of dot patterns would increase with the redundancy of spatially distributed messages. At a constant word-length (= constant number of dots), the quality perceived should be the better the lower the entropy (or uncertainty) of the figure.In several experiments the information measures used turned out to be closely related to different operationally defined response-variables for figural quality, e.g. figural goodness-ratings and exactness of the reproduction of dot-positions. Besides, an inverse relationship is observed between interestingness-ratings and redundancy measures.The results are discussed in terms of information theory and psychological concepts. It is shown, that it has important implications on the psychological theory of perception to regard the human perceiver as an information-decoding-system. Apparently there must be some dynamically active system which enables the perceiver to utilize the redundancy of spatial brightness-distributions for sure and quick recognition.     

What happened to analysis in applied behavior analysis?

This paper addresses the current help-oriented focus of researchers in applied behavior analysis. Evidence from a recent volume of JABA suggests that analytic behavior is at low levels in applied analysis while cure-help behavior is at high strength. This low proportion of scientific behavior is apparantly related to cure-help contingencies set by institutions and agencies of help and the editorial policies of JABA itself. These contingencies have favored the flight to real people and a concern with client gains, evaluation and outcome strategies rather than the analysis of contingencies of reinforcement controlling human behavior. In this regard, the paper documents the current separation of applied behavior analysis from the experimental analysis of behavior. There is limited use of basic principles in applied analysis today and almost no reference to the current research in the experimental analysis of behavior involving concurrent operants and adjunctive behavior. This divorce of applied behavior research and the experimental analysis of behavior will mitigate against progress toward a powerful technology of behavior. In order to encourage a return to analysis in applied research, there is a need to consider the objectives of applied behavior analysis. The original purpose of behavioral technology is examined and a re-definition of the concept of "social importance" is presented which can direct applied researchers toward an analytic focus. At the same time a change in the publication policies of applied journals such as JABA toward analytic research and the design of new educational contingencies for students will insure the survival of analysis in applied behavior analysis.     

The Emergence of Prägnanz: Gaetano Kanizsa's Legacies

This paper is devoted to stress the importance of the contribution of Gaetano Kanizsato contemporary psychology. His theoretical ideas have in many respects been truly seminal. In particular, are emphasized his distinction between the primary and secondary process, his criticism of the concept ofPrägnanz, and his focus on self-organisation in a dynamic approach. To continue his work, the main task is to identify the rules and constraints that enable us to see the world as it appears. In the last years of his scientific work, his insight was that the non-linear dynamic approach may be the best way to achieve this goal, giving a more sound sense to the intuitions of Gestalt psychologie.Unfortunately, he died before he could reap the fruits of this insight. Here are reviewed the first results that some among his direct and indirect pupils have obtained in this direction.     

Whatever happened to vocational guidance?

In the 1950s, vocational guidance was dominated by the aim of helping clients to find fulfilment through their work. Since then this 'vocational aim' has been diluted by a flood of developments in vocational theory and research, in counselling practices, and particularly in the nature of work and the patterns of careers. The impact of these various changes on vocational guidance over a period of nearly 40 years is assessed; and the author asks whether it is now feasible, or desirable, to retain the vocational aim.     

What ever happened to the norms for the Matching Familiar Figures Test?

The Matching Familiar Figures Test is used almost exclusively to assess cognitive tempo, e.g., impulsive-reflective, etc., in subjects. Although norms for this test were published by Salkind in 1978, a comprehensive review of the literature on cognitive tempo covering 1979 through 1984 showed only 8% of the reviewed studies used the norms. The problems associated with the failure to use norms, most notably, the inability to generalize findings from one sample to another, are covered.     

Whatever happened to "What might have been"? Regrets, happiness, and maturity

Although lost opportunities and mistaken expectations are unpleasant to think and talk about, these experiences may have a role to play in personality development. Drawing on research using narratives of lost possible selves, the authors review the relations of regrettable experiences to 2 important and independent aspects of maturity, happiness and complexity. Thinking about a lost possible self is related to concurrent regrets, distress, and lowered well-being; however, elaborating on a lost possible self is related, concurrently, to complexity and predicts complexity, prospectively, over time. In this article, the authors describe the role that regrettable experiences have in promoting both happiness and complexity. Finally, expanding on previous work, the authors examine potential affordances of happy maturity and suggest psychological capacities that may promote happy maturity.     

In Forty Years,What has Changed … or Not?

Abstract : Drawing on the background of her own experiences over the past forty years, the author reflects on the marginalization, tokenism, and mainstreaming of women in ministry and feminist theology that has occurred during this time. She calls for greater sensitivity to the realities women globally still face today, and for more interactive, trans‐contextual, and transformational engagement with these realities.     

What Leads Entrepreneurial Employees to Want to Quit,or Stay in,Their Job? Exploring Two Conflicting Mechanisms

Past turnover research has posited personality traits as important antecedents to quit intentions. Nevertheless, previous literature has not investigated the relationship between employees’ entrepreneurial tendencies—a constellation of domain specific traits—and turnover. Drawing on dispositional trait theory and attraction-selection-attrition theory, we propose engagement and intentions to start a business as mediators of the relationship between entrepreneurial tendencies and quit intentions. We test our predictions in a sample of full-time employees from the United Kingdom (N = 224). In line with our hypotheses, an inconsistent mediation is found, where both positive and negative links between entrepreneurial tendencies and turnover intentions were mediated by engagement and intentions to start a business respectively. Thus, entrepreneurial employees were more likely to be engaged, but at the same time also more likely to be considering starting their own business, leading to a conflicting relationship to turnover intentions. The current study informs the human resource management literature concerning the motivational mechanisms explaining turnover intentions among entrepreneurial employees. It also provides practical insights with regards to the effective management of this workforce.     

What happened to our free bioethics search service? The terrible and premature death of BIOETHICSLINE

BIOETHICSLINE, in existence from 1973 thorough 2000, was a bibliographic database covering the English-language literature on bioethical issues. It reflected the cross-disciplinary field of bioethics. During 2001, the National Library of Medicine is expected to dismantle BIOETHICSLINE and incorporate its data into two of their other databases, PubMed and LOCATORplus. Once this is completed, BIOETHICSLINE, as a unified database, will be discontinued. The users of BIOETHICSLINE will no longer have access to this important and useful resource specifically targeted to the vocabulary and cross-disciplinary nature of the bioethics literature. As a scholar and student of bioethics, and as a trained and former reference librarian, I feel it is important to examine these changes and their consequences. There are good reasons to integrate BIOETHICSLINE into these other databases on the NLM Gateway, but I argue that, in addition this integration, BIOETHICSLINE should be continued as a distinct database.     

Whatever happened to the group in social psychology?

For a decade following World War II social psychologists tended to view the individual as an element in a larger system. Research on small groups prospered, and attitudes and social perceptions were conceived to be antecedents and consequences of group activity. But by the 1960's social psychology had become much more individualistic. Interest in the group as a system had waned and research was generally focused on intraindividual events or processes that mediate responses to social situations. We now appear to be passing through a period of transition during which both the content and methodology of past research are being re-evaluated, and from which new trends are likely to emerge.Possible explanations of the changing orientation of social psychology are discussed, and predictions are advanced concerning future developments. It is suggested that social psychologists are responsive to the mood of the times, and that recent social and political unheavals presage a revival of the collectivistic approach.