Mueller-Lyer illusion and size estimation performance in schizophrenics compared to normal controls

A size estimation (SE) paradigm and the Mueller-Lyer (ML) illusion were used to examine perceptual disturbances in schizophrenics. 35 reliably diagnosed (DSM III-R) schizophrenics were compared to 20 subjects with no history of psychiatric illness. Perceptual distortions found in previous studies of schizophrenics were only to a certain extent confirmed in the present results. More overestimators were found among the schizophrenics than among the normals on the SE task. The schizophrenics, first of all the chronic patients, also proved to be more prone to the Mueller-Lyer illusion. A reason why the very clear differences between schizophrenics and normals found in previous examinations were not confirmed in the present study, might be that a reliable diagnostic instrument was for the first time used in this kind of study.     

Noradrenaline loss and the disruption of between-CS stimulus generalisation effects in aversion learning

In stimulus blocking the previous conditioning to one stimulus, A, followed by conditioning to the compound stimulus, AB, results in less conditioning to the other stimulus, B. Three experiments were performed to study the effect of the prior pairing of a stimulus A (noisy bottle) with lithium chloride followed by stimulus AB (saccharin plus noisy bottle) and lithium chloride pairings upon the strength of the aversion to the target stimuls B (saccharin) in NA-depleted and control rats. The results obtained were not in keeping with a "blocking" explanation since enhancement, rather than blocking, of the saccharin aversion was obtained, and confirm several recent demonstrations of the "anti-blocking" effect from investigations using the conditioned suppression procedure. DSP4 treatment attenuated the aversion-enhancement ("anti-blocking") effects in all three experiments. The possibility that DSP4-induced noradrenaline depletions may cause some disruption of between-CS associations leading to a lesser higher order conditioning or stimulus generalisation is discussed and the present findings do add further evidence to the conclusion that noradrenaline is intimately involved in attentional processes.     

Visual speech processing: Word-decoding and word-discrimination related to sentence-based speechreading and hearing-impairment

Two aspects of visual speech processing in speechreading (word decoding and word discrimination) were tested in a group of 24 normal hearing and a group of 20 hearing-impaired subjects. Word decoding and word discrimination performance were independent of factors related to the impairment, both in a quantitative and a qualitative sense. Decoding skill, but not discrimination skill, was associated with sentence-based speechreading. The results were interpreted such that, in order to represent a critical component process in sentence-based speechreading, the visual speech perception task must entail lexically induced processing as a task-demand. The theoretical status of the word decoding task as one operationalization of a speech decoding module was discussed (Fodor, 1983). An error analysis of performance in the word decoding/discrimination tasks suggested that the perception of heard stimuli, as well as the perception of lipped stimuli, were critically dependent on the same features; that is, the temporally initial phonetic segment of the word (cf. Marslen-Wilson, 1987). Implications for a theory of visual speech perception were discussed.     

An Investigation of the Relationship between Age,Achievement, and Creativity in Mathematics

In this exploratory study, I investigate the relationship between age, knowledge, and creativity in mathematics, by looking at to what extent does grade level, controlled for mathematical achievement, influence mathematical creativity and what characterizes the relationship between grade level, mathematical achievement and mathematical creativity. This was accomplished in two steps. In the first part, 301 students, 184 grade eight students and 117 grade eleven students, were given a creative mathematics test. A 3 × 2 ANOVA indicates that the older students were more creative; however, there was a significant interaction effect between grade level and achievement in mathematics on mathematical creativity. In the second part, an inductive content analysis was performed on the solutions of high achievers in grade eleven and grade eight. The results indicate that high achievers in grade eight are more creative than high achievers in grade eleven, but the nature of the task mediates the relationship between creativity and knowledge.     

NARROW HEDONISM

Narrow hedonism is defined and defended, as a view according to which pleasurable states are individuated as concrete and total experiential situations of a sentient being at a time. Typical of such situations is that, when we are in them, we are at a certain hedonic level. They feel in a certain way for the creature in them. On this understanding of narrow hedonism, which is the only one making good sense of the theory and which was probably also intended by classical hedonists such as Bentham and Edgeworth, standard objections to hedonism, based on the claim that different pleasures have nothing in common, can be set to one side as misplaced and irrelevant. It is also hard to see how this kind of hedonism can be refined, or revised, in the direction indicated by J.S. Mill, when he wants to distinguish “higher” pleasures from “lower” ones. On this understanding of hedonism, we must claim that, those who want to follow Mill will have to rely on non-hedonistic intuitions and thus desert the hedonist camp altogether.     

The Trauma Related Shame Inventory: Measuring Trauma-Related Shame Among Patients with PTSD

This article proposes a new measurement instrument of trauma-related shame. The purpose of this study is to investigate the psychometric properties of the scores derived from the Trauma Related Shame Inventory (TRSI) by means of generalizability theory (G-theory). The psychometric analyses are based on a sample of 50 patients in treatment for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The results provided supporting construct validity evidence for the interpretation of TRSI as a homogeneous construct. The 24-item version of internal and external referenced shame yielded generalizability and dependability coefficients of .874 and .868, respectively. The distinction between shame and guilt was supported by a high generalizability coefficient of .812 for the difference scores between TRSI and guilt cognition scale. Further validity evidence was provided by a positive relationship between TRSI and a) self-judgment subscale in Self-Compassion Scale (SCS; Neff Self and Identity 2:(3), 223–250, 2003) and b) Beck Depression Inventory (Beck Steer and Brown 1996a) when controlled for guilt. The results of the present study provided promising support for using the 24-item version of TRSI in both clinical research and practice.     

Socio-technical communication: The hybrid space and the OLB model for science-based cyber education

Lessons from safety-critical sociotechnical systems, such as aviation and acute medical care, demonstrate the importance of the human factor and highlight the crucial role of efficient communication between human agents. Although a large proportion of fatal incidents in aviation have been linked to failures in communication, cognitive engineering provides the theoretical framework to mitigate risks and increase performance in sociotechnical systems not only in the civil sector, but also in the military domain. Conducting cyber operations in multidomain battles presents new challenges for military training and education as the increased importance of psychological factors such as metacognitive skills and perspective-taking both in lower and higher ranking staff, becomes more apparent. The Hybrid Space framework (Jøsok et al., 2016) provides a blueprint for describing the cognitive and behavioral constraints for maneuvering between socio-technical and cyber-physical systems whilst cooperating, coordinating or competing with accompanying cognitive styles in the chain of command. We apply the Hybrid Space framework to communicative challenges in the military cyber domain and suggest a three-phase Orienting, Locating, Bridging model for safe and efficient communication between partners. Based on the educational principles of the Norwegian Defence Cyber Academy, we discuss the required skill-sets and knowledge in which cyber officer cadets are trained and taught early in their education, and how these refer to the theoretical framework of the Hybrid Space and the key principles of communication as defined in cognitive engineering.     

Self-Reported Psychological Well-Being and Disease-Related Strains among Adults with Diabetes

The study was designed to describe self-reported psychological well-being among adults with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes and to explore associations of psychological well-being with disease-related strains, such as self-reported long-term complications, frequency of hypoglycaemia and disablement or sick-leave. A sample comprising 534 Norwegian adults with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes aged 25-70 years participated in the study. Psychological well-being was assessed using three different scales; the WHO (Ten) Well-Being Index, the Short Zung Depression Rating Scale and four items from the anxiety sub-scale of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist. Findings indicate that adults with both types of diabetes reported relatively poor psychological well-being. There was a tendency for younger persons to report the worst psychological well-being. For symptoms of anxiety this tendency was most evident among people with Type 2 diabetes. People being disabled due to diabetes reported relatively markedly impaired psychological well-being, whereas self-reported diabetes-related complications and the number of episodes with hypoglycaemia were weakly associated with psychological well-being. Findings may indicate that healthcare practitioners should pay more attention to the psychological needs of people with diabetes. This applies especially to younger people with Type 2 diabetes.     

602 and One Dead: On Contribution to Global Poverty and Liability to Defensive Force

Abstract: When suggesting that we—the affluent in the developed world—are legitimate targets of defensive force due to our contribution to global poverty one is likely to be countered by one of two strategies. The first denies that we contribute to global poverty. The second seems to affirm that we contribute, and even that we have stringent contribution‐based duties to address this poverty, but denies that such contribution makes forcible resistance permissible. Those in this second group employ several argumentative strategies. In this paper I investigate these strategies for denying the force‐related implication of contribution to poverty. I do not argue for political violence or for the permissibility of targeting the affluent, I merely investigate a conditional: if contribution to global poverty generates stringent duties to address it, then this contribution implies permission on the part of the victims to defend themselves with force, or for third parties to use force on their behalf.     

Work performance norms and organizational efficacy as cross-level effects on the relationship between individual perceptions of self-efficacy,overcommitment, and work-related stress

In the past 10 years, there has been increasing interest in applying multilevel analysis to explain how psychosocial work conditions may influence organizational behaviour. In the present study, we investigated how the individual level variables of self-efficacy and overcommitment may relate to job stress within an analytic context controlling for the main effects of dimensions of the psychosocial work environment, as well as the employees' collective perceptions of work performance norms and organizational efficacy beliefs. The final sample consisted of 924 employees from the food and beverage industry in Norway. Hierarchical linear analysis shows that overcommitment and self-efficacy together have significant main effects on stress. As expected, the results show that overcommitment is positively related to experiences of stress and self efficacy is negatively related to work-related stress. Norms governing performance, magnitude of production, attendance, and work pressure in the workplace are directly and positively related to job stress experiences at the individual level. Contrary to our expectations we did not find a significant interaction effect of work performance norms, nor did we find main or interactional cross-level effects of organizational efficacy on stress.