Collective interviewing of suspects

When people are interviewed about possible wrongdoing that has been committed in groups, they typically are interviewed separately. Yet, in several settings it would be more intuitive and convenient to interview suspects together. Importantly, such collective interviews could yield verbal cues to deception. This is the first deception experiment to investigate collective interviewing. Twenty-one pairs of truth tellers and 22 pairs of liars were interviewed pair-wise about having had lunch together in a restaurant. Given that truth tellers adopt a “tell it all” strategy in the interviews while, in contrast, liars prefer to keep their stories simple, we predicted that pairs of truth tellers would (i) interrupt and (ii) correct each other more, and would (iii) add more information to each other's answers than pairs of liars. The results supported these hypotheses. Theory-driven interventions to elicit more cues to deception through simultaneous interviewing are discussed.     

High second‐language proficiency protects against the effects of reverberation on listening comprehension

The purpose of this experiment was to investigate whether classroom reverberation influences second‐language (L2) listening comprehension. Moreover, we investigated whether individual differences in baseline L2 proficiency and in working memory capacity (WMC) modulate the effect of reverberation time on L2 listening comprehension. The results showed that L2 listening comprehension decreased as reverberation time increased. Participants with higher baseline L2 proficiency were less susceptible to this effect. WMC was also related to the effect of reverberation (although just barely significant), but the effect of WMC was eliminated when baseline L2 proficiency was statistically controlled. Taken together, the results suggest that top‐down cognitive capabilities support listening in adverse conditions. Potential implications for the Swedish national tests in English are discussed.     

Ethical breaches and deviations of method in psychoanalysis: A heuristic model for the differentiation of boundary transgressions in psychoanalytic work

The boundary concept has been central to discussions on ethics and psychoanalysis over the past few decades. The main distinction has been between less malignant boundary crossings and more harmful violations. More recently, the concept has been criticized as not discriminating between technique and ethics. The author argues that these problems are connected to the way the boundary concept is defined. He suggests that it is specified to indicate a delimitation of an analytic area of conduct. In an analogous manner, an area of ethical conduct is framed by a boundary between ethical and unethical actions in the treatment situation. The analytic area has a narrower limitation than ethics and a stricter articulation of its concept of attitude; not all unanalytic actions are unethical. This simple model of interpersonally specified boundaries allows us to discriminate between different kinds of transgression in analytic work. In addition to violations and crossings, a third instance is described denoting a transgression of the analytic but not the ethical boundary. These can be called boundary stretchings, and are either intended or unintended deviations of method. The slippery slope mechanism of ethical misconduct is an imminent risk if boundary stretchings are ignored and not subject to scrutiny and analysis.     

At the borders of medical reasoning: aetiological and ontological challenges of medically unexplained symptoms

Medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) remain recalcitrant to the medical profession, proving less suitable for homogenic treatment with respect to their aetiology, taxonomy and diagnosis. While the majority of existing medical research methods are designed for large scale population data and sufficiently homogenous groups, MUS are characterised by their heterogenic and complex nature. As a result, MUS seem to resist medical scrutiny in a way that other conditions do not. This paper approaches the problem of MUS from a philosophical point of view. The aim is to first consider the epistemological problem of MUS in a wider ontological and phenomenological context, particularly in relation to causation. Second, the paper links current medical practice to certain ontological assumptions. Finally, the outlines of an alternative ontology of causation are offered which place characteristic features of MUS, such as genuine complexity, context-sensitivity, holism and medical uniqueness at the centre of any causal set-up, and not only for MUS. This alternative ontology provides a framework in which to better understand complex medical conditions in relation to both their nature and their associated research activity.     

POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS REACTIONS AMONGST RESCUE WORKERS AFTER A MAJOR RAIL ACCIDENT

Abstract

Rescue tasks under heavy strain may act as traumatic events creating stress reactions among the rescue workers. After a major rail accident the rescue workers were examined by questionnaire at 3 and 7 months postaccident using the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ), Impact of Event Scale (IES) and a structured questionnaire made for the purpose. Eighteen percent of the 77 rescue workers who participated in the study had GHQ-case-score and 10% had IES-case-score at 7 months using the usual GHQ-cut-off (4/5) and a low IES-cut-off (19/20). For the case-scorers there was a tendency towards increased GHQ- and IES-scores from 3 to 7 months. Five (6%) had post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) of low to moderate severity at 7 months.     

Contempt and self-contempt

Clinical material characterized by devaluation of the analyst will be used to illustrate the classical narcissistic mechanism: grandiosity and contempt as a defense against feelings of inferiority, shame and dependency. The analysand's asocial behavior is related to this narcissistic dynamics and to the question of relative degree of split-off guilt and structural deficit. Technical problems connected to asocial behavior will also be considered. Finally, the holding function of the analytic setting and its importance to mental growth is dealt with.     

Attitude toward environmental policy measures related to value orientation

Moderated mediation effects on attitude toward environmental policy measures of a self‐enhancement vs. self‐transcendence value orientation were examined in two studies. Study 1 (n = 91) showed that for policy measures incurring nontransparent personal costs, influence of value orientation on attitude is fully mediated by environmental concern, whereas for measures incurring transparent personal costs, influence is partially mediated by environmental concern. Study 2 (n = 71) showed that while influence of value orientation on attitude toward eco‐labeled electricity is not mediated by environmental concern, it is fully mediated by reluctance to pay surcharges for eco‐labeled electricity. Value orientation was also shown to moderate influence of reluctance to pay on attitude in that reluctance had an effect only for a self‐enhancement value orientation.     

A TMS study of the ventral projections from V1 with implications for the finding of neural correlates of consciousness

The study of subliminal perception in normal and brain lesioned subjects has long been of interest to scholars studying the neural mechanisms behind conscious vision. Using brief durations and a developed methodology of introspective reporting, we present an experiment with visual stimuli that gives rise to little or no subliminal perception under normal viewing conditions. Coupled with transcranial magnetic stimulation, however, we find a dissociation between correctness and conscious awareness. Furthermore, we find support for the hypothesis that the ventral projection streams from V1 are necessary for visual consciousness.