Detecting deception: the scope and limits

With the increasing interest in the neuroimaging of deception and its commercial application, there is a need to pay more attention to methodology. The weakness of studying deception in an experimental setting has been discussed intensively for over half a century. However, even though much effort has been put into their development, paradigms are still inadequate. The problems that bedevilled the old technology have not been eliminated by the new. Advances will only be possible if experiments are designed that take account of the intentions of the subject and the context in which these occur.     

The Quality of Response Time Data Inference: A Blinded,Collaborative Assessment of the Validity of Cognitive Models

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - Most data analyses rely on models. To complement statistical models, psychologists have developed cognitive models, which translate observed variables into...     

Participant Reactivity in an Exhibition: The Effect of Overt Observation on Engagement Times

Participant reactivity was examined in a section of the National Park Center Multimar Wattforum in Tönning, Germany, which combines aquariums with exhibits typical of museums and science centers. Engagement times with exhibits were compared between cued and uncued visitors. Cued visitors were overtly observed. Some were also prompted before the observation period to think aloud. Data were collected by paper-and-pencil timing and tracking. Participants spent approximately 15?min in the observation section. Reactivity was not significant for overtly observed cued visitors unless they were asked to think aloud. In this case, reactivity depended on the type of exhibit. Reactivity was high for information stations, moderate for interactive stations, and low for aquariums. The results indicate that reactivity effects are negligible for overt observation if after the cueing no further interaction between participants and observers takes place but increase considerably even with minimal interaction.     

Force Increase in a Repetitive Motor Task Inducing Motor Fatigue

To evaluate task induced motor fatigue in a well-established finger tapping task, we analyzed tapping parameters and included the time course of measures of force. We hypothesized that a decline in tapping force would reflect task induced motor fatigue, defined by a lengthening of inter-tap intervals (ITI). A secondary aim was to investigate the reliability of tapping data acquisition with the force sensor. Results show that, as expected, tapping speed decreased linearly over time, due to both an increase of ITI and tap duration. In contrast, tapping force increased non-linearly over time and was uncorrelated to changes in tapping speed. Force data could serve as a measure to characterize task induced motor fatigue. Force sensors can assess a decline in tapping speed as well as an independent increase of tapping force. We argue that the increase of force reflects central compensation, i.e. perception of fatigue, due to an increase in task effort and difficulty.     

Lies,Harm, And Practical Interests

This paper outlines an account of the ethics of lying, which accommodates two main ideas about lying. The first of these, Anti‐Deceptionalism, is the view that lying does not necessarily involve intentions to deceive. The second, Anti‐Absolutism, is the view that lying is not always morally wrong. It is argued that lying is not wrong in itself, but rather the wrong in lying is explained by different factors in different cases. In some cases such factors may include deceptive intentions on the part of the liar. In other cases, where such intentions are not found, the wrong in lying may be explained by other factors. Moreover, it is argued that the interaction between considerations against lying and considerations against telling the truth are sensitive to the practical interests of those lied to. When the topic of the lie in question matters little to the victim's rational decision making, the threshold for when considerations against telling the truth can outweigh considerations against lying are lowered. This account is seen to explain why lying to avoid little harm is sometimes permissible, and sometimes not.     

Understanding the social emotional practices of therapists

Emotions are central to the therapy process and skilful use by therapists of client emotion is an essential catalyst to client change. However, the contribution of emotion to the therapy process and how therapists’ social emotional skills are incorporated into psychological practice is still unclear. Using a statistical method for mapping psychological constructs, therapists’ social emotional skills were transformed into a “map” with three spatial dimensions, which was supported by comparative reliability checks. The nature of social emotional skills was further investigated by administering a Q-Sort of emotional practice items to 47 therapists. Ten highly applicable clusters of social emotional skills across seven style patterns with therapists were identified. Tentative links were drawn between demographic data and both clusters and therapist styles. These findings suggest therapists’ social emotional skills can be organised into meaningful clusters and that therapists can be styled according to their responses across these clusters. Furthermore, gaps identified in the model suggest possible “blind spots” in the literature. The implications of these findings are significant for training and practice.     

Self-knowledge and varieties of human excellence in the French moralists

Contemporary accounts of knowing one’s own mental states can be instructively supplemented by early modern accounts that understand self-knowledge as an important factor for flourishing human life. This article argues that in the early modern French moralists, one finds diverging conceptions of how knowing one’s own personal qualities could constitute a kind of human excellence: François de la Rochefoucauld (1613–80) argues that the value of knowing one’s own character faults could contribute to an attitude of self-acceptance that liberates one from the effort of deceiving oneself and others. Madeleine de Scudéry (1607–1701) argues that knowing one’s own character faults could be an incentive for self-cultivation that leads to the development of character traits that are naturally good. Anne-Thérèse de Lambert (1647–1733) concurs with Scudéry’s insight and develops it further. According to Lambert, self-knowledge is crucial for developing character traits that give rise to the natural right of being esteemed by others and, hence, crucial for justified and stable self-esteem.     

Rationales Handeln und historische Erklärung

Summary   Rational Choice and Historical Explanation. The dichotomy between narrative and causal approaches is one of the most discussed problems in historical explanation. The main problem seems to be that many philosophers and historians do not agree with the argument of analytical philosophy of history that explanations demand law-like assumptions. Even Arthur C. Danto, however, who is often regarded as the founder of narrative explanatory approaches, did not leave causality behind. Contrarily, he defended the covering-law-scheme against unfounded criticism and showed that causality and narration can be reconciled. But Danto did not say which laws should play a major role in historical explanations. This gap could be bridged by one of the most successful research programs in the social sciences over the last decades, the Rational Choice approach. This approach should, however, be reduced to its basic assumption, the presumption of subjective rationality (which principally corresponds an older hermeneutic tradition), and be integrated into the “model of a sociological explanation” (which is very popular among European sociologists). The result is a concept of a historical explanation that does justice to the linguistic turn (in its formulation by Willard Van Orman Quine), to the demands of the covering-law-scheme and to the ambitions of historians to narrate and explain a historical phenomenon at the same time.     

Pain modulation during drives through cold and hot virtual environments.

Evidence exists that virtual worlds reduce pain perception by providing distraction. However, there is no experimental study to show that the type of world used in virtual reality (VR) distraction influences pain perception. Therefore, we investigated whether pain triggered by heat or cold stimuli is modulated by "warm "or "cold " virtual environments and whether virtual worlds reduce pain perception more than does static picture presentation. We expected that cold worlds would reduce pain perception from heat stimuli, while warm environments would reduce pain perception from cold stimuli. Additionally, both virtual worlds should reduce pain perception in general. Heat and cold pain stimuli thresholds were assessed outside VR in 48 volunteers in a balanced crossover design. Participants completed three 4-minute assessment periods: virtual "walks " through (1) a winter and (2) an autumn landscape and static exposure to (3) a neutral landscape. During each period, five heat stimuli or three cold stimuli were delivered via a thermode on the participant's arm, and affective and sensory pain perceptions were rated. Then the thermode was changed to the other arm, and the procedure was repeated with the opposite pain stimuli (heat or cold). We found that both warm and cold virtual environments reduced pain intensity and unpleasantness for heat and cold pain stimuli when compared to the control condition. Since participants wore a head-mounted display (HMD) in both the control condition and VR, we concluded that the distracting value of virtual environments is not explained solely by excluding perception of the real world. Although VR reduced pain unpleasantness, we found no difference in efficacy between the types of virtual world used for each pain stimulus.     

The Social Construction of Inter-Ethnic Marriages in the Greek Cypriot (GC) Republic of Cyprus: An Ethnographic Investigation of GC Male Marriages to Eastern European (EE) Females

This exploratory ethnographic investigation attempts to delve into the intrapersonal and interpersonal gender/sexual roles and marital dynamics of Greek Cypriot (GC) male marriages to Eastern European (EE) females. European Westernization and consumerism, with its increased attention on self-actualization, sexual fulfillment, material well-being, women’s rights, and men’s parental and emotional involvement, has led, over the past two decades, to a reconfiguration of the traditional GC values and beliefs concerning appropriate male and female gender/sexual roles and identities. This, in turn, has created considerable confusion over the marital roles and expectations of GC male and female partners, who seem to be waging a difficult struggle to effectively and efficiently combine Western European and GC traditional standards in their own families. Ethnographic analysis of a limited sample of 20 GC males married to EE females indicate that the former prefer EE to GC wives because of better-reported emotional, psychological, and sexual satisfaction.