Encoding, repetition, and the mirror effect in recognition memory: Symmetry in motion

Attention/likelihood theory has been used to explain the mirror effect in recognition memory. The theory also predicts that any manipulation that affects the recognition of old items will also affect recognition of the new items—more specifically, that all the underlying distributions will move and that they will move symmetrically on the decision axis. In five experiments, we tested this prediction. The first two experiments used encoding tasks during study to change recognition performance for high- and low-frequency words. The results show symmetrical dispersion of the underlying distributions. The final three experiments used repetition to increase recognition performance. Repetition produced a symmetrical pattern of movement that was different from that produced by encoding task. This pattern is, however, also covered by attention/likelihood theory. A further extension of the theory was used to predict response times.     

Recognition memory ROCs for item and associative information: The contribution of recollection and familiarity

Receiver-operating characteristics (ROCs) were examined in three recognition memory experiments. ROCs for item information (i.e., was this word presented?) were found to be curvilinear. However, ROCs for associative information (i.e., were these two words presented together?) were found to be linear. The results are in agreement with the predictions of a dual-process model that assumes that recognition judgments are -based on familiarity and recollection. Familiarity reflects the assessment of a continuous strength dimension and is well described as a signal detection process, whereas recollection reflects the retrieval of qualitative information about the study episode and behaves like a discrete threshold process. The results showed that memory judgments about items relied on a combination of recollection and familiarity, but that judgments about associations relied primarily on recollection. Further examination of the associative ROCs suggested that subjects were able to recollect that old pairs of items were in the study list, and, under some conditions, that new pairs were not in the study list.     

DEGREES OF FREEDOM AND THE INTERPRETATION OF QUANTUM FIELD THEORY

Nick Huggett and Robert Weingard (1994) have recently proposed a novel approach to interpreting field theories in physics, one which makes central use of the fact that a field generally has an infinite number of degrees of freedom in any finite region of space it occupies. Their characterization, they argue, (i) reproduces our intuitive categorizations of fields in the classical domain and thereby (ii) provides a basis for arguing that the quantum field is a field. Furthermore, (iii) it accomplishes these tasks better than does a well-known rival approach due to Paul Teller (1990, 1995). This paper contends that all three of these claims are mistaken, and suggests that Huggett and Weingard have not shown how counting degrees of freedom provides any insight into the interpretation or the formal properties of field theories in physics.     

Instance-based categorization: Automatic versus intentional forms of retrieval

Two experiments are reported which attempt to disentangle the relative contribution of intentional and automatic forms of retrieval to instance-based categorization. A financial decision-making task was used in which subjects had to decide whether a bank would approve loans for a series of applicants. Experiment 1 found that categorization was sensitive to instance-specific knowledge, even when subjects had practiced using a simple rule. L. L. Jacoby’s (1991) process-dissociation procedure was adapted for use in Experiment 2 to infer the relative contribution of intentional and automatic retrieval processes to categorization decisions. The results provided (1) strong evidence that intentional retrieval processes influence categorization, and (2) some preliminary evidence suggesting that automatic retrieval processes may also contribute to categorization decisions.     

Signifying harassment: Communication,ambiguity and power

This essay reports on phenomenological research conducted with people who describe having been harassed, having been accused of harassment, and/or having mediated or adjudicated harassment disputes. The authors review recent legal conceptions of sexual harassment and articulate a methodology for analyzing individual narrative accounts. The analysis of six selected interviews (three alleged harassers and three declared harassees) depicts how, through discourse with others, persons in ambiguous cases of harassment come to perceive themselves as harassers or harasseesgradually, how intention is inferred from conductcontingently, and how perceptions and expressions are often reified as certainties in the effort to secure some sense of justiceinstitutionally.Many people have been involved with this project since its inception, and most wish to remain anonymous. We would like to thank all participants, colleagues, students, and critics for their contributions and expressions of interest. We would especially like to acknowledge Thomas Pace and Richard Lanigan for their teaching, friendship and support, and Frances Chaput Waksler for her helpful comments. An earlier version of this paper was presented to The Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences, Boston MA, USA, October 1992.     

Interbehavioral field systems assessment: Examining its utility in preservice teacher education

Behavior analytic evaluation instruments should benefit teacher education programs in assessing: (a) teacher and student interactions in practice teaching settings, and (b) the immediate and long range effects of the teacher training received. Though empirical substantiation remains scarce, such instruments may be designed to foster teacher trainee sensitivity to, and better control of, complex stimulus and response mechanisms which either impede or facilitate learning. This study analyzed one technologically driven Behavior Analysis Strategy and Taxonomy (BEST) and related Temporal Analysis System (TAS) (Hawkins, Sharpe, & Ray, 1994) currently used within one preservice teacher education program. A multiple probe design with experimental and control groups demonstrated the instruments' effects when used as an instructional feedback tool with teachers in training. Findings supported the instruments' use in terms of teacher and student behavior changes demonstrated for the experimental group as compared to a control group not exposed to the instrument. Implications of this technology when applied to teacher education are last described.     

Effects of test anxiety, ego stress, and attentional skills training on arithmetic reasoning: An experimental evaluation of a brief counseling strategy

Abstract Two hundred forty high school students (120 male and 120 female) in India performed a moderately difficult multiple choice Arithmetic Reasoning task after undergoing short-term (40 minutes) cognitive treatment in the form of Attentional Skills Training. A 2 × 2 × 2 (Test Anxiety x Attentional Skills Training x Stress) design with separate analysis for boys and girls indicated these results: with intervention the high anxiety subjects under ego stress conditions, compared to their high-anxious control, low-anxious ego stress, or low-anxious control counterparts, reported the maximum significant improvement in performance on the Arithmetic Reasoning test. The low-anxiety subjects performed consistently well with or without treatment or stress conditions. The findings shed new light on the attentional theory of test anxiety, and it was reasoned that long-term effects of cognitive treatment be studied by using varied performance tasks (difficulty level controlled) on different gender and age groups across cultures.     

Suffering, sovereignty, and the purposes of God: Christian convictions and medical killing.

Despite a variety of "non-ecumenical" features in Christian arguments about suicide, assisted suicide, and euthanasia, there are obvious "ecumenical" aspects to be found in the general Christian prohibition of these practices. A fair reading of the Christian tradition requires that we acknowledge both the differences that distinguish particular perspectives and the fundamental themes that allow an identifiably Christian position to emerge in stark contrast to the secular discussion of these issues. Central to Christian interpretations of dying and death are an acknowledgment of God's sovereignty over human life, an understanding of suffering that stresses identification with Christ as the source of Christian hope, and the recognition that God's creative and redemptive purposes are generally (or always) at odds with the deliberate choice of assisted suicide or euthanasia.     

Ethics education in science and engineering: The case of animal research

Conclusion The past one hundred fifty years of debate over the use of animals in research and testing has been characterized mainly byad hominem attacks and on uncritical rejection of the other sides’ arguments. In the classroom, it is important to avoid repeating exercises in public relations and to demand sound scholarship. This paper is a modification of material originally included in the handbook which accompanied the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Seminar “Teaching Ethics in Science and Engineering”, 10–11 February 1993.     

Organizational stress and stress management programs

There is a growing awareness of how stress adversely affects organizational efficiency. The implementation of stress management programs to counteract this problem has been slow. This study examined such programs in companies who claimed that they were active and successful in stress management for their employees. The successful features of these organizational stress management programs are identified, discussed, and a model for organizations is presented.