Cognitive functioning and anxiety

Summary Various possible differences in cognitive functioning between those high and low in trait anxiety are considered. Particular emphasis is paid to the hypothesis that individuals high in trait anxiety tend to approach threatening stimuli, whereas those low in trait anxiety tend to avoid such stimuli. The evidence indicates that there are such differences in the processing of threatening stimuli as a function of trait anxiety. However, these differences are found only under certain conditions, for example, when threatening and nonthreatening stimuli are presented concurrently, and when minor rather than major threat is involved.The differences between those high and low in trait anxiety encompass pre-attentive, attentional, and interpretative mechanisms. As a consequence, any adequate theory of trait anxiety must take proper account of cognitive mechanisms and functioning.     

Extension of Heider's ideas to rehabilitation psychology

Fritz Heider received the Psychological Science Gold Medal Award at the 1987 Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. This article was prepared for the symposium honoring his contributions. It shows the power of his conceptual framework as a basis for systematizing attitude-change attempts involving disability, as well as the need for affirmative action. The analysis involves such concepts as balance, unit-forming factors, sentiment, and ought.     

Ego-involvement leads to positive self-schema activation and to a positivity bias in information processing

Study 1 examined the hypothesis that ego-involvement leads to positive self-schema activation. Ego-involvement was induced by having experimental subjects anticipate a difficult test of intelligence. Noninvolved control subjects did not anticipate the test. All subjects completed a depth-of-processing task, following which incidental recall was assessed. Ego-involved relative to noninvolved subjects tended to recall a greater number of positive and fewer negative words at both the self-referent and semantic processing levels. Study 2 was conducted to address further the self-schema hypothesis and to address the hypothesis suggested by the results of Study 1 that ego-involvement leads to a positivity bias in information processing. The design of Study 2 was similar to that of Study 1. Results revealed that the self-favorability of negative words recalled at the self-referent level was greater for ego-involved than for noninvolved subjects, suggesting positive self-schema activation. In addition, ego-involved subjects recalled a greater number of positive words at the semantic level, suggesting a positivity bias in information processing.Study 2 was conducted by Andrew Howell in partial fulfillment of the requirements of a Master of Arts degree at Concordia University, under the supervision of Michael Conway. The authors thank Karin Stiefenhofer for her work on the project. The research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Fonds pour la Formation de Chercheurs et l'Aide à la Recherche du Québec grants to Michael Conway.     

Effects of semantic priming on visual encoding of pictures

We investigated the effects of semantic priming on initial encoding of briefly presented pictures of objects and scenes. Pictures in four experiments were presented for varying durations and were followed immediately by a mask. In Experiments 1 and 2, pictures of simple objects were either preceded or not preceded by the object's category name (e.g., dog). In Experiment 1 we measured immediate object identification; in Experiment 2 we measured delayed old/new recognition in which targets and distractors were from the same categories. In Experiment 3 naturalistic scenes were either preceded or not preceded by the scene's category name (e.g., supermarket). We measured delayed recognition in which targets and distractors were described by the same category names. In Experiments 1-3, performance was better for primed than for unprimed pictures. Experiment 4 was similar to Experiment 2 in that we measured delayed recognition for simple objects. As in Experiments 1-3, a prime that preceded the object improved subsequent memory performance for the object. However, a prime that followed the object did not affect subsequent performance. Together, these results imply that priming leads to more efficient information acquisition. We offer a picture-processing model that accounts for these results. The model's central assumption is that knowledge of a picture's category (gist) increases the rate at which visual information is acquired from the picture.     

The relationship of selected consultant/teacher characteristics to consultation outcomes

This study examined the relationship of teacher life position, teacher dogmatism, perceived consultant facilitativeness, years of teacher teaching experience and number of consultations per year to the consultation outcomes of teacher satisfaction, teacher strength, and problem resolution. A number of significant findings resulted, with the consultant's perceived facilitativeness being the main predictor of the desirable consultation outcomes. These results are consistent with some earlier findings. Some results that are inconsistent with other studies also are discussed.     

Student perception of school environment and its relationship to mood,achievement, popularity,and adjustment

This study examined relationships between student perceptions of classroom environment and mood, achievement, popularity, and adjustment, both for students in general and for problem (i.e., acting-out, anxious, and unpopular) children. Subjects included 511 fifth- and sixth-grade students from 23 classes in four suburban schools. Class environment was assessed by responses to a short form of the Classroom Environment Scale (CES). Students also completed mood adjective checklists and peer sociometric ratings. Reading and arithmetic report card grades and achievement test scores were recorded for the school year, and teachers submitted adjustment ratings for all students. Classes, rather than students, were used as the main unit of analysis. For classes in general, high perceived Order and Organization and Affiliation related to greater student popularity. Relationships between perceptions of class environment and the dependent measures were stronger for problem students. For that group, high perceived Order and Organization, Affiliation, and Innovation related to positive mood, greater peer popularity, and teacher ratings indicating more positive adjustment. This study was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH 14574-04) and the New York State Department of Education. That support is acknowledged with gratitude as are specific contributions made by Evelyn Arlas, Ellis L. Gesten, and Elizabeth Kaplan.     

The component awareness and accuracy of dual- and single-jointed actions

The accuracy with which people execute wrist and elbow movements were measured using three main conditions: (i) single-jointed (wrist or elbow) movements to targets, (ii) dual-jointed (wrist and elbow) movements to targets, and (iii) components of dual-jointed movements to targets, when the task for the subject was to perform the elbow or wrist constituent of the action in isolation, without displacing the second joint. Elbow precision was significantly worse under component than dual conditions, which is compatible with the notion that wrist and elbow activity are conjugately, rather than independently, programmed when a dual-jointed action is performed. The pattern of wrist accuracy was divergent, but possible reasons for this were discussed. In all cases, error was measured in terms of deviation from perfect posture; using this index, the hypothesis that incorporating more moving joints into an action serves to increase movement complexity and jeopardise precision was tested, but the results were ambiguous. Discussion also centered on the problems of using performance data to infer changes in motor programming, and the need for rigorous conceptualisation and research in this area.     

A satellite system for controlling real-time experiments

In this paper, we describe a computer system for controlling real-time psychology experiments. We begin by considering the kinds of experiments that are performed in our laboratory and examining the hardware and software requirements of these experiments. We then review various systems along a continuum ranging from general-purpose timesharing systems to stand-alone dedicated processors. The capabilities of these systems are described in comparison with our requirements. The features of the PARASITE-FS system are then described. This host-satellite system includes a local file system and monitor program, real-time device drivers with flexible interrupt processing capabilities, user-level routines for controlling the real-time devices, and a package for controlling the timing of experimental events.     

Strict finitism

Conclusion Dummett's objections to the coherence of the strict finitist philosophy of mathematics are thus, at the present time at least, ill-taken. We have so far no definitive treatment of Sorites paradoxes; so no conclusive ground for dismissing Dummett's response — the response of simply writing off a large class of familiar, confidently handled expressions as semantically incoherent. I believe that cannot be the right response, if only because it threatens to open an unacceptable gulf between the insight into his own understanding available to a philosophically reflective speaker and the conclusions available to one confined to observing the former's linguistic practice; for an observer of our linguistic practice could never justifiably arrive at the conclusion that red, child, etc., are governed by inconsistent rules. But the Sorites is not the subject of this paper. The points I hope to have made plausible are: that a generalized intuitionist position cannot be so much as formulated and that even a most local intuitionism, argued for the special case of arithmetic, is hard pressed effectively to stabilize and defend itself; that strict finitism remains the natural outcome of the anti-realism which Dummett has propounded by way of support for the intuitionist philosophy of mathematics; that it is powerfully buttressed by the ideas of the latter Wittgenstein on rule-following; and that there is no extant compelling reason to suppose that its involvement with predicates of surveyability calls its coherence into question. The correct philosophical assessment of strict finitism, and its proper mathematical exegesis, remain absolutely open, almost virgin issues. This is not a situation which philosophers of mathematics should tolerate very much longer.The term was introduced by Kreisel in [6] to denote what he took to be an aspect of Wittgenstein's later philosophy of mathematics; and taken over by Kielkopf (Strict Finitism, Mouton 1970) — misunderstanding, as it seems to me, both Kreisel and Wittgenstein — as a label for Wittgenstein's later philosophy of maths. in its entirety. It is not a happy label for the ideas I am concerned with, since it is only from non-strict finitist points of view that the strict finitist can be straightforwardly seen as stressing the finitude of human capacities, countenancing only finite sets, etc. (See subsections 5 and 6 below). But we need a labeel; and Dummett in [3] has already followed Kreisel's lead. Anyway, a rose by any other name,...     

Trance and confusion in Gestalt therapy

This article introduces hypnotic principles of confusion and trance as fundamental operations in Gestalt therapy. A process is identified which utilizes perceptual shifts of reference as a method of organizing Gestalt techniques. The sequence of operations constituting the confusion process is outlined and developed in a psychotherapy session through the use of implication, dissociation, and embodiment. The development of this organization of Gestalt therapy is intended to enhance the strategic capacities of therapists.