Tracking the mind during reading: the influence of past, present, and future words on fixation durations

Reading requires the orchestration of visual, attentional, language-related, and oculomotor processing constraints. This study replicates previous effects of frequency, predictability, and length of fixated words on fixation durations in natural reading and demonstrates new effects of these variables related to 144 sentences. Such evidence for distributed processing of words across fixation durations challenges psycholinguistic immediacy-of-processing and eye-mind assumptions. Most of the time the mind processes several words in parallel at different perceptual and cognitive levels. Eye movements can help to unravel these processes.     

Relational and Social Aggression and Reflective Processing in a University Sample

This study examined whether the dimension of reflective processing (e.g., deep and elaborative processing) was connected to the use of relational aggressions, social aggression, or both. A convenience sample of 629 college students (66% female, 91.6% White) was surveyed to ascertain the relation between self-reported relational and social aggression and deep and elaborative processing. The overall multivariate regression model was significant, Wilks’s λ = .12, F(4, 2162) = 1010.80, p < .001. Univariate results were used to show that the two predictors (relational and social aggression) significantly and strongly positively predicted the use of deep processing, R² = .81, p < .001, as well as the use of elaborative processing, R² = .87, p < .001. In summary, higher levels of social and relational aggression were related to higher levels of deep and elaborative processing. Implications for these findings are presented.     

Short- and Long-Term Implicit Memory in Aging and Alzheimer's Disease

ABSTRACT

Implicit memory processes were investigated via picture naming in healthy young and older adults and in persons with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD). Repetition priming in picture-naming was intact in all groups over the course of a short retention interval (seconds), and only the AD group revealed a deficit over a longer interval (72 hours). In addition, the AD group showed impaired procedural memory, with no benefit of practice on picture-naming. Impaired long-term priming was related to severity of AD. Both theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.     

Stereotypic ingroup bias as self‐defense against relative deprivation: evidence from a longitudinal study of the German unification process

In a longitudinal questionnaire field study on psychological consequences of German unification, the intergroup situation between East and West Germans was investigated. Data were collected in 1996 and 1998. The sample consisted of 585 East Germans and 387 West Germans who had never lived in the other part of Germany. It was assumed that East Germans' social identity is threatened due to their fraternal deprivation in comparison with West Germans. It was predicted that East Germans would employ ingroup bias as an identity management strategy in order to protect their emotional well‐being against harmful consequences of fraternal deprivation. In line with this prediction, it was found that (a) East Germans feel fraternally deprived compared to West Germans on important quality of life dimensions, (b) they display ingroup bias vis‐à‐vis West Germans, (c) ingroup bias increases with increasing East German identity, (d) ingroup bias is determined longitudinally by relative deprivation, and (e) ingroup bias buffers the effect of relative deprivation on mental health over time. As expected, ingroup bias and the effects of ingroup bias were larger for the dimension of personal integrity than for the dimensions of sympathy and competence. Ingroup bias is interpreted as compensatory self‐enhancement. West Germans feel fraternally privileged compared to East Germans and consider their advantages to be undeserved. Unexpectedly, West Germans display outgroup bias on the stereotype dimensions of integrity. This bias is interpreted as an effort to appease the moral outrage of East Germans and to silence their own guilty conscience due to undeserved advantages. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Entwicklungstendenzen psychotherapeutischer Praxis und Forschung

This review presents an analysis of articles in the journal “Psychotherapeut” during the years 2000 and 2001 with the focus on new efforts in the field of psychotherapeutic practice and research. The main topics of the journal are the presentation of new therapeutic approaches, some of them integrating different theoretical orientations, and the emphasis on the therapeutic relationship as a specific contribution to the process and the results of psychotherapy. In addition, this article presents a survey of the various subjects in psychotherapeutic research including a) the application and testing of new questionnaires to measure the effectiveness and the process of psychotherapy and b) research in the epidemiology of selected forms of stress, their consequences and lasting effects.     

Science and Religion: Getting Ready for the Future

I explore three challenges for the current dialogue between science and religion: the challenges from hermeneutics, feminisms, and postmodernisms. Hermeneutics, defined as the practice and theory of interpretation and understanding, not only deals with questions of interpreting texts and data but also examines the role and use of language in religion and in science, but it should not stop there. Results of the post‐Kuhnian discussion are used to exemplify a wider range of hermeneutical issues, such as the ideological potential of scientific concepts, the dynamics of interdisciplinarity, and the significance of the socioeconomic situatedness of science and religion. Feminist research analyzes the consequences of the interplay of masculine, feminine, and gender typologies in religion and science. Examples from the history of science as well as current scientific conceptualizations indicate that beliefs in the inferiority of woman form part of our inherited scientific, religious, and metaphysical framework. It is argued that postmodernism in its most constructive form shares the best fruits of modernity, especially of the Enlightenment, while avoiding some of its most serious mistakes. In conclusion, reflecting on the three publics engaged in the dialogue between science and religion—academe, religious communities, and societies—I offer constructive suggestions and critical observations concerning the future of this dialogue.     

EVIDENCE THAT GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SOCIAL DOMINANCE ORIENTATION RESULT FROM GENDERED SELF-STEREOTYPING AND GROUP-INTERESTED RESPONSES TO PATRIARCHY

Numerous studies have found that, compared to women, men express higher levels of social dominance orientation (SDO), an individual difference variable reflecting support for unequal, hierarchical relationships between groups. Recent research suggests that the often-observed gender difference in SDO results from processes related to gender group identity. We hypothesized that two aspects of gender group identity could account for men's higher SDO relative to women's: responses to patriarchy that reflect the interests of the gender ingroup (as measured by hostile and benevolent sexism) and self-stereotyping in gendered terms. We found the gender difference in SDO was fully mediated by gender differences in feminine self-stereotyping, hostile sexism, and benevolent sexism. The discussion addresses implications for social dominance theory's treatment of gender and the complexity of social-contextual forces that produce gender differences in SDO.