Verbal interference in a perceptual comparison task

When Ss had to indicate if the colors of pairs of items from the Stroop test were the same or different, the usual interference effect was completely eliminated. However, when the verbal information consisted of SAME and DIFF rather than color names, interference was reestablished. This indicates that the perceptual comparison task does not eliminate interference simply by rendering Ss insensitive to the meanings of words.     

Finger localization and finger praxis

The relations between finger localization and various types of finger praxis were assessed by estimates of the inter-correlations among the performance of 100 six-year-old children. Finger localization was related significantly to those types of finger praxis which involve movements of the individual fingers with respect to each other. Right-left discrimination was related to finger localization, but not to the measures of finger praxis.

The findings are interpreted in terms of the construct of the finger schema, which can be viewed as a determinant of performance in both the localization and praxis tasks. This construct can also serve as an explanation of the observed concurrence of finger agnosia and finger apraxia as a consequence of cerebral disease.     

Cognitive behavior modification: ‘Motivated learning’ reading treatment with subprofessional therapy-technicians

A method of treating reading deficits based upon an extrinsic motivational system previously employed successfully with a single subject was extended to eighteen additional subjects. The junior-high age subjects included retarded children in special classes, several emotionally disturbed children, and culturally deprived children. The method of training used in the original study was designed to be simple to administer and simple to record the performance of the child. Thus, it was hypothesized that subprofessional personnel could be employed to administer the treatment. Adult volunteers and high school seniors were used as the therapy-technicians.

The eighteen Ss were given 38.2 hr of training in daily half-hour sessions, during which period the average reinforcement earned was $22.29. The mean number of single word reading responses was 94,425. The rate of reading accelerated over the period of training even though the reading material became more difficult. This occurred during a period when progressively less (about one-fourth as much) reinforcement was given per reading response. A mean of 593.5 new words were learned and 70.9 per cent of these were retained in a long-term test. The attention, attendance, cooperation, and diligent work behavior of the various children were maintained in good strength throughout the duration of the study. The results suggest that research be conducted to develop methods for treatment of behavioral deficits that can be widely applied by subprofessional therapy-technicians supervised by clinical psychologists.     

Alleviating the distress of caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients: A rational-emotive therapy model

Caring for a person with senile dementia of the Alzheimer type places an enormous emotional burden upon the caregiver. Common responses of caregivers include denial, anger, guilt, self-pity and depression. These negative emotions exacerbate the difficulties of caring for the patient, as well as constrict the caregiver's ability to develop appropriate coping skills for his/ her own life. Rational-emotive therapy (RET) specifies the maladaptive cognitions which elicit and sustain maladaptive emotions and behaviors, and provides a model for cognitive, affective and behavioral change. Excerpts from therapy sessions are presented to illustrate the process.Rose Oliver, private practice; Graduate Fellow and Supervisory Faculty, Institute for Rational Emotive Therapy, 45 East 65th Street, New York, NY 10021. Frances A. Bock, private practice; Adjunct Associate Professor, Psychology Department, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY 11550; Graduate Fellow and Supervisory Faculty, Institute for Rational Emotive Therapy, 45 East 65th Street, New York, NY 10021.     

SCIENCE AND GOD THE CREATOR

Abstract. Variable judgments, both negative and positive, have been made by scientists (mainly physicists and astronomers) on the theological implications of their Findings. It is urged that science and theology are most appropriately related through a critical realist approach. On this basis some implications for our conceptions of God and our scientific perspectives on the created world are explored with respect to both divine Being and divine Becoming. A positive assessment of nature as created concludes the article.     

Limits of focused attention in three-dimensional space

The present experiment examined the shape of the attentional gradient in three-dimensional space. Subjects performed a response-compatibility task in which they were instructed to respond to a centrally located target and ignore flanking distractors. The irrelevant distractors were presented at combinations of seven different depths, three different horizontal separations, and three different vertical separations relative to the target. Depth was varied in a stereoscopic display viewed through polarized glasses. Overall, the size of the response-compatibility effect decreased with increased separation in all three dimensions. Interestingly, the response-compatibility effect was larger for horizontal separations than for vertical separations and was larger for crossed disparities than for uncrossed disparities. The results suggest an elliptical focus of attention, with steeper gradients in the vertical dimensions than in the horizontal dimensions. In addition, the results suggest, along the vertical dimension, a steeper gradient for objects located beyond the focus of attention relative to that for objects located between the observer and the focus of attention.     

Paternal empathy in the transference/countertransference relationship

This paper explores the process of paternal empathy within the context of the transference and countertransference relationship. The masculine and feminine elements of paternal responsiveness are described with implications for therapeutic resonance and mirroring. Case material illustrates the author's thesis.     

Images of black women among anglo college students

Previous research on popular images of women and of minority groups has looked almost solely at images of minority men and of white women. This article presents survey data on images of black women among 256 white non-Hispanic college undergraduates, using a modified Katz/Braly scale. The article explores the nature, distribution, correlates, and emotional evaluations of these images and the implications of these images for black women's lives. Images of black women differed substantially from those of American women in general. Most commonly, black women were characterized as loud, talkative, aggressive, intelligent, straightforward, and argumentative. In addition, students rated positive traits less positive and negative traits less negative when exhibited by black women than by American women in general, apparently because of their expectations for black women's behavior.This paper has benefited from the comments of Verna Keith, Wade Smith, and, most especially, Mary Benin. This research was partially supported by Arizona State University Women's Studies Summer Research Awards Program.     

Falsification and Grünbaum's Duhemian theses

This paper is a detailed critical study of Adolf Grünbaum's work on the Duhemian thesis. I show that (a) Grünbaum's geometrical counterexample to the (D1) subthesis is unsuccessful, even with minimal claims made for what the counterexample is supposed to show, and (b) the (D2) subthesis is not a reasonable one (and cannot correctly be attributed to Duhem). The paper concludes with an argument about the relation between the Duhemian thesis, concerning component hypotheses of a scientific theory, and the view that it is impossible to falsify entire theories conclusively.