Visual tracking in young infants: Evidence for object identity or object permanence?

Previous research has shown that 5-month-old infants visually anticipate a moving object's appearance after it disappears behind a screen. This experiment assesses the underlying basis for such anticipatory tracking. Three tracking tasks were presented to 5- and 9-month-old infants. In the Permanence task, the object's continuous existence was apparently violated while it was behind a screen. In the Feature and Trajectory tasks, the object's features or trajectory changed while behind the screen. Disruptions in the infant's smooth visual pursuit of the object were recorded. Five-mont-olds showed disruptions of visual tracking in the Feature and Trajectory tasks, but not in the Permanence task. The tracking of the 9-month-olds was disrupted in all three tasks. We conclude that both 5- and 9-month-olds possess rules specifying the identity of a moving object which is occluded. For 5-month-olds these rules are based upon the object's features and trajectory, but not upon a concept of object permanence. For 9-month-olds all three rules—feature, trajectory, and permanence—are utilized in visual tracking.     

Proofreading familiar text: Allocating resources to perceptual and conceptual processes

Levy (1983) demonstrated that more spelling errors were detected, within a limited time period, when familiar passages were proofread than when unfamiliar passages were proofread. In the present series, Experiment 1 eliminated a possible confound in the Levy (1983) studies and showed that errors were detected both faster and more accurately in familiar texts. Experiment 2 demonstrated higher order involvement in the proofreading transfer effect, suggesting that a strictly word-level account was insufficient. Experiment 3 explored the proofreader’s sensitivity to the semantic properties of the proofreading passage, showing that the familiarity effect resulted from more efficient processing, not from lack of either visual or semantic analyses. The results are more consistent with a resource-allocation explanation than with either a visual-scanning or a skilled-visual-processing account.     

Therapeutic strategies for Mexican-American families

This paper emphasizes the need for therapists to develop culturally attuned approaches to families. Family therapy strategies effective with families of Mexican descent are related to specific stages of the treatment process. Categories of problems presented by Mexican-American families are defined and corresponding therapist roles suggested. A specific class of interventions, labeledcultural strategies, makes use of culture in the service of therapy. Although the illustrations presented are of Mexican-American families, the concepts can be adapted to other ethnic families.     

Proofreading familiar text: Constraints on visual processing

Recent emphasis on the interactive nature of processing during reading has focused attention on how higher level syntactic-semantic processes might constrain or alter the processing of letters and words during reading. The present studies addressed this question by examining the effect of prior knowledge about a passage on the subsequent ability to see visual errors when rereading the same text. Experiment 1 demonstrated that prior knowledge of a passage leads to better proofreading of that passage. Experiment 2 showed that this facilitation is at the level of visual letter and word analyses, not through higher level constraints on rereading. The data are discussed in terms of skilled visual pattern analyses and in terms of the redistribution of processing resources.     

Job orientations and the transition from school to work: A longitudinal study

This paper is concerned with the factors that influence career choice, job stability and job satisfaction. It uses longitudinal data collected from 450 grammar and secondary-modern schoolboys interviewed at ages 14 and 25 years. Examining job expectations at age 14 and initial career choice, it finds that school plays a major role, its importance deriving from structural rather than idiosyncratic considerations. Home, personal and chance factors are less important, mattering more in the case of secondary-modern than grammar pupils: they make their maximum impact at critical choice points when the school's influence is relatively weak. In adult life, the occupational structure takes over the role of school, job stability and satisfaction being largely associated with the training and career opportunities offered by particular jobs. An attempt is made throughout to identify the crucial periods and critical choice points where good counselling might make maximum impact.     

Language characteristics of mexican-american children: Implications for assessment

We have described the language features that characterize the speech of the Mexican-American child and have examined them with respect to their deviations from acceptable standards in both Spanish and English—acceptability in terms of how well he functions in each of the two language settings in which he lives. We have pointed out the magnitude of the most critical of his problems, the loss of lexical and grammatical signals through underdeveloped perception of English phonology and have demonstrated how this faulty perception vitally affects, not only his lexical and grammatical failings, but also his ability to learn as fast or as efficiently as the monolingual English-speaking child in every area of learning. We have then suggested assessment considerations which might more accurately evaluate his actual language abilities and which might provide more specific bases for planning improved educational programs for these children. We recognize, at the same time, the existence of additional considerations, such as socioeconomic environment, educational level of the parents, child rearing practices, test-orientedness, etc., which may also influence the scores they receive, and that these factors should also be considered in interpreting test statistics and in planning and designing school programs.     

Language characteristics of mexican-american children: Implications for assessment

We have described the language features that characterize the speech of the Mexican-American child and have examined them with respect to their deviations from acceptable standards in both Spanish and English—acceptability in terms of how well he functions in each of the two language settings in which he lives. We have pointed out the magnitude of the most critical of his problems, the loss of lexical and grammatical signals through underdeveloped perception of English phonology and have demonstrated how this faulty perception vitally affects, not only his lexical and grammatical failings, but also his ability to learn as fast or as efficiently as the monolingual English-speaking child in every area of learning. We have then suggested assessment considerations which might more accurately evaluate his actual language abilities and which might provide more specific bases for planning improved educational programs for these children. We recognize, at the same time, the existence of additional considerations, such as socioeconomic environment, educational level of the parents, child rearing practices, test-orientedness, etc., which may also influence the scores they receive, and that these factors should also be considered in interpreting test statistics and in planning and designing school programs.     

Archetypes of the pandemic

This paper attempts to read the psychological and emotional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic through the archetypal images contained in patients’ dreams. In these dreams, symbols related to the power of nature and to extreme danger are paired with feelings of detachment that seem to point to a traumatic dissociation, due to the archetypal experience that erupts in familiar surroundings. Through the humanization of the ineffable experience, dissociation, which in the beginning of the pandemic showed in high levels of anxiety, panic attacks and depersonalization, can be transformed into the overview needed for the search for meaning. The container for this process of transformation is the analyst, the real, virtual or imagined one, and his or her ability to relate and feel.     

The implication of the sadistic superego in anorexia

Based on our clinical experience with anorexia, we propose to distinguish two paradoxical aspects of this disorder. On the one hand, anorexia may serve as a shield and support to open up a space for subjectivity, promoting a separation from the mother. Eros is responsible for this defense of subjectivity and of the assumption of one's own wish. But the anorexic individual may, on the other hand, be subjected to the death drive and to the voice of a sadistic and ferocious superego that demands immediate obedience. The death drive, present in different combinations with Eros, is an obstacle to the work of the psychoanalyst.