The concept of sin in pastoral counseling

The concept of sin seems to have virtually disappeared from the pastoral counseling literature, and this likely reflects the possibility that it has virtually disappeared from the practice of pastoral counseling. This article presents a case for returning the concept of sin to pastoral counseling and does so by discussing the psychospiritual importance of addressing sin, defining sin in a pastorally useful way, discussing four capital sins in light of a contemporary understanding of sin, and drawing some pastoral implications.     

Brain-Age quotient: age and education correlates.

The Brain-Age Quotient (BAQ) of Reitan has been proposed as a means of studying age-related cognitive differences. This study examined age and education correlates of the BAQ and a BAQ short form. A heterogeneous group of 100 subjects were selected from the neuropsychological testing case records published by Golden, Osmon, Moses, and Berg in 1981, Boll (undated), and Reitan (undated). Results suggest the BAQ and the BAQ short form are not significantly correlated with age and education.     

Information loss: the primary psychological trauma of the loss of vision.

A psychology of blindness is proposed that contends that information loss is the most critical trauma of the loss of vision. The magnitude of information loss is emphasized with respect to vision as the primary sensory modality for obtaining information. Further, the vital role of access to information in human development and the tendency to seek information to cope with stressful circumstances are addressed. Implications for rehabilitation of blind persons are discussed.     

THE INFLUENCE OF ASSESSEE PERFORMANCE VARIATION ON ASSESSORS'JUDGMENTS

Assessors evaluated assessees'performances in one of three performance conditions in an assessment center simulation: a consistent performance condition, a within-assessee performance variation condition, or a between-assessee performance variation condition. Contrast effects influenced ratings of assessees when there was variation in performance within assessees. For each assessee, the low target performance was rated lower when the assessee's prior performance had been dissimilar (high) than when the assessee's prior performance had been similar (low). Contrast effects also infiuenced assessors'ratings of the target assessee when there was variation in performance among assessees. The low performing target assessee was rated significantly lower when he was evaluated with two high performers than when he was evaluated with two low performers. In addition, ratings obtained when there was performance variation among assessees were more accurate than those obtained when there was no performance variation, suggesting that under some circumstances contrast effects may not lead to inferior judgments.     

INTERVIEWER DECISION PROCESSES AND EFFECTIVENESS: AN EXPERIMENTAL POLICY-CAPTURING INVESTIGATION

Using a policy-capturing approach, 29 corporate interviewers evaluated 64 hypothetical candidates for a position in a financial services organization. Six selection criteria were manipulated in a balanced factorial design. Interviewers evaluated candidates' qualifications and made hiring recommendations. The results revealed substantial individual differences in interviewers' decision strategies, as well as their insight into their own decision processes. Data on the effectiveness of the 29 interviewers were collected from 427 hiring managers and the decision processes of effective and ineffective interviewers were compared. The findings indicated that the decision strategies used by effective interviewers were quite similar to one another and relied heavily on two selection criteria. Also, effective interviewers were more likely than ineffective interviewers to use selection criteria in a manner that mirrored their self-reports of the importance of these criteria. Effective interviewers were more aware of their decision processes than ineffective interviewers.     

The role of central and peripheral vision in perceiving the direction of self-motion.

Three experiments were performed to examine the role that central and peripheral vision play in the perception of the direction of translational self-motion, or heading, from optical flow. When the focus of radial outflow was in central vision, heading accuracy was slightly higher with central circular displays (10 degrees-25 degrees diameter) than with peripheral annular displays (40 degrees diameter), indicating that central vision is somewhat more sensitive to this information. Performance dropped rapidly as the eccentricity of the focus of outflow increased, indicating that the periphery does not accurately extract radial flow patterns. Together with recent research on vection and postural adjustments, these results contradict the peripheral dominance hypothesis that peripheral vision is specialized for perception of self-motion. We propose a functional sensitivity hypothesis--that self-motion is perceived on the basis of optical information rather than the retinal locus of stimulation, but that central and peripheral vision are differentially sensitive to the information characteristic of each retinal region.     

A generalized visual latency explanation of the Pulfrich phenomenon.

The classical visual latency explanation of the Pulfrich phenomenon is generalized to allow for the possibility that the visual system uses velocity information from motion detectors to compensate for spatial lag due to time lag, in identifying the instantaneous position of a moving object. The results of the reported experiment verify one consequence of the generalized version: the elliptical apparent path is skewed away from the filtered eye. The results suggest also that the extrapolation factor increases with visual latency and that there is a different extrapolation factor for each eye when the eyes are illuminated unequally.     

The role of instructions and familiar size in absolute judgments of size and distance.

The effects of familiar size and instructions (apparent, objective) on direct reports of size and distance were evaluated. Subjects estimated the size and distance of two different-sized playing cards or two unfamiliar stimuli under either apparent or objective instructions. The stimuli were presented successively at a distance of 5.48 m under reduced-cue conditions. The form of the instructions selectively influenced the effect of familiar size on absolute judgments of size and distance, with apparent instructions minimizing, and objective instructions promoting, familiar-size effects. The ratio of the distance judgments of the first to the second presented stimuli approximated the relative retinal sizes of the two objects under both apparent and objective instructions, while the ratio of size judgments tended to be either influenced by or independent of the object's relative retinal sizes under apparent and objective instructions, respectively. These results are consistent with Gogel's theory of off-size perception and, in particular, with the claim that, in comparison with apparent instructions, objective instructions are more likely to direct observers to base their judgments on cognitive, as opposed to perceptual, sources of spatial information.     

Haptic probing: perceiving the length of a probe and the distance of a surface probed.

Knowing about the properties of objects by wielding them and knowing about the distances of surfaces by striking them with objects as probes are examples of dynamic or effortful touch. Six experiments focused on the invariant mechanical parameters that couple the time-varying states (displacements, velocities) of hand-held rods to the time-varying torques and forces imposed upon them by wielding and probing. There were three major conclusions. First, when a probe is wielded without contact, perceived probe length is a function of the probe's rotational inertia; however, with contact, perceived probe length is affected by the rotational inertia and the distance of the point of contact from the probe's center of percussion. Second, when a surface is struck with a probe, perceived surface distance is affected by the probe's rotational inertia and the angle of inclination of the probe at contact. Third, under seemingly identical conditions of probing, either probe length or surface distance can be perceived selectively without confusion. Results were discussed in terms of haptic information, haptic attention, and the dynamics of probing.     

The detection of surface curvatures defined by optical motion.

The detectability of surface curvatures defined by optical motion was evaluated in three experiments. Observers accurately detected very small amounts of curvature in a direction perpendicular to the direction of rotation, but they were less sensitive to curvatures along the direction of rotation. Variations in either the number of points (between 91 and 9) or the number of views (from 15 to 2) had little or no effect on discrimination accuracy. The results of this study demonstrate impressive visual sensitivity to surface curvature. Several characteristics of this sensitivity to curvature are inconsistent with many computational models for deriving three-dimensional structure from motion.