The format of children’s mental images: Penetrability of spatial images

To investigate the format of mental images and the penetrability of mental imagery performance to top-down influences in the form of gravity information, children (4-, 6-, 8- and 10-year-olds) and adults (N = 112) performed mental rotation tasks. A linear increase in response time with rotation angle emerged at 6-years, suggesting that spatial properties are represented in children’s mental images. Moreover, 6-, 8-, and 10-year-olds, but not 4-year-olds or adults, took longer to respond to rotated stimuli pairs when gravity information was incongruent with the direction of rotation rather than congruent. Overall, findings suggest that in contrast to adults’, 6- to 10-year-olds’ mental rotation performance was penetrated by top-down information. This research (a) provides insight into the format of young children’s mental images and (b) shows that children’s mental rotation performance is penetrable by top-down influences.     

Factors that distinguish aggression toward animals from other antisocial behaviors: Evidence from a community sample

Animal cruelty is a form of passive and active aggression that is largely undocumented and unreported. Given that animals are voiceless victims, we have to rely on witnesses and frontline staff (e.g., veterinarians) to report incidents of abuse, which suggests the number of convicted animal abusers is an under‐representation of actual perpetrators. The primary aim of the current study was to identify the static and dynamic factors that distinguish animal abusers from non‐abuse offenders (i.e., individuals who self‐reported antisocial behavior, but not animal abuse), and non‐offenders (i.e., individuals who have not engaged in any antisocial behavior) in a community sample. The secondary aim was to identify the potential pathways that distinguish animal abuse perpetration from other types of antisocial behavior. Three hundred and eighty‐four participants took part in this retrospective, correlational study. We found that animal abusers share similar socio‐demographic characteristics to other offenders but are distinct in their exposure to animal harm/killing during childhood. Low animal‐oriented empathy and low self‐esteem distinguished animal abusers from non‐abuse offenders when controlling for confound variables and other psychological characteristics. We also found that low animal‐oriented empathy mediated the relationship between childhood exposure to animal killing and animal abuse perpetration, and that this relationship was stronger among participants with anger regulation issues. This is the first study to examine similarities and differences between animal abusers, non‐abuse offenders, and non‐offenders on socio‐demographic and psychological characteristics. The findings highlight potential treatment targets that are unique to animal abusers with implications for prevention and intervention strategies.

     

From Boulder to Stockholm in 70 Years: Single Case Experimental Designs in Clinical Research

The Psychological Record - With the objective of increasing the magnitude of treatment effects in behavioral health, there is steadily growing interest in tailoring assessments and interventions to...     

Flow: Beyond Fluidity and Rigidity

The term flow refers to a particular type of experience characterized by feelings of fusion with an on-going activity, effortlessness and fluidity. This article concerns the results of an empirical investigation and phenomenological analysis of this type of experience. The analysis yields a distinction between three phenomenological structures, identified as arising in different combinations within concrete experiences of flow. These results are discussed in relation to the theories of Alfred Schutz and Erving Goffman regarding the organization of experience in everyday life, and in relation to the theory of Otto Friedrich Bollnow regarding moods in everyday life. The results of the analysis are also discussed in relation to different uses of the flow concept in a variety of contexts found in recent theoretical contributions. These differences of usage and approach are explained in the light of the results of the phenomenological analysis, which distinguishes qualitatively different varients within the phenomenon termed flow experience. In conclusion, the need to adopt a broader concept of experience in sociological analysis is emphasized, as well as the need for further empirical studies of the contextual frames of different variants of flow experiences.     

Remembering computer command names: Effects of subject generation versus experimenter imposition

Two experiments analyzed the effectiveness of goal statements in aiding recall of self-generated as opposed to experimenter-imposed command names. Subjects were presented with a series of before-after pairs representing the computer states before and after a command was executed. In Experiment 1, during study, one group of subjects generated a command name in response to each pair; a second group generated a goal statement describing the goal to be accomplished in addition to generating a command name. During recall, half of each group was required to recall the name, whereas the other half was required to describe the goal before attempting to recall the name. In Experiment 2, during study, command names (and goals for those subjects in the goal condition) were imposed by the experimenter rather than generated by the subject. Subjects who generated goals and names recalled more command names than did those who generated only names or who received imposed goals and/or names. Generation of an appropriate goal at study improved encoding by helping subjects to select more appropriate command names; generation of an appropriate goal at test improved retrieval for appropriate names only, presumably by activating a relevant subset of names. Even in the relatively simple task of naming and remembering command names, having an appropriate model of the domain through the use of specific goal statements substantially improved performance.     

Profiles of right hemisphere language and speech following brain bisection

A variety of language tasks were administered to two patients who had undergone staged callosal section in an effort to control otherwise intractable epilepsy. Right hemisphere lexical capacity varied and preliminary results suggest that the case displaying greater semantic power also possessed some syntactic competence. This same case (V.P.) was also capable of expressive language from the right hemisphere. This rare capacity allowed for fresh observations on the dynamic interactions of conscious control that occur in this kind of patient.     

Public Debate – An Act of Hostility?

This paper focuses on eristic in political debate of the forensic, or confrontational, type. First, some findings on the enactment and persuasiveness of hostility in a series of Danish TV-debates 1975–85 are presented, including a list of the clearly hostile debater's characteristics and a subdivision of conspiracy arguments. This presentation serves to illustrate that hostility is less persuasive than argumentation practitioners and theorists tend to assume. Next, the widespread notion of debate as a genre half-way between the quarrel and the critical discussion is challenged in a discussion of Douglas N. Walton's distinction between types of dialogue. It is maintained that the normative model of confrontational debate excludes the quarrel and that debate should not be perceived as second-rate critical discussion.     

The process of enabling change: a study of therapist interventions in family therapy

We describe the application of discursive analysis to the task of researching family therapy process. Through the analysis of a central theme in two family therapy treatments, we found that individual family members move to using a wider range of discourses on the central theme by the end of therapy. Using the example of one family's therapy sessions, we examine how the therapist contributes to the new meanings and views that emerge, and present our analysis of the therapists' interventions in relation to the 'production' of these alternative meanings. It is argued that discourse analysis can fruitfully be applied to family therapy process research and could contribute to theoretical concepts of change and therapeutic competence.