Remembering the time: a continuous clock

The neural mechanisms for time measurement are currently a subject of much debate. This article argues that our brains can measure time using the same dorsolateral prefrontal cells that are known to be involved in working memory. Evidence for this is: (1) the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is integral to both cognitive timing and working memory; (2) both behavioural processes are modulated by dopamine and disrupted by manipulation of dopaminergic projections to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; (3) the neurons in question ramp their activity in a temporally predictable way during both types of processing; and (4) this ramping activity is modulated by dopamine. The dual involvement of these prefrontal neurons in working memory and cognitive timing supports a view of the prefrontal cortex as a multipurpose processor recruited by a wide variety of tasks.     

NUANCE: Naturalistic University of Alberta Nonlinear Correlation Explorer

In this article, we describe the Naturalistic University of Alberta Nonlinear Correlation Explorer (NUANCE), a computer program for data exploration and analysis. NUANCE is specialized for finding nonlinear relations between any number of predictors and a dependent value to be predicted. It searches the space of possible relations between the predictors and the dependent value by using natural selection to evolve equations that maximize the correlation between their output and the dependent value. In this article, we introduce the program, describe how to use it, and provide illustrative examples. NUANCE is written in Java, which runs on most computer platforms. We have contributed NUANCE to the archival Web site of the Psychonomic Society (www.psychonomic.org/archive), from which it may be freely downloaded.     

Identity and spirituality: a psychosocial exploration of the sense of spiritual self

The authors examined the structure and content of adults' sense of spiritual identity by analyzing semistructured interviews with 13 spiritually devout men and 15 devout women, ages 22 to 72. Individuals' responses to the Role-Related Identity Interview (G. T. Sorell, M. J. Montgomery, & N. A. Busch-Rossnagel, 1997b) were content analyzed and rated on the role-related spiritual identity dimensions of role salience and flexibility. Individuals were categorized as spiritually foreclosed, achieved, or in moratorium, on the basis of their motivational, affective, self-evaluative, and behavioral investments in spiritually defined roles and their reflectiveness about and behavioral changes in role-related spiritual identity. Similarities and differences within and between spiritual identity status groups were observed, suggesting a variety of ways that spiritual identity provides a sense of continuity as well as a domain for adult developmental change.     

Distinctive features hold a privileged status in the computation of word meaning: Implications for theories of semantic memory

The authors present data from 2 feature verification experiments designed to determine whether distinctive features have a privileged status in the computation of word meaning. They use an attractor-based connectionist model of semantic memory to derive predictions for the experiments. Contrary to central predictions of the conceptual structure account, but consistent with their own model, the authors present empirical evidence that distinctive features of both living and nonliving things do indeed have a privileged role in the computation of word meaning. The authors explain the mechanism through which these effects are produced in their model by presenting an analysis of the weight structure developed in the network during training.     

Aging and Old Age in Medieval Society and the Transition of Modernity

This article addresses the way that old age was represented within medieval European society and how that changed as the Middle Ages evolved into modernity. I argue that medieval society drew heavily upon the classical theme of the ages of life, embellishing them with a more explicit moral framework. Within this remoralized lifecourse, old age played a central part—whether framed as the end of life's journey toward wisdom and redemption, or as the eventual demise of all worldly success. As the economic and moral order of medieval society declined in the face of the new intellectual currents of the Renaissance and the rising commercialization of sixteenth century Europe, the moral identity of old age was gradually replaced with a social identity framed around lack and neediness.     

Semantics and semantic errors: implicit access to semantic information from words and nonwords in deep dyslexia

In this paper we describe dissociations of implicit versus explicit access to semantic information in a patient with deep dyslexia. This acquired reading disorder is characterized by the production of morphological (e.g., SLEEP read as SLEEPING) and semantic errors (e.g., HEART read as BLOOD) and consequently provides a potential window into the operation of both aspects of the language system. The deep dyslexic patient in this study (JO) demonstrated implicit semantic access to items in a number of tasks despite the fact that she was unable to correctly read these items aloud. The findings from this study are consistent with a model of lexical deficits that distinguishes between explicit and implicit access to lexical representations on the basis of inhibitory processes.     

Using genetic programming to discover nonlinear variable interactions

Psychology has to deal with many interacting variables. The analyses usually used to uncover such relationships have many constraints that limit their utility. We briefly discuss these and describe recent work that uses genetic programming to evolve equations to combine variables in nonlinear ways in a number of different domains. We focus on four studies of interactions from lexical access experiments and psychometric problems. In all cases, genetic programming described nonlinear combinations of items in a manner that was subsequently independently verified. We discuss the general implications of genetic programming and related computational methods for multivariate problems in psychology.     

Are infant attachment patterns continuously or categorically distributed? A taxometric analysis of strange situation behavior

Contemporary attachment research is based on the assumption that at least three types of infant attachment patterns exist: secure, avoidant, and resistant. It is not known, however, whether individual differences in attachment organization are more consistent with a continuous or a categorical model. The authors addressed this issue by applying P. E. Meehl's (1973, 1992) taxometric techniques for distinguishing latent types (i.e., classes, natural kinds) from latent continua (i.e., dimensions) to Strange Situation data on 1,139 fifteen-month-old children from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. The results indicate that variation in attachment patterns is largely continuous, not categorical. The discussion focuses on the implications of dimensional models of individual differences for attachment theory and research.