Chunking in recall of symbolic drawings

Three experiments explored memory for symbolic circuit drawings using skilled electronics technicians and novice subjects. In the first experiment a skilled technician reconstructed circuit diagrams from memory. Recall showed marked “chunking”, or grouping, by functional units similar to Chess Masters’ recall of chess positions. In the second experiment skilled technicians were able to recall more than were novice subjects following a brief exposure of the drawings. This advantage did not hold for randomly arranged symbols. In the third experiment the size of chunks retrieved systematically increased with additional study time. Supplementary analyses suggested that the chunking by skilled subjects was not an artifact of spatial proximity and chunk statistics, and that severe constraints are placed on any explanation of the data based on guessing. It is proposed that skilled subjects identify the conceptual category for an entire drawing, and retrieve elements using a generate-and-test process.     

Differential effects of person in the dog and in the human

People have marked effects on dog’s heart rate, with great individual variations for different persons. Apparently people to which the dog is attached have the greatest effect upon heart rate. Replications of the animal experiments using the psychotherapist and two other people revealed no effects upon the heart rate of a schizophrenic human. In the human the effects of people are probably best demonstrated in connection with verbal communication.     

On the ethics of psychological research

Three philosophical positions on the nature of ethics were examined and contrasted within the context of psychological research: (a) teleology, which involves the balancing of the costs and benefits associated with an action as a means of developing general ethical rules; (b) deontology, which involves the rational adherence to rigid, universal rules that hold irrespective of the situation or consequences; and (c) skepticism, which involves denying the ability to apply universal rules and asserting the individuality of moral codes. Two experiments investigated the degree to which judgments of the ethicality of psychological research are affected by the consequences of the research and judge's ethical ideology. Subjects judged experiments that investigated obedience to an authority as generally less moral and more threatening to the participants' dignity and welfare when the proportion of total obedience was high rather than low. The proportion of participants (10 vs 40%) who were described as “psychologically upset” by the research did not affect moral judgments. These results were obtained across two different obedience situations (Milgram's study and a Watergate study) and different subject populations (high school and college students, males and females). As suggested by philosophers, a judge's ethical ideology determined how the perceived benefits and costs of the research were correlated with moral judgments. Teleologists weighed scientific benefits heavily, deontologists weighed participants' costs heavily, and skeptics weighed both heavily.     

Parents as therapeutic agents: The usefulness of filial therapy in a community mental health center

Filial Therapy, a program training parents as play therapists for their own children, has been found an effective part of the functioning of a child unit in a community mental health center. The basic philosophy and principles of Filial Therapy are identified. The use of parents as therapists is viewed as consistent with the growth of the community mental health movement and the concept of treating the context in which the child resides. The structure and flexibility of this model are delineated to provide the reader with a basis to introduce Filial Therapy in his/her own setting.     

Naturalistic Partial Sleep Deprivation Leads to Greater Next-Day Anxiety: The Moderating Role of Baseline Anxiety and Depression

The detrimental effects of insufficient sleep on emotional functioning have been well established. Total sleep deprivation usually leads to increased anxiety and depressive symptoms the following day. However, no study has yet examined the relationships between unmanipulated partial sleep deprivation and next-day symptoms of anxiety and depression in everyday life, which this study sought to characterize. Participants (N = 94) completed daily diary surveys twice per day for 2 weeks without instructions to alter their sleep in any way. Nights of spontaneous, naturally occurring partial sleep deprivation were followed by increased levels of self-reported symptoms of anxious arousal the next day, but were unrelated to next-day symptoms of anhedonic depression or general distress. The relationship between partial sleep deprivation and next-day anxious arousal was found to be moderated by both baseline depressive symptoms and anxiety such that individuals reporting higher levels of depression or anxiety at baseline showed relatively greater increases in symptoms of anxiety following partial sleep deprivation. These results suggest that partial sleep deprivation occurring in everyday life can lead to higher next-day levels of anxious arousal, a relationship that is particularly deleterious for individuals with higher overall levels of anxiety or depressive symptoms.     

GPS: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Sexual Health Counseling for Gay and Bisexual Men Living With HIV

Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBM) continue to have high rates of HIV and sexually transmitted infections, including syphilis. GBM have therefore been identified by public health agencies as a high-priority population to reach with prevention initiatives. Despite the importance of mental health in preventing HIV and related infections, there is a shortage of credentialed mental health professionals to deliver behavioral Counseling interventions. The current study evaluated the efficacy of GPS, a community-based and peer-delivered sexual health promotion motivational interviewing–based intervention for HIV-positive GBM who engaged in condomless anal sex (CAS) in the past 2 months. GPS prevention counseling demonstrated a 43% relative reduction at 3-month follow-up in CAS with serodiscordant partners and significant reductions in sexual compulsivity. The study demonstrated that community-based counselors can administer an efficacious motivational interviewing program, and suggests a continued benefit of counseling methods to promote the sexual health of higher risk populations.     

Doxing Racists

The Journal of Value Inquiry -     

Making AI meaningful again

Synthese - Artificial intelligence (AI) research enjoyed an initial period of enthusiasm in the 1970s and 80s, but this enthusiasm was tempered by a long interlude of frustration when genuinely...     

Dynamic and stochastic systems as a framework for metaphysics and the philosophy of science

Synthese - Scientists often think of the world (or some part of it) as a dynamical system, a stochastic process, or a generalization of such a system. Prominent examples of systems are (i) the...