Masked stimuli modulate endogenous shifts of spatial attention

Unconscious stimuli can influence participants’ motor behavior but also more complex mental processes. Recent research has gradually extended the limits of effects of unconscious stimuli. One field of research where such limits have been proposed is spatial cueing, where exogenous automatic shifts of attention have been distinguished from endogenous controlled processes which govern voluntary shifts of attention. Previous evidence suggests unconscious effects on mechanisms of exogenous shifts of attention. Here, we applied a cue-priming paradigm to a spatial cueing task with arbitrary cues by centrally presenting a masked symmetrical prime before every cue stimulus. We found priming effects on response times in target discrimination tasks with the typical dynamic of cue-priming effects (Experiments 1 and 2) indicating that central symmetrical stimuli which have been associated with endogenous orienting can modulate shifts of spatial attention even when they are masked. Prime–Cue Congruency effects of perceptual dissimilar prime and cue stimuli (Experiment 3) suggest that these effects cannot be entirely reduced to perceptual repetition priming of cue processing. In addition, priming effects did not differ between participants with good and poor prime recognition performance consistent with the view that unconscious stimulus features have access to processes of endogenous shifts of attention.     

The Simple Copy Task: Detecting Higher Order Visual Processing Deficits in Schizophrenia,Dementia, and Movement Disorder Groups

The Simple Copy Task (SCT) is a figure copying test with inherent appeal due to its short administration time, graded task difficulty, varied stimuli, and potential to eliminate floor effects. Despite this, there is a lack of data regarding its construct validity and diagnostic utility. The present study compared SCT performance of schizophrenia (n = 29), dementia (n = 64), and movement disorder (n = 12) groups with that of unmatched healthy control participants (n = 49). Movement disorder patients committed a high degree of misplacement errors, whereas dementia patients tended to omit items, add extraneous detail, and perseverate. The schizophrenia group was most similar to the dementia group in their performance on the SCT, committing primarily omission and perseveration errors. The SCT was most closely related to the Rey Complex Figure Task (r = 0.68, p < .01) and the Block Design Task (r = 0.62, p < .01). Age (r = ?0.14, p < .01) and education (r = 0.35, p < .01) effects were present; however, there was no impact of gender and handedness. Taken together, these findings provide support for the utility of the task and directions for clinical interpretation.     

The Group Therapist's Absence and the Substitute Leader

When a group is led by a single individual the therapist's absence creates a management problem. This article presents several options for the solo leader. The author has used a substitute leader, and this experience is presented and evaluated. Discussion includes selection of a substitute, group preparation, ongoing use of the substitute, and benefits of this alternative for the management of the leader's absence.     

The Mental Health Benefits and Costs of Sabbath Observance Among Orthodox Jews

This study aimed to examine the perceived psychological costs and benefits of Sabbath (Shabbos) observance among 13 practising Jews, 9 UK residents and 4 US residents. Emerging themes were as follows: Shabbos as a special day, giving time to contemplate on profound issues, withdrawal and rest from mundane concerns, and deepening relationships. These aspects can potentially improve feelings of mental well-being, and were indeed often said to do so. Some difficulties were described: some found they were prone to worry more on Shabbos because of the freedom from distractions, and there were reports of the difficulties of explaining to non-Jewish work colleagues the religious need to be free from work commitments. These findings were related to the literature on religious ritual observance and generally accord with other work in anthropology and psychology of religion examining the psychological impact of ritual. Work on the mental health implications of ritual observance needs to be expanded. It has received only limited attention, and understanding has been constrained by a misleading confusion between ritual and obsessionality. Other impacts of religion on mental health are better documented and understood, and religious ritual and its impact needs further documentation and attention.     

The Impact of Regulatory Fit on Performance in an Inattentional Blindness Paradigm

The influence of timing and frequency of instructions on the reasoning of jurors in a simulated grand larceny trial was investigated. Mock jurors were given definitions of grand larceny before and after the testimony, only before, only after, or not at all. Although timing of instructions was not significantly related to reasoning or to verdicts, frequency of instructions influenced the aspects of testimony deemed relevant and increased juror use of legal rules in making verdicts. Selective encoding of testimony could not account for the instruction effect.     

Suggestions for Improved forms of Steadiness Testers

(Snygg, D., &; Combs, A. W. Individual Behavior: A New Frame of Reference for Psychology. New York: Harper, 1949. Pp. 386.) Reviewed by E. Lakin Phillips     

The Principal Postulates of Psychology

May, R. The Meaning of Anxiety. New York: Ronald Press, 1950. Reviewed by E. Lakin Phillips     

Truth and A Priori Possibility: Egan's Charge Against Quasi-Realism

In this journal Andy Egan argued that, contrary to what I have claimed, quasi-realism is committed to a damaging asymmetry between the way a subject regards himself and the way he regards others. In particular, a subject must believe it to be a priori that if something is one of his stable or fundamental beliefs, then it is true. Whereas he will not hold that this is a priori true of other people. In this paper I rebut Egan's argument, and give further consideration to the correct way to think about our own fallibility.     

What predicts Australian university students' intentions to volunteer their time for community service?

University students represent one target population with great potential to serve as volunteers. The primary focus on describing the characteristics of students who choose to volunteer, however, has resulted in limited understanding of the psychosocial factors impacting on students' decisions to volunteer. To bridge this gap, we used an extension of a well‐known theoretical framework, the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), to predict students' intentions to volunteer for community service. Using content and thematic analysis, we explored also students' motivations and constraints for volunteering. Students (N = 235; M age = 22.09 years) self‐reported their attitude, normative influences, control perceptions, moral obligation, past behaviour, demographic characteristics, and intentions for volunteering via questionnaire. Regression analyses showed that the extended TPB explained 67% of the variance in students' volunteering intentions. In qualitative analyses, themes primarily represented the factors contributing to low efficacy for volunteering (e.g., time constraints). Control perceptions and perceived moral obligations related to volunteering represent important future targets to encourage student volunteering for organisations providing critical services for those most in need.     

Index to Volume 49, 2006

A significant portion of recent literature on Nietzsche is devoted to his metaethical views, both critical and positive. This article explores one aspect of his positive metaethics. The specific thesis defended is that Nietzsche is, or is plausibly cast as, a reasons internalist. This, very roughly, is the view that what an agent has normative reason to do depends on that agent's motivational repertoire. Section I sketches some of the metaethical terrain most relevant to Nietzsche's organising ethical project, his “revaluation of all values”, and lays out three “design-requirements” that an adequate account of Nietzsche's metaethical views must satisfy. Section II introduces the basic internalist position. Sections III–IV provide textual support for the internalist reading of Nietzsche, with Section V showing how it meets each of the design-requirements. Section VI concludes by showing how the internalist apparatus also illuminates Nietzsche's views about the process of revaluing values.