Correcting Big Five Personality Measurements for Acquiescence: An 18‐Country Cross‐Cultural Study

For groups of persons with low or medium levels of education, Big Five personality scales typically yield scores that poorly replicate the idealized Big Five factor pattern. On the basis of representative samples of German adults, Rammstedt et al. have demonstrated that correcting each person's score for acquiescence eliminates this problem. In the present 18‐country study using large samples representative of each country's adult population, we found that, in all cases, correcting for acquiescence did indeed improve the congruence of factor loadings with an idealized Big Five pattern. However, although this correction led to acceptably high correspondence levels in all countries classified as individualistic, this was not always true for non‐individualistic countries. Possible reasons for this finding are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Practitioners of the Divine: Greek Priests and Religious Officials from Homer to Heliodorus

This review essay considers three recent introductory textbooks on Sikhism by Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh (Sikhism: An Introduction. New York: I.B. Taurus, 2011), Doris Jakobsh (Sikhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2012), and Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair (Sikhism: A Guide for the Perplexed. New York: Bloomsbury, 2013). The review begins with a brief historical précis of the early production of texts on Sikhs and Sikhism in North America, as well as the politicized contexts in which they were produced. As heirs to this (and earlier) history, the textbooks examined in the present review share a common premise: namely, each seeks to unsettle what their respective authors understand as the enduring specter of colonialism. The authors and their textbooks recognize the need to better reflect Sikh experience and self-understanding. At the same time, these textbooks illustrate a tremendous range of pedagogical trajectories and heuristic orientations: feminist and aesthetic, disparity and diversity, and conceptual and linguistic. Having used all three of these textbooks in undergraduate classes, the reviewer concludes with some reflections on pedagogy drawn from his own experiences and student responses to the texts.     

Learning at Workstations in the Zoo: A Controlled Evaluation of Cognitive and Affective Outcomes

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to test the cognitive and affective benefits gained through the provision of educational materials at workstations in the Wilhelma Zoo in Stuttgart, Germany. Structured learning materials were developed for use with visiting school groups. The materials focused on the adaptations of 6 selected groups of bird species and were organized as a self-guided learning environment (workstations). The value of the materials was assessed in terms of cognitive (learning and retention) and emotional (interest, well-being, boredom, anxiety, contentedness) variables. The authors measured prior knowledge (1 week before the zoo visit), learning effect (1 week after the visit), and retention (8 to 9 weeks later). A total of 103 students (6th graders aged between 11–12 years) participated in the study, 77 receiving a treatment about adaptations in bird species and 26 receiving a treatment about reptiles which served as a control. Students had similar prior knowledge, but 1 week later students receiving the bird unit scored significantly better and this persisted into retention. Girls achieved higher scores than boys, both 1 week and 8 to 9 weeks after the visit. Surprisingly, students in the control group reported higher interest, well-being and contentedness, and lower boredom than those in the treatment group.     

Cognitive functions of gamma-band activity: memory match and utilization

Oscillatory neural activity in the gamma frequency range (>30Hz) has been shown to accompany a wide variety of cognitive processes. So far, there has been limited success in assigning a unitary basic function to these oscillations, and critics have raised the argument that they could just be an epiphenomenon of neural processing. We propose a new framework that relates gamma oscillations observed in human, as well as in animal, experiments to two underlying processes: the comparison of memory contents with stimulus-related information and the utilization of signals derived from this comparison. This model attempts to explain early gamma-band responses in terms of the match between bottom-up and top-down information. Furthermore, it assumes that late gamma-band activity reflects the readout and utilization of the information resulting from this match.     

Perceiving minority members as individuals: the effects of relative group size in social categorization

According to the account by comparative distinctiveness, minorities draw attention by virtue of their relative size, leading to more individuation and more stereotyping of their members. Using the ‘Who said what?’ paradigm by Taylor, Fiske, Etcoff, and Ruderman ( 1978 ) in Klauer and Wegener's ( 1998 ) modified version, relative group size of gender categories and age categories was varied in a pilot study and a main experiment, respectively. In the pilot study, memory for discussion statements and in both studies, memory for individuating information increased as subgroup size decreased. Rating measures obtained in the main experiment revealed most stereotyping of minority members. The findings thereby support major predictions of the account by comparative distinctiveness, but demonstrate dissociations between different modes of category‐based processing, i.e. category memory, reconstructive category use, and stereotyping. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Internistische Psychosomatik

Die psychische Komorbidität internistischer Patienten im Sinne einer ICD-Diagnose des Kapitels F beträgt mehr als 35%: Neurotische, besonders somatoforme, Schmerz-, affektive Störungen und Suchterkrankungen sind häufig. Die Liegedauer ist bei psychischer Komorbidität deutlich erhöht. Es benötigen 5% der internistischen Patienten ein psychosomatisches Konsil. Neue, komplexe Behandlungsstrategien, wie Transplantationen, Kardioverter-Defibrillatoren, Medikamentenpumpen, erfordern häufig spezifische psychosoziale Interventionen. Ältere Patienten haben Erkrankungen, die zunehmend chronifizieren und komplexer werden. Damit werden Lebensqualität und psychische Komorbidität zu zentralen Outcomevariablen der Volkskrankheiten. Das zweite große Aufgabenfeld internistischer Psychosomatik ist die Untersuchung und die Behandlung psychosomatischer Patienten im engeren Sinne (Essstörungen, Schmerz- und somatoforme Störungen), weil internistische Diagnostik und Therapie erforderlich oder die Motivation der Patienten primär somatisch ist. Organisationsmodelle reichen von Konsil-/Liaisondiensten bis zu integrierten psychosomatischen Abteilungen oder Fachabteilungen an Allgemeinkrankenhäusern. Aussichtsreiche Forschungsstrategien werden neben der Erforschung psychosomatischer Mechanismen in der Entwicklung pragmatischer Behandlungsprogramme, ihrer Überprüfung in klinischen Studien und der Versorgungsforschung gesehen. Darüber hinaus sollte eine Intensivierung nationaler und internationaler Forschungsnetze erfolgen, wenn immer möglich unter Beteiligung anderer Disziplinen, um auch im Bereich der Forschung konkurrenzfähig zu bleiben.     

The attentional blink is susceptible to concurrent perceptual processing demands

In a rapid serial visual presentation stream processing of a first target (T1) impairs detection or identification of a second target (T2) that appears within 500 ms after T1. This effect characterizes the so-called attentional blink (AB). To evaluate contemporary information-processing accounts of the AB phenomenon in terms of the underlying processing mechanisms the present study examined the potential influence of Task 1 difficulty on the AB effect. To this end, T1 contrast and T1 response requirements were systematically varied across four experiments. Experiment 1 ruled out a mere sensory basis of the contrast manipulation on T2 performance. When only T2 had to be reported (Experiment 2) an AB effect occurred that was slightly modulated by T1 contrast. When report of both T1 and T2 was required in a standard AB task (Experiment 3), the magnitude of the AB depended to a larger extent on stimulus contrast, and it increased further when speeded T1 choice responses were additionally required (Experiment 4). On the basis of the present impact of Task 1 difficulty on the AB effect we conclude that processing limitations cause the AB phenomenon. We discuss such limitations in terms of perceptual (T1 consolidation) and central (response selection) bottleneck processes.     

Moral Enhancement and Mental Freedom

Promotion of pro‐social attitudes and moral behaviour is a crucial and challenging task for social orders. As traditional ways such as moral education have some, but apparently and unfortunately only limited effect, some authors have suggested employing biomedical means such as pharmaceuticals or electrical stimulation of the brain to alter individual psychologies in a more direct way — moral bioenhancement. One of the salient questions in the nascent ethical debate concerns the impact of such interventions on human freedom. Advocates argue that moral bioenhancements do not pose a serious threat to freedom. This contention, however, is based on an overly narrow, if not impoverished, sense of freedom, which comprises only freedom of action and freedom of will. Mind‐altering interventions primarily affect another sense of freedom: freedom of mind, a concept that has not received much attention although it should rank among the most important legal and political freedoms. The article introduces three senses of mental freedom potentially infringed upon by moral bioenhancement and places it in a broader perspective. Ignorance of mental freedom has far‐ranging consequences for the shape of the political and legal order at large. As many advocates are apparently not aware of the freedoms they seek to undermine, their calls for moral enhancement programmes are dangerously premature.