THE PASSIONATE MIND: BRAIN, DREAMS, MEMORY, AND SOCIAL CATEGORIES

Abstract. The intellectualist position held by structuralists does not explain the extremes of emotional reaction to the disruption of social categories. An approach from neuroscience based on the functions of the limbic system in the creation of long-term memory through the role of the hippocampus and REM sleep is proposed to account for the emotive loading of cognitive categories.     

Integration of melody and text in memory for songs

Two experiments examined whether the memory representation for songs consists of independent or integrated components (melody and text). Subjects heard a serial presentation of excerpts from largely unfamiliar folksongs, followed by a recognition test. The test required subjects to recognize songs, melodies, or texts and consisted of five types of items: (a) exact songs heard in the presentation; (b) new songs; (c) old tunes with new words; (d) new tunes with old words; and (e) old tunes with old words of a different song from the same presentation (‘mismatch songs’). Experiment 1 supported the integration hypothesis: Subjects' recognition of components was higher in exact songs (a) than in songs with familiar but mismatched components (e). Melody recognition, in particular, was near chance unless the original words were present. Experiment 2 showed that this integration of melody and text occurred also across different performance renditions of a song and that it could not be eliminated by voluntary attention to the melody.     

TRAINING AND GENERALIZATION OF REACH-GRASP BEHAVIOR IN BLIND,RETARDED YOUNG CHILDREN

The effects of a graduated prompting treatment procedure were analyzed in three phases of an experiment on the training and generalization of reaching-grasp responding in 2- to 4-year-old blind, severely or profoundly retarded children. In Phase 1, we used a multiple-baseline across-subjects design to investigate the effectiveness of the treatment on midline reach-grasp responding. In Phase 2, we used a reversal design to investigate the effects of repeated implementations and withdrawals of the treatment. In both phases, generalization to right and left positions was measured. In Phase 3, in a multiple-baseline across-responses design, the treatment was implemented in right and left positions. Also in Phase 3, shift of stimulus control from toy-sound to verbal instructions was measured. The results showed that (a) the graduated prompting procedure was effective in training reach-grasp responding in all three children; (b) for one child, the effects were durable over repeated applications of the treatment procedure, but were not maintained during withdrawals; (c) for another child, the treatment procedure was effective in teaching reach-grasp responding in all three positions; and (d) for the same child, training of reach-grasp responding generalized to toys presented without sound, given only the verbal instruction.     

Development of sex biases in children: 40 years later

Children in grades 2–10 (200 of each sex) assigned desirable and undesirable traits to girls or boys. Half the subjects had an additional option of both sexes. Children in all grades assigned more desirable traits to their own sex and more undesirable traits to the opposite sex, in line with Smith (1939). Both sexes became less positive toward their own sex and more positive toward the opposite sex with increasing age. This pattern also had characterized girls in Smith's study, whereas, boys had shown the opposite pattern. Beginning in the sixth grade, girls were more apt than boys to assign desirable traits to their own sex. Availability of the “both sexes” option decreased stereotyping, especially in girls.     

Sexism and beautyism in women's evaluations of peer performance

The purpose of this study was to investigate independent and interactive effects of physical attractiveness (PA), sex, and task sex-typing on performance evaluations. Subjects were 216 college women who read poorquality essays written on masculine, feminine, or neutral topics. Essays supposedly were written by a male or a female student who was either attractive, unattractive, or physically unidentified. Results indicated that PA enhanced evaluations of both male and female essayists, except for the predicted effect that female attractiveness is less beneficial for masculine than feminine task performances. Women did not evaluate the sexes differently, and sexism was largely restricted to the interactive effects of PA. PA stereotypes also affected causal attributions of performers' outcomes in a manner consistent with attribution theory. These data are considered in the context of the existing literature and the directions for further research on sexism and beautyism.     

Nietzsche and “we knowers”: Comments on Reginster's The Will to Nothingness

Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morality is strikingly book-ended by the theme of knowledge-seeking: the Preface opens with the ominous claim that “[w]e are unknown to ourselves, we knowers”, and the Third Essay's climax is the assertion that scientific, scholarly activity does not stand in opposition to the ascetic ideal but is instead only that ideal's most recent and insidious instantiation. This feature of the text is absent from Reginster's The Will to Nothingness. Nonetheless, the interpretive machinery that Reginster develops in his reading of the Genealogy as a genealogy and critique of morality can also go a long way towards helping us to make sense of the text as, at the same time, a genealogy and critique of knowledge-seeking. Making use of Reginster's account in this way serves to illuminate both the interpretive power and some of the limitations of his reading.     

The Teenage Problem Is the Adult

Counselor education programs and professional associations of behavioral and social sciences have failed to assist counselors, teachers, and parents in understanding and relating to youth in this technological era. Rebelliousness, alienation, and even rioting engaged in by youth represent cries for help to which adults respond, sometimes with indifference but more often with confusion, resentment, or active antagonism. Empathic and informed counselors may be able to reduce the basic feeling of guilt that leads to such negative reactions by helping school staff and parents recognize that rapid and dramatic changes in modern society have irrevocably influenced attitudes, values, and behaviors of youth. Youth have much right on their side. However, they need wisdom of perceptive adults to guide them in working in acceptable ways for legitimate goals which the older generation has preached but often disregarded in practice. “There is, of course, a teenage problem, but that problem is not the teenager but the adult.”—Ashley Montagu.     

Direct quantitative judgments of sums and a two-stage model for psychophysical judgments

Judged magnitudes of differences between stimuli have previously been shown to support a two-stage interpretation of magnitude estimation, in which input transformations and output transformations are each describable as power functions. In an effort to provide support for the model independent of the difference estimation procedure. the present investigation employed two additional judgment tasks. We obtained magnitude judgments and category judgments of the combined magnitudes (sums) of paired weights from two groups of Ss. Values of the inferred input exponent k calculated from the two sets of data were very similar and were also remarkably similar to the exponent previously calculated from magnitude estimations of differences between weights. The output exponent calculated from magnitude judgments of sums described a concave upward function; however. the similar function describing category judgments was essentially linear. These results show that the inferred input exponent is not the result of the difference estimation task, and in addition provides support for the contention that the interval scale may be a less biased sensory measure than the magnitude scale. The introduction of an additive constant to the model improved its fit to the data but the rule by which it was introduced made very little difference.     

Interference with memory for lifted weight

An adaptation-level model for memory was tested by interpolating different weights between the standard and comparison weights. The results suggest that the model should be modified to account for the general tendency to use alternative categories of judgment with equal frequency. In terms of the modified model, memory for the standard shifts toward the value of the interfering stimulus, the magnitude of shift being proportional to the difference between the interfering stimulus and the value the memory would otherwise have had.