Inferences,affects, and intentions in a model of paranoia

Models of psychopathologies can be construed as modifications to the normal purposive behavior of an organism. The particular elements of purposive behavior to be emphasized here are (1) deriving facts about the environment (inferences), (2) attending to the self's needs, desires, and interests (affects), and (3) choosing directions and goals to fulfill these interests (intentions). A series of processes in a model of paranoia which performs these tasks will be described. We also describe the modifications made by the paranoid processes to the normal processes. A computer simulation has been constructed to test the model.     

Impact of interpersonal problem-solving training on preschoolers' social competency

In order to test Shure and Spivack's theoretical position that a child's ability to verbally generate solutions to interpersonal problems and think about their consequences is directly related to the child's behavioral adjustment, preschoolers were tested on verbal problem-solving skills and their classroom behavior was rated by their teachers. Further, their behavior was observed by independent observers. No significant relationship between problem-solving skills and behavior was found. Following assessment, 54 of these children completed an 11-week training program, designed by Shure and Spivack, to improve their ability to think through and verbally generate solutions to interpersonal problems and to examine the possibility of mediation of such training to behavioral improvement. Preschoolers' ability to verbally generate alternative solutions to problems significantly increased due to training, however, this increase did not have an ameliorative effect on behavioral adjustment.     

Detecting changes in simulated events using partial‐interval recording and momentary time sampling

In a series of three studies, we evaluated simulated data with reversal designs to determine whether partial‐interval recording (PIR) and momentary time sampling (MTS) detected changes that were evident with continuous measures. The results from Study 1 showed that MTS with interval sizes up to 30 s detected most of the moderate and large changes in duration events and MTS with interval sizes up to 1 min detected most large changes in duration events. By comparison, PIR with 10‐s intervals detected approximately half of all changes in duration events. The results of Study 2 showed that only 10‐s PIR reliably detected most small, moderate, and large changes in frequency events. The results of Study 3 showed that PIR with 10‐s intervals generated a relatively high percentage of false positives for duration events, whereas MTS did not. As a whole, the results support previous findings, but also provide new guidelines for the use of PIR and MTS. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Trans-saccadic perception

A basic question in cognition is how visual information obtained in separate glances can produce a stable, continuous percept. Previous explanations have included theories such as integration in a trans-saccadic buffer or storage in visual memory, or even that perception begins anew with each fixation. Converging evidence from primate neurophysiology, human psychophysics and neuroimaging indicate an additional explanation: the intention to make a saccadic eye movement leads to a fundamental alteration in visual processing itself before and after the saccadic eye movement. We outline five principles of 'trans-saccadic perception' that could help to explain how it is possible - despite discrete sensory input and limited memory - that conscious perception across saccades seems smooth and predictable.     

A word-finding computer program with a dynamic lexical-semantic memory for patients with anomia using an intelligent speech prosthesis

A computer program for a portable microprocessor has been developed which aids anomic patients in finding words given clues about the target word. Over time the lexical-semantic memory is reorganized automatically depending on the frequency of word usage by an individual patient. Words can be added or deleted to fit the patient's idiosyncratic lexicon. A clinical example is given. The program is being tested with a variety of aphasic-anomic patients with major word-finding difficulties.     

Detecting changes in simulated events II: Using variations of momentary time‐sampling to measure changes in duration events

The extent to which a greater proportion of small behavior changes could be detected with momentary time‐sampling (MTS) was evaluated by (a) combining various interval sizes of partial‐interval recording (PIR) with 20 s, 30 s, 1 min MTS and (b) using variable interval sizes of MTS that were based on means of 20 s and 1 min. For each targeted percentage, low, moderate, and high inter‐response times (IRTs) to event‐run ratios were compared with reversal designs to determine whether sensitivity increased with either variation of MTS. The results showed that (a) combinations of 30 s and 1 min MTS/PIR yielded increased sensitivity over MTS alone; however, the increased sensitivity was offset by an increased probability of generating false positives and (b) variable‐interval MTS produced comparable sensitivity to fixed‐interval MTS. Thus, none of the methods increased detection of small behavior changes (decreased false negatives) without also increasing false positives. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Neurocognitive underpinnings of face perception: further evidence of distinct person and group perception processes

A model of social perception is presented and tested. The model is based on cognitive neuroscience models and proposes that the right cerebral hemisphere is more efficient at processing combinations of features whereas the left hemisphere is superior at identifying single features. These processes are hypothesized to produce person and group-based representations, respectively. Individuating or personalizing experience with an outgroup member was expected to facilitate the perception of the individuating features and inhibit the perception of the group features. In the presented study, participants were asked to learn about various ingroup and outgroup targets. Later, participants demonstrated that categorization response speeds to old targets were slower in the left hemisphere than in the right, particularly for outgroup members, as predicted. These findings are discussed for their relevance to models of social perception and stereotyping.     

The Problem of Having Both a Body and a Name in the Work of Jean-Luc Marion

In this essay, and following upon both Jacques Lacan’s and Jacques Derrida’s personal struggles with fatherhood and the naming of their children, I take up what I consider to be Jean-Luc Marion’s failure to deal with the embodiment of fatherhood through an examination of patriarchal signification, or, specifically, the naming of one’s children after the father — at least insofar as Marion’s brief analysis of this symbolic act points toward his failure to think through the various potential and lived embodiments of the father. I aim to illuminate how his efforts to continue this naming of the child with the father’s name speak more directly to an idealized (“theologized”) vision of our world that need not be serviced, indeed, which we would benefit from not utilizing at all. I wish, in an autobiographical-phenomenological response to Marion, to point to other names, other relationships, and other ways of perceiving how one might be situated within our world. I follow Sara Ahmed in calling “queer” ways in which a phenomenological account of the subject’s identity are not a pretext for perpetuating a quasi-theological, patriarchal agenda.