Transfer of control between causal predictive judgments and instrumental responding

Four experiments were conducted to explore outcome-specific transfer from causal predictive judgments to instrumental responding. A video game was designed in which participants had to defend Andalusia from navy and air force attacks. First, they learned the relationship between two instrumental responses (two key on a standard keyboard) and two different outcomes (destruction of the ships or destruction of the planes). Then they learned to predict which of two different stimuli predicted which outcome. Finally, they had the opportunity of making either of the two instrumental responses in the presence of either stimulus. Transfer was shown as a preference for the response that shared an outcome with the current stimulus. The presentation of the stimulus during the test produced a decrease in the overall rate of response. Responding to a neutral stimulus in Experiments 2 and 3 suggested that this overall decrease in responding was due to a combination of the time needed to process the meaning of the stimulus and the activation of the representation of the outcome in the presence of the stimulus during the test. Transfer between predictive judgments and instrumental responding mirrors the outcome-specific Pavlovian instrumental transfer observed in conditioning studies with rats.     

Priming and interference effects can be dissociated in the Stroop task: new evidence in favor of the automaticity of word recognition

Recently, Besner, Stolz, and Boutilier (1997) showed that by coloring a single letter instead of the whole word, Stroop interference is reduced or even eliminated, a result that is at odds with the widely accepted assumption that word recognition is automatic. In a replication of the Besner et al. study, we computed priming effects in addition to the standard Stroop interference. Interference results replicated those of Besner et al. Also, negative priming in the all-letter-colored condition and positive priming in the single-letter-colored condition were obtained. Priming findings demonstrate that word processing can take place in the absence of interference effects. These results support the view of automatic processing of words in the Stroop task and call for priming as a more appropriate measure of word processing than interference.     

Rapid eye movement sleep dreaming is characterized by uncoupled EEG activity between frontal and perceptual cortical regions

EEG coherent activity is involved in the binding of spatially separated but temporally correlated stimuli into whole events. Cognitive features of rapid eye movement sleep (REM) dreaming resemble frontal lobe dysfunction. Therefore, temporal coupling of EEG activity between frontal and perceptual regions was analyzed from 10 min prior to dream reports (8 adults) from stage-2 and REM sleep. EEG correlation between frontal and perceptual regions decreased and, among perceptual regions increased during REM. The temporal dissociation of EEG activity between executive and perceptual regions supplies an inadequate mechanism for the binding and interpretation of ongoing perceptual activity resulting in dream bizarreness.     

Age-related changes and gender differences in time estimation

A study was carried out in which age and gender differences were studied in the performance of an empty interval production task. The duration of these intervals was 10 s, 1 and 5 min. The sample was made up of 140 subjects, half male and half female, in seven different age groups from 8 to 70 years old. The age range permitted us to identify when differences begin to be significant. The results show an age-related increase in the underproduction of the intervals. The differences between age groups attained significance from 51 to 60 years onward. With regard to gender, the main result was a greater underproduction of longer intervals (1 and 5 min) for women. These findings were interpreted in terms of different models of time estimation.     

What Mary Didn't Read: On Literary Narratives and Knowledge

In the philosophy of art, one of the most important debates concerns the so‐called ‘cognitive value’ of literature. The main question is phrased in various ways. Can literary narratives provide knowledge? Can readers learn from works of literature? Most of the discussants agree on an affirmative answer, but it is contested what the relevant notions of truth and knowledge are and whether this knowledge and learning influence aesthetic or literary value. The issue takes on a wider, not only philosophical, importance as it is one of the central tenets of humanistic education that art and literature are valuable not only because the pleasure they afford. This paper offers a new line of argument in departing from propositional truth, arguing that literary narratives provide aesthetically significant knowledge, however, this knowledge cannot be captured in propositional form. My position depends crucially on Frank Jackson's influential knowledge argument. The paper describes a modified ‘What Mary Didn't Read’ case. In doing so, it is argued that the knowledge literary works provide should be understood as a type of experiential knowing of ‘what it is like’ analogous to what Mary acquires in the original case of seeing a new colour for the first time. 1 1 I would like to thank first and foremost David Weberman for his comments on the draft of this paper. Also, I am grateful to colleagues at the 7th In‐house Philosophy Graduate Conference of Central European University for a productive discussion. Thirdly, I am indebted to Howard Robinson and Philip Goff for illuminating debates about Jackson's thought experiment.
     

Perception of parental socialization strategies in adoptive and non-adoptive families

Although parental socialization styles have been investigated in recent years, little research has been carried out on the issue of parental styles in adoptive families. The aim of this research is to analyse parental styles both from the point of view of the parents and of adopted and non-adopted adolescents, taking as covariables the adolescents' sex and age. The sample was made up of 55 adopted adolescents (20 boys and 35 girls with an age range of 11-17 years) and their 55 adoptive parents, and 402 non-adopted adolescents (200 boys and 202 girls with an age range of 11-17 years), and their 258 parents. Two scales evaluated parental styles: the Affect Scale and the Rules and Demands Scale. The results showed that, both from the point of view of the parents and of the adolescents, adoptive families are more affective, communicative and inductive, and less critical and indulgent than non-adoptive families. No differences were found between adopted and non-adopted adolescents on the Parents' Rigidity Scale.     

Dimensional structure of the Brief Symptom Inventory with Spanish college students

The Brief Symptom Inventory is designed to assess symptoms of psychological disorders in adolescents and adults. The dimensional structure of the inventory, using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, was examined with a cross-sectional design in a Spanish sample of college students ( N = 1,033, aged between 18 and 30 years old). Two hypotheses were tested: the original distribution of the items in nine factors, and the unidimensionality of the inventory. According to the results, a nine-factor structure seemed to be confirmed, although the strong intercorrelations found among the subscales indicated that these were measuring closely related constructs. The importance of cultural influences when assessing psychological symptoms and the need to develop national and sex norms for instruments that assess psychopathology, are also discussed.     

Factors associated with eating behavior in pre-adolescents

The goals of this study are the preliminary Spanish adaptation and validation of the following questionnaires: the Children's Eating Attitudes Test (ChEAT), the Lawrence Self-Esteem Questionnaire (LAWSEQ) and the Body Esteem Scale (BES). In addition, we studied bodily self-esteem in pre-adolescent children, and their possible relation to certain eating attitudes and general self-esteem. This study is cross-sectional, analytical and observational. The sample was made up of 457 participants, 55.14% boys and 44.86% girls aged between 8 and 12 (M = 10.14, SD = 1.30). A multivariate analysis of variance (Age x Sex) was carried out with the total scores of LAWSEQ, ChEAT, BES, BIA and BMI. Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient was .76, .80, and .67 for ChEAT, BES, and LAWSEQ, respectively. The boys presented significantly higher total scores in the ChEAT than the girls. Of the sample, 10.4% (n = 45) scored over the cut-off point of the ChEAT: These subjects presented lower general and bodily self-esteem, a slimmer ideal image and a greater discrepancy between their real self and their social self.     

Inhibitory tagging in inhibition of return: Evidence from flanker interference with multiple distractor features

Fuentes, Vivas, and Humphreys (1999) proposed a distinction betweeninhibition of return (IOR) and inhibitory processing taking place at a location subject to IOR. This latter mechanism,inhibitory tagging (IT), would act at a late level of processing related to response selection. In the present study, we examined whether IT was applied only to the target-relevant properties of the stimuli (e.g., to its color) or whether it was applied to other features of the stimulus as well (e.g., to its shape). Both when the task was to respond to the target’s color (Experiment 1) as well as when it was to respond to the target’s shape (Experiment 2), there was evidence of IT (reversal of the typical flanker effect at the cued location, relative to the uncued location) only to task-relevant features of the target. These findings suggest that IT is a central process of control constrained by task demands and current goals.