Long-term Effects of Subliminal Priming on Academic Performance

This research examines the temporal range of subliminal priming effects on complex behavior. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants were subliminally primed with words either related or unrelated to intelligence before completing a practice exam, administered 1 to 4 days before an actual course midterm. Results revealed that the intelligence primes increased performance on the midterm compared to neutral primes. Experiment 1 demonstrated that being told that the priming task was designed to help exam performance moderated the effect of the intelligence primes. In Experiment 2, practice test performance mediated the effect of the primes on midterm performance. These experiments demonstrated that subliminal priming may have long-term effects on real-world behavior, and demonstrates one means by which long-term priming effects may occur.     

Anxiety and impression formation: Direct information rather than priming explains affect-congruity

Both affect-priming and affect-as-information theories predict that when people are anxious they will form affect-congruent impressions of others, but via different mechanisms. Affect-priming asserts that memory mediates the influence of anxiety on judgement, whereas affect-as-information asserts that people attribute anxiety to the target of judgement. As these theories predicted, anxious participants in Study 1 found an impression-formation target to be more threatening than did control participants. However, this effect was not mediated by memory, and was attenuated in Study 2 when anxious participants attributed their affect to a source other than the target. These findings suggest that anxious people form affect-congruent impressions of others because they attribute their anxiety to the impression-formation target rather than because anxiety primes affect-congruent memory.     

History of a Childhood Neurosis and Its Relation to the Adult Superego

The purpose of this paper is to find meaning for the “presence of conscience” observable in the psychoanalytic setting and corresponding evidence for the origins of such ways of thinking, feeling, and remembering. I apply this perspective to the case study of a man who presented as constricted, inhibited, anxious, and self-critical. He was outwardly successful but internally tormented with what can best be described as an obsessional neurosis. His initial symptomatic neurosis was supplanted by a transference neurosis reflecting a childhood obsessional neurosis. In my theory of mind during this analysis, I often saw the original ideas of Freud at work—unconscious sense of guilt, ego ideal, and conscience. The analysand represented over and over the dynamics of the Oedipus stage of development. I made additional observations about character formation and guilt. The analysand terminated his work with me symptom-free. From this case study, I learned that the presence of conscience (guilt and self-denigration), or of superego structure and function in classical terms, is best approached as to origin by following the development of self in reference to the other.     

The “death of freud”; and the rebirth of free psychoanalytic inquiry

The relevance of Grunbaum's recent critique of psychoanalytic theory is explored as it relates to relational/interpersonal theories. Griinbaum finds no scientific evidence for repression, the cornerstone of psychoanalysis. I argue that studies demonstrating the effects of motivated, unconscious processes are beginning to emerge in psychological research. This research, as well as interpersonal theory, refers to these processes as dissociated, not “repressed.”; I agree with Griinbaum that scientific validation of psychoanalytic theories of the mind, personality, and change cannot be gleaned from case studies alone. In relational theories the analytic situation is admittedly “contaminated”; with the analyst's participation by its very nature. There is beginning to be support for some relational hypotheses, but measures to validate these hypotheses are only now being developed. Grunbaum's criticisms have come at a time when the convergence between relational theories and theories in social/clinical psychology makes it more likely that relational hypotheses will be articulated in a more precise manner by researchers, if not by analysts.

The issues of the difficulty of measuring unconscious processes and the quest for knowledge seemingly beyond human limitations are addressed. Psychoanalysis is not only less than scientific, but more encompassing, in that it is also a creative activity that cannot be understood through science alone.

Science is not enough, nor art: In this work patience plays a part [Goethe].

The most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of the mysterious.... To me it suffices to wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to grasp with my mind a mere image of the lofty structure of all that there is [Albert Einstein, quoted in Pagels, 1985].     

An application of caricature: How to improve the recognition of facial composites

Facial caricatures exaggerate the distinctive features of a face and may elevate the recognition of a familiar face. We investigate whether the recognition of facial composites, or pictures of criminal faces, could be similarly enhanced. In this study, participants first estimated the degree of caricature necessary to make composites most identifiable. Contrary to expectation, an anticaricature was found to be best, presumably as this tended to reduce the appearance of errors. In support of this explanation, more positive caricature estimates were assigned to morphed composites: representations that tend to contain less overall error. In addition, anticaricaturing reduced identification for morphed composites but enhanced identification for individual composites. Although such improvements were too small to be of value to law enforcement, a sizeable naming benefit was observed when presenting a range of caricature states, which appeared to capitalize on individual differences in the internal representation of familiar faces.     

United Kingdom Mission Training Through Distributed Simulation

This paper presents the findings of a United Kingdom (UK) research program carried out over the last decade. This research has explored the benefits of using networks of simulators for collective training known in the UK as mission training through distributed simulation (MTDS). The paper provides an overview of trials carried out to date, identifies the research issues addressed, and discusses the key findings. The conclusion is that MTDS provides an immersive training environment that has the potential to support not only single service collective training, but also joint and coalition training requirements.     

Use of Genetic Tests among Neurologists and Psychiatrists: Knowledge,Attitudes, Behaviors,and Needs for Training

This study explores neurologists’ and psychiatrists’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices concerning genetic tests. Psychiatrists (n?=?5,316) and neurologists (n?=?2,167) on the American Medical Association master list who had agreed to receive surveys were sent an email link to a survey about their attitudes and practices regarding genetic testing; 372 psychiatrists and 163 neurologists responded. A higher proportion of neurologists (74 %) than psychiatrists (14 %) who responded to the survey had ordered genetic testing in the past 6 months. Overall, most respondents thought that genetic tests should be performed more frequently, but almost half believed genetic tests could harm patients psychologically and considered legal protections inadequate. Almost half of neurologists (49 %) and over 75 % of psychiatrists did not have a genetics professional to whom to refer patients; those who had ordered genetic tests were more likely than those who did not do so to have access to a genetic counselor. Of respondents, 10 % had received patient requests not to document genetic information and 15 % had received inquiries about direct-to-consumer genetic testing. Neurologists reported themselves to be relatively more experienced and knowledgeable about genetics than psychiatrists. These data, the first to examine several important issues concerning knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of neurologists and psychiatrists regarding genetic tests, have important implications for future practice, research, and education.