Remembrance of places lasts: Proactive inhibition and patterns of choice in rat spatial memory

A series of experiments was carried out to evaluate the notion that rats given a sequence of massed daily trials on the radial maze reset working memory at the end of each trial by deleting its contents. Although curves presented by D. S. Olton [Scientific American, 1977, 236, 82–98; In S. H. Hulse, H. Fowler, & W. K. Honig (Eds.), Cognitive processes in animal behavior, Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1978] show that rats return to errorless performance at the beginning of each trial after the first, the fact that accuracy falls less rapidly over choices on Trial 1 than on subsequent trials suggests a proactive inhibition (PI) effect. In Experiment 1, Olton's findings were replicated, and a PI effect was observed on Days 1–2 of testing. On Days 3–5, overall accuracy improved significantly and was associated with the development of a strong tendency for rats to enter adjacent alleys, which became particularly marked on the final trials of a day's testing. In order to prevent rats from achieving accurate performance by using an adjacent alleys pattern, a procedure was used in Experiment 2 which involved initial forced random choices followed by a retention test consisting of free choices. Repeated daily trials with this procedure yielded a significant PI effect, which was more marked at a 60-sec delay than at a 0-sec delay. Experiments 3 and 4 showed this PI effect to be robust and resistant to manipulations designed to produce release from PI. Both the PI effect and a strong tendency found in Experiment 1 for animals to avoid on the initial choices of Trial n those alleys most recently entered on Trial n?1 argue that rats do not reset working memory between trials.     

A shortened version of the Southern Illinois university speech situation checklist for the identification of speech-related anxiety

This study investigated the ability of the 51-item Southern Illinois University Speech Situation Checklist (SSC) to differentiate stutterers known to have high levels of speech-related anxiety from nonstutterers with normal levels of speech- related anxiety. Checklist responses of 65 randomly selected subjects (33 stutterers and 32 nonstutterers) were subjected to a stepwise discriminant analysis. The analysis identified a combination of 21 SSC items that had significant discriminative power. Subsequently, the derived discriminant equation achieved 93% accuracy in correctly classifying a hold-out sample of 29 subjects (14 stutterers and 15 nonstutterers). These results strongly suggest that the 21 items of the SSC identified by discriminant analysis may provide an effective screening device for identifying disfluent speakers who experience an abnormal amount of speech-related anxiety.     

Conceptual Models in Organizational Consultation

Human organizations are potentially very complex systems operating in even more complex environments. Fundamental to the consultant's effectiveness is his or her ability to conceptualize among these complexities. Several general conceptual models that facilitate the consultant's conceptual work are reviewed. Also, fundamental to the effectiveness of consultation is the consultant's ability to empower consultees conceptually. Several principles related to achieving this objective are presented and discussed. The authors conclude with a discussion targeted to the objective of integrating conceptual models in consultation practice.     

A dialogue on Zeno's paradox of Achilles and the tortoise

The five participants in this dialogue critically discuss Zeno of Elea's paradox of Achilles and the tortoise. They consider a number of solutions to and restatements of the paradox, together with their philosophical implications. Among the issues investigated include the appearance-reality distinction, Aristotle's distinction between actual and potential infinity, the concept of a continuum, Cantor's continuum hypothesis and theory of transfinite ordinals, and, as a solution to Zeno's puzzle, the distinction between infinite and indeterminate or inexhaustible divisibility.     

Moral dilemmas,disjunctive obligations,and Kant's principle that ‘ought’ implies ‘can’

In moral dilemmas, where circumstances prevent two or more equally justified prima facie ethical requirements from being fulfilled, it is often maintained that, since the agent cannot do both, conjoint obligation is overridden by Kant's principle that ought implies can, but that the agent nevertheless has a disjunctive obligation to perform one of the otherwise obligatory actions or the other. Against this commonly received view, it is demonstrated that although Kant's ought-can principle may avoid logical inconsistency, the principle is incompatible with disjunctive obligation in standard deontic logic, and that it entails paradoxically that none of the conflicting dilemma actions will in fact occur. The principle appears to provide the only plausible safeguard against deontic antinomy, but cannot be admitted because of its collision with considered moral judgments.     

Adlerian “Encouragement” and the Therapeutic Process of Solution‐Focused Brief Therapy

The authors discuss the overlooked similarities between the therapeutic process of solution‐focused brief therapy (SFBT) and the Adlerian process of therapeutic encouragement. SFBT and Adlerian therapy share common perspectives, albeit using different nomenclature, on maladjustment, the client‐counselor relationship, and methods of facilitating change. The authors also present conclusions regarding the continuing relevance of Adlerian therapy for contemporary counseling practice.     

Seeing approach motivation in the avoidance behavior of others: implications for an understanding of pluralistic ignorance

Four studies tested the hypothesis that observers tend to interpret others' actions as approach motivated even when they recognize that their own identical choices were motivated by avoidance. Study 1 found that voters in the 2000 U.S. Presidential election who chose a candidate primarily because of their aversion to the alternative thought that others who voted for the same candidate liked him more than they themselves did. In Studies 2, 3, and 4 participants who learned that others made the same choice as themselves between 2 unappealing flavors of soda orjelly beans estimated that the others would pay more than they would for their common choice. The relevance of these findings for an understanding of pluralistic ignorance is discussed.     

Why don't our institutes teach the methodology of clinical psychoanalytic evidence?

One of the most pressing theoretical, therapeutic, and educational problems confronting the advance of psychoanalysis is our confusion about the nature of clinical evidence. There is considerable disagreement among psychoanalysts about how to define evidence. Recently, there has also been a growing tendency toward evidential nihilism, justified by some of the more radical constructivist-narrative views of postmodern epistemology. Two surveys, conducted ten years apart, of all the psychoanalytic institutes recognized by the American Psychoanalytic Association, indicate a continuing and disturbing neglect of this topic in the curricula of our institutes. This paper reports the views of a number of psychoanalytic educators who participated in these surveys and is intended to stimulate discussion about the causes of this critical problem.     

The empirical basis of color perception

Rationalizing the perceptual effects of spectral stimuli has been a major challenge in vision science for at least the last 200 years. Here we review evidence that this otherwise puzzling body of phenomenology is generated by an empirical strategy of perception in which the color an observer sees is entirely determined by the probability distribution of the possible sources of the stimulus. The rationale for this strategy in color vision, as in other visual perceptual domains, is the inherent ambiguity of the real-world origins of any spectral stimulus.