Extracting the coherent core of human probability judgement: a research program for cognitive psychology

Human intuition is a rich and useful guide to uncertain events in the environment but suffers from probabilistic incoherence in the technical sense. Developing methods for extracting a coherent body of judgement that is maximally consistent with a person's intuition is a challenging task for cognitive psychology, and also relevant to the construction of artificial expert systems. The present article motivates this problem, and outlines one approach to it.     

Chronic Thought Suppression

ABSTRACT We conducted several tests of the idea that an inclination toward thought suppression is associated with obsessive thinking and emotional reactivity. Initially, we developed a self-report measure of thought suppression through successive factor-analytic procedures and found that it exhibited acceptable internal consistency and temporal stability. This measure, the White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI), was found to correlate with measures of obsessional thinking and depressive and anxious affect, to predict signs of clinical obsession among individuals prone toward obsessional thinking, to predict depression among individuals motivated to dislike negative thoughts, and to predict failure of electrodermal responses to habituate among people having emotional thoughts. The WBSI was inversely correlated with repression as assessed by the Repression-Sensitization Scale, and so taps a trait that is quite unlike repression as traditionally conceived.     

Factors Influencing the Development of Psychology in Latin America

Among the factors impeding the development of the discipline of psychology in Latin America, emphasis must be given to the lack of infrastructural conditions. Also important is the lack of social, economic, and political stability, leading to inadequate administrative and financial support for research. The high degree of uncertainty as to the future of societal outcomes leads to short-term planning, and weakens the possibility of sustained lines of research. Yet, the same economic and political crises have positive consequences: A growing awareness of social problems and a realization of the utility of psychology in their solutions. The resultant job opportunities for graduates, and a generation of “engaged” professionals, are all helping the growth of an indigenous psychology. Increasing participation of Latin American psychologists in international congresses, particularly those of the Interamerican Society of Psychology, has had laudatory effects on the development of the discipline in the region.     

Origins of Ruminative Thought: Trauma, Incompleteness, Nondisclosure, and Suppression

The purpose of this paper is to discuss theories of the origin of ruminative thought. We begin by providing a working definition of rumination, separating rumination from other forms of cognitive activity and distinguishing ruminations from ordinary memories. Then, we review what we believe are the major categories of theory that attempt to account for the existence and nature of rumination. These include theories of traumatization, incompleteness, nondisclosure, and thought suppression. Ruminations may originate for a number of reasons, but it seems they may continue because of our attempts to control them. Evidence from studies on thought suppression suggests that the suppression of unwanted thoughts may in fact fuel the very emotions and thoughts we are trying to avoid. Thought suppression may set up a state in which we not only increase the amount we think about an unwanted thought, but potentially also sharpen our emotional reaction to those thoughts.     

Inner light

Neural impulses from the senses to the brain convey information, not sensation. The direct electrical stimulation of the cortex produces sensations. Hence, such sensations are evoked in the brain, and not received from the senses, nor from the outside world through the senses. More specifically, the experience of light is evoked in the brain and not received from the eyes. Consequently, the born blind, too, would experience light in response to electrical brain stimulation. The luminosity of light is not a property of electromagnetic radiation. If the experience of light is private, then so are the visual observations it makes possible.     

You and me as she and he: The meaning of gender-related concepts in other- and self-perception

This study compares and contrasts the use of gender-related concepts in other-and self-perception. The schematic use and stereotypic and affective meanings of feminine and masculine were derived from hierarchical classes analysis (HICLAS) of participants' (N = 72; 50 females, 22 males, 54% white) ratings of self and significant others. The study reveals that people use these concepts differently in their perception of others than in their perception of self. In addition, the meaning of masculine and feminine constructed by these participants differs significantly from their traditional definitions. Finally, being feminine is evaluated more positively than being masculine in the perception of others, while the ego protective function of gender leads participants to evaluate their own gender's features most positively in self-perception.This article was presented at the 1993 Eastern Psychological Association, Washington, DC, April 1993. The collection of the data reported in this paper was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH40871-03/04. We thank the Institute for its support. We also thank the participants in this study for sharing their lives with us. Finally we would like to thank Richard Ashmore, Rae Carlson, and Basil Englis for comments on earlier drafts of this paper.