Keeping track of locations during movement in 8- to 10-month-old infants

Infants of $\text{8}\text{1}\text{2}$ and $\text{9}\text{1}\text{2}$ mo of age were tested for the ability to “keep track,” i.e., to determine the location of an object hidden in one of two covered containers before their left-right positions were reversed. Infants in both age groups for whom the covers were the same color and younger infants for whom the covers were different colors were generally unable to keep track. Only the older infants provided with different colored covers were able to do so. An analysis which separated keeping track from the sensorimotor stage 4 error indicated that (a) there was no contingency between the two and (b) there were developmental differences in the nature of the error.     

A three-factor model of syllogistic reasoning: The study of isolable stages

Computer models of the syllogistic reasoning process are constructed. The models are used to determine the influence of three factors—the misinterpretation of the premises, the limited capacity of working memory, and the operation of the deductive strategy—on subjects’ behavior. Evidence from Experiments 1, 2, and 3 suggests that all three factors play important roles in the production of errors when “possibly true” and “necessarily false” are the two response categories. This conclusion does not agree with earlier analyses that had singled out one particular factor as crucial. Evidence from Experiment 4 suggests that the influence of the first two factors remains strong when “necessarily true” is used as an additional response category. However, the third factor appears to interact with task demands. Some concluding analyses suggest that the models offer alternative explanations for certain well established results.     

Evidence for the external validity of a social simulation measure of social skills

Two studies were conducted in order to obtain evidence regarding the external validity of a social simulation measure of social skills. The first study employed a contrasted group design, with the groups consisting of National Guardsmen and psychiatric patients. As predicted, trained judges rated the performances of the National Guardsmen in the simulations as more skillful and appearing less anxious than the psychiatric patients. In the second study, trained judges' ratings of psychiatric patients' performances in the simulations were found to be significantly related to ratings made by interviewers who had conducted a structured social history interview with the patients, nurses' ratings based on their observations of patients after 3 days on the psychiatric unit, a research assistant's ratings based on contact with the patient during the experiment, and finally, the subject's own self-ratings. In discussing the findings, it is hypothesized that one reason why support was found for the external validity of the simulation strategy in this study, in contrast to some previously reported studies, was the use of molar ratings in this study as opposed to the more molecular rating procedures used in those previous studies.These studies were funded in part by a research grant from the Veterans Administration.     

Liberating Ecological Reason Through Interdisciplinarity

The theory and practice of ecological reason have consistently suffered various shortcomings, versions of anthropocentrism and holism prominent among them. Even definitions of ecological reason that rely on philosophically informed policy studies and that explicitly take the functional and substantive moments of reason into account have not escaped these problems. An account of interdisciplinarity can shed light on how these intractable problems arise, since many of them fail to build interdisciplinarity as such sufficiently into the definition of ecological reason. Genuine interdisciplinarity, distinguished from both multidisciplinarity and metadisciplinarity, can thus be seen to be necessary (not sufficient) to liberate ecological reason and to illuminate its theory and practice for late moderns.     

Don Quixote as Moral Narcissist: Implications for Mid-Career Male Ministers

This essay uses the figure of Don Quixote to explore the mid-career crisis experienced by many male ministers. It proposes that Don Quixote is less problematic than Don Juan for ethical reasons, but employs psychoanalytic interpretations to reveal the complexity of his self-structure, focusing especially on his moral narcissism, proneness to paranoia and melancholia, and his fictive personality. While evidence of his disordered mind, these diagnoses also testify to his nobility under trying circumstances. Heinz Kohut's concept of the transformation of narcissism is introduced and implications for the future destiny of Don Quixote are drawn. These implications have relevance to the issue of survival in ministry after the effects of the mid-career crisis have been absorbed. Pastoral Theology at     

Contour Completion And Relative Depth: Petter's Rule and Support Ratio

The ability to see complete objects despite occlusion is critical to humans' visual success. Human vision can amodally complete visual objects that are partially occluded, and modally complete visual objects that occlude other objects. Previous experiments showed that the perceived strength of a completed contour depends on its support ratio: the ratio of the length of the physically specified contour to the total length of the contour. Other experiments showed that human vision prefers to make modal completions as short as possible, an effect known as Petter's rule. The experiment reported here examined the relationship between Petter's rule and support ratio, showing that both affect modal completion in figures of homogeneous color, but that when they compete Petter's rule dominates. Finally, our results confirm that Petter's rule is an effect of relative gap lengths and not of relative size.     

Genetic Counseling: Clinical Geneticists' Views

Evaluation of genetic counseling requires a clear consensus about its objectives, which is not evident in published definitions and guidelines. This study aims to investigate clinical geneticists' beliefs and thoughts about their practice. Structured interviews with eight clinical geneticists addressed the aims, skills, and expectations of genetic counseling. Analysis of transcribed interviews revealed four key themes, with contradictory aspects: 1. Providing information that is objective, full, and accurate versus information that is contingent on circumstances and tailored to individual needs. 2. Eliciting emotion and dealing with it directly versus dampening down and containing emotion. 3. Communicating nondirectively versus directively. 4. Expecting to perform a range of sophisticated tasks while having minimal training in the necessary skills to achieve these. These results have implications for the nature of the professional role, the development of training required for it, and the evaluation of genetic counseling.     

Problem structuring aids for quantitative estimation

An important part of decision making in many contexts is the estimation of numerical values for uncertain quantities, such as the projected costs of a development project or the number of people who use illegal drugs. In previous research, estimation accuracy for such quantities was found to be improved by algorithmic decomposition. The present study examines (a) the estimation performance of individuals using extended algorithms in which component estimates are produced by multiple methods, and (b) the effectiveness of algorithms produced by individuals after receiving training in algorithmic decomposition. The extended algorithm approach yielded some improvement in estimation performance. Subjects trained in algorithmic decomposition were able to produce algorithms, the effectiveness of which were dependent upon the presence of misinformation about components of the quantity to be estimated. The results are discussed in terms of the information processing demands imposed by detailed problem structuring.