THE NUMBERING SYSTEM OF THE TRACTATUS

The significance of the complicated numbering of the propositions in the Tractatus has occasioned much speculation. Wittgenstein's own explanation has, following Stenius, been generally regarded as misleading. But an examination of the Prototractatus reveals that the numbering system was for Wittgenstein principally an aid in the composition of his work. It allowed him to mark out certain propositions which required further work or supplementation, without disturbing the basic structure of the treatise. But the reworking of the Prototractatus to form the Tractatus considerably changed the original order in which the ideas were connected, and thus made it more difficult to understand the Tractatus. Several specific examples make it clear that it is essential to look back at the context of the Prototractatus in order to achieve a correct interpretation of many of the propositions in the Tractatus.     

Attitudes to Authority in Women Religious

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between three stances in attitudes to authority and levels of intrapsychic and interrelational of maturity in women religious in initial stages of membership. Subjects were drawn from congregations throughout the U.S. from those involved in programs of formation or temporary commitment. The total sample (N = 162) was divided into three equal-attitude groups (N = 54), using complementary but uncorrelated measures of attitudes to institutional authority and directiveness. Relationship between the behavioral rating of directiveness seemed associated with intrapsychic measures of individuation, with those scoring as most directive found most mature from this perspective. Maturation rated from an intergenerational system approach seemed to be associated with pro-authority attitudes, with those most supportive of authority scoring highest on this construct. Implications for further research as well as work with religious in formation are suggested.     

The aging woman in popular film: Underrepresented, unattractive, unfriendly, and unintelligent

The present study examined 100 top-grossing motion pictures spanning from the 1940s through the 1980s (20 movies from each decade). Eight hundred and twenty-nine characters were rated on attractiveness, character goodness, intelligence, friendliness, socioeconomic status, romantic activity, and movie outcome. It was hypothesized that ageist and sexist stereotypes would interact such that (a) older female characters would be more underrepresented, and (b) more negatively portrayed, than their male contemporaries. Both hypotheses were supported. Implications regarding double standards for age, and the media’s propagation of beauty-related standards for females were discussed. We would like to express our appreciation to David Shaffer and Mary Ballard for comments on an earlier version of this article. We would also like to thank Colin Crothers, Jennifer Lund Smith, and Debbie Sabia for their assistance in the collection of this data.     

Interest Inventories and the Developmental Framework

Interest inventories are of greatest usefulness for educational and vocational planning when the counselor is satisfied that the student is “ready” to indicate his interests. Since interests develop over time as the adolescent broadens his experiences, counselors are cautioned that more individual counseling is often necessary before interest inventories can be used as the basis of career decision-making. Viewed from this developmental point of view, interest inventories are examined as they are affected by the subject's age, social class, ego-strength, shift in major field, and ability. Judicious counseling could provide experiences to assist in raising career goals.     

Domain specificity of spatial expertise: the case of video game players

Two experiments examined whether video game expertise transfers to performance on measures of spatial ability. In Experiment 1, skilled Tetris players outperformed non‐Tetris players on mental rotation of shapes that were either identical to or very similar to Tetris shapes, but not on other tests of spatial ability. The pattern of performance on those mental rotation tasks revealed that skilled Tetris Players used the same mental rotation procedures as non‐Tetris players, but when Tetris shapes were used, they executed them more quickly. In Experiment 2, non‐Tetris players who received 12 hours of Tetris‐playing experience did not differ from matched control students in pretest‐to‐posttest gains on tests of spatial ability. However, Tetris‐experienced participants were more likely to use an alternative type of mental rotation for Tetris shapes than were Tetris‐inexperienced participants. The results suggest that spatial expertise is highly domain‐specific and does not transfer broadly to other domains. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.