An evaluation of computer-based driving systems for research,assessment, and advisement

Evaluations are made of three computer-based driving systems presented at the 1993 Society for Computers in Psychology conference. These systems are compared and contrasted on the dimensions of realism, validity, cost, data-output, and application goals. All three systems have positive attributes on each of the five dimensions, but in different ways, yielding systems that complement each other in their usefulness for research, assessment, and advisement. We note that the systems have strong potential for applications with elderly drivers, but that all three systems need expansion for use with high-risk youthful drivers.     

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.     

Contributions of Seymour Sarason to the field of mental retardation

The contributions of Seymour Sarason to the field of mental retardation are presented against the background of the pivotal changes in society's perception of the retardate that occurred following World War II. Sarason's key contributions to that change in terms of broadening the scientific approach to the issues in the field and advocating reform in the treatment and education of the retarded are briefly sketched.     

Cassandra in the Classroom: Teaching and Moral Madness

Moral madness is a symptom of the moral violence experienced by teachers who are expected to exercise responsibility for their students and their work, but whose moral voice is misrecognized as self-interest and whose moral agency is suppressed. I conduct a feminist ethical analysis of the figure of Cassandra to examine the ways in which teachers may be driven to moral madness.     

If Freud Were a Woman: Gender,Uncertainty, and the Psychology of Being Human

ABSTRACT

This article explores the relationships among gender, uncertainty, and the experience of being human by imagining how psychoanalysis might have evolved had Freud been born female. Since the uncertainty heard in many women’s voices goes hand in hand with their relational focus, I suggest that Freud, the woman, would have developed a trauma-centered theory with an ethical foundation reflecting our human relational longings.     

Social likeability,conformity, and body talk: Does fat talk have a normative rival in female body image conversations?

Fat talk, dialogues among women involving negative body-focused discussions, was studied as a function of conformity and social likeability through the use of four vignettes depicting young women in conversation. Using a 2 (body presentation style of the group: negative or positive) × 2 (body presentation style of the target, Jenny: negative or positive) factorial design, 215 college women (92.1% non-Hispanic Caucasian) read one of four vignettes in a classroom setting and made ratings on a social likeability scale. Participants’ personal ratings of Jenny's likeability were higher when she spoke positively about her body, whereas they expected the other group members in the vignette to like Jenny more when she conformed to the group's body presentation style. This study is the first to support two competing norms for women's body image—the existing norm to fat talk versus a newly documented norm that some women like others who express body acceptance.     

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.     

Clinical assessment of motor function: a processes oriented instrument based on a speed-accuracy trade-off paradigm

In this study, we developed a digitizing tablet-based instrument for the clinical assessment of human voluntary movements targeting motor processes of planning, programming and execution. The tool was used to investigate an adaptation of Fitts' reciprocal tapping task [10], comprising four conditions, each of them modulated by three indices of difficulty related to the amplitude of movement required. Temporal, spatial and sequential constraints underlying the various conditions allowed the intricate motor processes to be dissociated. Data obtained from a group of elderly healthy subjects (N=50) were in agreement with the literature on motor control, in the temporal and spatial domains. Speed constraints generated gains in the temporal domain and costs in the spatial one, while spatial constraints generated gain in the spatial domain and costs in the temporal one; finally, sequential constraints revealed the integrative nature of the cognitive operations involved in motor production. This versatile instrument proved capable of providing quantitative, accurate and sensitive measures of the various processes sustaining voluntary movement in healthy subjects. Altogether, analyses performed in this study generated a theoretical framework and reference data which could be used in the future for the clinical assessment of patients with various movement disorders, in particular Parkinson's disease.