Stroop Interference,Practice, and Aging

We report two experiments that investigate practice effects on Stroop color-word interference in older and younger adults. Both experiments employed a computerized, single-item version of the Stroop task with a voice response, and both involved practice over hundreds of trials. Both experiments showed generally similar practice patterns, including a practice-related reduction in the size of the color-word interference effect. However, the older group continued to show a larger interference effect throughout practice. These findings indicate that older adults show the same trend in practice-related improvement on the Stroop task as younger adults.     

Qualitative character and sensory representation

Perceptual experience seems to involve distinct intentional and qualitative features. Inasmuch as one can visually perceive that there is a Coke can in front of one, perceptual experience must be intentional. But such experiences seem to differ from paradigmatic intentional states in having introspectible qualitative character. argues that a perceptual experience's qualitative character is determined by intrinsic, nonrepresentational properties. But also argues that perceptual experiences have nonconceptual representational content in addition to conceptual content and nonrepresentational sensational properties. He thus distinguishes between conceptual, nonrepresentational, and nonconceptual but representational aspects of perceptual experience. I will argue that Peacocke posits too much. Contrary to his (1983) arguments, the sensational properties Peacocke claims are nonrepresentational are best construed as representational; they are best explained in terms of their relation to the perceptible properties they enable us to perceive. Since sensational properties are arguably nonconceptual, they are best construed as nonconceptual representational properties. I offer the Homomorphism View of sensory qualities, pioneered by, as a unified account of qualitative character and nonconceptual sensory representation. According to this view, a sensory quality represents a perceptible stimulus property in virtue of resembling and differing from other sensory qualities in ways parallel to the ways the stimulus property resembles and differs from other perceptible properties.     

Using habit reversal to treat chronic vocal tic disorder in children

In the present study, a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of simplified habit reversal in three children diagnosed with chronic vocal tic disorder. In two children, vocal tics were substantially reduced. In a third child, tics were not reduced, and the addition of a supplemental contingency management program was ineffective. Despite these mixed results, the treatment was viewed as acceptable to the children's parents in all cases as measured by a standard index of treatment acceptability. Implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exits and Migrations: Foregrounding the Christian Counter-Cult

Most of the scholarly work on the anti-cult movement (ACM), to the extent that it has considered the Christian counter-cult movement (CCM) at all, has subsumed it as a subtle variant of a larger phenomenon. This is problematic in that at many levels, the CCM differs substantially from the ACM. This paper examines some of the conceptual differences in order to elucidate the nature of the tension between established religions in the dominant culture (in this case, Christianity) and controversial religious groups that are perceived as intruders on the religious market place.     

Age and Gender Differences in Mate Selection Criteria for Various Involvement Levels

The present study investigated mate preferences for five different levels of relationship involvement—marriage, serious relationship, falling in love, casual sex, and sexual fantasies–among individuals of 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 years of age. Consistent with an evolutionary perspective, men preferred mates who were higher in physical attractiveness than themselves, whereas women preferred mates who were higher in income, education, self–confidence, intelligence, dominance, and social position than themselves. The lower the level of relationship involvement, the lower were the preferred levels of education, physical attractiveness, and, particularly for males, preferred intelligence in comparison to oneself. For sexual fantasies, men and women preferred mates who were higher in physical attractiveness than those they preferred for real partners. There were few age differences in mate preferences, although older individuals set higher standards for a potential mate’s education.