Visual and tactile memory for 2-D patterns: Effects of changes in size and left-right orientation

Visual identification of 3-D objects depends on representations that are invariant across changes in size and left-right orientation. We examined whether this finding reflects the unique demands of processing 3-D objects, or whether it generalizes to 2-D patterns and to the tactile modality. Our findings suggest that object representation for identification is influenced greatly by the processing demands of stimulus materials (e.g., 2-D vs. 3-D objects) and stimulus modality (touch vs. vision). Identification of 2-D patterns in vision is adversely affected by left-right orientation changes, but not size changes. Identification of the same patterns in touch is adversely affected by both changes. Together, the results suggest that the unique processing demands of stimulus materials and modality shape the representation of objects in memory.     

Directed forgetting in pigeons resulting from the reallocation of memory-maintaining processes on forget-cue trials

When procedural artifacts are controlled, it has been difficult to demonstrate directed forgetting in pigeons. However, previous research with pigeons has not allowed for the reallocation of working memory (from forget items to remember items) on forget-cued trials as is possible in human directed forgetting experiments. In the present experiment, directed forgetting was found while controlling for procedural artifacts and allowing the pigeons to reallocate memory resources on forget trials. The results indicate that under these conditions, pigeons have active control over memory processing.     

The Future of Psychology in Departments of Psychiatry

Health care reform has put increasing pressure on faculty of medical schools to become self-supporting. Opportunities for clinical revenue will decrease, but psychologists who are able to generate research funding will become increasingly competitive, albeit as mercenaries, i.e., capable of paying their own way plus generating a profit to support departmental operations and educational programs. Changes in the health care system signal an end to psychiatry's paternalistic relationship to psychology and present opportunities for psychology proactively to influence its future role in health care. Research, political action, and revised scientific mission, models, and roles represent important strategies in the redefining of psychology as a basic science and major profession in health care.     

THE CRISIS OF VIRTUE: ARMING FOR THE CULTURAL WARS AND PELLEGRINO AT THE LIMES

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics -     

Holiness, virtue, and social justice: contrasting understandings of the moral life.

Being a Christian involves metaphysical, epistemological, and social commitments that set Christians at variance with the dominant secular culture. Because Christianity is not syncretical, but proclaims the unique truth of its revelations, Christians will inevitably be placed in some degree of conflict with secular health care institutions. Because being Christian involves a life of holiness, not merely living justly or morally, Christians will also be in conflict with the ethos of many contemporary Christian health care institutions which have abandoned a commitment to Christian spirituality. In this regard, managed care raises the special question of how Christian institutions can act morally under financial constraints and maintain their character while under the control of secular managers. This question itself raises the further question as to why health care institutions need even pose this query when there are Christian physicians and nurses who could work for less, or Christian men and women who could become sisters and brothers and work for nothing. Contemporary challenges to Christians to maintain their integrity in a post-Christian world have much of their force because Christians have failed to maintain traditional Christian sprituality. In the face of that failure, Christian physicans and nurses will find themselves in greater conflict with health care institutions, because few will any longer understand the requirements of traditional Christianity. In its place, they will have put a generic spirituality, a value-neutral understanding of the role of the health professional, and an anonymous commitment to social justice.     

The organization of multidimensional selection on the basis of color and shape: An event-related brain potential study

In this paper, we examine whether color and shape, tied to a single object in space, (1) are identified and selected in series or in parallel, (2) are identified and selected in a dependent, self-terminating manner or in an independent and exhaustive manner, and (3) are conjoined by a feature integration process before or only after an initial stage of separate attribute analyses has finished. We measured response time and the selection negativity (SN) derived from event-related brain potentials when participants responded to a unique conjunction of color and shape in a go/no-go target detection task. The discriminability of the color and the shape of the conjunction was manipulated in three conditions. When color and shape were easy to discriminate, the SNs to color and shape started at the same time. When one attribute was less discriminable, the SN to that attribute started later, but not the SN to the complementary attribute. This suggests that color and shape are identified and selected in parallel. In all three discriminability conditions, the SNs to color and shape were initially independent but later interacted. This suggests that color and shape are initially selected independently and exhaustively, after which their conjunction is analyzed. The SN to local shape features started later than that to the conjunction of color and global shape features, which suggests that feature integration can start before the analyses of the separate attributes have finished.