A closer look at the ability to predict psychotherapeutic outcome

On the basis of previous findings on the varying ability clinically to predict the outcomes of psychotherapy, this study is focussed on the judgmental processes of good and not-so-good judges. To chart the mechanisms of predictive accuracy, the relations between the ratings of each judge and the criteria have been modelled in terms of structural equations. Further, the predictions of one good and one not-so-good judge have been analysed by multiple regression, with aspects of patient information as independent variables. The analyses suggest that, compared to the not-so-good judge, the good judge utilises more information and has more adequate ideas about its validity but not about its internal correlational structure. While not neglecting secondary process thinking, the good judge still leaves room for intuitive, non formalised judgment and also utilises available information in a more discriminating, or radical, manner. The not-so-good judge appears as an overly conscious and cautious person, neglecting much valid information, not discriminating among the variables, and using negatively valid information positively.     

Potential dropouts in a longitudinal study: Prevalence,stability, and associated characteristics

This study quantifies the prevalence and associated characteristics of subjects in a longitudinal study who are difficult to schedule and thus may become potential study dropouts. Although subject attrition over three years remained extremely low, many families were difficult to schedule for their assessments and this remained rather constant over time. Intercorrelations between the measures of scheduling difficulty were high, indicating good internal validity of the constructs. Stability of these measures from year to year was low, making it difficult to predict which families required more staff effort or were at risk for dropping out of the study in any one year. Race appeared to be associated with several measures of scheduling difficulty, while psychiatric characteristics of the sample were less so.     

Qualitative differences between conscious and nonconscious processing? On inverse priming induced by masked arrows

In general, both consciously and unconsciously perceived stimuli facilitate responses to following similar stimuli. However, masked arrows delay responses to following arrows. This inverse priming has been ascribed to inhibition of premature motor activation, more recently even to special processing of nonconsciously perceived material. Here, inverse priming depended on particular masks, was insensitive to contextual requirements for increased inhibition, and was constant across response speeds. Putative signs of motor inhibition in the electroencephalogram may as well reflect activation of the opposite response. Consequently, rather than profiting from inhibition of primed responses, the alternative response is directly primed by perceptual interactions of primes and masks. Thus there is no need to assume separate pathways for nonconscious and conscious processing.     

Ecology and Beyond

This article argues that phenomenology should investigate the phenomenon human happiness because this distinctive style of philosophizing has the potential to make a special contribution to the determination of the highest human good. This distinctive contribution is a function of the phenomenological method, which generally involves the performance of the phenomenological epoché and the execution of the transcendental reduction with respect to the acts of consciousness and their correlatively constituted objects. By means of an axiological application of the phenomenological method specifically to this fundamental ethical and practical question, it becomes possible to distinguish in a rigorous manner between what people think or feel happiness is and what it genuinely is. For example, the phenomenological approach to happiness enables people to neutralize their natural attitude toward the perceived highest good, in which it is given naively and straightforwardly, and to adopt the transcendental attitude toward it, in which it is taken critically and reflectively. As a result, all other things being equal, an application of the phenomenological method to the phenomenon human happiness enhances the prospects for an achievement of the highest human good on the part of the human agents involved in its pursuit.     

Temporal processing within and across senses

This special issue on temporal processing within and across senses was the outcome of a two-day workshop that took place in Tübingen, Germany. The aim of the workshop and this special issue was to advance our knowledge on timing and the senses and to bring together two lines of research that have not yet interacted, those of synchrony and duration perception.     

The locus of temporal preparation effects: Evidence from the psychological refractory period paradigm

In reaction time (RT) tasks, responses are especially fast when participants can anticipate the onset of an imperative response signal. Although this RT facilitation is commonly attributed to temporal preparation, it is unclear whether this preparation shortens the duration of early or late processes. We used the effect propagation property of the psychological refractory period paradigm to localize the effect of temporal preparation. Manipulation of temporal uncertainty affected the RT of Task 1, regardless of the level of stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). Consistent with the prediction of an early locus of temporal preparation, this effect propagated completely to the RT of Task 2 at short SOAs, but propagation diminished virtually to zero at long SOAs.     

Perceptual representation as a mechanism of lexical ambiguity resolution: An investigation of span and processing time

In 2 experiments, the authors investigated the ability of high- and low-span comprehenders to construe subtle shades of meaning through perceptual representation. High- and low-span comprehenders responded to pictures that either matched or mismatched a target object's shape as implied by the preceding sentence context. At 750 ms after hearing the sentence describing the target object, both high- and low-span comprehenders had activated a contextually appropriate perceptual representation of the target object. However, only high-span comprehenders had perceptually represented the contextually appropriate meaning immediately upon hearing the sentence, whereas low-span comprehenders required more processing time before the perceptual representation was activated. The results are interpreted in a framework of co-occurring lexical representations and perceptual-motor representations.     

Reduced electrodermal activity in psychopathy-prone adolescents

This study tests the hypothesis that psychopathy-prone adolescents show reduced anticipatory skin conductance responding. Electrodermal activity was recorded while participants anticipated and responded to a 105 dB signaled or unsignaled white-noise burst. Using an extreme groups design, the authors used Child Psychopathy Scale (D. R. Lynam, 1997) scores from a community sample of 335 male adolescents (age 16) to form control (n = 65) and psychopathy-prone (n = 65) groups. Significantly more psychopathy-prone participants were nonresponders in the signaled anticipatory (p = .014), signaled responsivity (p = .037), and unsignaled responsivity (p = .003) conditions compared with controls. Anticipatory hyporesponsivity of psychopathy-prone adolescents similar to the electrodermal hyporesponsivity found in psychopathic adults suggests that this autonomic impairment is present by adolescence and may predispose individuals to adult psychopathy.