Processing redundant signals: coactivation, divided attention, or what?

The evidence for and against a redundancy gain in reaction time (RT) when the target is repeated in the visual display is reviewed. We consider the relevance of redundancy gains under these circumstances to the question of whether attention can be simultaneously directed to separate locations in the visual field. In the present experiments, two capital letters were the target stimuli in a two-alternative forced-choice RT paradigm. In addition to the usual conditions of single-target trials, trials on which the target is repeated in the display, and trials on which the target occurs with a noise letter, we introduced the innovation of a condition in which both targets occur in the display. In our two experiments, RT was fastest with single-target displays and slowest with displays containing a target and a noise letter. There was no significant difference in RT to displays in which the target was repeated and displays in which both targets were presented. Both conditions showed a redundancy gain when compared with displays containing a target and a noise letter. The lack of response competition in the both-targets condition and the overall pattern of the results were well explained by a unitary attentional focus that serially processed the letters in the display. Analyses of minima and maxima RTs were consistent with this interpretation.     

The CODE: A revised battery for coping and defense and its relations to subjective health

A condensed test battery (the CODE) based on the Utrecht Coping List (UCL) and part of the Defense Mechanisms Inventory (DMI) has been developed to assess coping and defense in large population studies. It was tested for reliability and validity in students and back pain patients. Principal components factor analysis of the subscales of the UCL and DMI in the student sample revealed two coping clusters: “Instrumental mastery-oriented coping” and “Emotion-focused coping” and two defensive clusters: “Cognitive defense” and “Defensive hostility”. “Instrumental mastery-oriented coping” was negatively related to subjective health complaints measured with Ursins Health Inventory (UHI). The back pain patients were clearly different from the students, using less coping and more defensive strategies. They had more subjective health complaints that showed negative correlations with “Instrumental mastery-oriented coping”. The CODE is a comprehensive battery that may be valid for large population studies of psychological determinants of muscle pain and other subjective health problems.     

Temporal factors in visual perception as related to aging

Older Ss, in the age range 30–55 years, were compared on certain temporal characteristics of visual perception. Experiment I confirmed a previous finding that older adults required an appreciably longer exposure duration to identify forms, even when equated with younger adults on standard measures of visual acuity. Experiment 2 found that older adults have a longer critical duration over which time-intensity reciprocity holds for form identification. The results were discussed in terms of such concepts of psychological time as the psychological moment.     

Are nominal same-different matches slower due to differences in level of processing or to response competition?

Eriksen, O’Hara, and Eriksen (1982) have proposed that the latency advantage ofsame overdifferent judgments when the match is based upon physical identity is due to differential amounts of response competition between the responses by which the judgment ofsame ordifferent is signified. Responses of “different” are slowed by a high level of priming in the competing response signifyingsame. In the present experiment, the response competition model is extended to nominal matches and in particular to what Proctor 1198D has termed the “name-physieal disparity”—a pair of letters are more rapidly judged to have the same name if they are the same ease (e.g., a a) than if they are in different eases (e.g., A a). While response competition effects were found to occur in nominal matches of this kind, the name-physieal disparity was greater than could be attributed solely to response competition. Evidence was obtained that part of the name-physieal disparity could be attributed to the subject’s having two chances to make a-nominal raatch when the letter pair was identical both physically and in name. The match could be made either on the basis of the physical or the name code. It was assumed that name and physical codes were processed at least partially independently.     

Effects of noise letters upon the identification of a target letter in a nonsearch task

During a 1-sec tachistoscopic exposure, Ss responded with a right or left leverpress to a single target letter from the sets H and K or S and C. The target always appeared directly above the fixation cross. Experimentally varied were the types of noise letters (response compatible or incompatible) flanking the target and the spacing between the letters in the display. In all noise conditions, reaction time (RT) decreased as between-letter spacing increased. However, noise letters of the opposite response set were found to impair RT significantly more than same response set noise, while mixed noise letters belonging to neither set but having set-related features produced intermediate impairment. Differences between two target-alone control conditions, one presented intermixed with noise-condition trials and one presented separately in blocks, gave evidence of a preparatory set on the part of Ss to inhibit responses to the noise letters. It was concluded that S cannot prevent processing of noise letters occurring within about 1 deg of the target due to the nature of processing channel capacity and must inhibit his response until he is able to discriminate exactly which letter is in the target position. This discrimination is more difficult and time consuming at closer spacings, and inhibition is more difficult when noise letters indicate the opposite response from the targe     

Target redundancy in visual search: Do repetitions of the target within thedisplay impair processing?

Two experiments tested the predictions from Bjork and Murray’s (1977) extension of Estes’ (1972, 1974) interactive channels model that repetition of a target within a display should, under certain conditions, impair or slow processing. These predictions were contrasted with those of the continuous flow model (Eriksen & Schultz, 1979) that, under the same conditions, repetitions should not impair processing and might possibly facilitate it. Experiment 1 evaluated the relative effects of feature similarity, variable target-noise spacing, and perceptual segregation in a response competition paradigm. In general, results favored the continuous flow conception and competition among internal recognition responses, and no evidence was found for impaired performance due to target repetitions. However, questions concerning possible facilitation arising from redundancy led to Experiment 2. In that experiment, trials were blocked by spacing or noise type. Again, target redundancy did not impair performance relative to the single target control. However, no facilitation effects were found.     

Deconstruction and Pragmatism

Continental Philosophy Review -     

Social relations and presence of others predict bystander intervention: Evidence from violent incidents captured on CCTV

Are individuals willing to intervene in public violence? Half a century of research on the “bystander effect” suggests that the more bystanders present at an emergency, the less likely each of them is to provide help. However, recent meta-analytical evidence questions whether this effect generalizes to violent emergencies. Besides the number of bystanders present, an alternative line of research suggests that pre-existing social relations between bystanders and conflict participants are important for explaining whether bystanders provide help. The current paper offers a rare comparison of both factors—social relations and the number of bystanders present—as predictors of bystander intervention in real-life violent emergencies. We systematically observed the behavior of 764 bystanders across 81 violent incidents recorded by surveillance cameras in Copenhagen, Denmark. Bystanders were sampled with a case–control design, their behavior was observed and coded, and the probability of intervention was estimated with multilevel regression analyses. The results confirm our predicted association between social relations and intervention. However, rather than the expected reversed bystander effect, we found a classical bystander effect, as bystanders were less likely to intervene with increasing bystander presence. The effect of social relations on intervention was larger in magnitude than the effect of the number of bystanders. We assess these findings in light of recent discussions about the influence of group size and social relations in human helping. Further, we discuss the utility of video data for the assessment of real-life bystander behavior.     

Professional Discretion and Accountability in the Welfare State

The discretionary powers of welfare state professionals are in tension with the requirements of the democratic Rechtsstaat. Extensive use of discretion can threaten the principles of the rule of law and relinquish democratic control over the implementation of laws and policies. These two tensions are in principle ineradicable. But does this also mean that they are impossible to come to grips with? Are there measures that may ease these tensions? We introduce an understanding of discretion that adds an epistemic dimension (discretion as a mode of reasoning) to the common structural understanding of discretion (an area of judgment and decision). Accordingly we distinguish between structural and epistemic measures of accountability. The aim of the former is to constrain discretionary spaces or the behaviour within them while the aim of the latter is to improve the quality of discretionary reasoning. The focus in this article is on epistemic measures that are internally related to the main characteristic of accountability, namely justified use of discretionary power.