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.     

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     

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.     

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.     

Effects of psychological defense on processing of neutral stimuli indicated by event-related potentials (ERPs)

The Defense Mechanism Test (DMT) is claimed to identify personnel with a high risk for accidents. A new explanation for why the DMT seems to predict performance when survival depends on split second decisions is proposed. Sixteen right-handed, adult male students were tested with the DMT and with an ERP paradigm (two sine wave tones, presented binaurally). Each subject was tested with a one-stimulus paradigm, and a passive and an active oddball paradigm. Under the passive oddball condition, High defensive subjects differed from Low, having significantly smaller N2 amplitudes (low immediate perception), and significantly larger P3 amplitudes (rely on later associative mechanisms). High defensive subjects seem to have less ability to perceive the environment correctly immediately. This slowness may be fatal when life depends on split second decisions. The fundamental neurophysiological difference may also be the basis for the very complex cognitive and perceptual mechanisms involved in psychological defense mechanisms.     

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.     

Are stepfathers’ education levels associated with the intelligence of their stepsons? A register‐based study of Norwegian half‐brothers

We examined the relationship between the parents’ education levels and the adult intelligence of their children in a population‐based, nationwide sample of Norwegian half‐brothers with different fathers (2,016 pairs of half‐brothers). In a family where the mother has two children with different men, the firstborn child usually lives with the younger child's father during a period of their childhood. This makes it possible to study the non‐genetic effects of paternal education on children's development. Results showed that the education level of the younger half‐brother's father was positively associated with the intelligence score of the older half‐brother. The education level of the older half‐brother's father was not associated with the intelligence score of the younger half‐brother. Firstborn men whose half‐brothers’ fathers had high levels of education had intelligence scores that were 33% (95% confidence interval: 18–47%) of a standard deviation higher than those of firstborn men whose half‐brothers’ fathers had low levels of education, after adjustment for the biological fathers’ education levels, mothers’ education levels, and other background factors. These findings are compatible with the hypothesis that a child's family environment exerts an effect on the cognitive abilities of the child that lasts into adulthood.     

The flankers task and response competition: A useful tool for investigating a variety of cognitive problems

Abstract

Research has shown that the reaction-time interference produced by the flankers task arises, at least in large part, from the incipient activation of competing responses. The response competition paradigm has made valuable contributions to evaluating continuous flow versus discrete stage models of information processing as well as understanding cortical evoked potentials. The paradigm has been used to map the visual attentional field as a function of task demands and has also been found useful in the study of memory. It offers promise in studies of cognitive categorization and has provided insights into the “fast same effect” on same-different judgements on comparison tasks. It is currently being applied to the study of disjunctive comparisons.