Processes and products of imitation: Additional evidence that imitation is progressive

The spontaneous verbal interactions of two children and their babysitter were recorded over the period of half a year. The children were males, from middle-class backgrounds, and 2 years old at the beginning of the observation period. Imitated utterances were found to surpass quantitatively spontaneous ones on the dimensions of grammatical and semantic complexity. With few exceptions, new structures appeared first in imitative utterances and only later in spontaneous ones. Both the higher complexity and the prior appearance of new constructions in imitative utterances suggest that imitation fulfilled a progressive function for the observed children.     

Untersuchungen über Zusammenhänge zwischen drei Leistungsfaktoren und Antworten auf Fragebogenitems

Zusammenfassung 90 Oberschüler beantworteten 214 Fragebogenitems und bearbeiteten 41 Leistungsaufgaben, die zusammen drei in einer faktorenanalytischen Untersuchung von Jäger gefundene Faktoren repräsentieren. Die Zusammenhänge zwischen Fragen- und Aufgabengruppen wurden korrelations- und faktorenanalytisch untersucht. Die Leistungen in den den Faktor Anschauungsgebundenes Denken repräsentierenden Aufgaben korrelierten positiv mit durch Fragebogenitems definierten Verhaltensdimensionen Hinwendung zum Konkreten und Wohlbefinden-Emotionale Stabilität-Leistungszuversicht. Die Leistungen in Einfallsreichtum und Produktivität korrelierten positiv mit Überlegenheitsgefühl-Leistungszuversicht-Emotionale Stabilität-Wohlbefinden, sowie mit Spontaneität, Selbständigkeit und Flexibilität. Die Leistungen in einem dritten Faktor, der Tempo-Motivation bei einfach strukturierten Aufgaben benannt werden könnte, korrelierten positiv mit Soziale Zuwendung-Extraversion und scheint darüberhinaus mit einem Merkmal kompensatorischer Leistungsehrgeiz in Beziehung zu stehen. Die Ergebnisse werden diskutiert und Hypothesen zur Überprüfung und Ausweitung der Befunde formuliert.

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Summary 90 subjects answered 214 questionnaire and 41 ability test items, tbe latter representing three factors found by Jäger in an extensive factor analytic investigation. The relations between all the variables were analyzed by correlational and factor analytic methods. It was found that the ability called vision-related thinking is positively correlated with questionnaire-defined behavioral dimensions called reality orientation and well-being-emotional stability-achievement confidence. The ability fluency and productivity is positively correlated with superiority feeling-achievement confidence-emotional stability-well-being, with spontaneity, independence, and flexibility. Speed-motivation in simple tasks is positively correlated with social participation-extraversion and seems to be related to a trait called compensatory achievement orientation. The findings are discussed and hypotheses for subsequent test and extension formulated.

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Wir danken Herrn Dr. A. O. Jäger für die freundliche Erlaubnis, Aufgaben und Ergebnisse aus seiner Forschungsarbeit vor deren Veröffentlichung zu verwerten. Herrn Dipl.-Math. P. Schnell vom Deutschen Rechenzentrum in Darmstadt für die Durchführung der Berechnungen, unseren Kollegen, den Dipl.-Psychologen K. Althoff, Ch. Balzert, K. D. Stoll und P. Wolff für freundliche Mithilfe, nicht zuletzt unseren Vpn für ihren Einsatz und den Herrn Oberstudiendirektoren Jung, Hadamar, Dr. Keller, Montabaur, und Sauer, Limburg, für die Erlaubnis zur Durchführung der Untersuchungen an ihren Schulen.     

Information search and attribution: Cognitive processes mediating the effect of false autonomic feedback

All published experiments using false autonomic feedback are reviewed and four sets of necessary conditions mediating its effects are proposed. These conditions convern (a) search for an explanation of the feedback, (b) availability of potentially explanatory context features, (c) causal attribution of the feedback, and (d) salience of the perceived causes. Conflicting results, including outcomes of cognitive desensitization, are explicable by reference to these conditions. Evidence supports the attributional theory of emotional behaviour and the assumed equivalence of actual and fictitious arousal although the boundary conditions of the latter postulate need still be explored.     

希望会成为失望吗?——图宾根1961年开讲词

文章从人类学一存在论视角重新界定了"希望"的具体内涵.希望会成为失望,而且会成为深痛的失望.因为第一,希望不是确信,希望与可失望性直接有关,本身包含有麻烦、迂回、挫折、失败等因素;第二,希望是一种向前开放状态,希望不是与既定的现存事物相联系,而是与为来的尚未存在的事物相联系.稳固的希望包含着事物的类本质,故通过对趋势-潜势的忠实观察而得到校准,并且依照自由王国的目标内容而成为尺度本身.对于一种政治制度来说,事先把握了的希望与原理,即人道的社会主义乃是检验其成绩的最可靠的标尺.     

Knowledge about a common source can promote visual- haptic integration

The brain integrates object information from multiple sensory systems to form a unique representation of our environment. Temporal synchrony and spatial coincidence are important factors for multisensory integration, indicating that the multisensory signals come from a common source. Spatial separations can lead to a decline of visual-haptic integration (Gepshtein et al, 2005 Journal of Vision 5 1013-1023). Here we tested whether prior knowledge that two signals arise from the same object can promote integration even when the signals are spatially discrepant. In one condition, participants had direct view of the object they touched. In a second condition, mirrors were used to create a spatial separation between the seen and the felt object. Participants saw the mirror and their hand in the mirror exploring the object and thus knew that they were seeing and touching the same object. To determine the visual-haptic interaction we created a conflict between the seen and the felt shape using an optically distorting lens that made a rectangle look like a square. Participants judged the shape of the probe by selecting a comparison object matching in shape. We found a mutual biasing effect of shape information from vision and touch, independent of whether participants directly looked at the object they touched or whether the seen and the felt object information was spatially separated with the aid of a mirror. This finding suggests that prior knowledge about object identity can promote integration, even when information from vision and touch is provided at spatially discrepant locations.     

The story of an ambivalent relationship: Sigmund Freud and Eugen Bleuler

This paper examines the short-lived flirtation between psychoanalysis and academia and psychiatry in Europe and the reasons for, and consequences of, the fact that their paths diverged. It is argued that Bleuler's break with the psychoanalytic movement is a crucial and, until now, largely underestimated turning point. Bleuler's separation from the psychoanalytic movement was probably more important for the course it has since taken than those of Adler, Stekel, or even Jung. Bleuler's analysis by correspondence by Freud, and its failure, was of paramount importance for the future relationship between Freud and Bleuler, and for Bleuler's assessment of psychoanalysis.     

Two spatially separated attention systems in the visual field: evidence from inhibition of return

It has been demonstrated that the human visual field shows some functional inhomogeneities, in particular when the central and perifoveal regions are compared to the more peripheral regions. The present study examined this inhomogeneity by examining the effect of stimulus eccentricity on inhibition of return (IOR), a phenomenon that biases our attention towards novel locations against returning it back to previously attended locations. Eighteen subjects were examined in a visual detection task, in which a target appeared randomly following a nonpredictive spatial cue in the visual field. The eccentricities of the cues and targets were systematically manipulated from 5° to 30° with 5° increments. Results showed that response times to targets that appeared at cued locations were significantly slower than those at uncued locations for all stimulus eccentricities, demonstrating the IOR effects. However, response times at cued locations increased significantly when stimulus eccentricity shifted from 15° to 20°, leading to a much stronger IOR effect at more peripheral regions compared to central and perifoveal regions, indicating a functional dissociation between these two regions of the visual field. Possible neural mechanisms underlying this dissociation are discussed, and two attention systems modulating the two functional regions of the visual field are put forward to best account the present finding implicating in particular midbrain mechanism.