Interpreting the WISC-R subtest scores of reading impaired children—a structural approach

The problem of characterising more specifically the cognitive requirements involved in subtests from standardised measures of intelligence represents a main problem in the research on exceptional populations. A new way of classifying tests of mental abilities is presented. Rather than focusing on the content of a given test, the present classification system focuses on their structures. The classification system is applied to the WISC-R (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Revised, Wechsler, 1974). It will be used to interpret the IQ-profiles of a clinically defined sample of reading impaired children (N=82). The basic finding of the study is that the structural complexity of a subtest influences the tests results of reading impaired children. This influence is interpreted as a consequence of poor procedural knowledge; i.e., poor knowledge about how to organise complex sets of data. It is suggested that teaching of metacognitive strategies could be an aid for reading impaired children.     

Interruption of behavior,inescapable shock,and experimental neurosis: A neurophysiologic analysis

Experiments reported in the literature involving interruption of behavior and leading to symptoms of anxiety in conditioned rats are analyzed from the neurophysiologic point of view and compared with the effects of inescapable electric shocks in dogs. It is suggested that anxiety and neurotic behavior (failure to attempt to escape from shock) are accompanied by a state of high ergotropic excitation which leads to a “spilling over” of ergotropic discharges into the trophotropic system. The resulting simultaneous ergotropic and trophotropic discharges impinging on the cerebral cortex are thought to induce abnormal emotions and behavior. Normal behavior is restored by reducing excessive ergotropic activity and re-establishing reciprocal relations between the ergotropic and trophotropic systems. In 1965 I presented a theory of anxiety based on a physiologic analysis of various forms of experimental and clinical neuroses in terms of the activities of, and the mutual relations existing between, the trophotropic and ergotropic systems (Gellhorn, 1965; Gellhorn and Loofbourrow, 1963). In the meantime the work of Mandleret al. (Mandler, 1964; Mandler and Watson, 1966), who emphasized that anxiety is produced through interruption of behavior, came to my attention. These investigations pose two questions:

1. 1.
   Is the interpretation of anxiety presented in my earlier study applicable to Mandler's experiments and kindred observations?     

马克思,直路,具体的乌托邦

俄国没有参与资产阶级革命,革命后的俄国出现了绝对的沙皇主义、独裁、恐怖、个人迷信和警察国家.斯大林主义使马克思主义面目全非,损害了马克思本人的形象.马克思恩格斯的无产阶级贫困化理论、危机理论已宣告无效,马克思主义中依然有效的是辩证法,即矛盾学说.资本主义矛盾可精确地理解为总体异化、自我异化.继承天赋人权遗产将决定共产主义的自由面孔.直路的矫形外科是社会主义的最紧迫的任务,而人道的社会主义包含有作为最高人权的直路.马克思主义并非不是乌托邦,而是具体的乌托邦.     

Philosophy's Real-World Consequences for Deaf People: Thoughts on Iconicity, Sign Language and Being Deaf

The body of philosophical knowledge concerning the relations among language, the senses, and deafness, interpreted as a canon of key ideas which have found their way into folk metaphysics, constitutes one of the historically sustained conditions of the oppression of deaf people. Jonathan Rée, with his book I see a voice, makes the point that a philosophical history, grounded in a phenomenological and causal concern with philosophical thought and social life, can offer an archaeology of philosophy's contribution to the social oppression of deaf people.This article offers support for such a project while being critical of Rée's philosophical phenomenology, since it presumes, àpriori, two ideas about deafness and sign language: firstly, that deaf experience is like hearing experience but without hearing; and secondly, that the iconic qualities of sign languages are strictly superficial phenomena. Both presumptions, it is argued here, derive from the same philosophical knowledge which has linked deafness to the sense of hearing and the voice, and in doing so secured an intellectual basis for the oppression of deaf people in social life.Instead it is proposed, using examples of sign language use, that deafness as sensory experience is best understood by reference to the sense of sight; that iconicity is a central creative resource in sign language formation, maintenance and productivity; that Rée's philosophical phenomenology, as a metatheoretical critique of philosophical knowledge, proves unable to selfreflexively uncover (let alone overcome) existing presumptions in philosophy and social life; and that as a consequence that project itself risks perpetuating, within philosophy, key conditions of the oppression of deaf people.     

What Fitness Can’t Be

Recently advocates of the propensity interpretation of fitness have turned critics. To accommodate examples from the population genetics literature they conclude that fitness is better defined broadly as a family of propensities rather than the propensity to contribute descendants to some future generation. We argue that the propensity theorists have misunderstood the deeper ramifications of the examples they cite. These examples demonstrate why there are factors outside of propensities that determine fitness. We go on to argue for the more general thesis that no account of fitness can satisfy the desiderata that have motivated the propensity account.     

Does contingency awareness mediate the influence of emotional learning on the cueing of visual attention?

Previous research has indicated that conditioning depends on contingency awareness (CA). However, we argue that these studies have examined this issue under methodological conditions that might be insensitive to associative learning without CA. In the present study we examined the effect of an experimental manipulation of CA on attentive processing of classically conditioned stimuli, which is sensitive to associative learning with and without CA. We found that aversive conditioning with additional contingency instructions modulated visual attention, in the sense that the conditioned cues captured and held attention more strongly than the non-conditioned cues. Surprisingly, conditioning under conditions of restricted CA yielded a response pattern that was different from that under full CA. These findings suggest that conditioning with full and restricted CA can lead to qualitatively different effects on attention.     

Tonic Activity Level in the Right Prefrontal Cortex Predicts Individuals' Risk Taking

ABSTRACT— Human risk taking is characterized by a large amount of individual heterogeneity. In this study, we applied resting-state electroencephalography, which captures stable individual differences in neural activity, before subjects performed a risk-taking task. Using a source-localization technique, we found that the baseline cortical activity in the right prefrontal cortex predicts individual risk-taking behavior. Individuals with higher baseline cortical activity in this brain area display more risk aversion than do other individuals. This finding demonstrates that neural characteristics that are stable over time can predict a highly complex behavior such as risk-taking behavior and furthermore suggests that hypoactivity in the right prefrontal cortex might serve as a dispositional indicator of lower regulatory abilities, which is expressed in greater risk-taking behavior.     

Terror of Hope: the Integration of Attachment Theory and Womanist Theology

Hope functions as a potential coping mechanism for individuals who find themselves in stressful or difficult life situations, whether going through a personal grievance or experiencing the pain of systemized oppression. In recent history the study of hope in psychology and theology has grown and become prominent in each field. These forms of hope are often understood in two predominating categories, one which simplifies it to optimism or the other which relegates it to the future. The first understanding of hope, which I refer to as optimistic hope, distills hope into individualistic motivations with goal-setting for the future; individual progression. The second understanding of hope, which I refer to as eschatological hope, pushes hope to the edge of escapism into the next life. However, there is a third type which is influenced by womanist theology—complex hope. By using the work of womanist theologian A. Elaine Brown Crawford, Hope in the Holler and attachment theory, I attempt to show the potential risk and connection between optimistic hope and eschatological hope with insecure attachment types, and complex hope with secure attachment. Then by using the psychological model of self-development, I offer how one might develop mature complex hope in adolescence and adulthood. Lastly, I give a practical application of how one applies this method in their own situation, specifically as a minister or church leader.