Learning to ignore: Acquisition of sustained attentional suppression

We examined whether the selection mechanisms committed to the suppression of ignored stimuli can be modified by experience to produce a sustained, rather than transient, change in behavior. Subjects repeatedly ignored the shape of stimuli, while attending to their color. On subsequent attention to shape, there was a robust and sustained decrement in performance that was selective to when shape was ignored across multiple-colortarget contexts, relative to a single-color-target context. Thus, amount of time ignored was not sufficient to induce a sustained performance decrement. Moreover, in this group, individual differences in initial color target selection were associated with the subsequent performance decrement when attending to previously ignored stimuli. Accompanying this sustained decrement in performance was a transfer in the locus of suppression from an exemplar (e.g., a circle) to a feature (i.e., shape) level of representation. These data suggest that learning can influence attentional selection by sustained attentional suppression of ignored stimuli.     

Scientific Meetings of the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis-Creativity and Psychoanalysis: Annual Karen Horney Memorial Lecture,The Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Metaphors for God: Why and How Do Our Choices Matter for Humans? The Application of Contemporary Cognitive Linguistics Research to the Debate on God and Metaphor

This article explores and critiques conservative and liberal theological understandings of metaphor in light of the contemporary research in cognitive linguistics. This assessment is followed by a cognitive examination of the biblical metaphors for God, their unconscious entailments, an assessment of why certain metaphors are more effective than others, and a short discussion of the implications of this effectiveness.     

Ethnic identification,religious identity,and psychological well-being among Muslim and Christian Palestinians in Israel

This study examined relationships between ethnic identification, religious identity, and psychological well-being. The participants were 854 indigenous Israeli Palestinians, of whom 520 (36% males and 64% females) were Muslim and 334 (39% males and 61% females) Christian students, respectively. The sample ranged in age between 17 and 38 years, with a mean of 24.31 (SD = 4.43). Measures of Palestinian ethnic identity, religious identity, and psychological well-being were administered to study participants. The analysis revealed that, for each of the Muslim and Christian samples, Palestinian ethnic identity and religious identity were weakly positively correlated, a finding indicating a possible relative independence between these constructs. After partialling out the effect of age and religious identity, increased degrees of Palestinian ethnic identification linked to higher degrees of positive indicators of well-being and to lower degrees of negative indicators of well-being within each of the samples. These findings held, and were even more pronounced, in the case of religious identity, after controlling for age and Palestinian ethnic identity. The study concludes that religious identity may equal or exceed ethnic identity in importance as a feature of minority individuals’ self-concept informing their well-being.     

First Year Post-Katrina: Changes in Occupational Performance and Emotional Responses

The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine whether Hurricane Katrina affected the occupational performance and emotional states of New Orleans area residents affected by the hurricane over the first year post-Katrina. A purposeful sample of 143 adults who lived in the New Orleans area just prior to Katrina completed a questionnaire one year after Katrina. Participants were asked to rate their satisfaction with their occupational performance and emotional states at four time periods: August 2005, before Katrina; September 2005, one month after Katrina; March 2006, six months post-Katrina; and September 2006, one year post-Katrina. The most notable findings were that both satisfaction with occupational performance and emotional states showed marked declines during the month immediately following Katrina, with some recovery six months post-Katrina, and further recovery a year after Katrina. At one year post-Katrina however, the recovery of satisfaction with occupational performance and emotional states approached, but did not quite reach pre-Katrina baseline responses. Further, women did not fare as well as men post-Katrina, on both variables. Limitations of the study, implications of findings for the theory and practice of occupational therapy in the area of disaster responses, and possible future research are discussed.     

In the Shadows of the Twin Towers: Muslim Immigrant Women's Voices Emerge

The senseless attacks of September 11 left marks of sadness on us all. In a focus group, seven young women immigrants of the Muslim faith shared incidents and reflections on the special effects the attacks left on them. Their discussions shed light on important issues and dynamics in their lives, counteracting stereotypes of them as passive or uneducated. In addition, sources of stress, primarily from discrimination and media stereotyping, were discussed. From their insights, the authors offer recommendations to help feminists raise awareness about, and acculturate to, these women in their quest to achieve without losing their culture.