The personal-group discrepancy: Is there a common information basis for personal and group judgment?

In contrast to motivational accounts of the personal-group discrepancy, results from this article suggest that the discrepancy is explained by aggregating different sets of comparison outcomes for either personal or group ratings. Results from a longitudinal study with East German (the minority group) and West German (the majority group) samples confirm the personal-group discrepancy and support our approach. First, social comparisons influenced evaluations of economic situation at both group and personal levels. Second, ratings of group versus personal economic situation were based on different sets of comparisons. Third, the mean structure of both sets of comparison outcomes mirrored the personal-group discrepancy. Fourth, an interaction between personal-group discrepancy and group status supported the authors' suggestions-concerning the direction of the discrepancy.     

Defense and resistance in the psychoanalytic process

"Defense" and "resistance" are usually regarded as two separate and distinct concepts, the first belonging to psychic functioning in general and the second to therapy, yet this distinction is far from constant. Clinical observations indicate a frequent overlapping of these two mental functions or positions. A patient's behavior may convey the meaning of either or both concepts, and a position or response that one assumes to bespeak resistance may reveal defense instead. This state of affairs may be seen in the analysis of patients with a relatively well-integrated neurotic identity, but its main import is in the analysis of psychosomatic patients and those with severe personality disorders. Insufficient holding experiences during the infancy of these patients do not enable them to develop functional structuralization. Deficient mothering in the first stages of life also prevents the stable differentiation between defense against threats from within and resistance against influence from outside.     

Predictors of first onset and recurrence of major depression in young women during the 5 years following high school graduation

Although most depressive episodes in adulthood are recurrences of the disorder, lifetime history of major depression (MD) is often neglected in predictive models. On the basis of research and theory suggesting differential prediction of MD across the course of the disorder, the authors explored whether factors that predict a first MD onset would not predict MD recurrence. Predictors of MD were examined longitudinally in a sample of 128 young women followed for 5 years. Controlling for lifetime MD history, 5-year MD was predicted by the presence before study entry of 3 variables: having witnessed family violence before age 16, having a parent with a psychiatric disorder, and having a nonmood Axis I disorder. During the follow-up period, chronic and episodic stress predicted MD. Prior lifetime MD interacted with both chronic stress and parental psychopathology to predict MD, such that first onsets, but not recurrences, were predicted by these risk variables.     

Language-dependent recall of autobiographical memories

Two studies of autobiographical memory explored the hypothesis that memories become more accessible when the linguistic environment at retrieval matches the linguistic environment at encoding. In Experiment 1, Russian-English bilinguals were asked to recall specific life experiences in response to word prompts. The results supported the hypothesis of language-dependent recall: Participants retrieved more experiences from the Russian-speaking period of their lives when interviewed in Russian and more experiences from the English-speaking period of their lives when interviewed in English. In Experiment 2, the language of the interview was varied independently from the language of the word prompts. Both variables were found to influence autobiographical recall. These findings show that language at the time of retrieval, like other forms of context, plays a significant role in determining what will be remembered.     

The fast and the slow of skilled bimanual rhythm production: parallel versus integrated timing

Professional pianists performed 2 bimanual rhythms at a wide range of different tempos. The polyrhythmic task required the combination of 2 isochronous sequences (3 against 4) between the hands; in the syncopated rhythm task successive keystrokes formed intervals of identical (isochronous) durations. At slower tempos, pianists relied on integrated timing control merging successive intervals between the hands into a common reference frame. A timer-motor model is proposed based on the concepts of rate fluctuation and the distinction between target specification and timekeeper execution processes as a quantitative account of performance at slow tempos. At rapid rates expert pianists used hand-independent, parallel timing control. In alternative to a model based on a single central clock, findings support a model of flexible control structures with multiple timekeepers that can work in parallel to accommodate specific task constraints.     

The role of surface attraction in perceiving volumetric shape

Rock [1973, Orientation and Form (New York: Academic Press)] showed that form perception generally depends more on the orientation of a stimulus in world coordinates than on its orientation in retinal coordinates. He suggested that the assignment of an object's 'environmental orientation' depends on gravity, visual frame of reference, and the observer's ability to impose orientation along one axis or another. This paper shows that the assignment of environmental orientation and perceived 3-D form also depends on the relationship between an object and retinally adjacent surfaces in the scene to which it might be attached. Whereas previous examples have demonstrated effects of orientation on 2-D form, we show that orientation can affect the perceived intrinsic 3-D shape of a volume.     

Using Advice and Assessing Its Quality

People received advice from four sources and used it to produce a judgment. They also assessed the quality of advice by estimating the probability that it would be correct. They were better at assessing than at using advice: combinations of advice based on their assessments were superior to their judgments. Order of assessing and using advice, superficial differences between advisors, and using other methods of advice assessment had no significant effects on this superiority of advice assessment over advice use. However, use but not assessment was improved when some advisors exhibited biases opposite to those that people typically show. It appears that using advice imposes a heavier processing load than assessing its quality and that this load can be lightened by including advisors who exhibit unusual behavior. Their salience may help people working under a heavy processing load make appropriate pairings between advisor weights and advice.     

Memorizing while walking: increase in dual-task costs from young adulthood to old age

The dual task of memorizing word lists while walking was predicted to become more difficult with age because balance and gait are in greater need of "attentional resources." Forty-seven young (ages 20-30 years), 45 middle-aged (40-50), and 48 old (60-70) adults were trained to criterion in a mnemonic technique and instructed to walk quickly and accurately on 2 narrow tracks of different path complexity. Then. participants encoded the word lists while sitting, standing, or walking on either track; likewise, speed and accuracy of walking performance were assessed with and without concurrent memory encoding. Dual-task costs increased with age in both domains; relative to young adults, the effect size of the overall increase was 0.98 standard deviation units for middle-aged and 1.47 standard deviation units for old adults. It is argued that sensory and motor aspects of behavior are increasingly in need of cognitive control with advancing age.