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.     

Spatially-limited attention to vibrotactile stimulation

Weak vibrotactile signals were presented to human Os, in some instances to the index finger alone, in other instances to the middle finger alone, and in still other instances to the two fingers simultaneously. When the 0 knew in advance of a trial which finger(s) would be presented a signal, no spatial summation resulted, that is, the sensitivity of two fingers to two signals was no greater than the sensitivity of one finger to one signal. When the 0 was left uncertain about which finger(s) would be presented a signal on any given trial, a result having the appearance of spatial summation was obtained. Theappearance is misleading;the difference between two-finger and one-finger sensitivity in this case reflects, instead, a decrement in the performance of the single fingers. Both results are consistent with a single-channel model of attention.     

T × W Completeness

T × W logic is a combination of tense and modal logic for worlds or histories with the same time order. It is the basis for logics of causation, agency and conditionals, and therefore an important tool for philosophical logic. Semantically it has been defined, among others, by R. H. Thomason. Using an operator expressing truth in all worlds, first discussed by C. M. Di Maio and A. Zanardo, an axiomatization is given and its completeness proved via D. Gabbays irreflexivity lemma. Given this lemma the proof is more or less straight forward. At the end an alternative axiomatization is sketched in which Di Maios and Zanardos operator is replaced by a version of actually.     

Exploration Is Sufficient but Not Necessary for Navigation with Landmarks in the House Mouse (Mus musculus)

Exploration is a locomotor and scanning behavior accompanied by the acquisition of information that can be used for topographic orientation and homing. Our experiments demonstrate that the exploring house mouse (Mus musculus) learns the use of distal landmarks for short-range homing. However, mice that had no exploratory experience at all also learned how to use distal landmarks for homing while shuttling between two goals. In addition, exploration-based knowledge in itself appears to be weak or provisional. Whereas one straight line path integration is strong enough to override orientation by distal landmarks based on 1 day of exploration, prolonged straight line shuttling results in navigation by distal landmarks that is strong enough to override path integration based on prolonged straight line shuttling. We conclude that exploratory behavior by itself is sufficient, but not necessary, for learning the use of distal landmarks for navigation within the home range.     

Analytical competence and language impairment in aphasia

Matched groups of Broca's and Wernicke's aphasics, brain-damaged patients without aphasia and chronic schizophrenics were tested in a nonverbal matching task where the subject had to indicate which of two pictures was more closely linked to a clue picture. Eight additional verbal and nonverbal reference tasks were administered. Both aphasic groups performed worse than brain-damaged controls when the identification of individual attributes or actions shared by clue and referent was required, but were unimpaired when the two had a set of referential-situational associations in common. Factor analyses resulted for both groups in two factors, one of which represents general Language Impairment. For the Broca's aphasics this factor was closely related to general organic deficit as measured by the Trail Making Test; for the Wernicke's aphasics it was associated with tasks which might be considered illustrative of analytical competence in isolating and comparing individual features of objects or concepts.     

Student physical symptoms and the social climate of college living groups

Student physical symptoms were related to the social climates of university living groups. A Physical Symptom Risk Scale, a new subscale of the University Residence Environment Scale, which relates consistently to physical symptom complaints for male, female, and coed living groups, was developed. Living groups characterized by high student physical symptoms were perceived by students as low in involvement and support, high in competition, and low in student influence. The results indicate that certain types of social environments may be "high risk" settings in that they support and possibly facilitate complaints of physical symptoms. These settings may be amenable to early "environmental diagnosis," preventive counseling, and change-oriented social systems intervention.     

The effect of callosotomy on novel versus familiar bimanual actions: a neural dissociation between controlled and automatic processes?

The corpus collosum is the large band of fibers that connects the two cerebral hemispheres of the brain. Individuals who have had the fibers of these tracts surgically severed by callosotomy are able to draw two different spatial figures simultaneously using the left and right hands, without evidence of interactions in the spatial planning processes. Paradoxically, tasks (e.g., tying shoes) that appear to depend on spatial interactions between the left and right hands, each of which is controlled by a separate cerebral hemisphere, pose little difficulty. How can this be? In the study reported here, we observed that well-learned cooperative actions of the hands remain intact in 2 callosotomy patients, whereas actions novel to these patients are virtually impossible for them to produce without visual guidance. We infer that duplicate memory engrams of well-learned actions can be accessed by both cerebral hemispheres without callosal mediation, whereas callosal interactions are necessary for precise cross-matching of sensory information during spatial planning or perceptual-motor learning.     

Scheinbare Wirklichkeit. Zur Idee einer phänomenologischen Philosophie

Presented are here the crucial presuppositions and building-blocks of a phenomenological philosophy. Inspired by Husserl's critique of scientific objectivism and his claim that the life-world as the world of our experience is the only real world, such a philosophy starts from the breaking of the spell of objective reality as the only and true actuality and the acknowledgment of the appearance-character of all actuality and of objective reality itself. It further requires reinterpretations of the notions of sensitivity, subjectivity and consciousness. Foundational for the sketched idea of phenomenological philosophy is the insight that all conscious life is necessarily determined by interests.     

Rising High or Falling Deep? Pathways of Self‐Esteem in a Representative German Sample

In many longitudinal studies, self‐esteem has been shown to increase up until around age 50 or 60 and to decrease thereafter. These studies have also found substantial inter‐individual differences in the intra‐individual development of self‐esteem. In the current study, we examined whether this variation in change could be attributed to underlying latent classes of individuals following different trajectories of self‐esteem development over time. By applying general growth mixture modelling to data from the representative German pairfam study (N = 12 377), four latent classes of self‐esteem development across five years were extracted. Based on their mean levels, trajectories, and variability, individuals in the latent classes could be described as having (a) constant and stable high self‐esteem (29.00% of the sample), (b) constant but variable moderate self‐esteem (31.69%), (c) increasing and stabilizing self‐esteem (15.13%), and (d) decreasing and variable self‐esteem (24.18%). Furthermore, these latent classes differed in accordance with findings of prior research on self‐rated, partner‐rated, and objective correlates of the domains of health and well‐being, partner relationships, and occupational status. Thus, the current study shows that inter‐individual variation in intra‐individual change in self‐esteem is not random but reflects specific individual trajectories, or pathways, of self‐esteem. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Indikation zur strukturbezogenen Psychotherapie

The distinction of conflict processing and structure promoting psychotherapeutic approaches in the psychodynamic field is now common knowledge and has now been incorporated into the guideline comments. The differentiation of treatment presupposes theoretical knowledge of the dynamics of conflict and structure and corresponding thorough initial diagnostics. Based on these foundations an appropriate focus of therapy can be agreed with the patient and the therapy target can be set. This focussed working towards a joint target is especially important for psychodynamic psychotherapeutic treatment, which is of limited duration. The actively accompanying therapeutic process differs from older assumptions that positive developments on the foundation of a therapeutic relationship occur quasi automatically but possibly need a long time. Aspects of the treatment technique and the therapeutic attitude, estimation of the therapeutic development and typical age-related modifications in adolescents and older persons are discussed.