Listening to the Claims of Experience: Psychology and the Question of Transcendence

The question of transcendence remains a problematic one for psychology, not least because it entails the possible existence of what William James (1902/1982) referred to as “higher energies” outside the perimeter of the self. As such, it also entails the possibility that naturalism may be inadequate as a foundational principle for the discipline. Acknowledging the difficulties posed by seeking to include the idea of transcendence within the province of psychology, compelling evidence may be found within experience itself for holding open the idea at hand. Seen from one angle, holding open the idea of transcendence may be seen as undermining the project of psychological science. Seen from another, however, it may be seen as serving this very project, albeit it in expanded form. Listening to the claims of experience may thus pave the way toward a more inclusive, capacious, and adequate psychology.     

On the interactive influence of facial appearance and explicit knowledge in social categorization

Although people form impressions of others with ease, sometimes one's initial perceptions of individuals conflict with what one knows about them. Here, we aimed to investigate the process by which explicit knowledge about people interacts with initial perceptions on the basis of cues from facial appearance. Participants memorized the sexual orientations of men's faces wherein half of the targets were encoded with a sexual orientation opposite to their actual orientation. Subsequent categorization showed that perceivers favored appearance‐based information when temporally constrained but favored explicit knowledge about group membership with increased viewing time. Additionally, real‐time measures of participants' categorizations showed greater vacillation between appearance‐based cues and explicit knowledge as viewing time increased. These findings suggest that explicit knowledge does not simply overrule appearance‐based cues past a particular threshold but that the two may interact recurrently with top‐down knowledge directing attention and perception at later processing. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

MouseTracker: Software for studying real-time mental processing using a computer mouse-tracking method

In the present article, we present a software package, MouseTracker, that allows researchers to use a computer mouse-tracking method for assessing real-time processing in psychological tasks. By recording the streaming x-, y-coordinates of the computer mouse while participants move the mouse into one of multiple response alternatives, motor dynamics of the hand can reveal the time course of mental processes. MouseTracker provides researchers with fine-grained information about the real-time evolution of participant responses by sampling 60–75 times/sec the online competition between multiple response alternatives. MouseTracker allows researchers to develop and run experiments and subsequently analyze mouse trajectories in a user-interactive, graphics-based environment. Experiments may incorporate images, letter strings, and sounds. Mouse trajectories can be processed, averaged, visualized, and explored, and measures of spatial attraction/curvature, complexity, velocity, and acceleration can be computed. We describe the software and the method, and we provide details on mouse trajectory analysis. We validate the software by demonstrating the accuracy and reliability of its trajectory and reaction time data. The latest version of MouseTracker is freely available at http://mousetracker.jbfreeman.net.     

Aging and the Accessibility of Performed and To-Be-Performed Actions

In young adults information designated for future enactment is more readily accessible from memory than information not intended for enactment (e.g. Goschke & Kuhl, 1993). We examined whether this advantage for to-be-enacted material is reduced in older adults and thus whether attenuated action accessibility could underlie age-associated declines in prospective remembering. Young and older adults showed an equivalent increase in accessibility (faster recognition latencies) for to-be-enacted items over items intended for verbal report. Both age groups also showed increased accessibility for actions performed at encoding compared with verbally encoded items. Moreover, these effects were non-additive, suggesting similarities in the representation of completed and to-be-completed actions.     

Factores familiares en la recaída de pacientes esquizofrénicos

Resumen

Nuestro estudio de la atmósfera emocional de los hogares de los pacientes esquizofrénicos en California del Sur ha replicado los descubrimientos británicos en relación con la influencia del ambiente familiar sobre el curso de la esquizofrenia. Como en los estudios británicos, las críticas y la implicación emocional excesiva de un familiar clave para el paciente en el momento de su ingreso constituyen el mejor predictor aislado de recaída sintomática en los nueve meses posteriores al alta hospitalaria. Al igual que en los resultados británicos, la asociación entre la emoción expresada de los familiares y la recaída fue independiente de todas las demas variables investigadas. Los resultados transculturales sobre los efectos preventivos de la medicación sugieren que los clínicos deben considerar la atmósfera emocional del hogar, a la hora de explicar los fracasos de la medicación.     

The relationship between early life stress and working memory in adulthood: A systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

Exposure to early life stress has been linked to impairment in cognitive functioning in adulthood. The aim of this study was to systematically review the literature on the relationship between early life stress and working memory, a central component of cognitive functioning. Database searches yielded 358 abstracts matching the search terms. Abstract screening followed by full-text review resulted in 26 publications suitable for inclusion, of which 23 were included in the meta-analysis. Results of the meta-analysis suggested exposure to early life stress was associated with poorer working memory. Even though there were a wide variety of working memory tasks used, this effect was significant for both phonological and visuospatial working memory tasks, and both visual and aural task presentation modalities. The effect was also found in samples with and without clinical psychopathology. This review provides recommendations for future research and implications for clinical practice.     

Group Guidance: Principles and Practices by Jane Warters

Abstract

A longitudinal study of 80 participants in cognitive and interpersonal group therapy for social phobia was conducted. The aim was to investigate the relationship between group climate and patients’ short-term and long-term outcome. Group climate data was collected every other week during treatment, whereas social phobia symptoms were assessed at admission, discharge, and one year follow-up. Abbreviated symptom assessments were performed weekly. Regression analyses and mixed models were used in the analyses. Engagement predicted symptom reduction during treatment, from pretreatment to follow-up, and from posttreatment to follow-up. During treatment, avoidance predicted higher symptomatic distress. The results imply that group engagement should be emphasized for patients with social phobia. Avoidance, on the other hand, should be addressed as a process that interferes with treatment progress.     

Further validation of the MMPI-2 and MMPI-2-RF Response Bias Scale: findings from disability and criminal forensic settings

The present study extends the validation of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) Response Bias Scale (RBS; R. O. Gervais, Y. S. Ben-Porath, D. B. Wygant, & P. Green, 2007) in separate forensic samples composed of disability claimants and criminal defendants. Using cognitive symptom validity tests as response bias indicators, the RBS exhibited large effect sizes (Cohen's ds = 1.24 and 1.48) in detecting cognitive response bias in the disability and criminal forensic samples, respectively. The scale also added incremental prediction to the traditional MMPI-2 and the MMPI-2-RF overreporting validity scales in the disability sample and exhibited excellent specificity with acceptable sensitivity at cutoffs ranging from 90T to 120T. The results of this study indicate that the RBS can add uniquely to the existing MMPI-2 and MMPI-2-RF validity scales in detecting symptom exaggeration associated with cognitive response bias.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Metontology</Emphasis>, moral particularism,and the “art of existing:” a dialogue between Heidegger,Aristotle, and Bernard Williams

An important shift occurs in Martin Heidegger’s thinking one year after the publication of Being and Time, in the Appendix to the Metaphysical Foundations of Logic. The shift is from his project of fundamental ontology—which provides an existential analysis of human existence on an ontological level—to metontology. Metontology is a neologism that refers to the ontic sphere of human experience and to the regional ontologies that were excluded from Being and Time. It is within metontology, Heidegger states, that “the question of ethics may be raised for the first time.” This paper makes explicit both Heidegger’s argument for metontology, and the relation between metontology and ethics. In examining what he means by “the art of existing,” the paper argues that there is an ethical dimension to Heidegger’s thinking that corresponds to a moderate form of moral particularism. In order to justify this position, a comparative analysis is made between Heidegger, Aristotle, and Bernard Williams.