When Small Means Comfortable: Relations Between Product Attributes in Two‐Sided Advertising

The processes that mediate the effectiveness of 2‐sided advertising were studied. We predicted that (a) 2‐sided (vs. 1‐sided) advertisements increase perceived source credibility and that (b) the logical relation between the negative and positive product attributes mentioned in the 2‐sided ad (e.g., little space, implying a cozy atmosphere) facilitates favorable inferences about the positive attributes, especially when recipients have sufficient time to process the message content. Results supported these predictions. However, the effects of message type and processing time on attitudes were mediated by inferences about positive attributes but not by perceived source credibility. Implications of these findings for consumer judgment and decision making are discussed.     

Language asymmetry and auditory attention in young adulthood after being born small-for-gestational age or with cardio-pulmonary resuscitation at birth.

A dichotic listening test with consonant-vowel syllables was used to assess language asymmetry and shift of attention in 42 young adults who had been in need of cardio-pulmonary resuscitation at birth, with a mild or moderate clinical course during the neonatal period (n = 31), or were born small-for-gestational age (SGA; n = 11) and compared with healthy controls (n = 17). All the participants were followed up prospectively and displayed no neurological or developmental deficits at 18 months of age. All the groups had an expected right-ear advantage during a baseline condition with no instructions to shift attention. The SGA group and the moderate resuscitated group displayed clear signs of an attenuation of the right-ear advantage and they were also less able to modify the ear preference in forced-attention conditions, compared with the control group. The main finding was that the groups with the most severe pre- and perinatal complications were also most affected on the dichotic listening test at adult age.     

Weber and Weimar: A response to Factor and Turner

In their critique, Factor and Turner attempt to substitute one commonplace for another by merely supplying long lists of publications that mention Max Weber. While accepting their reproof that I applied the concept of „influence”︁ too narrowly, my response endeavors to map out the directions that further research in this area will need to follow if the controversy is ever to move beyond jejune polemics.     

An account of consciousness in physical and functional terms: A target for research in the neurosciences

The neurophysiology of mental events cannot be fully understood unless that of consciousness is understood. As the first step in a top-down approach to that problem, one needs to find an account of consciousness as a property of the biological organism that can be clearly defined as such. However, if it is to deliver what must be expected of it, it should address what is commonly meant by the wordconsciousness. Unless the last condition is satisfied, the theory will fail to deliver what must ultimately be expected of it. Although current interest lies mainly in the higher functions of consciousness, such as its role in language and social relationships, the common usage of the word relates to modes of awareness that are not denied to creatures lacking language or social relationships. The basic features to be covered include awareness of the surrounding world, of the self, and of one’s thoughts and feelings; the subjective qualities of phenomenal experience (qualia); the conditions a brain event must satisfy to enter consciousness; and the main divisions of mental events, such as sensations, feelings, perceptions, desires, volitions, and mental images.     

Group member contacts without the group therapist

After presenting some of the arguments against patients having contact with one another outside the regularly scheduled group psychotherapy sessions with the therapist, we present our counterarguments. Rather than forbidding extragroup socializing, thereby assuming the role of moralistic, punitive parental authorities to be deceived or challenged, we accept that such socializing is likely to happen and then establish beforehand the rule that information about extragroup contacts is to be shared with the entire group during regular therapy sessions with the therapist. In this way, the extragroup behaviors are dealt with just as any other material in group, i.e., searching for the underlying dynamics. Some positive aspects of extragroup socializing, as well as some negative aspects, are discussed, with examples taken from clinic groups and private practice groups.