The Rabkin Test as a Means of Detecting and Analyzing Defective Color Vision

This study investigated the attentional and mental-set conditions which determine the acquisition and use of memory schema cues. Ninety male and female undergraduate Ss listened to and shadowed the Bransford-Johnson “washing clothes” paragraph under a variety of conditions defined by cue placement (before or during shadowing), attentional mental set (told of relation of cue to passage, or not told), and modality of cue (given visually or auditorily). It was found that cue placement and cue modality had no effect on subsequent recall of the passage, but that attentional mental set did. It was argued that the data supported a model of the mind that emphasized conscious intention in both attention and schema activation, a position associated with Wilhelm Wundt.     

Patterns of reflex action,their autonomic components,and their behavioral significance

This is a discussion of the evidence that autonomic system reflexes are invariably triggered by stimuli that evoke both simple and complex somatic reflexes. Stimuli not only initiate reverberatory activity but sequences of reinforcements from higher centers. Reflexes come in chains, one reaction triggering another. Reflex actions are patterned, and these patterns are appropriate to the behavioral requirement indicated by stimuli. Reciprocal action produces a powerful braking or stimulatory action. Coactivation or synergic action of autonomie “antagonists” also occurs and can effect a greater cardiac output in certain vascular reflexes than can sympathetic action alone. Coactivation of vagus and sympathetic fibers occuring in reflex action or resulting from stimulation of specific areas in the hypothalamus has a physiologic importance to attainment of maximal cardiac function. Finally, two additional suggestions are made: (1) that the rhythmic reflex feedback discharge of the vagus from the baroreceptors aids in maintaining the regularity of cardiac rhythm as by interaaction of oscillators and (2) that the autonomic system, due to its early and often conditioned response, can be determinative as well as modulatory and supportive of behavior.     

II. On retributivism and deterrence

Alan Wertheimer claims the class of criminals who deserve punishment is identical with the class of criminals who are deferrable (Inquiry, Vol. 20 [1977]). According to Wertheimer this premise implies the conclusion that on ‘the retributive account . . . the guilty are punished because we expect to alter (at least some) criminal behavior’. It is argued that this premise does not imply the conclusion.     

The subjectivity of the mother in the mother–son relationship. Attachment,separation, and autonomy

Abstract

Margaret Mahler and John Bowlby's positions are crucial in understanding the tensions that can arise in mother–son relationships. A more recent development of a systems view illuminates the co-construction of this relationship that occurs mainly out of awareness. A systems model of development that describes the co-construction and bi-directional influence between mothers and sons will be used in this paper. The often-neglected subjectivity of the mother is the focus, and the relationship between the mother and her adult son is viewed as a process whereby all participants strive to achieve a balance among attachment, separation, and autonomy. In addition, the contributions of the mother and the impact on her of the son's difficulties in attachment, separation, and autonomy are highlighted. In a case illustration, the subjectivity of the mother in relation to her son is explicated, showing how the son distances himself from his mother and why themother is at a loss to understand how and why this has occurred. The mother's perspective was dominated by anger and disappointment toward her son as well as by self-blame and self-justification. As a result of psychotherapy, the mother was enabled to come to terms with the estrangement of her son.