‘I'm not a war monger but…’: Discourse Analysis and Social Psychological Peace Research

The present paper argues for a discourse analytic approach to social psychological peace research and demonstrates the potential of such an approach through a re‐specification of the concept of attitudes to war. This is illustrated through an analysis of a series of televised debates broadcast in the UK in February–March 2003 in the build‐up to the formal outbreak of the Iraq War. Analysis draws attention to the importance of rhetorical context and function, the inseparability of attitude object and evaluation and the formulation of evaluations as specific or general. Findings are discussed in the context of recent calls for methodological pluralism in social psychological peace research with a suggestion that matters of epistemology stand prior to methodology. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Let the pigeon drive the bus: pigeons can plan future routes in a room

The task of determining an optimal route to several locations is called the traveling salesperson problem (TSP). The TSP has been used recently to examine spatial cognition in humans and non-human animals. It remains unclear whether or not the decision process of animals other than non-human primates utilizes rigid rule-based heuristics, or whether non-human animals are able to flexibly ‘plan’ future routes/behavior based on their knowledge of multiple locations. We presented pigeons in a One-way and Round-Trip group with TSPs that included two or three destinations (feeders) in a laboratory environment. The pigeons departed a start location, traveled to each feeder once before returning to a final destination. Pigeons weighed the proximity of the next location heavily, but appeared to plan ahead multiple steps when the travel costs for inefficient behavior appeared to increase. The results provide clear and strong evidence that animals other than primates are capable of planning sophisticated travel routes.     

Counselling in the workplace: How time‐limited counselling can effect change in well‐being

Background: Many employers provide counselling support on work and personal issues for their employees, but in times of economic pressure such services can be at risk if their effectiveness is not demonstrated. Aim: To evaluate whether time‐limited counselling in a workplace can effect sustained change in well‐being. Method: The study was carried out by a staff counselling team in a university setting. The Warwick‐Edinburgh Mental Well‐being Scale (WEMWBS) was completed by clients at the beginning and end of counselling, and at three and six months following. A non‐treatment comparison group completed the survey at the same intervals. Results: The results of our investigation show clearly that the effect of time‐limited counselling (average seven sessions) on distressed clients is positive. The evidence of our treatment group suggests that they acquire an increased sense of well‐being as a result of the experience of counselling with a significant statistical difference between pre‐and post‐counselling treatment group scores on the WEMWBS and consistently higher scores found post counselling. The improvement was maintained at the same level for at least six months following the end of counselling. Conclusions: The provision of time‐limited counselling by employers is an effective support for personal difficulties affecting work.     

Component analysis of simple span vs. complex span adaptive working memory exercises: A randomized,controlled trial

There has been growing interest in using adaptive training interventions such as Cogmed-RM to increase the capacity of working memory (WM), but this intervention may not be optimally designed. For instance, Cogmed-RM can target the primary memory (PM) component of WM capacity, but not the secondary memory (SM) component. The present study hypothesized that Cogmed-RM does not target SM capacity because the simple span exercises it uses may not cause a sufficient amount of information to be lost from PM during training. To investigate, we randomly assigned participants to either a standard (simple span; N = 31) or a modified (complex span; N = 30) training condition. The main findings showed that SM capacity did not improve, even in the modified training condition. Hence, the potency of span-based WM interventions cannot be increased simply by converting simple span exercises into complex span exercises.     

Brief counseling to reduce AIDS risk in intravenous drug users and their sexual partners: Preliminary results

Intravenous drug users (N = 88) and their sexual partners (N = 45) were randomly assigned to either a brief counseling intervention or an information-brochure only condition (aimed at reducing behavioral risk for HIV infection). At 10 day follow-up, intravenous drug users exposed to brief counseling were more knowledgeable about risk behaviors, and reported higher levels of self-efficacy and communication skill, and more frequent use of condoms and sterilisation of needles. At 90 day follow-up, intravenous drug users were more accepting of guidelines to reduce sex-related risk and reported greater self-efficacy in relation to drugs. Sexual partners who received brief counseling showed a small reduction in unprotected sex (at 90-day follow-up), while those receiving brochures were slightly less likely to use condoms. Methodological problems of the study are discussed.     

Relation of socioeconomic status to logical and sociomoral judgment of middle-aged men

Empirical links between socioeconomic status and logical and sociomoral judgment were studied. Logical judgment was measured with adaptations of the pendulum and correlations tasks devised by Inhelder and Piaget (1958); sociomoral judgment was scored with the standard Kohlberg interview. Measures of socioeconomic status (SES) were status of family of origin and subject's educational attainment and occupational prestige. In a sample of 83 middle-aged men, the 3 measures of SES accounted for 25% and 12% of the variance in logical and sociomoral judgment, respectively. Adult occupational prestige accounted for 6% of the variance in logical judgment beyond that explained by family status and education, suggesting that adult cognitive functioning may be related to occupational placement, occupational experience, or both.     

OBSERVATIONS ON CONTACT STIMULATION PROVIDED YOUNG CHILDREN IN SELECTED AREAS OF GREECE,USA, AND USSR

This study was a cross-cultural investigation of contact stimulation, a variable known to be important to the developmental status of young children. An observational checklist was employed to examine objectively physical contacts provided young children by their caretakers in three modern western societies. Forty-nine caretaker-child pairs were studied for a total of 635 minutes in free-play situations in selected areas of Greece, the United States and Russia. Contacts designated as caretaking (designed to satisfy needs of children), pacifying (designed to please children), retrieval (designed to remove children physically from undesirable situations or places), and punishment were observed and measured. Results showed that American caretakers provided their charges with significantly fewer contacts than did caretakers in either of the other two societies studied. No differences were found either in physical retrieval or punishment contacts among the three groups. Implications for childrearing in all three societies were discussed.     

The convergence of Kuhn and cognitive psychology

Although psychology has been criticized for adhering to outmoded conceptions of knowledge (e.g. logical positivism), the assertion is made that at least one branch of psychology, namely cognitive psychology, is in the position to corroborate and extend contemporary philosophy of science. Kuhn's “learned perception of similarity” and the related notion of exemplar, which serve to exemplify more adequate conceptions of knowledge within the philosophy of science, are shown to converge with cognitive psychology's schema theory. In this way, the schema theory's empirical offspring provide a validation mechanism for Kuhn's notions and thus provide a richer understanding of the scientific enterprise. This convergence is seen as instantiating an epistemological trend towards understanding of limitations and validity of scientific evidence through an understanding of the limitations and validity of the scientist.     

The change from visible to invisible:

It is argued that the problem of the phenomenal persistence of objects in experience, often called “object permanence,” is actually a problem of the discriminating of persisting from nonpersisting things. A distinction is made between objects that go out of sight and objects that go out of existence, and it is shown that optical information exists to distinguish these two cases. Evidence is provided from a series of motion picture displays to suggest that Os do in fact distinguish them. The various optical transitions are shown to be reversing in the first case, but nonreversing in the second. In particular, the transition that specifies the occlusion of one surface by another is analyzed, together with the inverse of this transition. This study is a sequel to an earlier one of optical transformations.