Distinguishing Context Effects From Context Errors in Judgments of Behavior1

Context effects (assimilation and contrast) are examined in relation to accuracy in judgments of stimuli. Context effects are distinguished from context errors. This is shown to depend on one's definition of true scores, rater tendencies (leniency-severity) relative to true scores, and the direction and magnitude of observed context effects. The framework is illustrated empirically in a study of contrast effects involving performance judgments. Implications for reliability, validity, and agreement of behavior judgments in practice are explored.     

A DEVELOPMENTAL DEFICIT IN LOCALIZING OBJECTS FROM VISION

Abstract— We describe a college student, A. H., with a developmental deficit in determining the location of objects from vision. The deficit is selective in that (a) localization from auditory or tactile information is intact, (b) A H reports the identity of mislocalized objects accurately, (c) visual localization errors preserve certain parameters of the target location, and (d) visual localization is severely impaired under certain stimulus conditions, but nearly intact under other conditions. These results bear on the representation and processing of location information in the visual system, and also have implications for understanding developmental dyslexia.     

Quantitative measurement of observed workload in the analysis of aircrew performance

A methodology for the quantitative evaluation of observed workload was proposed. The model was designed to provide point estimations of observed workload at any time during the performance of a set of tasks. The model was also designed to provide information about the task-scheduling strategies used to complete a set of tasks. The proposed model was then tested with data from a full mission flight simulation. The model predictions correlated significantly with expert ratings of workload management made during the flight simulation. The model was also able to distinguish between low- and high-performing aircrews when performance was based on the number of errors made during flight simulations.     

Damage: Trauma and violence in a sample of women referred to a forensic service

Although there is evidence of a link between experienced trauma and later violence, most discussion of the long-term effects of trauma do no examine aggression and violence in any detail. This article presents a pilot study of 16 women referred to the department of Forensic Psychiatry at St George's Hospital, between 1987 and 1993. The cases were selected at random, although most were known personally to the author. The study attempts to draw out the links among sexual abuse in childhood, deliberate self-harm, dangerous behavior, and specifically danger to health care professionals. The concept of complex posttraumatic stress disorder is discussed in relation to both a history of sexual and physical abuse in childhood and later dangerous behavior.     

Harmonic,melodic, and frequency height influences in the perception of multivoiced music

Two experiments addressed the influences of harmonic relations, melody location, and relative frequency height on the perceptual organization of multivoiced music. In Experiment 1, listeners detected pitch changes in multivoiced piano music. Harmonically related pitch changes and those in the middle-frequency range were least noticeable. All pitch changes were noticeable in the high-frequency voice containing the melody (the most important voice), suggesting that melody can dominate harmonic relations. However, the presence of upper partials in the piano timbre used may have accounted for the harmonic effects. Experiment 2 employed pure sine tones, and replicated the effects of Experiment 1. In addition, the influence of the high-frequency melody on the noticeability of harmonically related pitches was lessened by the presence of a second melody. These findings suggest that harmonic, melodic, and relative frequency height relationships among voices interact in the perceptual organization of multivoiced music.     

‘Outdoing Lewis Carroll’: Judicial Rhetoric and Acceptable Fictions

This paper examines the functions of narrative within legal argumentation. My purposes are these: 1) to repudiate common assumptions that differentiate argumentation and storytelling in the law; 2) to begin to theorize anew how legal argumentation functions; 3) to explore the difficulties of evaluating the law's argumentative narratives; and 4) to trace some of the anxiety that judges themselves reveal about their roles as storytellers. I conclude that narrative is necessary to law's claims to authority, even as it complicates our understandings about how legislative policy decisions produce effects, and even as judges themselves seek to mask its importance.     

One size doesn't fit all: Full inclusion and individual differences

Recent studies have documented the increasing trend among school districts toward adopting full inclusion as the predominant model for serving students who qualify for special education services. Although these data may suggest that a paradigm shift has already taken place and that a consensus of opinion has been achieved, several organizations representing students with specific disabilities continue to support a continuum of placement options. This paper challenges a one size fits all approach to special education, and highlights the importance of considering the individual characteristics of students. The relevance of research on full inclusion, as well as methodological issues that limit generalizability of findings related to student outcomes, are discussed. The radical perspective of full inclusion is rejected in favor of an approach that emphasizes the complexities of placement decisions.     

Purity and danger in the solar temple

Based on research conducted in Québec, this study explores the shape of the social life, apocalyptic ideology and authority structure of the Ordre du Temple Solaire (OTS) or Solar Temple within the framework of Mary Douglas's typology of ‘group and grid’. The pollution fears and purity rituals of this controversial new religious movement are analysed as an important factor in their decision to orchestrate a religiously‐motivated mass suicide/homicide, explained in their suicide documents as a ‘transit’ (a magical feat of soul travel) to the Star Sirius. Douglas's insights into how the human body becomes a ‘natural symbol’ for small, persecuted groups, mirroring the social body and the vulnerability of its exits and entrances vis‐à‐vis the surrounding culture, are applied to the alternative patterns of sexuality and parenting in the OTS. It is suggested that the magical aspect of the mass suicide expressed a concern for purity and for protecting the boundaries of their community. It is also suggested that the ritual homicides in Morin Heights resemble the ‘witch‐hunts’ characteristic of Douglas's ‘small society’ that conceives of itself as the perfect, impermeable vessel.     

PLE: A high-level multiprogramming language for psychology

This paper describes a software system called PLE that is designed to turn a Data General Corporation computer system into a sophisticated infinite-channel tachistoscope. We describe hardware and software characteristics of the PLE system and evaluate its performance in comparison to a typical tachistoscope. Additionally, we describe two example experiments that have been implemented in the PLE system.