Color-vision demonstrations on an IBM PC/AT with VGA

The program CVD contains a set of color-vision demonstrations. They include plain color fields with surrounds, cross-context matching, spatial brightness and color contrast transfer, and adaptation. Also available are displays used in flicker photometry, additive color mixing, color order systems, and the diagnosis of color-vision defects. Simulations of experimental setups allow demonstrations of actual experimental methods and effects. Any color field may be modified, and adjustments are simultaneously displayed in a CIEx,y chromaticity diagram. Most demonstrations include a context-dependent, introductory help text with references.     

Book reviews

Facets of Buddhism Shotaro Iida, 1991 Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass 166 pp., Rs. 150 hb

Li Ao: Buddhist, Taoist, or Neo‐Confucian? T. H. Barrett, 1992 London Oriental Series, Vol. 39 Oxford, Oxford University Press x + 178 pp. £20

Spirituality & Emptiness Donald W. Mitchell, 1992 New York, Paulist Press, xvi + 224 pp. $12.95     

THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY IN UNCOVERING THE MATRIX OF HUMAN MORALITY

Abstract. Theology and the life sciences are mutually dependent on one another in the task of understanding the origin and function of moral behavior. The life sciences investigate morality from the perspective of the historical and communal dimension of humanity and point to survival as the primary function of human behavior. A Christian ethic of self-sacrifice advances the preservation of the entire human and nonhuman creation and should not, therefore, be objected to by the life sciences. Religion, however, is more than a survival mechanism. It points to a preserving agency beyond humanity and prevents the life sciences from reducing life to its strictly biological side.     

Psychological correlates of the three variables in the Strelau Temperament Inventory

Most of the validational studies concerning the Strelau Temperament Inventory (STI) have focused on the Strength of Excitation scale and on a limited number of domains. This study was designed to examine the STI validity in new domains or with new tools, emphasizing the contribution of each of the three STI scales. We focused on health orientation and behaviour, stress susceptibility, emotional reactions, life events, and personal problems. The subjects were 91 healthy adults of both genders. Also information about smoking (health behaviour), white blood cell count and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (physiological stress measures) was available. Regression and discriminant analyses showed that the STI scales were related neither to smoking nor to the Cognitive Orientation of Health but only to three of its components. Furthermore, the STI scales were related to the verbal but not to the physiological stress measures; and to the negative emotions but hardly to the positive ones. Finally, they were related to measures of life events and personal problems. The relations were mostly modest but broadened the validational basis of the STI, indicating that, although all three scales have to be considered, each has a unique contribution.     

Community-Based Interventions: A Return to Community Mental Health Centers' Origins

Consultation services offered by community mental health centers (CMHC) have gone through several significant changes since the signing of the Community Mental Health Center Act of 1963 (The President's Commission on Mental Health, 1978). Initially, consultation and education services were an integral part of the CMHC mission. With the passage of additional legislation that promoted a shift in focus, consultation services declined. By 1981, with the passage of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (Cutler, 1992) national mental health policy was adrift. Consultation and education were no longer seen as central components of mental health services, which increasingly were tied to acute care hospitalization. With a renewed focus on consultation and education, a coherent mental health policy can be reintroduced at the community level.     

Der mikrophyfikalifche Vitalismus

Ohne ZusammenfassungDie folgenden Darlegungen bilden den Inhalt eines Vortrages, den ich auf freundliche Einladung des Ausfchuffes des Zweiten internationalen Kongreffes für Einheit der Wiffenfchaft, Kopenhagen 1936, halten wollte; ich war jedoch verhindert, an der Tagung teilzunehmen.     

How does speed change affect induced motion?

The nature of a recently reported effect of speed on induced motion was investigated. Wallach and Becklen (1983) had found that the extent of induced motion decreases linearly with increases in presentation speed. We found that this speed effect occurred only in induced motion and not under conditions in which configurational change, which is responsible for induced motion, operated veridically. It took place whether configurational change was in conflict with ocular pursuit or with image displacement, and seemed to consist in diminished effectiveness of configurational change when it competed with one of these subject-relative stimuli.     

Modeling instrumental agression in adults in a laboratory setting

Summary Five experiments with 353 young adults performing a game on an aggression machine are reported, three of them testing hypotheses concerning the effects of a model's aggressiveness and social status on instrumental aggressive behavior, and two investigating aspects of reliability and validity. Model's aggressiveness increased the Ss' aggressive behavior in all experiments. The use of presumptive monetary losses as a means by which SS punish their opponents in aggression machine experiments is as effective as presumed electric shocks, and therefore seems preferable in further experimental studies of aggression.

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Zusammenfassung Es wird über fünf Experimente mit insgesamt 353 jüngeren Erwachsenen als Versuchspersonen berichtet, deren instrumentell-aggressives Verhalten an einem Aggressionssimulator untersucht wird. Drei der Experimente dienten der Prüfung von Hypothesen über den Einfluß von Modell-Aggression und Modell-Status auf instrumentell-aggressives Verhalten, zwei weitere untersuchten Aspekte der Reliabilität und Validität. In allen Experimenten zeigte sich ein Anwachsen aggressiven Verhaltens, wenn das Modell aggressiv war. Ferner ergab sich, daß die Verwendung angeblicher Geldstrafen als Mittel, den Gegenspieler an der Aggressionsmaschine zum Rückzug zu zwingen, in gleichem Maße effizient war wie die Vergabe angeblicher Elektroschocks. Daher wird der Verwendung von Geldstrafen in weiteren Aggressionsexperimenten der Vorzug gegeben.

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Detailed reports in German should be requested from the autor at Universität Bielefeld, Postfach 8640, D-4800 Bielefeld 1 (Bielefelder Arbeiten zur Sozialpsychologie No. 2, 3, 10, 18, 25 for Experiments 1 to 5)

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The author is indebted to the following coworkers: Ulrich Goertz, Günter Maus, Amélie Mummendey, Bernd Schiebel, Friedrich-Wilhelm Schöer, Rüdiger Stallberg, Gabriele Sturm, Uwe Troske     

Adaptation in motion perception: Alteration of induced motion

Prolonged exposure to a condition that causes induced motion was found to diminish this effect. The extent of a horizontal induced motion was measured by obtaining estimates of the direction of the apparent oblique path that resulted when a spot was visible on a horizontally moving pattern and was therefore in horizontal induced motion and, at the same time, moved vertically. Because the horizontal component of the perceived motion path represented the induced motion, the slope of the path measured the extent of the induced motion. After a 10-min exposure to induced motion, the apparent motion path was steeper; the mean change corresponded to a 15% smaller extent of the induced motion. Results were obtained that argue that this effect is not due to a diminished horizontal motion of the pattern but amounts to a smaller motion-inducing effect. The experiments were meant to support the view that the perceptual process that underlies induced motion is learned.