Moving along the mental time line influences the processing of future related words

Abstract concepts like numbers or time are thought to be represented in the more concrete domain of space and the sensorimotor system. For example, thinking of past or future events has a physical manifestation in backward or forward body sway, respectively. In the present study, we investigated the reverse effect: can passive whole-body motion influence the processing of temporal information? Participants were asked to categorize verbal stimuli to the concepts future or past while they were displaced forward and backward (Experiment 1), or upward and downward (Experiment 2). The results showed that future related verbal stimuli were categorized faster during forward as compared to backward motion. This finding supports the view that temporal events are represented along a mental time line and that the sensorimotor system is linked to that representation. We showed that body motion is not just an epiphenomenon of temporal thoughts. Passive whole-body motion can influence higher-order temporal cognition.     

The development of basic mechanisms of pattern vision: spatial frequency channels

The mature visual system possesses mechanisms that analyze visual inputs into bands of spatial frequency. This analysis appears to be important to several visual capabilities. We have investigated the development of these spatial-frequency channels in young infants. Experiment 1 used a masking paradigm to test 6-week-olds, 12-week-olds, and adults. The detectability of sine wave gratings of different spatial frequencies was measured in the presence and the absence of a narrowband noise masker. The 12-week data showed that at least two spatial-frequency channels with adultlike specificity are present at 12 weeks. The 6-week data did not reveal the presence of narrowband spatial-frequency channels. Experiment 2 used a different paradigm to investigate the same issue. The detectability of gratings composed of two sine wave components was measured in 6-week-olds and adults. The results were entirely consistent with those of experiment 1. The 12-week and adult data indicated the presence of narrowband spatial-frequency channels. The 6-week data did not. The results of these experiments suggest that the manner in which pattern information is processed changes fundamentally between 6 and 12 weeks of age.     

Assessment of prealbumin in cerebrospinal fluid

The paper describes statistical relationship between prealbumin and total protein in lumbal CSF of a control group and a total group of patients with neurological diseases. The equations of the regression lines and the boundary lines of the distribution areas did not significantly differ between both groups. Therefore, prealbumin seems to be not qualified for differential diagnosis. On the other hand, its application to characterize functional states of blood-brain-CSF barrier systems is discussed.     

A perspective on the study of social attitudes

Argues that the comparative neglect of the cognitive component and social origins of social attitudes has produced serious inadequacies in social psychology and limited its social relevance. Discusses critically the question of how far social change can be brought about by changing attitudes. The argument is exemplified with reference to the literature on authoritarianism and recent British research on racial prejudice and mass communication. Concludes that the psychology of social attitudes needs to take greater account of the way the production and communication of culture are related to social structure and change.     

Factors affecting the acquisition and elimination of children's donating behavior

Thirty-five 6- to 10-year-old children with initial low rates of donating to help a peer either simply received a fine for each failure to donate (n = 7) or also were informed of the contingency between the fine and failure to donate (n = 28). Explanation of the contingency was necessary to increase children's donation rates. Donations continued at high rates during a gradual, unannounced removal of the fine contingency, but decreased when children were informed that fines were no longer in effect, particularly for children who had failed to donate at least once during training and had actually been fined. Overall, addition of a distraction or an inequity procedure did not reduce donating below rate reductions due to the announced extinction procedure alone.     

THE CHANGING CRITERION DESIGN

This article describes and illustrates with two case studies a relatively novel form of the multiple-baseline design called the changing criterion design. It also presents the design's formal requirements, and suggests target behaviors and circumstances for which the design might be useful.     

Zum gegenwärtigen Stand der psychoanalytischen Selbstpsychologie

Zusammenfassung Die psychoanalytische Selbstpsychologie wird dargestellt als postmodernes Paradigma zur Analyse des postpatriarchalen Selbst mit dem methodischen Zugang über Introspektion und Empathie. Die eingeschr?nkten Behandlungsm?glichkeiten vor allem bei narzi?tisch gest?rten Patienten führte Heinz Kohut zur Annahme einer eigenen Entwicklungslinie des Narzi?mus und eines Motivationsprimats des Selbst, welches er bipolar konzipierte. Sexuelles und aggressives Verhalten werden in der Folge nur dann als prim?r angesehen, wenn ein koh?rentes, vitales, nicht fragmentiertes Selbst vorliegt. Wesentliche Bedingungen für Selbstkoh?renz sind die Selbstobjekterfahrungen, die in ihrer Vielfalt ebenso wie Selbstst?rungen dargestellt werden. Aus den Selbstobjekterfahrungen leiten sich die Hauptübertragungsformen in der psychoanalytischen Selbstpsychologie ab. Ein kurzer Abri?über den therapeutischen Proze? sowie über die Integration der S?uglings- und Kleinkindforschung in die Selbstpsychologie und eine andere Sicht des ?dipuskomplexes vervollst?ndigen die hier gegebene übersicht und werden abschlie?end durch einige Neukonzeptionen der psychoanalytischen Selbstpsychologie erg?nzt.      

Denial of visual perception.

An adult with the diagnosis of cortical blindness, complaining of a complete visual loss of 2 years in duration, was found to have a small preserved visual field and remarkably preserved visual abilities. Although denying visual perception, he correctly named objects, colors, and famous faces, recognized facial emotions, and read various types of single words with greater than 50% accuracy when presented in the upper right visual field. Upon confrontation regarding his apparent visual abilities, the patient continued to deny visual perceptual awareness, typically stating "I feel it." CT indicated bioccipital lesions sparing the left inferior occipital area but involving the left parietal lobe. The denial of visual perception evidenced by this patient may be explained by a disconnection of parietal lobe attentional systems from visual perception. The clinical presentation is described as representing "inverse Anton's syndrome."