Assessing Sequential Knowledge through Performance Measures: The Influence of Short-term Sequential Effects

Studies on implicit sequence learning have employed the methodology oftask dissociations to show that tasks of conscious memory fail to reveal knowledge expressed in performance measures of learning. One critical requirement of this methodology is that the conscious memory tests tap the same type of information that is expressed in performance measures. When a deterministic sequence is being repeated during practice, identification of the exact type of sequential information that is learned can be achieved by a trial-by-trial comparison between the practised sequence and a control sequence. In Experiment 1 we examine whether short-term sequential effects are present in choice response time tasks and may therefore contaminate this trial-by-trial comparison. In Experiment 2 we control for these effects and demonstrate how specification of the exact sub-parts of the sequence that are learned is necessary before testing for task dissociations. Our findings indicate a dissociation between a response time task and a free generation task. This dissociation, however, is obtained for selected sub-parts of the sequence and may be caused by the insensitivity of the free-generation task to low confidence knowledge.     

SOMATIC ATTRACTIVENESS: AS IN OTHER THINGS, MODERATION IS BEST

Much evidence exists that facially attractive persons are perceived to possess more positive personality traits than are facially unattractive persons. This stereotype is known to be more potent when applied to women than to men. Two experiments were conducted to investigate whether a similar physical attractiveness stereotype exists when "attractive" is defined in terms of physique and "positive" is defined in terms of sex role characteristics and future life happiness. Both the sex role and the life happiness items revealed a tendency for those of intermediate attractiveness to be rated highest. In terms of somatic beauty, the results indicate that while a physical attractiveness stereotype exists, its content is not compatible with the thesis that "what is beautiful is good"     

The Body Politic of Christ: Theology, Social Analysis, and Bonhoeffer's Arcane Discipline

As the world moves further into a postmodern era, the church often seems at a loss to articulate its own raison d'etre . Dietrich Bonhoeffer's discussion of the early church's "arcane discipline" provides a suitable basis for an ecclesiology and modus vivendi that can help Christians respond critically and faithfully to a world come of age as it seeks to sequester the life of the church within its global dispensation. This response takes the concrete form of a distinctive body politic that resembles in many ways the way of life of cultivated by diasporic Judaism.