Studies in the Expanded Word Association Test: I. Effects of Cerebral Dysfunction

The effects of cerebral dysfunction upon responses to the Expanded Word Association Test were studied among psychiatric patients. Psychiatric patients suffering from impairments in cerebral functioning showed significantly (p < .001) more blocking, multi-words and repetitions, irrespective of the type of stimulus word, than psychiatric patients judged free of such impairment. By weighing these variables with discriminant function coeficients it was possible to effectively discriminate between the groups, with only four misclassifications out of ninety patients. The results were discussed in relation to a previous experiment where similar findings had been obtained, and to the use of the test as a clinical tool.     

A Note on the Comparative Value of the “True” Index of Studiousness for the Purpose of Prognosis

It was hypothesized that observers would be less inclined to expect a person to shift from one task to another when the initial task had been chosen than when it had been assigned, and when costs incurred while working on the initial task could not be recouped. Choice was also hypothesized to favor attribution of preference for the initial task and optimism concerning its completion, while unrecoupable costs were expected to encourage the attribution of preference but inhibit the attribution of optimism. It was also hypothesized that the effects of choice on attributed preference and optimism would be negated by the individual's failure to shift tasks at the earliest opportunity, but the effects of unrecoupable costs would not be. Ss were 188 male undergraduates who twice responded to paper-and-pencil instruments while watching video-taped experimental sessions. The manipulations created a 2 × 2 × 2 design. All hypotheses were supported. It was concluded that unrecoupable costs establish a strong and lasting presumption of commitment, whereas the effects of choice vs. assignment tend not to persist in the face of contradictory evidence.     

A model for evaluation in child custody disputes

Abstract

Over one million children in the United States were involved in child custody decisions in the past year (Glick, 1979). Mental health professionals have been increasingly employed in such decisions. In this paper, we will delineate a model for clinicians to use in evaluating the family with respect to custody and will describe the values which guide our methods and recommendations.     

Books Received: Volume 13, Issue 2

Celia Wolf‐Devine: Descartes on Seeing: Epistemology and Visual Perception. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1993 (Journal of the History of Philosophy Monograph Series), pp. viii + 121. ISBN 0–8093–1838–5.

Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan with selected variants front the Latin edition of 1668. Edited, with Introduction and Notes by Edwin Curley. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., Indianapolis/Cambridge 1994, pp. lxxx‐584. ISBN 0–87220–178–3 (cloth), £27.95, 0–87220–177–5 (pbk), £6.95.

Allison Coudert: Leibniz and the Kabbalah. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1995, pp. 218. £68.00. ISBN 0–7923–3114–1.

Richard Price: The Correspondence. [Edited by D. O. Thomas and W. Bernard Peach]. Vol. III. February 1786‐February 1791. Edited by W. Bernard Peach. (Duke U, Durham N.C. and University of Wales Press Cardiff 1994). ISBN 0–8223–1327–8.

Henry Allison: Idealism and Freedom: Essays on Kant's Theoretical and Practical Philosophy. Cambridge University Press, 1996. xxi + 217 pp. £30 (hbk), £10.95 (pbk). ISBN 0–521–48295‐X (hbk), 0–521–48337–9 (pbk).

Terry Pinkard: Hegel's Phenomenology: The Sociality of Reason. Cambridge University Press, 1994. 4451 pp. £40.00 hb. ISBN 0–521–45300–3.

Mary Anne Perkins: Coleridge's Philosophy, The Logos as Unifying Principle. (Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1994) pp. 310. £30.00. ISBN 0–19–824075–9.

Elzbieta Ettinger: Hannah Arendt ‐ Martin Heidegger (London, Yale University Press, 1995) £10.95 ISBN 0–300–06407–1

Dana R. Villa: Arendt and Heidegger ‐ The Fate of the Political (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1996) ISBN 0–691–04400–7     

Modality Effects and the Development of the Word Length Effect in Children

Two experiments investigated the development of the word length effect in children aged 4 to 10 years, comparing auditory and visual stimuli. The question addressed was whether word length effects emerged earlier with auditory presentation or visual presentation, or whether they emerged at the same age regardless of presentation modality. Results provided evidence that word length effects emerge earlier with visual than auditory presentation. The implication of our results is that with visual presentation, 4-year-olds engage in some form of verbalisation strategy that involves obtaining phonological representations of picture names and mapping them on to articulatory output plans. This strategy is clearly verbal in nature, but is not necessarily characterised as cumulative verbal rehearsal.     

Moralized memory: binding values predict inflated estimates of the group’s historical influence

ABSTRACT

Collective memories are memories or historical knowledge shared by individual group members, which shape their collective identity. Ingroup inflation, which has previously also been referred to as national narcissism or state narcissism, is the finding that group members judge their own group to have been significantly more historically influential than do people from outside the group. We examined the role of moral motivations in this biased remembering. A sample of 2118 participants, on average 42 from each state of the United States, rated their home state’s contribution to U.S. history, as well as that of ten other states randomly selected. We demonstrated an ingroup inflation effect in estimates of the group’s historical influence. Participants’ endorsement of binding values – loyalty, authority, and sanctity, but particularly loyalty – positively predicted the size of this effect. Endorsement of individuating values – care and fairness – did not predict collective narcissism. Moral motives may shape biases in collective remembering.     

Illusory recollection of voices

We investigated source misattributions in the DRM false memory paradigm (Deese, 1959, Roediger & McDermott, 1995). Subjects studied words in one of two voices, manipulated between‐lists (pure‐voice lists) or within‐list (mixed‐voice lists), and were subsequently given a recognition test with voice‐attribution judgements. Experiments 1 and 2 used visual tests. With pure‐voice lists (Experiment 1), subjects frequently attributed related lures to the corresponding study voice, despite having the option to not respond. Further, these erroneous attributions remained high with mixed‐voice lists (Experiment 2). Thus, even when their related lists were not associated with a particular voice, subjects misattributed the lures to one of the voices. Attributions for studied items were fairly accurate in both cases. Experiments 3 and 4 used auditory tests. With pure‐voice lists (Experiment 3), subjects frequently attributed related lures and studied items to the corresponding study voice, regardless of the test voice. In contrast, with mixed‐voice lists (Experiment 4), subjects frequently attributed related lures and studied items to the corresponding test voice, regardless of the study voice. These findings indicate that source attributions can be sensitive to voice information provided either at study or at test, even though this information is irrelevant for related lures.     

Foundationalism,Coherentism and Rule-Following Scepticism

Semantic holists view what one's terms mean as function of all of one's beliefs and applications. Holists will thus be coherentists about how one's usage is justified: showing that one's usage of a term is justified involves showing how it coheres with the rest of one's beliefs and applications. Semantic reductionists, on the other hand, will understand such justification in a classically foundationalist fashion. Now Saul Kripke has, on Wittgenstein's behalf, famously argued for a type of scepticism about meaning and the possibility of demonstrating the correctness of one's usage. However, Kripke's argument has bite only if one understands justification in classically foundationalist terms. Consequently, Kripke's arguments, if good, lead not to a type of scepticism about meaning, but rather to the conclusion that one should be a coherentist about the justification of our usage, and thus a holist about semantic facts.     

College Sophomores in the Laboratory Redux: Influences of a Narrow Data Base on Social Psychology's View of the Nature of Prejudice

In this article we review answers to 5 questions concerning the development of personality across the life course: How early in the life course can we identify characteristics unique to individuals that will show continuity over time? When in the life course is personality fully developed? What life course factors moderate continuity and change in personality? What are the mechanisms that promote continuity in personality? And finally, what are the mechanisms that promote change in personality? Based on the answers to these 5 questions we conclude (a) that there is modest continuity from childhood to adulthood, (b) that personality traits do not become fixed at a certain age in adulthood and retain the possibility of change even into old age, and (c) that with time and age people become more adept at interacting with their environment such that personality consistency increases with age and is more common than change in midlife and old age.