Intermanual Interactions During Simultaneous Execution and Programming of Finger Movements

In bimanual movements, some differences between the movements performed by the two hands cause interference, while others do not. Similarly, in choice between responses with the left and right hand some differences between the two movements increase RT, while others do not. It is suggested that both kinds of effects are, at least in part, due to the incompatibility between processes that determine characteristics of movements jointly for both hands and that are present during preparation as well as during execution. This hypothesis implies that during execution of one movement, programming of a different movement to be performed with the other hand should be impaired, as compared to a condition in which the successive movements of both hands are the same. This expectation was confirmed for finger movements of different forms where an effect on choice RT had been shown previously. On the other hand, interference between execution and programming is not to be expected when successive movements differ in characteristics that are likely to be specified separately for each hand, as indicated by a lacking effect in choice experiments. This expectation was confirmed for successive movements performed with different fingers of either hand as compared to movements performed with the same fingers.     

“Authoritarianism” and Agreement with Things Authoritative

The use of personality and attitudinal questionnaires in private executive and military samples is briefly reviewed. The need for evidence regarding the factor similarity of such questionnaires in comparative studies is noted. Such a comparative factorial study of an abbreviated version of the Shure-Meeker (11) Personality/Attitude Schedule (PAS) is reported. In terms of the general scales examined, three of the four scales emerge in both samples. The order of emergence, as well as the number and item content of the factors, differs slightly between the two samples. Caution is suggested in assuming factor similarity across samples in comparative studies utilizing the PAS and other personality and attitudinal instruments.     

Children's Eyewitness Identification as Implicit Moral Decision‐Making

Why are young children particularly prone to make false positive errors or false alarms when identifying a wrongdoer? In three studies, the problem was approached using a signal detection analysis, focusing on the moral costs of false alarms, as understood at different points in development. The findings are as follows: (i) decisional criteria became more conservative, indicating fewer false alarms, with age in three studies; (ii) children's beliefs about the seriousness of false alarms and misses changed from (a) a non‐moral concern to (b) a moral concern for misses to (c) a moral concern for false alarms. (iii) These findings were replicated in two demographically different communities. More critically, (iv) framing of the filmed event, for example, as a moral transgression (stealing) or a pro‐social (helping) act (Study 1) and as intentional with little damage or unintentional with major damage (Study 3), interacts with age in influencing decisional criteria. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sisters of the Heart: How Women's Friendships Heal

In this article we focus on the healing aspects of women's intimate friendships with other women. In particular, we discuss the role of female neurohromone oxytocin “the love hormone” in the promotion of health and wellbeing among women. We assert that the intimate women friendship construct can enhance psychotherapy's healing and empowering functions. In this context, we examine how women's friendships can inform feminist psychotherapy. Moreover, we discuss the feminist therapeutic relationship as an intimate bond, and compare it with women's friendships. We conclude with the introduction of the special issue on “Sisters of the Heart: Women Psychotherapist Reflections on Female Friendships.”     

Visual image retention does not contribute to modulation of event-related potentials by mental rotation

Rotation of a visual image in mind is associated with a slow posterior negative deflection of the event-related potential (ERP), termed rotation-related negativity (RRN). Retention of a visual image in short-term memory is also associated with a slow posterior negative ERP, termed negative slow wave (NSW). We tested whether short-term memory retention, indexed by the NSW, contributes to the RRN. ERPs were recorded in the same subjects in two tasks, a mental rotation task, eliciting the RRN, and a visual short-term memory task, eliciting the NSW. Over both right and left parietal scalp, no association was found between the NSW and the RRN amplitudes. Furthermore, adjusting for the effect of the NSW had no influence on a significant association between the RRN amplitude and response time, an index of mental rotation performance. Our data indicate that the RRN reflects manipulation of a visual image but not its retention in short-term memory.     

Nominalism and Idealism

The article considers, in a historical setting, the links between varieties of nominalism—the extreme nominalism of the Quine-Goodman variety and the trope nominalism current today—and types of idealism. In so doing arguments of various twentieth century figures, including Husserl, Bradley, Russell, and Sartre, as well as a contemporary attack on relations by Peter Simons are critically examined. The paper seeks to link the rejection of realism about universals with the rejection of a mind-independent “world”—in short, linking nominalism with idealism.     

Dislike and Envy as Antecedents of Pleasure at Another's Misfortune

Previous research related to pleasure at another's misfortune has focused on the role of envy and competition in inducing such feelings. Additionally, some views assume that this emotion is restricted to mild misfortunes. In this paper, we propose that other-directed negative emotions (e.g., dislike and anger), independent of envy, can give rise to pleasure at another's misfortune and the misfortune can be severe when these other emotions are causal. In addition to providing support for this view in three studies, pleasure at another's misfortune was also associated with different factors when other-directed negative emotions as opposed to envy served as its eliciting condition. For example, given that dislike caused pleasure at another's misfortune, the misfortune was more likely to be perceived as deserved, any misfortune was pleasing, and the observer was more reluctant to help than given envy as the cause.