It cannot be fitting to blame God

This paper argues that it cannot be fitting to blame God. I show that divine immutability, even on a weak conception, implies that God's ethical character cannot change. I then argue that blame aims at a change in the ethical character of the one blamed. This claim is directly intuitive, explains a wide set of intuitions about when blame is unfitting, and is implied by most of the theories blame offered in the philosophical literature. Since blame targeted at God aims to change God's ethical character, an impossibility, such blame is not fitting. I then draw on this conclusion to sketch a new theodicy. I argue that a necessary condition on being blameworthy is that one can be blamed under some possible condition. So, God cannot be blameworthy. Further, I argue that if someone cannot be blameworthy, then they cannot do wrong. Wrong actions tend to make us blameworthy, but since God cannot be blameworthy nothing can tend to make him blameworthy – God cannot do wrong.     

Shyness and sociotropy: additive and interactive relations in predicting interpersonal concerns

Sociotropy (an aspect of interpersonal dependence) and sociability (affiliative need) were examined as moderator variables of the relationship between shyness and interpersonal concerns in two studies. In Study 1, sociotropy, but not sociability, predicted unique variance in three indices of interpersonal concerns through both direct and interactive relations with shyness. An initial analysis in Study 2 showed that sociotropy, but not sociability, was predictive of participants' perceived competence in situations that involved initiation of conversations and assertion. In the second part of Study 2, sociotropy accounted for significant increments in variance when predicting cognitive and affective manifestations of distress related to simulated conversation and assertion situations, while sociability did not. Study 2 results suggest that sociotropy operates primarily in an additive manner with shyness in predicting interpersonal concerns, rather than moderating the relation between shyness and interpersonal concerns. Differences in the results of the two studies and implications for future research are discussed.     

A computer-based test battery for the assessment of static and dynamic spatial reasoning abilities

A battery of 10 computerized tests of spatial ability is described. It includes 5 tests that require reasoning about static spatial displays and 5 tests that require reasoning about dynamically displayed spatial information. An integrated software package for task presentation and data analysis is described, along with a summary of results from a validation study comparing performance on the computer-based tests with performance on standardized paper-and-pencil tests of spatial abilities. Finally, research applications of the current battery are discussed.     

The multiplicity of dreams: cognitive-affective correlates of lucid, archetypal, and nightmare dreaming

This preliminary research is the first to compare lucid, nightmare, and archetypal-mythological dreams on dimensions important in previous research on each. A first study of 100 subjects showed all three forms significantly correlated with each other and with estimates of dream recall. In a second study, 41 subjects were selected from the above on the basis of relative specialization in each dream form, with a control group equally high on dream recall. Here, the lucid and archetypal dreamers tended to separate themselves from nightmare sufferers on the basis of high imaginativeness, proclivity to waking mystical experience, spatial/analytic skills, and physical balance. It appears that the intensification of dreaming is expressed positively or negatively, depending on variations in these cognitive dimensions.     

Language laterality in Navajo reservation children: dichotic test results depend on the language context of the testing

Language lateralization in 40 Navajo and 20 Anglo fifth graders was assessed via the Dichotic Consonant-Vowel Task (DCVT). One group of Navajo children was tested by an experimenter who spoke only Navajo with them. The other Navajo group and the Anglo group were tested by an experimenter who spoke only English to them. Strong right ear advantages (REAs) were obtained for the Anglo group and for the Navajo group tested by the Navajo-speaking experimenter. The Navajo group tested by the English-speaking experimenter showed minimal, nonsignificant REAs. Previous findings of an absence of REAs in Native American children failed to consider the possibility that this might occur only when the experimenter does not speak the dominant language of the children. Our results are not consistent with the view that Native Americans are more right hemisphere dominant as a function of an "appositional" mode of language and thought.     

Use of a common software system for collaborative clinical research on attentional processes in schizophrenia and ADHD

MacArthur Network III, consisting of five nodes (locations) and over 100 investigators, was formed in 1983 to conduct collaborative clinical research on risk and protective factors associated with psychiatric disorders. The common measurement of attentional dysfunction associated with two specific disorders (schizophrenia and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder) was a goal of a subgroup of 11 Network III investigators. In this paper, the experiences with five approaches for implementing common protocols on laboratory computers for collaborative clinical research are described. The reasons for selecting the approach provided by Schneider’s (1988) MEL system are presented and discussed.     

The effect of visualization on visual search performance

Striking results recently demonstrated that visualizing search for a target can facilitate visual search for that target on subsequent trials (Reinhart et al. 2015). This visualization benefit was even greater than the benefit of actually repeating search for the target. We registered a close replication and generalization of the original experiment. Our results show clear benefits of repeatedly searching for the same target, but we found no benefit associated with visualization. The difficulty of the search task and the ability to monitor compliance with instructions to visualize are both possible explanations for the failure to replicate, and both should be carefully considered in future research exploring this interesting phenomenon.     

Accessing the particular from the general: The power of distinctiveness in the context of organization

Recall is inversely related to the number of items sharing a cue. The limiting case of unique cue-target relationships supports extremely high levels of recall, particularly when the cue is self-generated. This fact is incongruous with the importance assigned to the construct of organization in memory theory. Further, self-generated unique cue-target relationships tend to be idiosyncratic, implying that the power of unique cues should be limited to cases of self-cued memory. The experiments presented here suggest a role for organization that reconciles the fact of unique cue effectiveness with the importance of organization to memory. Two new findings are reported: Unique cue production enhances target encoding; and general cues can access particular encodings. The data are further tribute to the importance of simultaneous organizational and distinctive processing and recommend a new perspective on the function of organization in memory.     

Incomplete taste adaptation to different concentrations of salt and sugar solutions

Two concentrations each of sodium chloride and sucrose solutions were used as stimuli in a study examining taste adaptation. Twenty subjects were presented a 3-min continuous flow of each taste stimulus over the anterior dorsal tongue surface, and periodically gave magnitude estimates of its intensity. The degree of adaptation was greater for the less concentrated solutions than for the more concentrated ones, but the majority of subjects did not adapt completely to any of the stimuli. This result, which is consistent with other reports from this laboratory, is discussed in terms of individual differences among subjects and in relation to recent taste research based on completely adapted subjects.     

Further evaluation of morphine aversion: maintenance of a taste aversion using a low, nonaversive morphine dose

Previously, in an investigation of morphine-conditioned taste aversion (CTA), we found that limited preexposure to a low, nonaversive (non-CTA-inducing) dose of morphine (2.5 mg/kg) was as effective as preexposure to a higher, CTA-inducing dose (15 mg/kg) in blocking the formation of a subsequent morphine CTA. In the present study, we examined the capacity of this low, 2.5-mg/kg morphine dose to maintain a CTA initially induced by the 15-mg/kg dose. A standard CTA procedure was used. Results indicated that rats given three initial taste-drug pairings with 15 mg/kg morphine followed on subsequent pairing days by treatment with the low, non-CTA-inducing, 2.5-mg/kg dose continued to exhibit a strong CTA over 8 pairing days. A similar pattern was observed for animals continuing to receive taste-drug pairings with the 15-mg/kg dose. Animals receiving only one taste-drug pairing with the 15-mg/kg dose, followed on subsequent pairing days by 2.5-mg/kg conditioning, failed to show such a pattern of CTA. An intermediate CTA pattern was seen with animals conditioned with 15, 10, 5, and repeated 2.5-mg/kg doses over consecutive pairing days. These data suggest that exposure to a low dose of morphine, with no apparent CTA-inducing properties, is sufficient to maintain a previously established morphine taste aversion. Potential implications for understanding the apparent discriminative complexity of morphine's motivational properties are discussed.