Quantification of Electroencephalography

In Experiment 1, a study by Messer was replicated with use of 18 children aged 40 to 67 months and nonsense words in which the phonemes of the consonant onsets of permissible and impermissible words were equated for frequency of occurrence. The children did not choose significantly more permissible words at any age, indicating that they did not use phonological rules as a basis for choice. In Experiment 2, similar materials were used with 14 children aged 56 to 74 months. By means of an operant conditioning procedure and a learning set paradigm, an experimental group (five children) was reinforced for choosing the permissible member of 10 permissible/impermissible pairs of nonsense words to a criterion of 80 percent correct responses. On transfer to a test task (16 problems given at a rate of 12 trials per problem) the group reached a mean performance level of 76 percent correct responses, which was significantly greater than that attained by either of two control groups (nine children). It was therefore concluded that some evidence for the existence of implicit phonological rules had been obtained, although the conclusion had to be qualified because (a) the mean level of performance of the experimental group during the test task was relatively low, and (b) because only children with high 1Qs performed at a level better than chance.     

On a Possible Use of the Root Nodules of Leguminous Plants for Research in Neurology and Psychiatry (Preliminary Report on a Free Porphyrin-Hemoglobin System)

The study was designed to examine the trait attribution process of American female college students to male stimulus targets differing in hair length and to explore the relationship between differences in preferences for hair length and differences in S characteristics of the perceiver. In a between Ss design, groups of females (N = 90) rated male stimulus targets of various hair lengths on a number of personalogical and physical dimensions. Short-haired male targets were perceived more favorably and as resembling more the male stereotype than long-haired male targets. Females' relative preference for hair length styles were correlated with their responses to a personality questionnaire, a sexual experience inventory, and a background information questionnaire. The profiles of females who preferred short-haired males could be described as conservative in orientation, while the profiles of females who preferred long-haired males could be described as liberal in orientation. An implication of this study is that impressions and preferences for another individual are a function not only of the characteristics of the person being observed but also to some extent a function of the characteristics of the observer.     

Religion and Disparities: Considering the Influences of Islam on the Health of American Muslims

Both theory and data suggest that religions shape the way individuals interpret and seek help for their illnesses. Yet, health disparities research has rarely examined the influence of a shared religion on the health of individuals from distinct minority communities. In this paper, we focus on Islam and American Muslims to outline the ways in which a shared religion may impact the health of a racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse minority community. We use Kleinman’s “cultural construction of clinical reality” as a theoretical framework to interpret the extant literature on American Muslim health. We then propose a research agenda that would extend current disparities research to include measures of religiosity, particularly among populations that share a minority religious affiliation. The research we propose would provide a fuller understanding of the relationships between religion and health among Muslim Americans and other minority communities and would thereby undergird efforts to reduce unwarranted health disparities.     

Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding Organ Donation: a Study on Officials of Religion in Turkey

The aim of this study is to determine the attitudes and behaviors of religious scholars regarding organ donation and transplantation. In this study, 540 officials working in the Department of Religious Affairs in Kayseri, Turkey, were included. Overall, 86.6% response rate (n = 468) was achieved. Although a majority of the officials of religion in this study stated that they believed in the importance of organ donation (90.8%), the rate of considering donation (57.9%) and the donation rate (1.1%) were found to be substantially low. There is a difference between the employment status and willingness to donate organs. The rate of willingness to donate was significantly high in men than women. And also was high in imams and preachers. Regarding the sources of information, the majority of the respondents (70.0%) cited mass media. Overall, 15.3% cited school education and 42.0% religious publications. The most common question (83.1%) that was asked was “whether or not organ donation was suitable for Muslim religious”. Our study revealed that although the research groups have positive ideas about organ donation and transplantation, their role was low in informing and motivating people about organ donation and transplantation.     

March of the Living, a Holocaust Educational Tour: Effect on Adolescent Jewish Identity

March of the Living (MOTL) is a worldwide two-week trip for high school seniors to learn about the Holocaust by traveling to sites of concentration/death camps and Jewish historical sites in Poland and Israel. The mission statement of MOTL International states that participants will be able to “bolster their Jewish identity by acquainting them with the rich Jewish heritage in pre-war Eastern Europe.” However, this claim has never been studied quantitatively. Therefore, 152 adolescents who participated in MOTL voluntarily completed an initial background questionnaire, a Jewish Identity Survey and a Global Domains Survey pre-MOTL, end-Poland and end-Israel. Results suggest that Jewish identity did not substantially increase overall or from one time period to the next.     

Wie stehen Psychoanalyse und Neurowissenschaften zueinander?

In order to achieve a definition of the subject of both sciences, the author differentiates the practical from the natural side of our existence: our natural, neurophysiological configuration permits our way of life, in which we use those in the form of an instrument, in a similar way to that which a singer would use a voice. The differentiation between conditional and causal relations then leads to a basic criticism of neuroscientific positions. The interest of psychoanalysis in neuroscience is ultimately characterized as a pragmatic interest.     

Rushton: The great theoretician and his contribution to personality

J. Philippe Rushton has been described as one of the greatest theorists in the field of personality and individual differences and social psychology. His life history theory (Differential K Theory) was said to bring unification to the scientific study of racial differences as Einstein’s theory of relativity unified the field of physics. It was maintained that Rushton’s General Factor of Personality (GFP) meshes with both general intelligence and his Differential K Theory. The present author presented a two-pillar theory of adaptive functioning that has a heavy concentration on Rushton conceptualization.     

Executive functioning moderates the relationship between motivation and adolescent depressive symptoms

We investigated the association between adolescent depressive symptoms and components of executive functioning (EF), including planning (Tower of London), set-shifting (Wisconsin Card Sorting Task), and inhibition (Stop Signal Task) in a community sample of 12–14 year olds. Further, EF was tested as a moderator of motivation (as operationalized by revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory) effects on depressive symptoms. Results suggested that planning ability was associated with depressive symptoms. Furthermore, planning ability moderated the relationship between motivation (fight-flight–freeze system; FFFS) and depressive symptoms, such that among adolescents with poor planning ability the FFFS positively predicted depressive symptoms, but among adolescents with strong planning ability the FFFS negatively predicted depressive symptoms. Neither set-shifting nor inhibition were associated with depressive symptoms. Findings highlight the need to consider multiple components of EF and to integrate motivational and executive dysfunction models to the study of depression.     

Music as a way of knowing: tentative steps towards extending the boundaries of traditional music philosophy

Based on Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences and Ray Jackendoff s theory of a Universal Musical Grammar this article proposes that music be regarded as a way of knowing by which man endeavours to make sense of, interpret and articulate—by means of a system of sound symbols—an aspect of reality which cannot be expressed in any other way. The four main points of this hypothesis are: (1) Music refers to a reality that is neither solely a product of my imagination, my feelings or the constitution of my body, nor to a reality that can be explained solely in empirical terms. Rather, it includes both these dimensions, but at the same time is more than both of them put together. (2) The language of music is unique in that it is structured like no other language; it is structured in accordance with the reality it refers to. (3) Unlike mathematics (or even spoken language), the language of music, in its manifestation as culturally diverse musics, is semantically and ethically not a neutral language. (4) The emergence of art music can be explained particularly well by means of the model of music as a way of knowing.