An area theorem for thesame-different experiment

If observers in a same-different experiment base their decisions on the absolute difference between observations on a trial, the area under the receiver operating characteristic equals the maximum proportion of correct decisions that an unbiased independent-observations observer could attain. Even though the differencing strategy is suboptimal,the area measure yields an index of optimal performance.     

Information integration across saccadic eye movements

The visual world contains more information than can be perceived in a single glance. Consequently, one's perceptual representation of the environment is built up via the integration of information across saccadic eye movements. The properties of transsaccadic integration were investigated in six experiments. Subjects viewed a random-dot pattern in one fixation, then judged whether a second dot pattern viewed in a subsequent fixation was identical to or different from the first. Interpattern interval, pattern complexity, and pattern displacement were varied in order to determined the duration, capacity, and representational format of transsaccadic memory. The experimental results indicated that transsaccadic memory is an undetailed, limited-capacity, long-lasting memory that is not strictly tied to absolute spatial position. In all these respects it is similar to, and perhaps identical with, visual short-term memory. The implication of these results for theories of perceptual stability across saccades are discussed.     

The use of structural equation modeling in generative research: Toward the design of a preventive intervention for bereaved children

Describes a generative study of processes which may lead to symptomatology in children who have experienced the death of a parent. Based on existing literature, four putative mediating variables were identified: parental demoralization, family warmth, negative family events, and positive stable family events. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to compare several potential causal models involving these variables. The results were most consistent with a model in which bereavement was not directly related to the child symptomatology, but rather its effects were transmitted through these four mediational mechanisms. The implications of the results of the structural modeling for the design and evaluation of preventive interventions are discussed briefly.     

Stability and quality of life events and psychological symptomatology in children of divorce

Studied the relations between postdivorce events and maladjustment of children of divorce using a two-dimensional model of events. One dimension concerned the stability of events and included whether they were increases, decreases, or the continuation of stable conditions. The second dimension was quality, and included whether they had a positive or negative valence. Two samples of children of divorce (ns = 142 and 64) ages 8-15 were studied. Children's overall maladjustment as reported by children and parents were the criterion variables. Scores were derived from a life events schedule for children of divorce to assess the occurrence and stability of positive and negative divorce-related events. The relations between event scores and maladjustment were different when children's self-reports and parent reports were used as criterion. In predicting children's self-reported maladjustment (a) stable positive events but not changes in positive events were related to lower maladjustment (b) increased negative events were related to higher maladjustment, and (c) change for the worse was related to higher maladjustment. In predicting parent reports of children's maladjustment, only the relations of the change for the worse score were replicated. Implications of the results for the design of preventive interventions and for the study of children in stressful situations are discussed.     

Small theory and the strategic choices of prevention research

Our comments on the discussion of mediational screening for prevention research highlight two issues: (a) There are advantages to giving a high priority to theory in a strategic sequence of prevention research studies. (b) Screening to identify a subgroup that is experiencing problems on processes the program is designed to change may be useful in accomplishing specific goals within an overall strategy of prevention research studies.     

Duration of visible persistence in relation to stimulus complexity

Visible persistence refers to the phenomenal impression that a stimulus is still present after its offset. A dispute exists whether visible persistence is due to temporal sluggishness in the visual pathway (neural hypothesis) or whether it is a byproduct of information-extraction processes under cognitive control (process hypothesis). This was investigated by manipulating stimulus complexity in five temporal integration experiments and one recognition memory experiment. According to the process hypothesis, complex stimuli should persist longer than simple stimuli because they require more information extraction. This prediction was not confirmed; in all six experiments, complexity was found to have no reliable effect on the duration of visible persistence. By contrast, and in accordance with earlier findings, complexity was shown to have a significant effect on a short-lived, nonvisible form of memory known as schematic persistence. This pattern of results supports two major conclusions: First, that the effects of complexity reported in earlier research were probably on schematic—rather than visible—persistence; and second, that visible persistence must be regarded as a residual neural trace of an extinguished stimulus, rather than as a byproduct of information-extraction processes.     

The cognitive effects of jury aids on decision‐making in complex civil litigation

Two hundred seventy nine individuals served as mock jury members in a civil trial that involved multiple plaintiffs and several expert witnesses. Juries were or were not provided with written summary statements of the testimony of expert scientific witnesses, and were either permitted or not permitted to take notes. The results showed that the combination of summary statements and note‐taking had a synergistic effect on the quality of decision‐making. Mock juries enabled by both cognitive aids provided significantly higher awards, as compared to mock juries aided by one or none of the jury‐aids, to the most severely injured plaintiffs without increasing compensation for those less worthy. Aided mock juries also recalled more probative evidence than non‐aided jurors, and were more satisfied with the efficacy of their deliberations. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An enactivist account of abstract words: lessons from Merleau-Ponty

Enactivist accounts of language use generally treat concrete words in terms of motor intentionality systems and affordances for action. There is less consensus, though, regarding how abstract words are to be understood in enactivist terms. I draw on Merleau-Ponty’s later philosophy to argue, against the representationalist paradigm that has dominated the cognitive scientific and philosophical traditions, that language is fundamentally a mode of participation in our world. In particular, language orients us within our milieus in a manner that extends into the depth of the idea-endowed world (where “ideas” are construed in a specifically Merleau-Pontian sense). This conceptualization of language allows us to see that abstract words orient us bodily just as surely as concrete words do, albeit in a manner that is more diffuse across the entirety of given situations, as I will show with an example of abstract language use in Don DeLillo’s novel Underworld. These insights are applied to some of the recent enactivist discourse to suggest some ways in which representationalism maintains a latent presence in this discourse. I conclude by pointing to developments in conceptual metaphor theory that can enrich our sense of how abstract language is involved in embodied understanding.