The effects of grouping visual stimuli on the cortical evoked potential

The University Of Michigan. Ann Arbor. Michigan The effect of grouping elements of a visual stimulus on the amplitude of the bipolar occipital evoked potential is considered in two experiments. A marked and orderly relation is found. Various classes of hypotheses are advanced to account for this finding.     

Visual factors in auditory localization

Previous experiments showing the importance of visual factors in auditory localization are shown to have been insufficiently quantitative.

In the first Experiment, bells were rung and lights shone on the same or different vectors, eleven subjects indicating which bell had rung. In the second Experiment, a puff of steam was seen to issue from a kettle whistle with no whistling sound, while similar whistles were sounded by compressed air on that or another vector. Twenty-one subjects cooperated.

The addition of a visual stimulus at 0° deviation increased the percentage of correct responses significantly in the second, and insignificantly in the first experiment. At 20°-30° deviation the proportion of naive responses to the visual cue was 43 per cent. in the first and 97 per cent, in the second experiment. At greater angular deviations, the proportion of naive responses fell to chance level in the first, but remained significant in the second experiment, even at 90°. The “visuo-auditory threshold” was found to be 20°-30°, but might be much larger if there were more grounds for supposing the two stimuli to be from the same source in space.     

Individual differences in type A behavior and cardiovascular responses to stress

The purpose of this study was to predict heart rate and blood pressure responses to a stressor task in 166 male and female university students using the multidimensional approach of the Survey of Work Styles. The Survey of Work Styles is comprised of scales for Impatience, Anger, Time Urgency, Work Involvement, Job Dissatisfaction, and Competitiveness. Systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate were measured before and during a 5 min serial subtraction task. Three bipolar Survey of Work Styles profiles were identified for each sex. In males, similarity to each profile was uniquely related to one task cardiovascular measure. In females, two of the three profiles were uniquely related to one physiological measure assessed during the task. The data thus support separate treatment of male and female data. Consideration was given to the possible influence of TABP components, such as Anger, in the differences in the patterns of physiological responses for different Type A profile types. Implications of the physiological results for future studies on psychophysiological differences between Type A and B individuals, and the pathological links between Type A behavior and coronary heart diseases are discussed with emphasis on the recognition of the heterogeneity of personality profiles associated with Type A behavior.     

The Structured Nonverbal Assessment of Personality

This article describes the development of a structured nonverbal measure of personality based on Murray's (1938) system of needs. The items of the Nonverbal Personality Questionnaire consist of line drawings of a central figure performing trait-relevant behaviors in specific situations; respondents are asked to indicate the likelihood of engaging in similar behaviors. The nonverbal form was administered to three Canadian samples of respondents and one Finnish sample. Reliability and validity data for the initial item pool and for a revised form are reported. The utility of the nonverbal inventory for cross-cultural and theoretical work in personality is discussed.     

Decision making of satisfied and dissatisfied married couples

Ten satisfied and ten dissatisfied married couples described how they make decisions of low, moderate, and high levels of difficulty. Responses were coded as reflecting the use of equity, need-based, situational, or other norms. Results were consistent with previous findings that a state of equity is associated with marital satisfaction but also indicated that multiple norms are used in decision making of both satisfied and dissatisfied couples. Decision difficulty influenced use of both situational and need-based norms. A trend was found for satisfied husbands but not wives, to make greater use of need-based norms than dissatisfied husbands when decisions were high in difficulty. The results are interpreted as supporting a distinction between equity as a state and equity as a process and as supporting an instrumental value theory of norm use.     

Illustrating two complementary enterprises at the interface of psychology and religion through reading Winnicott

Our work at the interface of psychology and religion can proceed in two complementary directions. When reading a psychological theory, (1) we may pay special attention to how certain concepts in particular, and the system of ideas as a whole, are being or might be used to interpret religious phenomena. We may focus on how those ideas may be involved in doing psychology of religion: the psychological interpretation of religious phenomena. Alternatively, (2) we may pay special attention to how certain concepts in particular, and the system of ideas as a whole, are being or might be used, either implicitly or explicitly, to make claims about human nature, about the meaning and purpose of life, about God. We may identify the psychology as religion-theology: psychological ideas potentially functioning in a religious-theological manner. I will illustrate this by: (a) examining D. W. Winnicott's article, Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena (1953/1986) in terms of three successive concepts or categories: transitional object, transitional phenomena, and a third intermediate area of experiencing; (b) considering how these categories can be used in psychology of religion; (c) reconsidering how the psychological categories may function as religious-theological. The discussion is intended to illustrate how we might more fully appreciate how and why a psychological theory may work well in doing psychology of religion when we more fully appreciate how that psychology implicitly functions as theology.     

In defence of folk psychology

Conclusion Our argument has been that a commonsense functionalist approach to our folk conception of beliefs and desires shows that it is very likely that they exist, where commonsense functionalism is understood as implicitly defined by our folk practice in moving back and forth between behaviour, situations, and beliefs and desires. Completed neuroscience will indeed provide a complete story about when and why we do what we do, but will incorporate rather than eliminate beliefs and desires in this complete story. The irony is that our defence uses an account of folk psychology fully in accord with that provided by eliminativism's sympathizers when they insist that folk psychology is a theory. They see this insistence as opening the way for serious consideration of the possibility that folk psychology is radically mistaken. Any theory can be radically mistaken. But, of course, folk psychology is radically mistaken for a great many objects — the Taj Mahal, for instance. The Taj Mahal does not have beliefs and desires precisely because it does not satisfy the theory. Our point is that because the theory is a purely functional theory, the evidence that we satisfy it (and for that matter that the Taj Mahal does not) is peculiarly strong evidence.