Precision hypothesis and the end-state comfort effect

Recently, motor control research has emphasized the planning of macroscopic aspects of control. In object manipulation studies, when participants complete a movement in a comfortable posture, an end-state comfort effect is attained. One explanation for this effect is the precision hypothesis, which states that precision increases when participants are in a comfortable position. This research directly tests the precision hypothesis in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants picked up a dowel and touched a large or small target on a wall. For the second experiment, the same procedure was followed using a pinpoint target. The probability analyses of the first experiment indicated that the end-state comfort effect was magnified in the small target condition and that the point-of-change effect (Short and Cauraugh, 1997) appeared only when end-state comfort was magnified. Error analyses in Experiment 2 showed that participants were more accurate when in a more comfortable position. The present findings indicate that the precision hypothesis plays a significant role in the end-state comfort effect.     

The Humanizing Brain: An Introduction

The rediscovery of the sacred needs to take into account the neural underpinnings of faith and meaning and also draw on the insights of the emerging discipline of complexity studies, which explore a tendency toward adaptive self-organization that seemingly is inherent in the universe. Both neuroscience and complexity studies contribute to our understanding of the brain's activity as it transforms raw stimuli into recognizable patterns, and thus "humanizes" all our perceptions and understandings. The brain is our physical anchor in the natural environment— and its human capacities orbit us into the emerging world of culture (including religion), which provides a template for the brain's function of making sense of an ambiguous reality. The humanizing brain holds together scientific causality and religious meaning, working both bottom-up (linking the physical and the experiential) and top-down (beginning with the whole of things, or God). These processes we know as "mind" (experienced as intentionality, subjective consciousness, empathy, imagination, memory, adaptability). We maintain that such processes are not only subjective but built into "the way things really are." Thus, they carry the most privileged information about the nature of reality to which we human beings have access. For not only are we humans observers and logicians, but we are embedded in the larger reality; and as we strive to make sense of it all, we become both Homo sapiens and Homo religiosus .     

Individual Differences in Attachment and Reproductive Strategies: Commentary on Buss & Greiling

Buss and Greiling cite individual differences in attachment as a principal illustration of adaptive individual differences. This particular example, however, is a highly controversial one: Many if not most relationship researchers assume (implicitly or explicitly) that insecure attachment patterns reflect some kind of malfunction of the attachment system in modern environments rather than evolved facultative strategies. I therefore review some of the arguments and evidence on both sides of this issue, along with the closely related topics of mating/reproductive strategies and parental investment. In the end I support the Buss-Greiling position, but for reasons not discussed in their article.     

ANTECEDENT FACTORS DIFFERENTIATING WOMEN AND MEN IN SCIENCE/ NONSCIENCE CAREERS

Factors that differentiate women and men who choose a science career from those who do not were investigated using longitudinal data from 1980 and 1990. The participants (N = 459) were ninth or twelfth graders at six midwestern high schools in 1980. Women in science compared to women in other careers were significantly more likely to value math and science for their future career goals, whereas men in science compared to men in other careers had significantly higher high school grade point averages in natural science and higher career aspirations. Not unexpectedly, both women and men in science careers compared to those in nonscience careers took more high school elective science courses because they wanted to, aspired to higher prestige careers as young adults, and attributed their math successes more to their ability. The male model accounted for more than twice the variance accounted for by the female model, and context variables were not predictive for either model. Suggestions for revising the model and improving the assessment of context influences are made. Implications for research and practice include designing and evaluating programs to increase the number of intellectually able girls valuing math and science as these relate to their future goals.     

Further Support for a Hierarchical Model of Affect: Reply to Green and Salovey

Green and Salovey agree with us that happiness and sadness are strongly bipolar, and that Positive and Negative Activation are not. However, Green and Salovey subscribe to the two-dimensional circumplex, a model we find wanting. Actually, the problems they discuss arise from the limitations of the circumplex rather than from issues fundamental to affective structure. And they do not consider the evidence, reported in our target article, that supports an alternative to the circumplex: a three-level hierarchical model. In this reply, we take a closer look at the empirical findings supporting this model, and we emphasize its heuristic promise.     

"I" Value Freedom, But "We" Value Relationships: Self-Construal Priming Mirrors Cultural Differences in Judgment

The distinction between relatively independent versus interdependent self-construals has been strongly associated with several important cultural differences in social behavior. The current studies examined the causal role of self-construal by investigating whether priming independent or interdependent self-construals within a culture could result in differences in psychological worldview that mirror those traditionally found between cultures. In Experiment 1, European-American participants primed with interdependence displayed shifts toward more collectivist social values and judgments that were mediated by corresponding shifts in self-construal. In Experiment 2, this effect was extended by priming students from the United States and Hong Kong with primes that were consistent and inconsistent with their predominant cultural worldview. Students who received the inconsistent primes were more strongly affected than those who received the consistent primes, and thus shifted self-construal, and corresponding values, to a greater degree.     

Integrity and Honesty Testing: What Do We Know? How Do We Use It?

This selective review of integrity and honesty testing addresses two primary questions: ‘What do we know about honesty testing?’ and ‘How do we use what we know?’ Up-to-date information about test reliability, validity, and construct definition from recent reviews of the research literature in the USA is presented and interpreted. Relationships to other selection devices and personality measures are discussed, as well as how integrity tests fit into a multiple assessment selection system.     

The Hastings Center and the early years of bioethics

The Hastings Center was founded in 1969 to study ethical problems in medicine and biology. The Center arose from a confluence of three social currents: the increased public scrutiny of medicine and its practices, the concern about the moral problems being generated by technological developments, and the desire of one its founders (Callahan) to make use of his philosophical training in a more applied way. The early years of the Center were devoted to raising money, developing an early agenda of issues, and identifying a cadre of people around the country interested in the issues. Various stresses and strains in the Center and the field are identified, and some final reflections are offered on the nature and value of the contributions made by bioethics as an academic field.     

A Comparison of Three Methods of Teaching Skin Self-Examinations

Skin self-examinations are essential for the early identification and treatment of skin cancers. However, little is known about the most effective methods for teaching skin cancer detection and skin self-examination. This study compared three skin cancer education methods that are commonly used in the primary care setting: viewing a videotape, reading brochures, and one-on-one instruction from a nurse practitioner. One hundred forty-three young adults were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions (educational intervention or wait list) and completed measures of skin cancer knowledge, ability to visually discriminate cancerous versus noncancerous skin growths, and behavioral ability to perform a skin self-examination immediately (Time 1) and 3 weeks (Time 2) after the educational intervention. Results showed that participants across all educational interventions had significantly higher skin cancer knowledge compared to those in the wait-list control group, and these knowledge scores were maintained for 3 weeks. Participants in the brochure condition scored significantly higher than participants in all other conditions on an observational measure of skin self-examination. Demographic variables, such as gender and ethnicity, were not found to be related to performance on any of the dependent measures. These findings provide preliminary evidence that knowledge of skin cancer may be enhanced through a variety of educational techniques and that written materials (e.g., brochures) may represent the minimal intervention level necessary for teaching adults how to perform thorough skin self-examinations.