The effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions for bereaved persons: a comprehensive quantitative review

Previous quantitative reviews of research on psychotherapeutic interventions for bereaved persons have yielded divergent findings and have not included many of the available controlled outcome studies. This meta-analysis summarizes results from 61 controlled studies to offer a more comprehensive integration of this literature. This review examined (a) the absolute effectiveness of bereavement interventions immediately following intervention and at follow-up assessments, (b) several of the clinically and theoretically relevant moderators of outcome, and (c) change over time among recipients of the interventions and individuals in no-intervention control groups. Overall, analyses showed that interventions had a small effect at posttreatment but no statistically significant benefit at follow-up. However, interventions that exclusively targeted grievers displaying marked difficulties adapting to loss had outcomes that compare favorably with psychotherapies for other difficulties. Other evidence suggested that the discouraging results for studies failing to screen for indications of distress could be attributed to a tendency among controls to improve naturally over time. The findings of the review underscore the importance of attending to the targeted population in the practice and study of psychotherapeutic interventions for bereaved persons.     

Pictorial encoding effects and memory confusions in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm: evidence for the activation of spontaneous imagery

The purpose of the experiments reported in this paper was to examine the possible role of spontaneous imagery and list-specific cues on pictorial encoding effects induced by the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) task. After viewing pictures and words referring to thematically related materials, by way of a picture/word source-judgement task, participants were asked to remember the way in which these materials were presented. Participants reported "seeing" pictures of items that were presented as words, an effect predicted by the imaginal activation hypothesis in its suggestion that incidental images experienced during encoding will later be mistaken as memories for pictures. Whether participants made the same picture misattributions on related lures (or non-presented related items) depended on the way in which the lures' respective thematic lists were experienced during encoding (Experiments 1 and 2), pointing to the effects of list-specific cues in picture/word judgements. These findings have intriguing implications for interpretations of picture-encoding effects induced by the DRM task. The findings also speak to the use of DRM false-memory rates when marshalling evidence against the use of imagery in applied settings.     

Evaluating Cognitive Training Outcomes: Validity and Utility of Structural Knowledge Assessment

Conventional approaches to evaluating cognitive outcomes of training typically use paper-and-pencil tests that emphasize gains or differences in declarative knowledge. Yet a key factor in differentiating expert and novice performance is the way individuals organize their knowledge. Accordingly, the acquisition of meaningful knowledge structures and methods of assessing structural knowledge are potentially important issues for designing and evaluating training programs. Two studies were conducted to examine the validity and utility of one structural assessment technique called Pathfinder (Schvaneveldt, Durso, & Dearholt, 1989). Results from academic and organizational samples indicated that Pathfinder measures of structural knowledge quality predicted individual differences in performance self-efficacy. After controlling for differences in declarative knowledge, measures of structural knowledge quality added to the prediction of performance self-efficacy in the student sample, but not in the organizational sample. The unique features and potential advantages of structural assessment for training evaluation are discussed.     

Does it matter where you work? A comparison of how three work venues (traditional office, virtual office, and home office) influence aspects of work and personal/family life

Millions use electronic tools to do their jobs away from the traditional office. Some labor in a “virtual office” with flexibility to work wherever it makes sense and others telecommute primarily from home. This IBM study compares how three work venues (traditional office, n=4316, virtual office, n=767, and home office, n=441) may influence aspects of work (job performance, job motivation, job retention, workload success, and career opportunity) and personal/family life (work/life balance and personal/family success). Perceptions, direct comparisons, and multivariate analyses suggest that the influence of the virtual office is mostly positive on aspects of work but somewhat negative on aspects of personal/family life. The influence of the home office appears to be mostly positive and the influence of traditional office mostly negative on aspects of both work and personal/life. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Yes, we still need Universal Grammar

In a recent paper [Lidz, J., Gleitman, H., & Gleitman, L. (2003). Understanding how input matters: Verb learning and the footprint of universal grammar. Cognition, 87, 151-178], we provided cross-linguistic evidence in favor of the following linked assertions: (i) Verb argument structure is a correlate of verb meaning; (ii) However, argument structure is not directly available to learners as a cue for reconstructing verb meaning, owing to the complexity of form-meaning mappings within and across languages; (iii) A major correlate of argument-structure, namely, noun phrase number, is statistically available on the surface in all languages, and serves as a quasi-universal derivative cue to the meanings of verbs; (iv) this cue is privileged, in the sense that it is used early and selectively by learners, despite within- and cross-language differences in its availability. Goldberg [Goldberg, A. (2004). But do we need Universal Grammar? Comment on Lidz, Gleitman and Gleitman 2003. Cognition] suggests that this cue is not linguistic, that it is too sicklied o'er with exceptions and provisos to be useful to learners, and that conversational conspiracies can in any case serve as the alternative theoretical framework for a theory of predicate learning, and language acquisition more generally. In the present reply, we review and further explicate our original position, to wit: A large part of any generative grammar is a formal statement of the complex alignments between predicate-argument structures and the surface forms (linear strings of words) of sentences. Because the several rules for alignment interact, the surface outcomes reveal individual systematicities only abstractly. Therefore, learning would be impossible if infants could not analyze probabilistically available patterns to recover their principled linguistic sources. This statistics-based discovery procedure is in certain relevant regards specific to language learning. Finally, we argue that while pragmatics and theory of mind properties in learner and tutor necessarily frame language acquisition, that these have not been shown—and probably cannot be shown—to be sufficient to this computational problem.     

The Problem of Ontotheology: Complicating the Divide Between Philosophy and Theology

This paper examines the problem of ontotheology as it was defined by Martin Heidegger, and how it has subsequently been approached by those philosophers and theologians who have followed in his wake. It argues that Heidegger's initial analysis of the onto-theological condition was mistaken by its presumption of a radical divide between philosophy and theology. Furthermore, many of the key thinkers who have followed after Heidegger have merely reinscribed this supposed divide between thought and faith, rather than genuinely questioning the terms Heidegger thought self-evident. The result, even among some of the most radical and influential contemporary thinkers such as Emmanuel Levinas, John Caputo, and Jean-Luc Marion, has been a contemporary philosophy deprived of questions of faith and a theology unaccountable to its place in the world. In response to this shortcoming of contemporary philosophical and theological thought, Jacques Derrida has approached the problem of ontotheology from the dual perspective of both thought and faith, and thereby, has provided a new path of thought beyond the problem of ontotheology and towards a renewed appreciation for the possibilities for a genuine philosophical theology.     

Exploring evaluative conditioning using a working memory task

Johnsrude, Owen, Zhao, and White (1999) demonstrated that evaluative conditioning (EC) can occur even while participants conduct a working memory task. This is consistent with claims that EC can occur outside awareness, and hence is an automatic process. In their study, three abstract patterns were paired differentially with a candy reinforcer: 90, 50, or 10%. On reinforced trials a red ball was presented in one of three locations on a computer screen. Participants were instructed to keep a tally for each location. We argue that if EC is automatic, then it will not consume cognitive/attentional resources, and hence co-occurrence of red ball and reinforcer should be irrelevant. Results from four experiments indicate that learning is only evident when the red ball and reinforcer co-occur or when the complexity of the working memory task is reduced. Together, the results suggest that EC is governed by specific attentional constraints on working memory. This interpretation questions the automatic nature of EC.     

Kuczynski on Partial Knowledge and the Paradox of Analysis

John–Michael Kuczynski says the "paradox of analysis" can be resolved with the proper definition of "partial knowledge." He says that this definition will not do: (K) S has partial knowledge of x = _df S knows some, but not all, of x 's parts. He offers an alternative account of incomplete or partial knowledge. I argue here that: (a) Kuczynski's chief criticisms of (K) are defective; (b) his proposed solution to the paradox of analysis has no clear application to the paradox in its familiar forms; and (c) his solution may not avoid the puzzle about partial knowledge it was designed to resolve.