Earwitness memory: distortions for voice pitch and speaking rate

In two experiments, memory distortions for voice pitch and speaking rate were examined. In both experiments, a significant distortion effect for voice pitch was observed, with listeners biased towards selecting voices lower in pitch than low‐pitch targets and selecting voices higher in pitch than high‐pitch targets. In contrast, for speaking rate there was little evidence for the production of memory distortions. The results are discussed in terms of transient surface properties of speech and how transience may be a factor in producing distortions. The results have implications for how errors arise during earwitness testimony for a suspect's voice. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Historiography of Czech psychology

The paper is aimed at presenting the development of the Czech historiography of psychology, which was strongly influenced by the political changes in Central and Eastern Europe. The authors deal with the historiography of psychology at the three universities offering an undergraduate program in psychology, located in Prague, Brno, and Olomouc, and at the Institute of Psychology of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Recent research, teaching, textbooks, and journal articles published in Czech and in foreign languages are showcased. The historiography of Czech psychotherapy is mentioned as a special thematic development. Contemporary problems and perspectives in the field of the history of psychology in the Czech Republic are discussed, sources of information are given.     

Examination of the processing speed account in a population-based longitudinal study with narrow age cohort design

The processing speed account suggests that general slowing of mental processing speed results in an overall decline, especially age-related decline, in other cognitive domains. Support for the speed account comes mainly from cross-sectional studies with participants that vary in age (age-heterogeneous samples). This study investigated how well variations in processing speed predict change of episodic recall in a longitudinal framework and examined with the Narrow Age Cohort (NAC) design. Data were obtained from Betula, a population-based longitudinal study. Both 5-year (n= 490; Time 3 - Time 4) and 10-year follow-up results (n= 608; Time 1 - Time 3) were used. In both samples, which were subjected to prospective dementia screening, we found considerably weaker associations in longitudinal data compared to cross-sectional, and also weaker associations in age-homogeneous than in age-heterogeneous samples. The results provide little support for the speed account.     

Phases of Organ Integration and Conflict in a Transplant Recipient: A Longitudinal Study Using a Diary

In this paper the results from a research project on self-perception and psychological processing following transplantation of solid organs are presented. A diary at the individual case level was introduced to generate a longitudinal analysis. In the following paper we describe an evaluation of the entries of a single patient following a living donor kidney transplant. Conflicts in the relationship between the transplant recipient and the donor, who is also his wife, are clearly evident, and these are interpreted as incorporation conflicts in light of current psychoanalytic theory.     

Sorting between dimensions: conditions of cognitive flexibility in preschoolers

The Dimensional Change Card Sorting task frequently is used to measure extradimensional shifting abilities in preschool children. In two studies, we investigated what makes this extradimensional shifting task difficult. In Study 1 with 61 2- to 4-year-olds, we showed that extradimensional shifts from one dimension to another are more difficult than reversal shifts within a dimension (even with irrelevant variation on a second dimension). Study 2 with 77 3- and 4-year-olds further confirmed this finding using a computerized paradigm and showed that sorting instructions are critical for 3-year-olds' difficulties with extradimensional shifts. This finding is taken to suggest that 3-year-olds have particular problems with spontaneously classifying one object in two different ways.     

Rabbis and Health: A Half-Century Review of the Mental and Physical Health Care Literature:1950–1999

Electronic searches were conducted on PubMed and the American Psychological Association's database (PsycINFO) for articles that discussed the role of rabbis in relation to some aspect of healthcare. The two searches were conducted in each electronic database using the search-terms: (1) (rabbi OR rabbinical OR synagogue) OR (2) (Judaism OR Jewish) AND (clergy OR chaplain). Articles were classified by the year of their publication, professional discipline, type of journal (either religious or secular), and type of article: either research, or narrative and expositional. Rabbis were discussed most often in psychology, psychiatry, and behavior-related fields, and close to two-thirds of the articles dealt with mental health concerns. A statistically significant increase in articles across decades was found in the secular journals, r=.98, p≤.01, with over 70% of the articles about rabbis in the secular journals being published between 1980 and 1999. Many of the articles addressed collaboration between rabbis, psychiatrists, and other and mental health professionals and discussed previously identified themes related to professional collaboration and referral.     

Langzeitwirkungen psychoanalytischer und verhaltenstherapeutischer Langzeitpsychotherapien

The prospective study compares 31 patients in long-term behavior therapy with 31 patients in psychoanalytically oriented long-term therapy. A naturalistic design was applied within the German health system. All patients underwent a diagnostic interview (SCID) by an external interviewer. Only patients who fulfilled the DSM III-R criteria for a depression or an anxiety disorder were included in the study. Although the diagnoses of the patients undergoing long-term behaviour therapy and long-term psychoanalytical psychotherapy were comparable, we found that they differed in various ways. The differences arose in a number of characteristics, such as education, access to psychotherapy (recommended by professionals versus patients introducing themselves), usage of psychotropic medication, and the strain of symptoms. The average duration of long-term behavior therapy was 2.4 years and 64 sessions. The average duration of psychoanalytically oriented long-term therapy was 3.6 years and 209 sessions. Symptoms (SCL-90-R) and interpersonal problems (IIP) were examined at the beginning, after 1 year, 2.5 years, 3.5 years and after 7 years. Both groups showed significant degrees of improvement within the first 3.5 years and remained stabilized in the following 3.5 years regarding the symptomatic aspects. Focussing on the interpersonal problems, group PA showed further improvement after the 3.5-year period. The BT group however, showed no further improvement after 3.5 years but stabilized. The evaluated phase-model of psychotherapeutic change for short-term therapy was confirmed more clearly for long-term therapies of psychoanalytical orientation than for long-term therapies of behavioral orientation.     

Effects of hormone replacement therapy and aging on cognition: evidence for executive dysfunction

The present study was designed to explore whether the frontal lobe hypothesis of cognitive aging may be extended to describe the cognitive effects associated with estrogen use in postmenopausal women. Postmenopausal estrogen-only users, estrogen + progesterone users, and non-users (60-80 years old), as well as young, regularly cycling women (18-30 years old) completed an item and source memory task. Since source memory is thought to rely more on executive processes than item memory, we hypothesized that aging and estrogen effects would be greater for source memory than for item memory. Neuropsychological tests explored whether the effects of aging and estrogen use were revealed on other tests of frontal lobe function. Results from the experimental task revealed greater aging and estrogen effects for source memory than for item memory, and neuropsychological results revealed aging and estrogen effects on a subset of tests of executive function. Women on estrogen + progesterone therapy did not outperform non-users, suggesting that the addition of progesterone to hormone therapy may mitigate the benefits induced by estrogen use alone. Overall, findings support the hypothesis that estrogen use may temper age-related cognitive decline by helping to maintain functions subserved by the frontal lobes.     

Simulation à la Goldman: pretend and collapse

Theories of mind draw on processes that represent mental states and their computational connections; simulation, in addition, draws on processes that replicate (Heal 1986) a sequence of mental states. Moreover, mental simulation can be triggered by input from imagination instead of real perceptions. To avoid confusion between mental states concerning reality and those created in simulation, imagined contents must be quarantined. Goldman bypasses this problem by giving pretend states a special role to play in simulation (Goldman 2006). We argue that this path leads to the resurgence of the threat of collapse (Davies 1994), diluting the principled distinction between simulation and theory use. Exploration of a related method of real-mental states operating in a pretend mode leads to a factually untenable model. Our main goal here is to raise this problem as a challenge for Goldman’s reconfigured simulation theory. Only at the end we will briefly sketch a possible alternative way of quarantine that preserves the replicative element of simulation and avoids collapse. Figure 1 provides a guide to our argument. Fig. 1 Structure of argument

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