Presence/Absence of an Observer in a Word Association Test

Forty-eight subjects (24 men, 24 women) responded to 20-word stimuli presented by a microcomputer program that recorded each subject's response latency and response to each stimulus word. Emotionality of stimulus word and presence/absence of an observer were independently varied. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significant difference in latencies attributable to the emotionality of the stimulus word, whereas neither the presence/absence of the observer nor the interaction effect was significant. The results suggest the possible use of latency analysis as a tool in situations where an objective, statistical, and easily obtainable evaluative measurement of the level of emotionality of various verbal stimuli is desired.     

Trauma Child on The Couch: Transference,Introjection, Identification

This paper attempts to explore some of the psychic processes at work with patients whom I identify as the “trauma child”. The term is a metaphor rather than a diagnosis of “traumatisation”, to indicate patients particularly resistant to maturational processes. They feel blocked and thereby find it difficult to evolve as creative adults. As opposed to the “traumatised” child no particular distressing event can be identified as a cause for emotional suffering. The malaise is often “low key” or silent but functions as a saboteur, undermining satisfactory existence. The trauma child is constantly seduced by regressive functioning and bound by numerous strategies of resistance of reality and often incapable of relinquishing the boundless pleasure of omnipotence. On the basis of my clinical work with the “trauma child”, I will explore the different processes of introjection in transference and counter transference, paying particular attention to the dynamics of identification between analyst and patient and its implications for object relations. Instead of “healthy” identification with the other, taking account of difference and reality, the mode of object relations can be that of “pathological imitation” based on fantasies of oral incorporation. A kind of regressive defense against “mature” relationships; it is an attempt to acquire a substitute identity through magical imitation. Analytical listening, associative work and interpretation stimulate maturational processes within the patient and help him/her to let go of immature relational modes fixated in childhood.     

Quizzing in Middle‐School Science: Successful Transfer Performance on Classroom Exams

We examined whether learning from quizzing arises from memorization of answers or fosters more complete understanding of the quizzed content. In middle‐school science classes, we spaced three multiple‐choice quizzes on content in a unit. In Experiment 1, the class exams included questions given on quizzes, transfer questions targeting the same content, and content that had not been quizzed (control content). The quizzing procedure was associated with significant learning benefits with large effect sizes and similar effect sizes for both transfer items and identical items. In Experiment 2, quiz questions focused on definitional information or application of the principle. Application questions increased exam performance for definitional‐type questions and for different application questions. Definition questions did not confer benefits for application questions. Test‐enhanced learning, in addition to other factors in the present quizzing protocol (repeated, spaced presentation of the content), may create deeper understanding that leads to certain types of transfer. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Crowd Effects in Unfamiliar Face Matching

Psychological research shows that humans can not reliably match unfamiliar faces. This presents a practical problem, because identity verification processes in a variety of occupational settings depend on people to perform these tasks reliably. In this context, it is surprising that very few studies have attempted to improve human performance. Here, we investigate whether distributing face matching tasks across groups of individuals might help to solve this problem. Across four studies, we measure the accuracy of the ‘crowd’ on a standard test of face matching ability and find that aggregating individual responses produces substantial gains in matching accuracy. We discuss the practical implications of this result and also suggest ways in which this approach might be used to improve our understanding of face perception more generally. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of modeling on self‐set goals: Direct and mediated effects

Research has shown that seeing another person (i.e., a model) perform at a certain level can influence the goal choice and performance of an observer. This study extended these findings by examining the model's effects on two potential explanatory mediators: expectations of reaching different performance levels and valence at those levels. The moderating effects of observer task experience and self‐esteem were also examined. In a repeated measures design, results showed that model performance influenced observers' goals, task performance, expectancies, and valence ratings. Path analyses indicated that expectancies mediated observational effects on goal choice. Results also indicated significant Model x Trial interactions, with a diminishing effect of model influence as personal experience developed. Results are discussed in terms of mediating effects of expectancies and valences on model influences on goal choice as well as the different weights given to social and personal information.     

The Effect of Masculinity on Community Reintegration Following TBI in Military Veterans

The present study examined the effect of level of traditional masculine gender role norms as well as the moderating effect of cognitive flexibility on community reintegration outcomes in a sample of 60 male military veterans who had sustained a traumatic brain injury during deployment. Data were collected through self-report measures and cognitive tests. Results suggested that greater endorsement of traditional masculine gender role beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors was significantly inversely related to the community integration domains of relationships and living skills and not significantly related to work and leisure. The effect of masculinity on healthy living skills was moderated by cognitive flexibility; the protective effect of low masculinity on living skills was only present if the veteran also had high cognitive flexibility skills. Results are discussed in the context of gender role strain, potential limiting aspects of stereotypy on recovery and reintegration, and the importance of cognitive flexibility in the recovery/reintegration process.     

The Real ‘Letter to Arbuthnot’? a Motive For Hume's Probability Theory in an Early Modern Design Argument

John Arbuthnot's celebrated but flawed paper in the Philosophical Transactions of 1711–12 is a philosophically and historically plausible target of Hume's probability theory. Arbuthnot argues for providential design rather than chance as a cause of the annual birth ratio, and the paper was championed as a successful extension of the new calculations of the value of wagers in games of chance to wagers about natural and social phenomena. Arbuthnot replaces the earlier anti-Epicurean notion of chance with the equiprobability assumption of Huygens's mathematics of games of chance, and misrepresents the birth ratio data to rule out chance in favour of design. The probability sections of Hume's Treatise taken together correct the equiprobability assumption and its extension to other kinds of phenomena in the estimation of wagers or expectations about particular events. Hume's probability theory demonstrates the flaw in this version of the design argument.     

Association as a Cause of Dating Bias

Two experiments investigated a dating bias in which people tend to estimate recent dates too remotely and remote dates too recently. Experiment 1 examined and upheld a prediction of the hypothesis that bias arises because events whose time of occurrence is unknown are dated through associated events for which some time information is available. Experiment 2 required some subjects to date prototype events while others dated specific events. Prototype events were dated more recently, and the errors in dating specific events were related to differences in the way the prototype events were dated. Both sets of results were predicted by the association hypothesis, according to which events whose dates are well known are dated with reference either to specific associated events or to prototype events.     

Investigating the structure of autobiographical memory using reaction times

The study investigated the structure of autobiographical memory using reaction time measures. A total of 18 participants took photographs over their summer holidays and then reacted to pairs of these photographs displayed via a computer. They also subsequently sorted their photographs according to the autobiographical themes and events with which they were associated. When photographic sequence and the physical similarities in the photographs were controlled for by considering the results of “stranger” participants who were unfamiliar with the photographs, reaction times were significantly faster to pairs of photographs from the same theme or event. The results are consistent with currently held assumptions about the structure of autobiographical memory. Furthermore, the results suggest that reaction time measures may provide a valuable means by which aspects of autobiographical memory can be explored.     

Reviews

He Leadeth Me by Walter J. Ciszek, S.J., with Daniel Flaherty, S.J. Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1974. 216 pp., £2.50.

Miracle in Moscow by David Benson, Miracle Publications, Santa Barbara, 1973. 290 pp.

Vanya by Myrna Grant, Creation House, Illinois, 1974. 222 pp. $4.95.

Church, State and Opposition in the USSR by Gerhard Simon, C. Hurst & Co., London, 1974. 248 pp., £4.20.