Comparing the meanings of “if” and “all”

In this study, we compared the everyday meanings of conditionals (“if p then q”) and universally quantified statements (“all p are q”) when applied to sets of elements. The interpretation of conditionals was predicted to be directly related to the conditional probability, such that P(“if p then q”) = P(q|p). Quantified statements were assumed to have two interpretations. According to an instance-focused interpretation, quantified statements are equivalent to conditionals, such that P(“all p are q”) = P(q|p). According to a set-focused interpretation, “all p are q” is true if and only if every instance in set p is an instance of q, so that the statement would be accepted when P(q|p) = 1 and rejected when this probability was below 1. We predicted an instance-focused interpretation of “all” when the relation between p and q expressed a general law for an infinite set of elements. A set-focused interpretation of “all” was predicted when the relation between p and q expressed a coincidence among the elements of a finite set. Participants were given short context stories providing information about the frequency of co-occurrence of cases of p, q, not-p, and not-q in a population. They were then asked to estimate the probability that a statement (conditional or quantified) would be true for a random sample taken from that population. The probability estimates for conditionals were in accordance with an instance-focused interpretation, whereas the estimates for quantified statements showed features of a set-focused interpretation. The type of the relation between p and q had no effect on this outcome.     

Scham und Familienbeziehungen bei Bulimie

Background

Empirical studies show a relationship between family factors and disturbed eating behavior. Feelings of shame are associated with a higher level of eating disorder symptoms and with family relations perceived as being dysfunctional. Thus shame can be understood as a mediator of the relationship between dysfunctional family relations and eating disorder symptoms.

Material and methods

For 69 female patients, including 55 with bulimia nervosa and 14 with eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) between 14 and 22 years of age, who participated in a comparative study of psychotherapy outcome, eating disorder symptoms (EDI, EDE-Q), general psychiatric symptoms severity (SCL-90R), level of shame (TESE-KJ) and perceived family relations (FB-A) were measured at the beginning of psychotherapy.

Results

The higher the feeling of shame the more dysfunctional the perceived family relationships were and the more the eating disorders and general symptoms severity were reported. Shame was a partial mediator of the relationship between family functionality and symptoms.

Discussion

Feelings of shame could originate in dysfunctional family relationships but could also evoke more negative perceptions of interpersonal relationships. The direction of causality could not be proven in the correlative design; nevertheless, shame contributes to an understanding of the mechanisms between dysfunctional family relationships and eating disorder symptoms.     

Masked singleton effects

In the present study, we tested whether visual singletons remaining outside awareness are processed. Singletons differ by at least one feature from their more homogeneous neighbors. Here, we used backward masking to prevent awareness of shape singleton primes (Experiments 1-4) or color singleton primes (Experiment 5). Masked singleton primes nonetheless produced a congruence effect: Congruent singletons indicating the location of subsequent visible targets facilitated responses, in comparison with incongruent singletons at positions away from the targets. This congruence effect was found with singletons defined by feature presence or feature absence. It was at least partly due to attentional capture by singletons remaining outside of the participants' awareness. Results are discussed in light of theories pertaining to singleton effects and masked-priming effects.     

Erotomanie, pathologische Verliebtheit, kognitive Distorsionen: psychopathologische Übergänge beim Stalking

Stalking is a widespread phenomenon which can be caused by different motives and in rare cases can be considered as an expression of mental illness. Stalking can occur as a symptom of schizophrenia or erotomania. The criminal culpability of psychotic stalkers is diminished and appropriate treatment has to be administered. However, there are cases which are not clearly distinct from delusional disorders. Stalking may be driven by morbid infatuation which impairs cognitive and affective capability. As the boundaries between full criminal responsibility and diminished criminal responsibility according to German penal law are blurred, these cases require thorough forensic assessment.     

THE TURNING TO HISTORY OF VIENNESE JEWS

In the early years of its existence, for around ten years, the Viennese Jewish museum served the purpose of heightening the Jews’ opportunity for integration into the society at large. According to this view, the stated goal of the Jewish museum differed from the nationalist aim of non‐Jewish museums established in the nineteenth century. Although the Jewish museum undeniably enhanced the sense of solidarity among Viennese Jewry, its ultimate goal, rather, was to gain acceptance by the non‐Jewish society. However, this aim was soon to change, giving way to a strengthening of a particularistic Jewish identity. The Viennese Jewish museum also provides a telling example of the fictitiousness of historical narratives. It shows the high degree to which the past was employed in order to accomplish social goals. Against this background, the Jewish museum tells a great deal about the identity of the Jews who were affiliated to or felt sympathetic towards it. The history of the Viennese Jewish museum was thus the history of the social hopes and expectations of the acculturated part of Viennese Jewry.     

THE ELUSIVENESS OF JEWISHNESS: JEWS IN VIENNESE POPULAR CULTURE AROUND 1900

The participation of Jews in Viennese popular culture in the fin-de-siècle period has to date been scarcely investigated. This essay sheds light on one aspect of the vast field of popular culture, the lively scene of Jewish Volkssänger. They formed ensembles of musicians who played Viennese songs (Wienerlieder) and performed short theatrical pieces. The central questions posed in the article concern the Jewishness of the Volkssänger: how is it expressed and can it be determined, what distinguishes Jewish from non-Jewish Volkssänger, does Jewishness play a role in the formers' performances? In order to answer these questions, several theatre pieces of various Jewish Volkssänger ensembles are examined using a new analytical tool, Jewish difference. Through its application, it is possible to show that the theatre pieces performed by the Jewish Volkssänger represented Jews without a fixed, static self-understanding. Their Jewishness was depicted as fluid, diverse, determinable only at certain moments and in specific contexts. The distinction between Jews and non-Jews was blurred. A glance at the biographies of the Jewish Volkssänger revealed that their lives were very much like those of the Jewish characters in the plays: they readily intermingled with non-Jews, and their Jewishness was only one––and an always changing––facet of their multiple identities.     

Retrieval of event files can be conceptually mediated

Distractor-based retrieval of event files was assessed with a sequential priming experiment using a four-choice identification task. Pictures or sounds of four different animals (frog, chicken, lamb, singing bird) had to be categorized by pressing one of four keys. On each trial, a target and a distractor stimulus were presented simultaneously in different modalities. The relevant modality switched randomly between trials. Distractor repetition effects were modulated by the response relation between the prime and probe: Repeating the prime distractor in the probe produced facilitation if the response repeated, but not if a different response had to be given in the prime and probe. Repeating the prime distractor in the probe led to an automatic retrieval of the prime response. Importantly, this distractor-based response retrieval effect also emerged for those sequences in which the modality of the repeated distractor was switched between the prime and probe. This cross-modal priming effect indicates that distractors were integrated into event files on a conceptual level and that response retrieval processes were mediated by conceptual codes of the distractor stimuli.     

Facial expressions allow inference of both emotions and their components

Following Yik and Russell (1999) a judgement paradigm was used to examine to what extent differential accuracy of recognition of facial expressions allows evaluation of the well-foundedness of different theoretical views on emotional expression. Observers judged photos showing facial expressions of seven emotions on the basis of: (1) discrete emotion categories; (2) social message types; (3) appraisal results; or (4) action tendencies, and rated their confidence in making choices. Emotion categories and appraisals were judged significantly more accurately and confidently than messages or action tendencies. These results do not support claims of primacy for message or action tendency views of facial expression. Based on a componential model of emotion it is suggested that judges can infer components from categories and vice versa.     

Children's ability to control the facial expression of laughter and smiling: Knowledge and behaviour

A total of 64 children, aged 7 and 10, watched a clown performing three sketches rated as very funny by the children. Two experimental conditions were created by asking half of the participants to suppress their laughter. Facial expressions were videotaped and analysed with FACS. For both ages, the results show a significant shorter duration (but not a lower frequency) of episodes of laughter and Duchenne smiles, and greater frequency of facial control movements in the suppression compared to the free expression group. The detailed results on individual facial action units used to control amusement expressions suggest hypotheses on the nature of the underlying processes. The participants' explicit knowledge of their control strategies was assessed through standardised interviews. Although behavioural control strategies were reported equally frequently by the two age groups, 10-year-olds verbalised more mental control strategies than 7-year-olds. This theoretically expected difference was not related to the actual ability to control facial expression. This result challenges the commonly held assumption that explicit knowledge of control strategies results in a greater ability to execute such control in ongoing social interactions.     

“I feel better but I don't know why”: The psychology of implicit emotion regulation

Although emotion regulation has traditionally been conceived as a deliberative process, there is growing evidence that many emotion-regulation processes operate at implicit levels. This special issue of Cognition and Emotion showcases recent advances in theorising and empirical research on implicit emotion regulation. Implicit emotion regulation can be broadly defined as any process that operates without the need for conscious supervision or explicit intentions, and aims at modifying the quality, intensity, or duration of an emotional response. Implicit emotion regulation is likely to be pervasive in everyday life and may contribute considerably to the effectiveness of emotion regulation. Research in this area has developed several valid methods for measuring and manipulating implicit emotion. The contributions to this special issue highlight the significance of implicit emotion regulation in psychological adaptation, goal-directed behaviour, interpersonal behaviour, personality functioning, and mental health.