Negative priming insame-different matching: Further evidence for a central locus of inhibition

Responses to recently ignored information may be slower or less accurate than responses to information not recently encountered. Such negative priming effects imply that the mechanism of selective attention operates on unattended, as well as attended, information. In the present experiment, subjects judged the second and fourth letters of five-letter strings (e.g., BABAB) as “same” or “different.” Responses were slower when a target letter was identical to the distractors presented in the immediately preceding trial. This effect did not depend on which response was required on the current or preceding trial. The results suggest that ignored information is functionally disconnected from the response system as a whole, rather than from a specific response.     

Book reviews

The Word Speaks to the Faustian Man. Som Raj Gupta. Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass. 455+xvi pp., Rs. 500

A History of Indian Buddhism, From Sākyamuni to Early Mahāyāna. Hirakawa Akira, translated and edited by Paul Groner, 1990. Asian Studies at Hawaii, No. 36. Honolulu, HI, University of Hawaii Press. xix +402, £33.25

The Doctrine of the Upanisads and the Early Buddhism. Hermann Oldenberg, translated by Shridhar B. Shrotri, 1991. Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass. Rs. 225

Evil and the Mystics’ God: Towards a Mystical Theodicy. Michael Stoeber. London, Macmillan. x+225 pp., £40     

Affective responses to seeing oneself for the first time on unedited videotape

Despite the growing popularity of watching oneself on videotape, little systematic research has been conducted determine viewers' affective responses to video replay. This study addresses the question: what affective responses do women have when they view themselves for the first time on unedited videotape, in comparison to their responses when they view a peer or nature scenes on videotape? Affective responses were measured in three ways: self-report, physiological, and behavioral. Subjects who viewed themselves reported more negative feelings and anxiety, and smiled more frequently than subjects who watched another person or nature scenes on video. Subjects with high private self-consciousness had higher mean arterial blood pressures when viewing themselves than did subjects with low private self-consciousness. Overall, the implications for seeing oneself on video point to potential embarrassment but generally moderate effects.     

One-gun-a-month: Measuring public opinion concerning a gun control initiative

State lawmakers in Virginia recently approved a measure to limit to one the number of handguns a person can purchase within a thirty day period. In the months preceding the law's approval, a survey was conducted to measure the level of public support for the proposed initiative. The results of the survey were provided to lawmakers and other high level government officials in an effort to provide policymakers with objective data for gauging support (or non-support) for the proposal. Past public opinion polls which have measured attitudes concerning gun control reveal differences in the levels of support with regard to such factors as individual gun ownership and region of residence. The following research reveals the sentiment of one State's citizenry toward a specific handgun control measure by focusing on how responses varied across selected sub-groups within the sample.     

Contributions of survey research to the understanding of memory

This article reviews the results of survey methodological research that illustrate phenomena of potential interest to investigators of memory, and also reviews psychological research designed to explore some of these phenomena under controlled laboratory conditions. We classify the phenomena reviewed into broad categories of remembering what events occurred, remembering when events occurred, and estimation and reconstruction processes used in reporting recurring events. We delineate the contributions of this research for our understanding of memory phenomena and show where this research has revealed gaps in our existing theories and knowledge. These findings present challenges for future collaboration between cognitive psychologists and survey methodologists.     

Effects of Race,Racial Identity Development,and Orientation Style on Perceived Consultant Effectiveness

This study explores Black teachers' preferences for and ratings of consultant effectiveness as a function of consultant race, consultant style, and teacher stage of racial identity development. No significant differences were noted in preferences for either a same- or opposite-race consultant. Participants preferred and rated as more effective an instrumentally oriented consultant.     

Group analytic therapy with schizophrenic outpatients

This paper describes a model for group analytic psychotherapy with patients who have been psychotic, namely, schizophrenics and manic depressives. The groups are run on the group centered principles of S. H. Foulkes. They are continuous, slow-open groups, in line with these patients' needs for long-term therapy. A theory is proposed which justifies treating these patients in group-centered groups despite their great dependency needs. The paper also describes the task of the therapist in building and running such a group.Acknowledgments to Geoffrey Elkan, Marcia Levene, Noa Rotem, Aya Levi-Posnanski, Yossi Ezrati, S. Littman, Tamar Sternberg, E. Danilowitz, and C. Kauffman.