The early oedipal situation: developmental, theoretical, and clinical implications

The Oedipus complex is typically thought to begin in the phallic phase, when the child's relationship to the parents as a couple achieves central prominence. In contrast, the author views the appearance of oedipal conflicts in the phallic phase as the end point of a line of development of triangular relatedness that began in infancy. An aspect of the Kleinian view of the oedipal situation--that awareness of the parents as a couple begins in the preoedipal period--deserves serious consideration. A patient is presented for whom the working through of early oedipal issues in the transference-counter-transference permitted recovery from withdrawal into a fantasy world.     

Changes to acoustic communication systems in human-altered environments

Animal communication systems have become closely tuned to local habitat conditions as populations have adjusted to different long-term environmental pressures. However, many habitats are now rapidly changing because of anthropogenic modification. Maintenance of effective communication systems in greatly altered environments will depend on communicative responses on both evolutionary and ontogenetic time scales. Consideration of potential acoustic challenges caused by human-generated habitat modification has important implications for basic research and conservation biology. First, the observed signal structure of individuals in altered environments may not match the normally hypothesized call structure. Second, species that either possess little ability to adapt quickly on an evolutionary time scale or have little plasticity in their communicative systems may be unable to respond to large anthropogenic alterations in their acoustic environment.     

Beyond conflict of interest: the responsible conduct of research

This paper reports data and scholarly opinion that support the perception of systemic flaws in the management of scientific professions and the research enterprise; explores the responsibility that professional status places on the scientific professions, and elaborates the concept of the responsible conduct of research (RCR). Data are presented on research misconduct, availability of research guidelines, and perceived research quality. An earlier version of this paper was presented at an International Conference on “Conflict of Interest and its Significance in Science and Medicine” held in Warsaw, Poland, 5–6 April, 2002. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Office of Research Integrity, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or any other federal agency.     

Conceptual structure and social functions of behavior explanations: beyond person--situation attributions

The traditional approach to studying behavior explanations involves treating them as either person causes or situation causes and assessing them by using rating scales. An analysis of people's free-response behavior explanations reveals, however, that the conceptual distinctions people use in their explanations are more complex and sophisticated than the person-situation dichotomy suggests. The authors, therefore, introduce a model of the conceptual structure of folk behavior explanations (the network of concepts and assumptions on which explanations are based) and test it in 4 studies. The modes and features of behavior explanations within this conceptual structure also have specific social functions. In 2 additional studies, the authors demonstrate that people alter distinct features of their explanations when pursuing particular impression-management goals and that listeners make inferences about explainers' goals on the basis of these features.     

Ipsilateral loudness adaptation over multiple intensity levels

Could monaural loudness adaptation be a simple artifact of psychophysical contrast? From adaptation data based on the Ipsilateral Comparison Paradigm (ICP), A. J. Dange, J. S. Warm, E. M. Weiler, and W. N. Dember (1993) concluded that loudness adaptation was not an artifact of psychophysical contrast, but their conclusion was dependent on results from one intensity. This study, involving multiple intensities, re-examined the issue of contrast versus adaptation and generally supported the conclusions of Dange et al. The results also showed an unexpected asymmetry of adaptation based on the direction of the referent modulation used with the ICP technique. Some implications are discussed.     

Prenatal diagnosis, personal identity, and disability

A fascinating criticism of abortion occasioned by prenatal diagnosis of potentially disabling traits is that the complex test-and-abortion sends a morally disparaging message to people living with disabilities. I have argued that available versions of this "expressivist" argument are inadequate on two grounds. The most fundamental is that, considered as a practice, abortions prompted by prenatal testing are not semantically well-behaved enough to send any particular message; they do not function as signs in a rule-governed symbol system. Further, even granting, for the sake of argument, the expressive power of testing and aborting, it would not be possible, contra the argument's proponents, to distinguish between abortions undertaken because of beliefs about the disabling conditions the fetus might face as a child and abortions undertaken for many other possible reasons -- e.g., because of the poverty the fetus would face or the increase in family size that the birth of a new child would occasion. Here, I respond to criticisms of those arguments, and propose and defend another: the expressivist argument cannot, in general, distinguish successfully between abortion and therapy as modalities for responding to disabilities.     

The ties that bind what is known to the recall of what is new

Cued recall success varies with what people know and with what they do during an episode. This paper focuses on prior knowledge and disentangles the relative effects of 10 features of words and their relationships on cued recall. Results are reported for correlational and multiple regression analyses of data obtained from free association norms and from 29 experiments. The 10 features were only weakly correlated with each other in the norms and, with notable exceptions, in the experiments. The regression analysis indicated that forward cue-to-target strength explained the most variance, followed by backward target-to-cue strength. Target connectivity and set size explained the next most variance, along with mediated cue-to-target strength. Finally, frequency, concreteness, shared associate strength, and cue set size also contributed significantly to recall. Taken together, indices of prior word knowledge explain 49% of the recall variance. Theoretically driven equations that use free association to predict cued recall were also evaluated. Each equation was designed to condense multiple indices of word interconnectivity into a single predictor.     

The American experience: Lessons learned

This paper discusses ten lessons learned since 1989 about handling allegations of scientific misconduct involving biomedical and behavioral research supported by the U. S. Public Health Service. An earlier version of this paper was presented at a symposium, Scientific Misconduct: An International Perspective, organised by The Medical University of Warsaw, 16 November, 1998. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Office of Research Integrity, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or any other federal agency.     

Young children's use of functional information to categorize artifacts: three factors that matter

Three experiments addressed factors that might influence whether or not young children take into account function, as opposed to overall appearance or shape, when they extend the names of novel artifacts. Experiment 1 showed that 4-year-olds more often extend a name on the basis of a demonstrated function when that function provides a plausible causal account of perceptible object structure. Experiment 2 showed that they more often extend a name by function when they respond slowly, and hence thoughtfully. Experiment 3 demonstrated that they are more likely to take function into account when they extend names than when they judge similarities. Comparisons of lexical and non-lexical conditions in younger children failed to show any differences. Overall, the findings suggest that by 4 years of age, children may learn names as labels for novel artifact kinds rather than perceptual classes, and that the processes by which they categorize may be mindful and reflective, as in adults.     

Seasonal variation in human functional cerebral lateralization and free testosterone concentrations

Men have previously been reported to exhibit seasonal fluctuations on specific types of cognitive performance. It has been speculated that this performance variability is a result of changes in cerebral asymmetry due to lowered testosterone concentrations in the spring relative to the fall. In the present study, functional cerebral lateralization was measured in a group of men and women in the spring and fall. Free testosterone concentrations were assessed for participants to determine what associations might exist between seasonal variability in lateralization and seasonal fluctuations in testosterone exposure. Men and women tested in the spring exhibited exaggerated patterns of asymmetry compared to participants tested in the fall. Lower testosterone concentrations were observed in the spring compared to the fall in women, but not men. No direct associations between testosterone and lateralization were detected for either sex at either season. These results illustrate that seasonal fluctuations in testosterone exposure do not directly influence seasonal changes in functional lateralization patterns.