Inflection,frequency, and the word superiority effect

Summary It has been known for nearly 100 years that single words presented tachistoscopically are better recognized than arbitrary letter strings. The present experiments investigate the impact of the morphological structure of words and of word frequency on the word superiority effect. It has been shown that inflected word forms show higher reaction time and error scores in the lexical decision task and higher error scores in the Reicher-Wheeler paradigm. Word frequency also determines lexical decision time. However, no frequency effect in the Reicher-Wheeler paradigm could be found. The results are discussed in the framework of McClelland and Rumelhart's (1981) model of context effects in letter search.This paper is mainly (Experiments I and III) based on the first author's Habilitationsschrift from October, 1982 (cf. Günther 1983a).     

Configuration of the dream in REM sleep

Dreams during REM sleep have a characteristic form. They are, so to speak, "chain dreams, in which the scenes follow consecutively and, although distinctly separate from each other, are welded into a coherent dream by the primary integrating thoughts underlying the dream. The contents of the different scenes are difficult to reconcile with the integrating thought behind the dream because they are not stimulated by the thought alone but, in a certain way, also by past experiences. The author describes a dream which apparently filled the REM phase from beginning to end. It has been possible to explain the background of the integrating thought and the origins of the different scenes. The peculiar character of such dreams should find more attention in scientific research.     

Integration of Cognitive and Emotional Processing Predicts Poor and Good Outcomes of Psychotherapy

Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy - With the aim of investigating analogies and differences between psychotherapeutic processes, ten good-outcome and ten poor-outcome cases were selected from a...     

Processing two tasks with varying task order: central stage duration influences central processing order

In a recent study, Sigman and Dehaene (2006, PLoS Biology, 4, 1227–1238) reported that perceptual processing duration influences processing order of two tasks in the psychological refractory period paradigm (PRP). The present study examines whether the duration of central processes also influences processing order. For this purpose, we employed letter tasks with different central processing durations and varied task order in the PRP. In one part of the experiment, a tone discrimination task was combined with a similar time-consuming letter discrimination task. In the other part, the tone task was combined with a more time-consuming letter task, which required a mental rotation of the letter thereby prolonging central processing. If the duration of central processes influences processing order, participants should perform the tone task first more often when it is presented with the more time-consuming mental rotation task, than when it is presented with the similar time-consuming letter task. The results clearly confirm this prediction and thus show that not only perceptual processing duration but also central processing duration affects processing order in a dual-task situation. We suggest that the reported effect mirrors a tendency of participants to minimize total reaction time to both tasks by reducing slack time.     

Essential building blocks of the Ubuntu debate; or: I write what I must

This article is in part a response to Matolino and Kwindingwi’s “The end of Ubuntu” and Metz’s response “Just the beginning for ubuntu: reply to Matolino and Kwindingwi”, both of which appeared in the South African Journal of Philosophy. My contribution also stands alone as an outline of the basic minimum of conceptual moves any Ubuntu theorist has to make in order for their text to avoid the twin seductions of being either a contemporary variant of an outdated ethnophilosophy, or an ahistorical analysis of Ubuntu that remains oblivious to the historicity of the concept. The obvious fact that Ubuntu has had a complicated history, first as pre-colonial praxis and then as abstract postcolonial philosophical construct, demands of the postcolonial theorist to pay attention to the epistemic shifts that have historically determined how Ubuntu interacted with various hegemonic, that is, Western-dominated, theoretical discourses.     

The multisensory base of bodily coupling in face-to-face social interactions: Contrasting the case of autism with the Möbius syndrome

The perennial question of how we understand others’ emotions and mental states has undertaken an “interactive turn,” emphasizing the crucial role of low-level bodily coupling and second-personal engagements with others as opposed to the individualistic procedure of mental state attribution or “mindreading.” This raises the important question of what counts as foundational for socio-emotional understanding: high-level mentalistic abilities, low-level bodily coupling, or an integrative combination of both? Recent findings on face-based emotion-recognition in individuals with Möbius syndrome (MS) – a rare form of congenital facial paralysis which prevents facial mimicry – cast doubt on the idea that bodily coupling is the foundational component for socio-emotional understanding. Here we argue that the MS case does not pose a threat to the idea that low-level bodily coupling processes are foundational for social cognition. Rather, despite their lack of automatic facial mirroring, MS patients might benefit from spared multisensory integration processing which allows them to establish alternative channels of bodily coupling via different sensory modalities. We contrast MS- and autistic persons’ lack of automatic facial mimicry and argue that this comparison might help us to shed light on the constitutive and foundational role of low-level bodily coupling for socio-emotional understanding.     

Surgery of aneurysms of the cerebral arteries--results and problems

Surgery has been performed on 100 intracranial aneurysms during the past seven years. Of these, 96 involved the application of microsurgical techniques and could definitely be clipped. Lethality was 8%. Post-surgical deterioration of the clinical neurological status was observed in another 20 patients, but vanished subsequently in 16 of them. Immediate surgery within 48 hours of the subarachnoidal hemorrhage is recommended to avoid subsequent hemorrhage and prevent severe vasospasmic phenomena. Only patients whose general status is good (Hunt and Hess degree 1 or 2) are suitable for immediate surgery.