The influence of stimulus array on training of a speeded response

We conducted two experiments to study the training of speeded responses to stimuli in a clock face array. Participants were trained on one clock face and later tested on either the same or a different clock face. The clock faces varied along 3 dimensions of change (left-right flip, up-down flip, and 180 degrees rotation). Skill acquisition was reflected in decreases in overall, initiation, and movement response times in the training and test phases except that movement time reached an asymptote during training and did not decrease further during test. Test performance was best when training and test used the same clock face and worst when the training to test change involved an up-down flip. The transition to different clock faces was consistent with an interpretation based on the violation of expectations about target positions acquired during training. Consistent trial-by-trial feedback led to better initiation time but not movement time during training than periodic feedback, but this effect did not persist into the test phase.     

A comparison of tactile spatial sensitivity on the palm and fingerpad

Studies of tactile spatial pattern perception have, for the most part, been carried out using the fingerpad. On the basis of these studies, models have been developed linking spatial pattern identification and resolution with underlying neural structures. It has been suggested that with appropriate scaling, these models would apply to the processing of spatial patterns presented to other sites on the body. Spatial sensitivity was examined on another site on the body, the palm, using two measures, letter identification and grating orientation. The results from these measures were compared with results from similar studies conducted on the fingerpad and with estimates of the density of innervation of the fingerpad and palm. To produce levels of performance similar to those on the fingerpad required letters on the palm 50 mm in height, seven to nine times larger than those used on the fingerpad. Gratings had to be six to more than seven times larger on the palm to produce the same levels of performance achieved on the fingerpad. For the two types of receptor systems sensitive to spatial information, the ratio of density of innervation between the fingerpad and the palm is estimated to be 5.7:1 and 8.8:1. Performance of spatial tasks on the palm can be predicted quantitatively from fingerpad data with a moderate degree of accuracy. Qualitative comparisons between the palm and fingerpad data indicate that spatial patterns are processed similarly at the two sites.     

A qualitative study of adaptation experiences of 1.5-generation Asian Americans

Adaptation experiences of 1.5-generation Asian American college students (N = 10) were examined using the consensual qualitative research method. Results indicated 4 domains of adaptation experiences: preimmigration experiences, acculturation and enculturation experiences, intercultural relationships, and support systems. Participants reported that English proficiency played a significant role in their initial adjustment. Currently, most of the participants reported feeling identified with both the U.S. and Asian cultures. Some participants reported having experienced racism in the past. Many participants noted that they currently have no difficulty establishing friendships with culturally different persons. Participants reported currently feeling most close to friends of a similar background and that they usually seek support from friends, family, and religious organizations, but not from a psychologist or counselor.     

MAINTENANCE OF THERAPEUTIC CHANGE BY MOMENTARY DRO

Differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) involves delivery of reinforcement at the end of an interval during which the target behavior has not occurred. Momentary DRO, however, is a procedure in which reinforcement is delivered if a response did not occur at the end of an interval. We examined the extent to which momentary DRO maintained suppression, following initial treatment with whole-interval DRO, of nine retarded students' maladaptive behavior. Results indicate that momentary DRO maintained response suppression comparable to that obtained by whole-interval DRO.     

The Soulless Tribe

Speculation. A tribe that we have brought into subjection, which we want to make into a slave race…. The government and the scientists give it out that the people of this tribe have no souls; so they can be used without scruple for any purpose whatever. When the slaves say something happens in them, … does this confirm that they have souls? … If they say now “something happens in my head—my soul—” that only shows that they use a certain picture.     

Returning to the Fire: Surviving the Holocaust and “Going Back”

This paper examines the multiply determined factors in Holocaust survivors who return to their native countries and sites of persecution. Citing material from archived interviews and consultations with a gravely ill survivor, as well as published accounts from others, the author explores historical, cultural, and psychodynamic dimensions. Intrapsychic, developmental, and traumatic aspects are considered, such as the fantasy of reunion with the lost maternal object, unresolved grief, the repetition compulsion, attempts at mastery, and the use of counterphobic or hypomanic defenses. This constellation of factors is seen in the context of the Jewish premium on remembering and the political realities of post war Europe. The role of the Second Generation in assisting the survivor parents in the working through process is also emphasized.     

Subjective probability of disjunctive hypotheses: local-weight models for decomposition of evidential support

When the probability of a single member of a set of mutually exclusive and exhaustive possibilities is judged, its alternatives are evaluated as a composite "residual" hypothesis. Support theory (Rottenstreich & Tversky, 1997; Tversky & Koehler, 1994) implies that the process of packing alternatives together in the residual reduces the perceived evidential support for the set of alternatives and consequently inflates the judged probability of the focal hypothesis. Previous work has investigated the global weights that determine the extent to which the overall evidential support for the alternatives is discounted by this packing operation (Koehler, Brenner, & Tversky, 1997). In the present investigation, we analyze this issue in greater detail, examining the local weights that measure the specific contribution of each component hypothesis included implicitly in the residual. We describe a procedure for estimating local weights and introduce a set of plausible properties that impose systematic ordinal relationships among local weights. Results from four experiments testing these properties are reported, and a local-weight model is developed that accounts for nearly all of the variance in the probability judgments in these empirical tests. Local weights appear to be sensitive both to the individual component with which they are associated and to the residual hypothesis in which the component resides.     

Arithmetic as Grammar

What is a number? Using material from Wittgenstein’s 1930s lectures, I argue that this question expresses a disorientation best overcome by recollecting rules that govern the number words. Why do we have the rules we do? We may be persuaded to adopt one rule rather than another by experience, when experiment shows it to be the more convenient way; we may also be persuaded by the “experience” of a new aspect. Mathematics is a “motley of techniques” for doing certain things; religion is a certain spirit meant to pervade everything we do. An important likeness is that in both instruction is essentially grammatical.     

A psychoanalytic perspective on depression

A correct understanding of the role of depressive affect in triggering psychic conflict leads to a reformulation of the origins and the psychodynamics of depression as a feature of mental illness. It also raises serious question about the validity of the diagnosis of depressive illness.