An evaluation of Woodard's theory of perceptually oriented hypnosis

This article evaluates Woodard's theory of Perceptually Oriented Hypnosis, a welcome addition to theories of hypnosis that emphasize the centrality of subjective experiences in understanding and studying hypnosis. With a focus on subjective experience. Woodard's account of perceptually oriented hypnosis is based on elements of humanistic, client-centered, and perceptual psychology. However, we contend that improvements in the operational clarity and coverage of the theory are necessary to optimize its utility and heuristic value. We also argue that it is important for Perceptually Oriented Hypnosis to address hypnotic phenomena, e.g., individual differences in suggestibility, involuntary responding to suggestions, stability of responding over time, widely recognized as essential to understanding hypnotic experience and responding. With these refinements, we believe that Woodard's theory would have a greater potential to enrich our understanding of both the unique experiences of individuals who undergo hypnosis and of hypnosis in general.     

Facilitation and Inhibition in the Superordinate and Instance Naming of Pictures

A new paradigm, analogous to that used to study inhibition in visual selection (Tipper, 1985), was employed to investigate the possible role of inhibition in selection among instance names (e.g.rabbit) and superordinate names (e.g.animal) for pictured objects. Participants named two sequentially presented pictures in pairs of three types: SAME (e.g., RABBIT-RABBIT), SAME CATEGORY (e.g., HORSE-RABBIT), and DIFFERENT (e.g., BALL-RABBIT). Naming instructions were varied so that participants either used superordinate (S) or instance (I) names for both pictures in a pair (S-S or I-I; Experiment 1) or switched predictably from one type of name to the other across the two pictures (S-I or I-S; Experiment 2). The patterns of naming reaction times revealed both facilitatory and inhibitory effects and provided preliminary support for the hypothesis that selection of a target name involves inhibition of a competing distractor name. Suggestions are given for extending this new paradigm to provide further evidence on the mechanisms underlying name selection.     

The role of interference in memory span

In two experiments, we investigated the possibility that susceptibility to proactive interference (PI) affects performance on memory span measures. We tested both younger and older adults (older adults were tested because of the suggestion that they are differentially susceptible to PI). We used two different span measures and manipulated testing procedures to reduce PI for these tasks. For older adults, span estimates increased with each PI-reducing manipulation; for younger adults, scores increased when multiple PI manipulations were combined or when PI-reducing manipulations were used in paradigms in which within-task PI was especially high. The findings suggest that PI critically influences span performance. We consider the possibility that interference-proneness may influence cognitive behaviors previously thought to be governed by capacity.     

Improving perception of letters and visual structure of language.

Information about letters and the physical structure of language printed in Roman characters was given to children beginning to read. Experimental investigations coupled three alternative graphic modes of printing upper- and lower-case letters with an instructional intervention termed "Alpha-Beta" which provides practice in letter sorting, matching of letters, associative matching, and memory matching. In respect to graphics, Mode A letters were in standard alphabet form. Mode B provided standard letters with each backed by a unique half-tone (Visually Stippled Alphabet); Mode C provided standard letters with each backed by a unique visual texture (Visually Patterned Alphabet). Pre-posttest change in reading readiness was measured using the Metropolitan Readiness Test. In the first study 224 English-speaking 5- to 6-yr.-old children were tested. In the second there were 158 Spanish-speaking girls and boys 6 to 7 years old. It was predicted that Alpha-Beta intervention involving visually patterned alphabet would lead to the greatest increases in readiness scores. This is confirmed in both studies for children low in reading readiness preexperiment. Children high in reading readiness are less affected. The second experiment involved Spanish-speaking children and investigated intervention by Alpha-Beta against a no-intervention control. This confirms the value of Alpha-Beta per se. Possible explanations for the improvements are identified.     

A Conceptualization and Test of the Influences of Individual Differences in Goal-Setting Situations1

This research tests a hypothesized model of the relationships among several individual differences and variables associated with the setting of goals. Participants were randomly assigned to a self-set goal condition, or to moderately or very-difficult assigned-goal conditions. By aggregating scores of performance, personal goals, ratings of self-efficacy, and goal commitment over multiple goal-setting and task-performance occasions, the overall relationships among these variables and need for achievement, self-esteem, and locus of control were determined. Results provide strong support for Locke and Latham's (1990a, 1990b) model of the goal-performance relation, but fail to support the hypothesized role of individual differences. The implications of these findings and individual differences in goal-setting situations are discussed.     

Functional Status, Receipt of Help, and Perceived Health

We model the effects of disability, functional limitation, and receipt of help on perceived health. This analysis specifies a model with two dimensions of disability and three dimensions of functional limitation, including upper body disability, lower body disability, basic activities of daily living (ADLs), household ADLs, and advanced ADLs. The latent variables of receiving help are modeled for each of the ADLs as intervening between limitations and perceived health. The results show that instrumental social support in the form of receiving help for ADLs has no substantive independent effect on perceived health. In addition, receiving instrumental social support shows a pattern of task-specific responses to individual measures of need. Implications for both caregiver and care recipient are discussed.     

Reframing the question of forbidden knowledge for modern science

In this paper I use the concept of forbidden knowledge to explore questions about putting limits on science. Science has generally been understood to seek and produce objective truth, and this understanding of science has grounded its claim to freedom of inquiry. What happens to decision making about science when this claim to objective, disinterested truth is rejected? There are two changes that must be made to update the idea of forbidden knowledge for modern science. The first is to shift from presuming that decisions to constrain or even forbid knowledge can be made from a position of omniscience (perfect knowledge) to recognizing that such decisions made by human beings are made from a position of limited or partial knowledge. The second is to reject the idea that knowledge is objective and disinterested and accept that knowledge (even scientific knowledge) is interested. In particular, choices about what knowledge gets created are normative, value choices. When these two changes are made to the idea of forbidden knowledge, questions about limiting or forbidding lines of inquiry are shown to distract attention from the more important matters of who makes and how decisions are made about what knowledge is produced. Much more attention should be focused on choosing directions in science, and as this is done, the matter of whether constraints should be placed on science will fall into place.