Commentary on high-performance computing and human vision II: Virtual reality and eyeball tracking

Visualization of scientific data that are not normally visible can be greatly enhanced by understanding human visual perception. Mars the Movie illustrated the use of stereo resolution for producing realistic vistas of the Mars surface. The real-time recording and analysis of eyeball-tracking data is another example of human vision research which benefits from high-performance computing. Currently the bottleneck is not in the hardware but in the available software to transform data efficiently.     

University students' priorities: Life goals vs. relationships

To assess the importance of life goals and relationships, a specially designed Life Goals Scale was administered to 303 university students (200 women and 103 men). Women's average ratings for relationships exceeded those of men. Men and women did not differ in average importance ratings of goals nor in tendency to sacrifice goals for a heterosexual relationship. Seventy-three percent were willing to sacrifice a majority of their goals for the relationship. The goal vs. relationship choices were influenced by sex role orientation, by dating status, and by the importance of marriage. Gender, age, year in school, parents' marital status, and grade point average were unrelated to goal vs. relationship choices. Stepwise multiple regression analyses indicated different predictors of goal vs. relationship choices for men and women.     

A comparison of accommodative and fusional convergence as cues to distance

The effectiveness of fusional as compared with accommodative convergence (with accommodation present in both cases) in determining perceived distance was investigated in this study. Luminous frames of two different visual angles at a nearly constant distance were viewed binocularly to provide fusional convergence and monocularly to provide accommodative convergence. Although some differences in reported size and distance of the frames occurred on the first presentations for binocular as compared to monocular observation, the most systematic differences between these two types of observation were present for the second (successive) presentations of the two frame sizes to the same Os. This is attributed to the relative size cue to distance occurring as a function of the different retinal sizes on the successive presentations. It was found that this relative size cue was more effective in modifying the perceived size and distance of the second presentations for monocular than for binocular observation. It is suggested that this reflects the greater effectiveness as a cue to distance of fusional as compared with accommodative convergence. This conclusion is of importance for studies concerned with the evaluation of convergence as a determiner of perceived distance.     

The Changing Self: Using Personal Documents to Study Lives

ABSTRACT In this paper we describe a technique for coding expressions of preoccupation with aspects of the adult self in personal documents and retrospective autobiographical writings In particular we explore the value of this approach by analyzing themes of identity, intimacy, and generativity expressed in Vera Brittain's diary and correspondence, written during her adolescence in World War I, and in her retrospective autobiographical account of that period in her life Analyses aim to use Erikson's theory of personality development to describe her psychological experience at the time and to compare that account with the later one     

Classical conditioning of aggressive display in Siamese fighting fish

Unconditioned aggressive-display behavior elicited by the mirror image of a male Siamese Fighting Fish was brought under the control of a previously ineffective stimulus by classical conditioning. A stimulus light repeatedly paired with mirror presentation came to elicit the complex aggressive-behavior sequence. Relative rates of acquisition of four components of the display were compared. Fin erection and undulating movements were acquired most rapidly while gill-cover erection and frontal approach were acquired most slowly. A discriminative conditioning procedure revealed that the response was specifically elicited by the conditioned stimulus, and not a sensitization artifact.     

Visual-reinforcer color-and operant behavior in Siamese fighting fish

Male Siamese Fighting Fish (Betta splendens) were conditioned to emit an operant response sequence reinforced by presentation of a model of a male Siamese Fighting Fish in aggressive display. Operant response rate varied as a function of the color of the model with respect to the color of the subject.     

Teachers’ reactions to experiences of violence: an attributional analysis

Violence perpetrated against teachers is prevalent and has the potential to adversely affect teachers’ well-being, efficacy, and longevity in the profession. In this study, we examined teachers’ reactions after having experienced violence, specifically examining the roles of attributional processes. In collaboration with the American Psychological Association, National Education Association, and American Federation of Teachers, data were collected via a survey instrument from teachers across the United States. We examined responses from 2505 participants who described the most upsetting incident of violence that had been perpetrated against them in their roles as teachers. We examined predictors of (1) communicating with others after the incident and (2) implementing intervention strategies with the perpetrators of violence. Emotions were tested as mediators of the relations between attributions and outcomes. Results indicated that characterological and behavioral self-blame were predictive of negative affect, which in turn predicted the majority of outcomes. Study limitations and implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Mourning’s dissonance; who am I who mourns and whom do I mourn?

In this article I explore how a relational psychoanalytic and phenomenological perspective can open out new possibilities for interpretations of experiences of bereavement. I critically discuss Freud’s acclaimed paper, ‘Mourning and melancholia’ in the light of work by philosophers Merleau-Ponty (a phenomenologist) and Judith Butler (a contemporary post-modern feminist philosopher). I reflect on how questions of identity, language, and embodiment, crucial themes in Merleau-Ponty’s and Butler’s theorising of human subjectivities, emerge in two literary/autobiographical accounts of mourning: Nora Webster, by the contemporary Irish writer, Colm Tóibín, and Mourning Diary by the French philosopher, Roland Barthes. Through my discussion of these philosophical and literary texts I argue for a psychoanalytic perspective which is attuned to the conscious and unconscious subtleties and complexities of mourning and engages with the ways in which the identities of the mourner and the mourned and the relations between them are, for the mourner, constantly in flux. I emphasize the importance of attending in the psychoanalytic relationship to the specificity and uniqueness of individuals’ languages of mourning and to the effects on experiences of bereavement of gender, race, class, sexuality, age, and physical ability within particular socio-historical and cultural contexts.