Environmental Choice and Control In Community Care Settings for Older People1

This study focuses on the long-term stable levels of environmental choice and control available in community care settings, and explores how variations in these factors affect elderly residents of such settings. New methods to evaluate naturally-existing levels of policy choice and resident control are developed and applied to a representative sample of residential care facilities. The findings showed that residents with more functional resources, and women residents, were inore likely to live in facilities high in choice and control, and that these personal and environmental factors were associated with better resident functioning and more cohesive, independence-oriented social environments with relatively little conflict. Functionallyable residents reacted more positively to high control and women residents reacted more positively to high choice. Investigators who attempt to manipulate perceived control in institutional settings need to consider the existing opportunities residents have to exercise control, as well as the levels of other relevant personal and environmental resources.     

The perceptual onset of musical tones

The perceptual onset of a musical tone can be defined as the moment in time at which the stimulus is first perceived. In the present experiments, a simple threshold model for the perceptual onset was applied. A paradigm was used in which a sequence of tones had to be adjusted in such a way that the onsets were perceived at equally spaced moments in time. In Experiment 1, the threshold model was applied in a design in which the rise times of the tones were varied. We concluded that the perceptual onsets of the tones can, indeed, be defined as the times at which the envelopes pass a relative threshold of 15 dB below the maximum level of the tones (82 dB). In Experiment 2, the maximum levels of the tones were varied from 37 to 77 dB. The results show that there is a shift in the relative threshold, but that this shift is small relative to the shift in the stimulus level. In Experiment 3, the effect of level above masked threshold on the perceptual onset was investigated in more detail by varying the level of a background noise. The results show that the relative threshold decreases with increasing level above masked threshold. The results from our experiments strongly suggest that the relative threshold is linearly dependent on the level above masked or absolute threshold and that a 7-dB increment of this level results in a 1-dB relative threshold decrement. The threshold model is compared with a current temporal integration model for the perceptual onset of tones. It is shown that our data cannot be adequately explained by temporal integration. Our experimental results suggest that adaptation of the hearing mechanism to a certain relative stimulus level is responsible for perceptual onset. The applicability of our threshold model in various realistic musical situations is discussed.     

On Chomskyan mentalism: A reply to Peter Slezak

Conclusion Introducing his paper, Slezak (p. 428) proposes to examine Botha's criticisms in detail with a view to demonstrating that they are without foundation and are based on the most fundamental misunderstandings. Concluding his paper, Slezak (p. 439) expresses the hope that he has shown that the conceptions on which these criticisms rest are so seriously flawed as to make it unprofitable to attempt to unravel the rest of his analysis. These formulations, by all standards, represent rather strong rhetoric. But, as the preceding paragraphs have shown, Slezak's discussion sadly lacks the relevant and accurate analyses needed to give substance to his rhetoric.I would like to thank Marina Savini and Thereza Botha for suggestions which led to improvements in the formulation of this paper.     

Spatial interactions of taste stimuli on the human tongue

Two nearby loci on the human tongue were stimulated with solutions representing the four basic taste qualities. The recognition threshold for each test stimulus was measured when a strong concentration of one of the four qualities or water was placed nearby. Decreased sensitivity for the test stimulus resulted when both stimuli were the same quality, with the exception of an enhancement of bitter sensitivity by QHCl. The only effect across qualities was a suppression of citric acid by NaC1. In contrast, classical studies reported across-quality enhancement. Stimulation of two loci on the same half of the tongue and the use of modern psychophysical techniques may explain the differences between these and earlier results.     

Psychoanalytische Therapie

A statement of the professional umbrella society DGPT is presented that was formulated in cooperation with the various professional societies and with the German Society of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy and the Society of Child and Adolescent Therapy. The statement is a reaction to the public claim for effective evidence of psychotherapy and takes the opportunity for a comprehensive presentation of this field. In the introduction Alf Gerlach, as chairman of the umbrella society at the time of the formulation of this statement and now executive chairman responsible for coordinating research, describes the history of the development of the statement.There were two particular moments prompting this statement. On the one hand the Scientific Advisory Board for Psychotherapy as an advisory committee based on the law of psychotherapy, has presented demands for effective evidence that are incompatible with psychoanalysis. Thus, the recognition of psychoanalysis as a treatment method for illnesses was put in doubt. On the other hand, a suggestion was put forward to the Board to recognize psychodynamic psychotherapy as an independent entity. This questioned the unity of the psychotherapeutic field.The statement was passed onto the Scientific Advisory Board last autumn. It is intended for a professional audience and includes answers to important issues of this field. It will have an important role to play in future discussions about professional politics. For this reason, we have decided to begin the present issue of our journal with this statement and thus to open a wide discussion forum.

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Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychoanalyse, Psychotherapie, Psychosomatik und Tiefenpsychologie e.V. (DGPT)In Verbindung mit:Deutsche Gesellschaft für Analytische Psychologie (DGAP)Deutsche Gesellschaft für Individualpsychologie (DGIP)Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychotherapeutische Medizin (DGPM)Deutsche Psychoanalytische Gesellschaft (DPG)Deutsche Psychoanalytische Vereinigung (DPV)Vereinigung Analytischer Kinder- und Jugendlichen-Psychotherapeuten (VAKJP)Redaktion: Stephan Hau und Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber

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Comparisons of three different investigative interview techniques with young children

After viewing a film of a mother hitting her son, a film not seen by the college student interviewers, children were misinformed about a detail (via exposure to a misleading question) as well as explicitly coached to disclose 3 false details. The children were then interviewed by interviewers who had previously learned 1 of 3 different interviewing procedures: the Yuille Step-Wise Interview developed by J. C. Yuille, R. Hunter, R. Joffe, & J. Zapamiuk (1993); a doll play interview developed by Action for Child Protection Inc. (1994); or the Modified Structured Interview developed for this study. The Modified Structured Interview yielded more "where" information and was better at detecting if coaching had occurred. However, the interviewers were not very good at discriminating suggested versus coached versus correct witnessed information. The authors found that the deeper one digs for memories, the more one uncovers incorrect versus correct items. They concluded that although the Modified Structured Interview was superior to the techniques currently in use, cautions are necessary.     

Semantic categorization in the human brain: spatiotemporal dynamics revealed by magnetoencephalography

We examined the cortical representation of semantic categorization using magnetic source imaging in a task that revealed both dissociations among superordinate categories and associations among different base-level concepts within these categories. Around 200 ms after stimulus onset, the spatiotemporal correlation of brain activity elicited by base-level concepts was greater within than across superordinate categories in the right temporal lobe. Unsupervised clustering of data showed similar categorization between 210 and 450 ms mainly in the left hemisphere. This pattern suggests that well-defined semantic categories are represented in spatially distinct, macroscopically separable neural networks, independent of physical stimulus properties. In contrast, a broader, task-required categorization (natural/man-made) was not evident in our data. The perceptual dynamics of the categorization process is initially evident in the extrastriate areas of the right hemisphere; this activation is followed by higher-level activity along the ventral processing stream, implicating primarily the left temporal lobe.     

Does God Play Dice? A Response to Niels H. Gregersen, “The Idea of Creation and the Theory of Autopoietic Processes”

The idea that the Creator has a plan for creation is deeply rooted in the Christian notion of Providence. This notion seems to suggest that the history of creation must be the execution of the providential plan of God. Such an understanding of divine providence expects science to confirm that cosmic history is under supernatural guidance, that evolution is therefore oriented toward a goal—to bring forth human beings, for example. The problem is, however, that science finds evidence for neither supernatural guidance nor teleology in nature. To address this problem, I understand Niels H. Gregersen to suggest that God is involved in the creative process. The reason science cannot demonstrate God's supernatural guidance of evolution is that the Creator structures the process from within. Gregersen argues that God is involved in the process of creation by changing the overall probability pattern of evolving systems.
In my view, such a model of how God interacts with creation is supported neither by orthodox Christianity nor by modern science. After a critique of Gregersen's argument and a brief history of the relationship between Christianity and science, I shall suggest an alternative. It is that the freedom of creation to create itself is implicit in the fundamental dogma of Christianity that God is love.