Reading ability and the encoding of item and location information

Two experiments using duration exposures ranging from 20 to 130 msec are reported that link reading skill in adults to the initial encoding of location information. Highly skilled and less skilled readers were equivalent in identifying single letters presented at a central fixation point. When they had to identify the serial position of a letter, however, highly skilled readers performed significantly more accurately than did less skilled readers. A second experiment used displays that consisted of one letter and three dollar signs. Subjects had to identify the letter under two location cuing conditions. When subjects were cued in advance as to which serial position would contain the letter, highly skilled and less skilled readers were equivalent. When the location of the letter had to be resolved prior to identification, highly skilled readers performed significantly more accurately than did less skilled readers. Results are interpreted to suggest that the role of perception in reading has been underestimated because emphasis has been on item perception, and the perception of spatial location has been largely overlooked.     

Self-disclosure of HIV infection: preliminary results from a sample of Hispanic men.

We examined self-disclosure of HIV infection among 101 seropositive Hispanic men residing in Los Angeles. Results indicated that disclosure was highly selective and presumably influenced by the social, psychological, and material consequences of informing others about one's medical condition. Subjects tended to inform significant others such as parents, friends, and lovers than less significant others such as employers, landlords, and religious leaders. There was a relatively high rate of disclosure (75%) to doctors/dentists who were not treating subjects for HIV infection. Gay and bisexual subjects (89% of the sample) were more inclined to disclose their HIV serostatus to homosexual or bisexual others than to heterosexuals and to inform those who were aware of their sexual orientation. Disclosure increased with severity of disease independently of length of time since testing seropositive. Self-rated negative changes in appearance correlated with disclosure to less significant others. The role of cultural attitudes and values in self-disclosure of HIV infection is discussed.     

The best interest standard: both guide and limit to medical decision making on behalf of incapacitated patients

In this issue of JCE, Douglas Diekema argues that the best interest standard (BIS) has been misemployed to serve two materially different functions. On the one hand, clinicians and parents use the BIS to recommend and to make treatment decisions on behalf of children. On the other hand, clinicians and state authorities use the BIS to determine when the government should interfere with parental decision-making authority. Diekema concedes that the BIS is appropriately used to "guide" parents in making medical treatment decisions for their children. But he argues that the BIS is inappropriately used as a "limiting" standard to determine when to override those decisions. Specifically, Diekema contends that the BIS "does not represent the best means for determining when one must turn to the state to limit parental action." He argues that this limiting function should be served by the harm principle instead of by the BIS. I contend that we should not reassign the BIS's limiting function to the harm principle. In this article I make two arguments to support my position. First, the BIS has effectively served, and can serve, both guiding and limiting functions. Second, the harm principle would be an inadequate substitute. It cannot serve the limiting function as well as the more robust BIS.     

Normativity is the mother of intention: Wittgenstein, normative practices and neurological representations

To many philosophers, a scientific explanation of our contentful intentional states requires us to identify neurological representations that implement intentional states, and requires a reductive explanation of such representations' contents in terms of objective physical properties. From a Wittgensteinian point of view, however, contentful intentional states are normatively constituted within linguistic, social practices. These cannot be completely accounted for in purely physical terms. I outline this normative thesis, defending it from four objections: that it is not naturalistic, that social norms depend on optional desires to conform, that it over-intellectualizes having intentional states (so excludes animals and infants), and that it cannot account for the causal role of content. I explain the ramifications for scientific psychology and neuroscience, and for interpreting the results of such empirical research. Nothing is objectively a contentful representation, yet some brain states or processes can be normatively constituted as representations with content.     

Schizophrenic, depressive, and nonpatient personality organizations described by Rorschach factor structures

Rorschachs of 155 schizophrenics, 102 depressives, and 186 nonpatients were collected and scored using the Comprehensive System. Twenty-seven Rorschach variables considered central to interpretation were selected for study. Factor analyses and partial correlations controlling for number of responses, R, were generated in order to investigate the personality organization of each of the three groups. A three factor solution was found to be optimal for each group. Patterns of personality organization were discussed within the three groups and factor structures were compared and contrasted. While similarities occur between the three groups, each group also manifests a unique personality organization. These findings support the hypothesis that schizophrenics and depressives differ from nonpatients in kind, rather than degree of disorder.