The emergence and development of tradition in reform Jewish worship, 1970–1999

It is axiomatic to note the increased amount of traditional ritual, customs, ceremonies and observances in Reform Jewish worship in the past three decades. These include hakafot, talitot, kippot and bowing the head and bending the knee during prayer. Although we may disagree about when to mark the beginning of this increase (Maurice Eisendrath, then president of the umbrella organization of Reform congregations, insisted in his 1964 autobiography, Can Faith Survive?, that he “wanted no neo-Orthodoxy in Reform today”), I argue that the end of the dignified English service with hymns such as “All the World has Come to Serve Thee” became widespread only in the 1970s, primarily because of the influence of a generation of Reform rabbis who, beginning in 1970, were required to spend a year in Jerusalem. I explore the use of the word mitzvah as a test case, noting its absence before this period, the continued discomfort with it on theological grounds (the increase in tradition was not accompanied by any return to traditional theological categories), but the comfort with it when used as an equivalent for tsedakah or tikkun olam. And I use several synagogues as case studies of the implications — better, ambivalence — about this phenomenon.     

Cognitive-Behavioral Constructs and Children's Behavioral and Emotional Problems

Each cognitive behavior therapy has produced research concerning the cognitive construct it posits to mediate psychopathology. This study attempted to compare the major cognitive behavioral constructs to determine how they are related to each other and how each is related to teachers' perception of externalized and internalized behavioral and emotional problems. Children between the ages of 9 to 13 were classified as internalized, externalized, mixed, or no behavior and emotional problems groups according to their scores on the Teacher's Report Form of the Child Behavior Checklist and teachers' ratings on the Walker Problem Identification Scale. Measures of Ellis' (1962) irrationality, Beek's (1976) negative automatic thoughts, Spivack's (Spivack, Platt, & Shure, 1976) social problem skills, and Meichenbaum's (1977) guiding self statements were administered to the children. The results indicated that the various cognitive constructs were only moderately correlated with each other. Irrational beliefs and cognitive distortions were correlated higher than other comparisons. The correlations between the measures of the constructs suggest they are slightly related but represent different constructs. The emotional and behavioral problems groups scored higher than the no problems group on some subtest of irrational beliefs and negative cognitive thoughts. Also, the measures of emotional and behavior problems correlated significantly with some subtest of irrational beliefs and negative automatic thoughts. Irrational beliefs appeared to be related to internalized and externalized emotional and behavioral problems, while negative automatic thoughts appeared to be best related to internalized emotional and behavioral problems. The measures of problem solving skills and guiding self statements appear to be best related to externalized problems.     

The perception of identity in simultaneously presented complex visual displays

Two experiments were conducted in order to examine the information processing in a visual matching task, using digit sequences of varying complexity as the stimuli. Traditionally, reaction times for “same” judgments do not fit into a single-process self-terminating feature testing model, while those for “different” judgments do. Bamber (1969) proposed a two-stage model to account for the data, and the results of these experiments support this type of model. Strong evidence implying that Bamber’s “identity reporter” has a limited capacity in terms of stimulus complexity was also found. This complexity seems to be deemed by stimulus discriminability and the number of “chunks” of information rather than by “bits” of information being transmitted (Miller, 1956).     

The parallel-less Poggendorff: Virtual contours put the illusion down but not out

Four versions of Poggendorff displays were compared: (1) the conventional display of a transversal interrupted by parallel lines, (2) a transversals-only display, (3) a virtual-contour display where the parallels were suggested (but not drawn) via “good continuation” and “c1osure, ” and (4) the profile display, a degraded version of the virtual-contour display that retained many of its borders but did not suggest parallels. Each display was drawn with transversal tilted at 45 and 51 deg from vertical. All displays produced significant illusions at both tilts. By comparison with the illusion magnitudes of the conventional display, the effects for the other displays were small. The outcome supports the existence of two salient illusion-producing factors: the necessity for actual contours to form the subtended angle and assimilation of the transversal toward O’s horizontal.     

Biased extensive measurement: The homogeneous case

In the homogeneous case of one type of objects, we prove the existence of an additive scale unique up to a positive scaling transformation without transitivity of indifference and with a property of homothetic invariance weaker than monotonicity. The representation, which is a particular case of a semiorder representation, reveals a unique positive factor α?1 that biases extensive structures and explains departures from these standard axioms of extensive measurement (α=1). We interpret α as characterizing the qualitative influence of the underlying measurement process and we show that it induces a proportional indifference threshold.     

The guilty mind and criminal sentencing: integrating legal and empirical inquiry as illustrated by capital sentencing

We articulate an interpretation of mens rea that is broader than the traditional special sense but narrower than the traditional general sense. Mens rea in this intermediate sense addresses the guilty mind required by the sentencing criteria for specific criminal sentences for particular offenses. We advance an analytic structure for the integration of legal and empirical inquiry regarding standards of culpability that establish eligibility for capital punishment under contemporary United States legal doctrine. This structure addresses legal standards of culpability directly as well as indirectly in the form of evolving standards of decency. The general form of this analysis should be applicable more generally to sentencing provisions that address culpability as a sentencing consideration for other criminal sentences.     

Validation of a novel cognitive bias task based on difference in quantity of reinforcement for assessing environmental enrichment

Cognitive bias tasks purport to assess affective states via responses to ambiguous stimuli. We hypothesized that a novel cognitive bias task based on positive reinforcement using quantity differences would detect changes in affect in captive grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis). We trained bears (n = 8) to respond differently (nose or paw touch) to two stimuli (light or dark gray cue cards), with responses counterbalanced across bears. The two cues signaled a small or large food reward, respectively. Responses to ambiguous probe stimuli (i.e., shades of gray) intermediate to the trained stimuli were classified as either ‘optimistic,’ appropriate for the larger reward, or ‘pessimistic,’ appropriate for the smaller reward. In Experiment 1, we explored the contrast in reward size necessary to detect a change in response across probe stimuli (large reward, 3 or 6 apple slices: small reward, 1 slice). We observed a change in response across probe stimuli, with no difference in response between reward-value groups, indicating that a contrast of 3:1 apple slices was sufficient to affect responses. In Experiment 2, we investigated cognitive bias after 2.1 h of exposure to enrichment items varying in attractiveness. Results were unaffected by enrichment type or time spent interacting with enrichments, indicating that the task failed to demonstrate criterion validity for comparing mood following exposure to different enrichment items. However, greater time spent pacing prior to testing was associated with ‘optimistic’ judgments. The data provide some support for use of cognitive bias tasks based on quantity differences in animal welfare assessments involving captive wildlife.