Lexical Representation of Gender: A Quasiregular Domain

The relationship between gender and word ending in French is a quasiregular one (e.g., most words ending in -ette are feminine, but not all). As such, the gender of low-frequency irregular forms (e.g., squelette, which is masculine) should take longer to classify than low-frequency regular forms according to neural network models. A regularity effect was found in Experiment 1, but it did not interact with word frequency. It was further revealed that there was difficulty in making gender decisions (Experiment 2) and gender verification responses (Experiment 3) to words whose endings were highly informative of gender, but whose associated article was not. These words were place names beginning with a vowel, like Australie, which do not take an indefinite article and whose definite article is ambiguous (1'). How a neural network might handle these results is discussed, and an alternative account is considered whereby there are two potential sources of gender information, lexical and nonlexical, with the latter being used to confirm the former.     

A rat's first bite: the nongenetic, cross-generational transfer of information.

Weanling rats, when first exposed to solid food, showed relatively elevated intake if offered the same diet as eaten by their foster dams. Maternal caretakers pass some specific food-related information to their offspring.     

Factors affecting processing mode in visual search

Visual search was studied under a variety of conditions to clarify some differences among the results of previous investigations and to provide a testing ground for models of visual information processing. Display configuration, target and field composition, exposure duration, and display size (up to 16 elements) were among the parameters investigated. In some conditions, mean reaction time was essentially invariant with display size, while in other conditions it increased substantially and linearly with display size. Current models of visual information processing were evaluated in the light of these and previous findings; all were found wanting. The data seem to demand a system subject to flexible cognitive control processes.     

Effects of chlorpromazine on appetitive and aversive components of a multiple schedule

A multiple schedule having both an appetitive and an avoidance component was maintained in two dogs to create a complex behavioral base line for observing the effects of chlorpromazine. Both soluble and “Spansule” chlorpromazine generated similar functions relating drug dose to measures of behavioral output. Although the dose ranges and the drugging procedures differed markedly for the different preparations of CPZ, the functions generated were comparable. There was no evidence that chlorpromazine had a differential depressing effect as a function of type of reinforcement. At low doses, rates of responding on the food-reinforced components increased slightly, whereas rates on the avoidance components remained relatively unchanged. At higher doses, both components showed an approximately equal depression of responding. These results are discussed with reference to some of the logical and experimental difficulties inherent in making comparisons across components of a multiple schedule and across schedules in general.     

A Strange Fire: an exploration of psycho‐spiritual development aided by Jungian analysis and Vedanta

This paper explores the process of psychological and spiritual development through a series of active imaginations arising from the author's ‘psycho‐spiritual quest’, a process of transformation in which the individual progressively frees themselves from the ego's identifications and may be afforded a vision of the ‘self as consciousness’, as described by Vedanta. The author describes how this quest was facilitated by the disciplines of Transcendental Meditation, Jungian analysis and Vedanta, and how these three disciplines can work together to foster psycho‐spiritual development. The paper aims to de‐mystify the actual experiences that can accompany these practices. The records of these active imaginations, tracing some key stages in this process, are then presented, with a commentary by Marcus West, linking them to Jung's concepts of ego and Self and recent understandings of consciousness and ego development. There is a discussion of Jung's conceptualizations of the ego and the Self and his rejection of the Vedantic understanding of the Self as consciousness. These views are then explored and a reconciliation is suggested through the understanding of the process of disidentification where the difference between Jung's view of the Self and that of Vedanta is understood to be due to the extent of disidentification from the contents of consciousness.     

Pabiku and Ga Ti Ga: Two Mechanisms Infants Use to Learn About the World

Some of the things that adults learn about language, and about the world, are very specific, whereas others are more abstract or rulelike. This article reviews evidence showing that infants, too, can very rapidly acquire both specific and abstract information, and considers the mechanisms that infants might use in doing so.     

Catch 22: the inflammatory nature of insight

I will describe a man I saw in psychoanalytic psychotherapy with a history of serious drug abuse and violent psychotic episodes. At the start of therapy my patient had little capacity to tolerate the anxiety, depression or the inevitable frustrations involved in facing reality. Over time and with the support of the therapy he was able to increase his capacity for self observation noticing the way he withdrew from the world of shared reality into psychotic states of mind in order to avoid painful feelings of rage, humiliation and shame. In the book ‘Catch 22?, Joseph Heller described the paradox of pilots who wish to claim insanity in order to avoid fatal flying missions, while the authorities maintain that in claiming insanity to avoid suicidal missions the individual demonstrates a sane awareness of the insanity of the missions! This insight is deemed to be evidence of the individual’s sanity and consequently their plea of insanity is denied. In this paper, I will show how Mr. A’s developing capacity for reflective functioning lead to a ‘Catch 22’ as the insight he needed as part of the process of recovery threatened to overwhelm him with depressing realities about the extent of his illness.