Automatic and Controlled Processes in the Analytisis of Hierarchical Structure

Targets are identified faster if they appear at the same level (global vs. local) as the target on the previous trial. This effect has been attributed to a controlled attentional process wherein participants attend to the level containing the target on trial n − 1, thus facilitating performance if target level repeats on trial n. An alternative explanation (Lamb & Yund, 1966) is that automatic activation of level-specific neural mechanisms is responsible. The controlled-process hypothesis predicts better performance whenever target level is predictable, because participants can anticipate, and thus attend to, the appropriate level. The automatic-process hypothesis predicts better performance when target level repeats, regardless of target-level predictability. In the present studies, level repetitions facilitated performance regardless of target-level predictability. The data support the automatic-process explanation of level repetition and other attentional effects. The data illustrate how an automatic process can give rise to performance that seems to reflect more cognitive or strategic mechanisms.     

THE EFFECTS OF GROUP PRESSURE IN PERCEPTION

Une réplique interculturelle des études de Asch (1952) et de Whittaker et Meade (1967) sur l'influence de la pression sociale sur la distorsion du jugement a été effectuée avec un groupe de sujets des îles Fiji provenant de deux races dominantes. Les résultats dénotent une tendance au conformisme plus marquée chez les sujets de cette culture et particulièrement chez les femmes.     

Development and control of licking in the guinea pig (Cavia porcellus)

Guinea pigs were taught to lick an electronic lickometer by successive approximations brought about by a gradually receding lickerandum-liquid feeder mounted in their home cage. All Ss learned to lick and obtain their total liquid intake by tongue licking. An optimum deprivation schedule was determined, and the response was brought under schedule control comparable to that of the rat.     

Stability and Change in the Social Status of Occupations Over 21 and 42 Year Periods

Forty-two years ago, Counts (1925) surveyed the social status of occupations and found a well-defined prestige order, with banker at the top and ditch digger at the bottom. Because of changes wrought by the depression and World War II, Deeg and Paterson (1947) repeated Counts' study and found only minor relative changes in social status. Because of the extensive social and cultural changes since World War II, Counts' study was repeated again, and again only minor relative changes in the social status of occupations were found. The prestige order of the occupations surveyed is remarkably stable.     

Microcosm–Macrocosm

Much has been learned in the 20th century about the impact of covert group dynamics on the individual, the family and small group on the micro level and about institutions, communities, national and international process on a macro level. However, as we enter the new millennium this knowledge seems dwarfed by the burgeoning of knowledge about the brain and biological approaches to disturbed human behavior, casting a worrisome shadow on the future of dynamic group therapies. This article explores the impact of socio-economic-political forces on mental health delivery systems from the vantage point of group process and therapy, and raises questions about possible interventions to restore a balance between social dynamics and biology.     

Mothers' resolution of their children's diagnosis: Organized patterns of caregiving representations

In this paper we examine mothers' representations of one form of trauma to the caregiving system: the experience of receiving a diagnosis of a chronic illness or disability in their child. An interview and classification system was used with 91 mothers of children ages 15–50 months with cerebral palsy or epilepsy. Mothers were classified as Resolved or Unresolved with respect to their child's diagnosis and grouped into subcategories within these major groups. Roughly half of these mothers were classified as Unresolved with respect to their child's diagnosis. Diagnosis type, severity of condition, developmental age, and time since receiving diagnosis were all unrelated to the distribution of Resolved/Unresolved classifications. Patterns of resolution in which cognitive strategies predominated were the most frequent form within the Resolved classification. Findings provide support for the organizational nature of caregiving representations as well as a number of implications for clinical practice.     

An atomistic modelling and statistical analysis study of crack–void interaction in Aluminum

The interaction between a brittle crack and pre-existing void in front of the crack tip was studied in the realm of molecular dynamics simulations at the nanoscale in face centred cubic Al within the framework of embedded-atom method. The results provide corroborative evidence of the fact that presence of a void in front of a running crack deters further crack growth. By performing an extensive series of simulations with different void sizes and crack-void distances coupled with statistical analysis, it has been found that (1) major role of voids is to decrease the fracture stress with increasing void size, in addition to slight increase in strain at which the crack growth occurs and the consequent strain to fracture, (2) fracture stress for a constant void size follows a sinusoidal distribution by varying the crack-void distance and (3) it is the void size that is most crucial in dictating the fracture properties of the material, rather than the void placement.