Affirmative action. Psychological data and the policy debates

The authors bring psychological research to bear on an examination of the policy of affirmative action. They argue that data from many studies reveal that affirmative action as a policy has more benefits than costs. Although the majority of pro-affirmative action arguments in the social sciences stress diversity, the authors' argument focuses on issues of merit. The merit-based argument, grounded in empirical studies, concludes that the policy of affirmative action conforms to the American ideal of fairness and is a necessary policy.     

An outcome evaluation of the implementation of the Triple P-Positive Parenting Program in Hong Kong

The present study evaluated the effectiveness of the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) with a sample of Chinese parents of children with early onset conduct-related problems in Hong Kong. The participants consisted of 91 parents whose children attended maternal and child health centers and child assessment centers for service, and were between three to seven years old. Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention (TP) and a waitlist control group (WL). There was no significant difference in pre-intervention measures between the two groups. However, at post intervention, participants in the TP group reported significantly lower levels of child behavior problems, lower dysfunctional parenting styles, and higher parent sense of competence, compared to the WL group. Implications of these findings for the use of Triple P with families of Chinese descent are discussed.     

Children's working-memory processes: a response-timing analysis

Recall response durations were used to clarify processing in working-memory tasks. Experiment 1 examined children's performance in reading span, a task in which sentences were processed and the final word of each sentence was retained for subsequent recall. Experiment 2 examined the development of listening-, counting-, and digit-span task performance. Responses were much longer in the reading-and listening-span tasks than in the other span tasks, suggesting that participants in sentence-based span tasks take time to retrieve the semantic or linguistic structure as cues to recall of the sentence-final words. Response durations in working-memory tasks helped to predict academic skill and achievement, largely separate from the contributions of the memory spans themselves. Response durations thus are important in the interpretation of span task performance.     

Facilitation and disruption of lateralized syllable processing by unattended stimuli in the opposite visual field

The influence of lateralized unattended stimuli on the processing of attended stimuli in the opposite visual field can shed light on the nature of information that is transferred between hemispheres. On a cued bilateral task, participants tried to identify a syllable in the attended visual field, which elicits a left hemisphere (LH) advantage and different processing strategies by the two hemispheres. The same or a different syllable or a neutral stimulus appeared in the unattended field. Transmission of unattended syllable codes between hemispheres is symmetric, as revealed by equal interference for the two visual fields. The LH is more accurate than the RH in encoding unattended syllables, as indicated by facilitation in the left but not right visual field and a greater frequency of identifiable intrusions into the left than right field. However, asymmetric encoding strategies are different for attended and unattended syllables.     

The neural basis of autobiographical and semantic memory: new evidence from three PET studies

A novel, neuropsychologically informed paradigm (extended retrieval of events in response to a cue word) was used to investigate the neural basis of autobiographical and semantic memory. Contrasting retrieval of autobiographical memories with retrieval of semantic facts (ABM-SEM) in 24 subjects across three PET studies revealed bilateral involvement of the middle temporal gyrus (BA 21) and medial frontal cortex (BA 9/10). The opposite contrast, SEM-ABM, resulted in increased regional cerebral blood flow in left posterior temporal regions (BA 37) and left prefrontal cortex (BA 45/46). Laterality maps suggest that the bilateral pattern seen in our studies, but not often in other neuroimaging investigations, reflects the use of a task stressing retrieval of specific personal events. Further comparisons revealed that the activation in the right anterior temporal lobe during autobiographical recall was virtually identical to that seen during retrieval of information about famous people or events in contrast with retrieval of general semantic facts. These findings suggest that the retrieval of an autobiographical event requires participation from conceptual knowledge, and that this type of knowledge is bilaterally distributed in the temporal lobes.     

MMPI screening scales for somatization disorder

44 items on the MMPI were identified which appear to correspond to some of the symptoms in nine of the 10 groups on the Perley-Guze checklist for somatization disorder (hysteria). This list was organized into two scales, one reflecting the total number of symptoms endorsed and the other the number of organ systems with at least one endorsed symptom. Full MMPIs were then obtained from 29 women with primary affective disorder and 37 women with somatization disorder as part of a follow-up study of a consecutive series of 500 psychiatric clinic patients seen at Washington University. Women with the diagnosis of somatization disorder scored significantly higher on the somatization disorder scales created from the 44 items than did women with only major depression. These new scales appeared to be slightly more effective in identifying somatization disorder than the use of the standard MMPI scales for hypochondriasis and hysteria. Further development is needed.     

Shaping the Field of Theology and Science: A Critique of Nancey Murphy

Nancey Murphy is a key second-generation figure in the field of religion and science. Through a variety of responsibilities, some of which are reviewed here, she has worked as a discipline builder over the last fifteen years. After trying to convey the general spirit of Murphy's work, the author focuses on five areas where readers might resist her conclusions, including her "postmodern" theory of scientific (and religious) knowledge and truth, her treatment of theology and science as "separate but equal," and her defense of physicalism.     

Reversing the phonological similarity effect

The phonological similarity effect--poor retention of order for lists of similar-sounding items--is a benchmark finding in the short-term memory literature. In our first two experiments, we show that the effect actually reverses following relatively brief periods of distraction, yielding better order retention for similar than for dissimilar lists, provided that different items are used on every trial. In Experiment 3, the same items were used on every trial and similar lists produced poorer performance across all three retention intervals. The results are interpreted from a general discrimination framework: Items are viewed as occupying positions in a multidimensional space defined by list and within-list dimensions.     

Selective attention in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Recent information-processing studies have suggested that a selective attention deficit may be involved in the symptomatology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In this study, individuals diagnosed with OCD were distinguished from those with panic disorder and from control participants by their relatively poorer performance on a series of psychometric tasks of selective attention. These results are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis of a diminished ability of people with OCD to selectively ignore competing external (sensory) and internal (cognitive) stimuli, especially intrusive thoughts.