Gaze Perception Triggers Reflexive Visuospatial Orienting

This paper seeks to bring together two previously separate research traditions: research on spatial orienting within the visual cueing paradigm and research into social cognition, addressing our tendency to attend in the direction that another person looks. Cueing methodologies from mainstream attention research were adapted to test the automaticity of orienting in the direction of seen gaze. Three studies manipulated the direction of gaze in a computerized face, which appeared centrally in a frontal view during a peripheral letter-discrimination task. Experiments 1 and 2 found faster discrimination of peripheral target letters on the side the computerized face gazed towards, even though the seen gaze did not predict target side, and despite participants being asked to ignore the face. This suggests reflexive covert and/or overt orienting in the direction of seen gaze, arising even when the observer has no motivation to orient in this way. Experiment 3 found faster letter discrimination on the side the computerized face gazed towards even when participants knew that target letters were four times as likely on the opposite side. This suggests that orienting can arise in the direction of seen gaze even when counter to intentions. The experiments illustrate that methods from mainstream attention research can be usefully applied to social cognition, and that studies of spatial attention may profit from considering its social function.     

Science,reason, knowledge,and wisdom: A critique of Specialism

In this paper I argue for a kind of intellectual inquiry which has, as its basic aim, to help all of us to resolve rationally the most important problems that we encounter in our lives, problems that arise as we seek to discover and achieve that which is of value in life. Rational problem‐solving involves articulating our problems, proposing and criticizing possible solutions. It also involves breaking problems up into subordinate problems, creating a tradition of specialized problem‐solving ‐ specialized scientific, academic inquiry, in other words. It is vital, however, that specialized academic problem‐solving be subordinated to discussion of our more fundamental problems of living. At present specialized academic inquiry is dissociated from problems of living ‐ the sin of specialism, which I criticize.     

Returning to the Infinite—Kohut’s Empathy,Levinas’s Other,and the Ethical Imperative: Discussion of Articles by Doris Brothers and Joseph Lichtenberg

This discussion interweaves the ethics of Emanuel Levinas with the empathic sensibility of Heinz Kohut’s psychoanalytic vision as a unifying lens that brings into sharp focus the ethical message of the articles by Brothers and Lichtenberg. Drawing on Raanan Kulka’s ideas on the permanent oscillation between states of separateness (emergence) and transcendent ethical states of dissolving, the principle of always returning to the infinite state of absolute responsibility to the other is brought forth as a fundamental ethical imperative that captures the ethical/spiritual center of the two articles. Brothers’ account of promise-making and Lichtenberg’s autobiographical account of his activism are seen to be reflections of the latter ethical imperative.     

Unification and Revolution: A Paradigm for Paradigms

Incommensurability was Kuhn’s worst mistake. If it is to be found anywhere in science, it would be in physics. But revolutions in theoretical physics all embody theoretical unification. Far from obliterating the idea that there is a persisting theoretical idea in physics, revolutions do just the opposite: they all actually exemplify the persisting idea of underlying unity. Furthermore, persistent acceptance of unifying theories in physics when empirically more successful disunified rivals can always be concocted means that physics makes a persistent implicit assumption concerning unity. To put it in Kuhnian terms, underlying unity is a paradigm for paradigms. We need a conception of science which represents problematic assumptions concerning the physical comprehensibility and knowability of the universe in the form of a hierarchy, these assumptions becoming less and less substantial and more and more such that their truth is required for science, or the pursuit of knowledge, to be possible at all, as one goes up the hierarchy. This hierarchical conception of science has important Kuhnian features, but also differs dramatically from the view Kuhn expounds in his The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. In this paper, I compare and contrast these two views in a much more detailed way than has been done hitherto. I show how the hierarchical view can be construed to emerge from Kuhn’s view as it is modified to overcome objections. I argue that the hierarchical conception of science is to be preferred to Kuhn’s view.     

MPS II: Adaptive Behavior of Patients and Impact on the Family System

Mucopolysaccharidosis type II (MPS II), also known as Hunter syndrome, is a chronic and progressive X-linked lysosomal disease that mainly affects males. It occurs in 1 in every 65,000 to 1 in 132,000 births. There are two distinct forms of the disease based on age of onset and clinical course: mild and severe. MPS II affects many organ systems including the nervous, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and respiratory systems. Complications can include vision problems, progressive hearing loss, thickened and elastic skin, mental impairment, and enlarged liver and spleen. We herein focus on the adaptive behavior of individuals with MPS II, and the impact of MPS II on the family system. Outcomes from the Vineland-II Adaptive Behavior Scales showed that the MPS II patient sample experienced significantly lower functioning in communication, daily living skills, socialization, and motor skills compared to normative data. Patients with severe MPS II were found to have significantly lower adaptive functioning in all domains, as compared to those with mild MPS II. Length of time on ERT had no significant relationship to adaptive functioning. Results from the Peds QL Family Impact Module indicated that families of patients with MPS II experienced a lower overall health-related quality of life and overall lower family functioning (including lower emotional and cognitive functioning) than those with chronic illnesses residing in an inpatient setting.     

Feminine Gender Role Discrepancy Strain and Women’s Self-Esteem in Daily and Weekly Life: A Person x Context Perspective

Sex Roles - Social pressures to adhere to traditional feminine roles may place some women at risk of experiencing gender role discrepancy strain, when they behave, think, or feel in ways discrepant...     

Evaluating the Character of People Who Insult the Nation: Implications for Immigrant Integration

We examine immigrant integration by analyzing how natives evaluate immigrants' character. Most literature examines how natives distinguish between immigrants with different levels of assimilation, which is best suited to identifying integration boundaries between different types of immigrants. We shift the analysis and examine the boundary between immigrants and natives, which measures integration by the extent to which immigrant status is relevant for character evaluations. We compare how natives respond to national insults that come from immigrants as opposed to natives. We focus on insulting the nation because it highlights the salience of national identity and clarifies the importance of group boundaries. We measure responses to national insults with vignette experiments from three original surveys in the United States. Our results are consistent with situationist theories of interpersonal interactions because they suggest that character evaluations are more dependent on the situational distinction between people who do and do not insult the nation than the demographic distinction between whether the insult comes from a native or immigrant. These findings have multiple implications for our understanding of national identity, immigrant integration, and immigrant‐native boundaries.     

Correction to: Multi-Informant Assessment of High-Achieving Students’ Behavioral and Emotional Strengths

Journal of Child and Family Studies -