The Narrative Architecture of Political Forgiveness

Although there is widespread agreement with the argument that Hannah Arendt made more than half a century ago, that forgiveness is “one of the human faculties that make social change possible” (Misztal, 2011, p. 201), beyond this, there is little consensus of what it means. Applying a narrative structure to this discussion, there is a lack of clarity around questions of who, what, where, when, and why to forgive. This article will explore the politics of forgiveness in East Germany, where these issues have been hotly contested for more than 25 years. The data examined in this article suggest that the fraught process of forgiveness embodies not consensus but contest, as people disagree on key questions such as who has the right to forgive whom, for what, how long the window for the opportunity of forgiveness stays open, and even why these questions matter, not only for individuals but for the whole of society.     

Extremal edges: a powerful cue to depth perception and figure-ground organization

Extremal edges (EEs) are projections of viewpoint-specific horizons of self-occlusion on smooth convex surfaces. An ecological analysis of viewpoint constraints suggests that an EE surface is likely to be closer to the observer than the non-EE surface on the other side of the edge. In two experiments, one using shading gradients and the other using texture gradients, we demonstrated that EEs operate as strong cues to relative depth perception and figure-ground organization. Image regions with an EE along the shared border were overwhelmingly perceived as closer than either flat or equally convex surfaces without an EE along that border. A further demonstration suggests that EEs are more powerful than classical figure-ground cues, including even the joint effects of small size, convexity, and surroundedness.     

TOTEMISM,METAPHOR AND TRADITION: INCORPORATING CULTURAL TRADITIONS INTO EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY EXPLANATIONS OF RELIGION

Totemism, a topic that fascinated and then was summarily dismissed by anthropologists, has been resurrected by evolutionary psychologists’ recent attempts to explain religion. New approaches to religion are all based on the assumption that religious behavior is the result of evolved psychological mechanisms. We focus on two aspects of Totemism that may present challenges to this view. First, if religious behavior is simply the result of evolved psychological mechanisms, would it not spring forth anew each generation from an individual's psychological mechanisms? Yet, Australian Totemism, like other forms of Totemism, is profoundly traditional, copied by one generation from the prior ones for hundreds of generations. Regardless of personal inclinations, individuals are obligated to participate. Second, it is problematic to assume that all practitioners of Totemism actually believe their religious claims. We propose an alternative explanation that accounts for the persistence of Totemism and that does not rely on an assumption that its practitioners are preliterate or naive because they have strange beliefs. We focus on Totemism as a cultural mechanism aimed at building and sustaining social relationships among close and distant kinsmen.     

Generic Response Classes And Relational Frame Theory: Response To Hayes And Barnes-Holmes.

Hayes and Barnes‐Holmes (2004) assert that the concept of a topographically unconstrained response class, the concept that carries the explanatory burden of relational frame theory, appeals to no new principles. Operants are properly defined functionally. I argue that they have stretched the concept of the generic response class beyond its appropriate limits. Skinner conceived of response classes as empirically defined units, mutually interchangeable in quantitative functions. The notion of overarching, generalized operants is an uncritical, analogical extension of this concept. I hold that the conceptual work of relational frame theory is incomplete, that a statement of principle is necessary, even if not new. Finally, I distinguish a supposed commitment to a philosophical “mediationism” from a valid inquiry about mediating behavior; that is, behavior with stimulus products that participate in the control of the behavior of primary interest.     

Too Good to Be True? Using Realism to Enhance Applicant Attraction

Research that has examined the effects of realism on pre-hire outcomes has suggested that it does not harm recruitment. We present evidence that realistic information may, under certain circumstances, increase organizational attractiveness. Participants (N = 225) evaluated one of two recruitment messages, positive only or realistic, and reported their perceptions of organizational attractiveness, source credibility, and perceptions of the challenge inherent in the job. Consistent with our hypothesis, the realistic recruitment message led to higher organizational attractiveness than the positive only message. Contrary to expectations, however, this effect appears to be mediated through perceptions of challenge in the job, rather than perceptions of source credibility.     

Effects of Performance Context on Processing Speed and Performance Ratings

The present study demonstrated that the presence of evaluatively polarized context performances not only produces contrast and halo effects on judgments of a target performance, but also causes judgments to be made much faster. Processing speed and positive halo were highly correlated, supporting the notion that halo in performance ratings results from raters' recall and use of a single, general impression. Furthermore, regression analyses demonstrated that processing speed mediates the relationship between context and halo. The relationship between these findings, halo, processing speed, and general impressions, as well as implications for performance appraisals, are discussed.     

Perceptual Grouping: It's Later Than You Think

Recent research on perceptual grouping is described with particular emphasis on the level at which grouping factors operate. Contrary to the standard view of grouping as an early, two-dimensional, image-based process, experimental results show that it is strongly influenced by binocular depth perception, lightness constancy, amodal completion, and illusory figures. Such findings imply that at least some grouping processes operate at the level of conscious perception rather than the retinal image. Whether classical grouping processes also operate at an early, preconstancy level is an important, but currently unanswered question.     

Affective guidance of intelligent agents: How emotion controls cognition

How do emotions and moods color cognition? In this article, we examine how such reactions influence both judgments and cognitive performance. We argue that many affective influences are due, not to affective reactions themselves, but to the information they carry about value. The specific kind of influence that occurs depends on the focus of the agent at the time. When making evaluative judgments, for example, an agent’s positive affect may emerge as a positive attitude toward a person or object. But when an agent focuses on a cognitive task, positive affect may act like feedback about the value of one’s approach. As a result, positive affect tends to promote cognitive, relational processes, whereas negative affect tends to inhibit relational processing, resulting in more perceptual, stimulus-specific processing. As a consequence, many textbook phenomena from cognitive psychology occur readily in happy moods, but are inhibited or even absent in sad moods (149).     

a test of holland's theory of vocational personalities and work environments

This study investigated the validity of J. L. Holland's (1997) theory of vocational personalities and work environments. The sample consisted of 241 randomly selected members of the National Association of School Psychologists, each of whom completed a demographic data form, the Self‐Directed Search‐Revised (SDS‐R; J. L. Holland, 1994) and a modified short form of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (D. J. Weiss, R. V. Dawis, G. W. England, & L. H. Lofquist, 1967). Only limited support was found for major constructs associated with Holland's theory, although the study found several significant relationships between 3‐letter SDS‐R codes and desired role function as would be predicted by Holland's theory.     

Evaluation of an imputed pitch velocity model of the auditory tau effect

This article extends an imputed pitch velocity model of the auditory kappa effect proposed by Henry and McAuley (2009a) to the auditory tau effect. Two experiments were conducted using an AXB design in which listeners judged the relative pitch of a middle target tone (X) in ascending and descending three-tone sequences. In Experiment 1, sequences were isochronous, establishing constant fast, medium, and slow velocity conditions. No systematic distortions in perceived target pitch were observed, and thresholds were similar across velocity conditions. Experiment 2 introduced to-be-ignored variations in target timing. Variations in target timing that deviated from constant velocity conditions introduced systematic distortions in perceived target pitch, indicative of a robust auditory tau effect. Consistent with an auditory motion hypothesis, the magnitude of the tau effect was larger at faster velocities. In addition, the tau effect was generally stronger for descending sequences than for ascending sequences. Combined with previous work on the auditory kappa effect, the imputed velocity model and associated auditory motion hypothesis provide a unified quantitative account of both auditory tau and kappa effects. In broader terms, these findings add support to the view that pitch and time relations in auditory patterns are fundamentally interdependent.