Perceived depth vs. structural relevance in the object-superiority effect

When subjects must identify a barely visible line in a briefly flashed display, their accuracy depends on the configuration of the context in which the target line appears. Weisstein and Harris (1974) found that accuracy is highest when the target is part of a pattern that resembles a unified, three-dimensional object, and lowest in a flat-looking pattern composed of disconnected lines; they labeled this phenomenon the object-superiority effect. In the three experiments reported here, identification accuracy was found to correlate highly and significantly (r =.78) with the judged depth of the patterns. Judged structural relevance of the target line to the pattern (McClelland & Miller, 1979) was uncorrelated with accuracy (r=?.28). Even when the target line appeared as an isolated fragment within the context pattern, a pattern perceived as three-dimensional yielded higher identification accuracy than one perceived as flat.     

Effects of genetic vestibular defects on behavior related to spatial orientation and emotionality.

A large battery of behavioral tests was administered to normal mice and to mice with varying degrees of otoconial agenesis due to genes affecting vestibular development. Many significant differences were found, but a factor analysis revealed that the variance on the 11 best tests could be accounted for in terms of two underlying variables. Factor I, the more important of the two, was associated with activity, habituation, and spontaneous alternation. Factor II appeared to represent a fear of new stimuli or situations. In both cases factor scores were highly related to the degree of otoconial deficiency. One subgroup of mice with severe otoconial agenesis displayed hyperactivity and a total absence of either habituation or spontaneous alternation. In these animals, brain and body development were stunted, and the reactions to amphetamine and physostigmine were opposite to those seen in normal mice. The results support the idea that the static organs contribute importantly to spatial orientation and suggest that early-onset vestibular defects can result in profound alterations of emotionality.     

The role of empathy and social anxiety in Latinx adolescents' indirect peer aggression during the transition to high school

The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between decreased empathy (i.e., cognitive and affective) and indirect and cyber peer aggression among Latinx adolescents during their transition to high school. Further, we examined the degree to which social anxiety moderated this relationship. Participants were 469 Latinx ninth graders, ages 13–17 years (M = 14.52, SD = 0.58; 58% girls). Adolescents completed the Revised Peer Experiences Questionnaire, Cyber Peer Experiences Questionnaire, Basic Empathy Scale, and Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents at two different time points, 3 months apart. Hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed concurrent and prospective relationships between lower cognitive empathy and the perpetration of both indirect and cyber aggression. In addition, social anxiety moderated the concurrent associations between both types of empathy and both types of aggression perpetration. Results suggest that interventions that facilitate cognitive empathy and decrease social anxiety may help to reduce adolescents' indirect and cyber aggression toward peers throughout the high school transition.     

The Infant mental health specialist in newborn pediatric rounds: A systems approach

This article describes a special program wherein infant mental health specialists participate in hospital rounds with pediatric residents. The purpose of the program is described in terms of medical awareness of psycho-social needs of the family and improved clinical services. Examples are given of the way in which “rounding” contributes to the meeting of infants' and families' medical and psychological needs. Note is made of the multilevel impact of this collaboration.     

Measuring Feeling of Knowing: Comment on Schraw (1995)

Schraw compares two coefficients for the 2×2 contingency tables resulting from many feeling of knowing (FOK) studies: Hamann's coefficient and Goodman and Kruskal's γ. He favours Hamann's coefficient and gives examples where Hamann's coefficient produces what might be considered the more intuitive result. Further scrutiny reveals that these examples are not as convincing as Schraw makes them out to be. Because Hamann's coefficient depends on the row and column marginals, it does not map onto FOK ability as well as Goodman and Kruskal's γ, which is a direct measure of the diagnostic worth of FOK ratings.     

Parental language mixing in bilingual families

An important question about early bilingualism that concerns both parents and researchers is the degree to which one language may interfere with another. This question rests on an implicit assumption that learning more than one language must always produce confusion and/or interference between (or among) the languages. Although many naturalistic studies have addressed this issue, no firm answers are yet available from the conflicting results obtained. Several factors appear to be responsible for the contradictory evidence, including the small numbers of subjects in each study, the large number of different language combinations of varying similarity that have been examined, and the variety of linguistic input situations (e.g., sequential bilingualism, language separation between home and school, parent/language separation), that have been observed. There is a consensus that children's language mixing can be eliminated if parents adhere strictly to the principle of one parent/one language enunciated by Grammont (Ronjat, 1913). However, this claim has not been directly examined. The primary goal of the present study is to characterize the linguistic input available to a child growing up with two languages. Analyses of the data show that a large proportion of parents, even those firmly committed to maintaining a strict separation of language by parent, model linguistically mixed utterances for their children. This finding suggests that children's early language mixing does not reflect interlinguistic confusion. Rather, it suggests that the child is formulating hypotheses about language based on the data available, i.e., that using the language of both father and mother in a single utterance is acceptable.     

ON THE BENEFITS OF PHILOSOPHY AS A WAY OF LIFE IN A GENERAL INTRODUCTORY COURSE

Philosophy as a way of life (PWOL) places investigations of value, meaning, and the good life at the center of philosophical investigation, especially of one’s own life. This essay argues that PWOL is compatible with general introductory philosophy courses, further arguing that PWOL-based general introductions have several philosophical and pedagogical benefits. These include the ease with which high-impact practices, situated skill development, and students’ ability to “think like a disciplinarian” may be incorporated into such courses, relative to more traditional introductory courses, as well as the demonstration of philosophy’s value to students by explicitly tying philosophical investigation to students’ own lives.