Simulating bistable perception with interrupted ambiguous stimulus using self-oscillator dynamics with percept choice bifurcation

A behavioral stochastic self-oscillator model is used for simulating interrupted ambiguous stimulus-induced percept reversals. The results provide further support for a dynamical systems foundation of cognitive and psychological problems as discussed in detail within the context of Gestalt psychology by Wagemans et al. (Concept Theor Found Psychol Bull 138(6):1218–1252, 2012), and for coordination dynamics of the brain (Kelso in Philos Trans R Soc B 367:906–918, 2012). Statistical evaluation of simulated reversal time series predicts a maximum of the percept reversal rate that conforms with a number of results in the literature. The macroscopic model is based on two inhibitorily coupled sets of three coupled nonlinear equations, one triplet for each percept. The derivation of our specific dynamics equations is based on a drastically simplified field theoretical approach using well-known phase synchronization for explaining brain dynamics on the macroscopic EEG level. The degree of coherence (contrast μ, 0 ≤ μ ≤ 1) of the superimposed fields required for onset of bistable dynamics is related to a phase synchronization index of EEG fields, and it is used in the present context as ambiguity control parameter. For quantitative agreement with the experimental data, the addition of a stochastic Langevin force term in the attention equation proved essential. Formal analysis leads to a quantification of well-known “cognitive inertia” and supports the interplay between percept choice (bifurcation) dynamics during stimulus onset and adaptive gain (attention fatigue) driven quasiperiodic percept reversals.     

Gekränkte Eitelkeiten

The aim of terror is not (only) damage to individual people but the uncertainty and threat to society that also suffers considerable damage. This secondary damage is usually substantially greater than the primary damage. This objective of terror is not only pursued by extremist organizations and groups but also by lone terrorist fighters. In the last 100 years 4 people were known internationally as lone wolf terrorists in the western hemisphere: the highschool teacher Ernst August Wagner, the American “unabomber” Theodore John Kaczynski, the Austrian letter bomber Franz Fuchs and the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik. Franz Fuchs was examined by the author and the background to his actions can be taken from own professional experience. Information available about the other perpetrators also reveals similarities to the personality traits and developmental steps which seem to have been important for the terrorist actsand include long periods of a lack of social resonance, rejection and mortification, social withdrawal and autistic demarcation and development of a pseudopolitical ideas (of grandiosity). Each of these lone wolf terrorists tried to pursue their ideals through terror, threats and intimidation of the public, and their own importance grew by the wide public attention which was fueled by the insecurity of the public. The interest should not only be directed to those individual lone wolf terrorists of this caliber or to the terrorism of states, organizations and groups or to their structure and dynamics but also to the media and public reactions, and finally to the response of society, as they mutually reinforce actions of the terrorists and help the offenders to achieve their goals.     

MLK Day and Racial Attitudes: Liking the Group More but Its Members Less

Intuition suggests that the Martin Luther King holiday (MLK Day) should improve racial attitudes toward African Americans. However, its influence may depend on whether African Americans are evaluated as a group or individually. In two studies, we assessed racial attitudes either on MLK Day or on a control day. As might be expected, participants had more sympathetic attitudes towards African Americans as a group on MLK Day compared to control days; however, they evaluated individual African American exemplars more negatively on MLK Day compared to control days, who presumably seemed worse by comparison to the eminent political figure.     

The analytic setting today: using the couch or the chair?

This paper re‐visits Murray Jackson's 1961 paper in the Journal of Analytical Psychology, ‘Chair, couch and countertransference’, with the aim of exploring the role of the couch for Jungian analysts in clinical practice today. Within the Society of Analytical Psychology (SAP) and some other London‐based societies, there has been an evolution of practice from face‐to‐face sessions with the patient in the chair, as was Jung's preference, to a mode of practice where patients use the couch with the analyst sitting to the side rather than behind, as has been the tradition in psychoanalysis. Fordham was the founding member of the SAP and it was because of his liaison with psychoanalysis and psychoanalysts that this cultural shift came about. Using clinical examples, the author explores the couch/chair question in terms of her own practice and the internal setting as a structure in her mind. With reference to Bleger's (2013) paper ‘Psychoanalysis of the psychoanalytic setting’, the author discusses how the analytic setting, including use of the couch or the chair, can act as a silent container for the most primitive aspects of the patient's psyche which will only emerge in analysis when the setting changes or is breached.     

The concept of risk and responsible conduct of research

Assessment of risk is one of the key issues in the field of responsible conduct of research which covers discourses of research ethics and research integrity. The principle of minimizing risks and balancing of risks and benefits is one of the main requirements of research ethics. In addition, the content of informed consent that is another fundamental principle of research ethics derives from the assessment of risks and benefits related to a particular research project. Risk assessment also plays a crucial role in methodological design of the research project. This is an important point where research ethics and research integrity discourses overlap. Firstly, because the choice of a control group (e.g., placebo control) is a key ethical issue related to the protection of the research subjects' interests. Secondly, because the quality of the research data, that is one of the key elements of research integrity, is closely connected to the choice of research methodology as well. The problem of biased interpretation or manipulation of risk related features of biomedical research should also be taken into account. Despite the importance of the concept of risk to the field of biomedical research, its relevance has not yet attracted a sufficient attention in the responsible conduct of research debate.     

Teaching ethics: More than an honor code

An honor code is certainly a good place to start teaching engineering students about ethics, but teaching students to live honorably requires far more effort than memorizing a code of ethics statement or applying it just to academic performance. In the School of Engineering at Grand Valley State University, we have followed the model provided by the United States Military Academy at West Point. For our students this involves an introduction to the Honor Code as part of a larger Honor Concept at the very beginning of their studies and then making it an integral part of their preparation as engineers. The challenge is significant because the culture at large does not support living with an Honor Concept. This paper will begin with a discussion of the cultural context in which we must teach, because that context has changed significantly in the years since many faculty members were students themselves. The rest of the paper will detail the approach that we have taken to teach ethics as an engineer’s way of life. “The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be. All human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.” Plato An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2005 conference, Ethics and Social Responsibility in Engineering and Technology, Linking Workplace Ethics and Education, co-hosted by Gonzaga University and Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 9–10 June 2005.     

Opening What Has Been Closed,Relaxing What Has Been Clenched: Dissociation and Enactment Over Time in Committed Relationships

I use dissociation and the concept of the multiple self to link Mitchell's profound insight with Goldner's critique. In the process, I use the idea of dissociation to think about the nature of different kinds of long-term relationships.