Positive psychotherapy

Positive psychotherapy (PPT) contrasts with standard interventions for depression by increasing positive emotion, engagement, and meaning rather than directly targeting depressive symptoms. The authors have tested the effects of these interventions in a variety of settings. In informal student and clinical settings, people not uncommonly reported them to be "life-changing." Delivered on the Web, positive psychology exercises relieved depressive symptoms for at least 6 months compared with placebo interventions, the effects of which lasted less than a week. In severe depression, the effects of these Web exercises were particularly striking. This address reports two preliminary studies: In the first, PPT delivered to groups significantly decreased levels of mild-to-moderate depression through 1-year follow-up. In the second, PPT delivered to individuals produced higher remission rates than did treatment as usual and treatment as usual plus medication among outpatients with major depressive disorder. Together, these studies suggest that treatments for depression may usefully be supplemented by exercises that explicitly increase positive emotion, engagement, and meaning. ((c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).     

On what people know about images on mirrors

As observed by Gombrich [Gombrich, E. H. (1960). Art and illusion. Oxford: Phaidon Press], we confirm that most people are unaware of the size of their own image on mirrors. Specifically we have documented the knowledge that people have of the size of their own head and of the size of the mirror image of their own head. In addition we have explored naive beliefs about how the size of mirror images changes with distance. The main pattern of findings is consistent with a focus on target distance and a difficulty in factoring the observer's vantage point correctly when people reason about the problem. The issue of information about vantage point is discussed in relation to other literatures.     

The Name Game: Employability Evaluations of Prototypical Applicants with Stereotypical Feminine and Masculine First Names

This study was designed to examine professional human resource managers recommendations and inferences about prototypical applicants who had identical qualifications, in which the presence of periods of unemployment and name (feminine, masculine) of applicants were manipulated. Results indicate that although overall income for female applicants was less than male applicants in some conditions, male applicants were penalized and evaluated more harshly than female applicants when they had experienced periods of unemployment. Specifically, male applicants with employment gaps were seen as less committed and as less hirable than their female counterparts. Overall, male applicants were less likely to be recommended for an interview, and, when they experienced multiple gaps, they were less likely to be recommended for further consideration.     

A global factor in the Hermann grid illusion or an artifact?

In the first of the present experiments, subjects were required to estimate the strength of the Hermann grid illusion in grids containing various numbers of intersectionseven though those grids were not actually presented. The positive relationship found by Wolfe (1984) for real grids was, nevertheless, replicated. It is argued that this suggests that a response bias might have been the source of his effect (although other possibilities are also noted). In addition, in a second experiment, subjects who were not aware of the fact that grid size was being manipulated (i.e., between subjects) showed no consistent effect of that factor, thus supporting the same suggestion.     

Pictorial depth and the Poggendorff illusion

An informal demonstration is offered, which strongly supports previous contentions that, when the elements of a Poggendorff display appear to be arranged in pictorial space such that the two critical line segments are at different heights, an illusory impression of misalignment may occur. A second pair of demonstrations shows, however, that such a height difference is neither a necessary nor a sufficient cause of the illusion. In addition, the harmful effect of adding certain pictorial elements to the standard Poggendorff pattern requires a new understanding.     

A general-purpose microcomputer configuration for controlling experiments

The circuitry required for connecting a KIM-1 microcomputer to devices in the experimental environment is shown together with an example of programming the microcomputer to control such devices. The experimental example involves sensory preconditioning of the nictitating membrane of the rabbit.