TOWARD A SYNTHETIC PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY

The word "synthetic" in the title of this paper has three meanings, each of which highlights a fundamental problem with physiological psychology, and, at the same time, offers a solution. (1) Synthetic means artificial–made by man, not by nature. To separate physiological psychology from medicine, and to build a science of pure function in humans (which is what psychology is), apart from a science of the mechanics of living human tissue (which is what medicine is), synthetic physiological psychology adopts a physically achieved analytic approach to the design, not of people, but of robots that behave like people. This avoids the misuse of reductionism. (2) Analysis by itself is not adequate; every analysis must be validated immediately by synthesis. Some forms of physically achieved analysis and resynthesis, particularly appropriate for synthetic physiological psychology, are contrasted with the hypothetico-deductive method, as a complementary scientific method of arriving at simple facts about complex living systems. (3) Synthetic also means integrative—at present, the various subfields of psychology are not united by principles based on the action of common units of function, derived by a physically achieved analysis. A simple procedure is described that can provide them.     

Visual search for simple volumetric shapes

Five experiments measured reaction time (RT) to detect the presence or absence of a simple volumetric shape (target) dependent on the number of display items (distractors) and their depicted three-dimensional (3-D) orientation. Experiments 1–4 examined every pairwise combination of two different simple volumetric shapes in two 3-D orientations. Conditions exhibiting “pop-out” could be predicted by differences in their two-dimensional (2-D) features. Conditions in which search was slower support previously found search asymmetries for particular 2-D features. When the distractors were a mixture of the other shapes in the same 3-D orientation, search was serial, except when the target had a curved principal axis (Experiment 5). The results suggest that these simple volumetric shapes are not processed preattentively.     

Lexical development norms for young children

Developmental norms for young children’s vocabularies have a number of applications in research design, assessment, and intervention, but have previously been very difficult to obtain. In the present study, month-by-month norms for comprehension and production of 396 words from 8 to 16 months, and production of 680 words from 16 to 30 months, were derived from a norming study of 1,789 children between the ages of 8 and 30 months using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (Fenson et al., 1993). The norms are available in the form of a database program, LEX, for MS-DOS-based computers.     

Use of speech-modulated noise adds strong “bottom-up” cues for phonemic restoration

When deleted segments of speech are replaced by extraneous sounds rather than silence, the missing speech fragments may be perceptually restored and intelligibility improved. This phonemic restoration (PhR) effect has been used to measure various aspects of speech processing, with deleted portions of speech typically being replaced by stochastic noise. However, several recent studies of PhR have used speech-modulated noise, which may provide amplitude-envelope cues concerning the replaced speech. The present study compared the effects upon intelligibility of replacing regularly spaced portions of speech with stochastic (white) noise versus speech-modulated noise. In Experiment 1, filling periodic gaps in sentences with noise modulated by the amplitude envelope of the deleted speech fragments produced twice the intelligibility increase obtained with interpolated stochastic noise. Moreover, when lists of isolated monosyllables were interrupted in Experiment 2, interpolation of speech-modulated noise increased intelligibility whereas stochastic noise reduced intelligibility. The augmentation of PhR produced by modulated noise appeared without practice, suggesting that speech processing normally involves not only a narrowband analysis of spectral information but also a wideband integration of amplitude levels across critical bands. This is of considerable theoretical interest, but it also suggests that since PhRs produced by speech-modulated noise utilize potent bottom-up cues provided by the noise, they differ from the PhRs produced by extraneous sounds, such as coughs and stochastic noise.     

An object relations paradigm for spiritual development with highlights from Merton's spiritual journey

This essay reviews personality development from an object relations perspective. The major principles of this personality theory are then applied to spiritual development. The validity of this application is revealed in a consideration of autobiographical text from Thomas Merton. Merton's seemingly divergent experiences of contemplation and action are placed within an object relations paradigm of spiritual development thus highlighting the applicability of bridging object relations theory to spiritual development.     

Prayer in the medical encounter

A large percentage of the population report that they believe in God and pray regularly. Recent reviews suggest that prayer and religious commitment are positively associated with mental and physical health. These data, taken together, strongly imply that the health professional must find a way to recognize and work with patients' religious practices. There is already a reasonable amount of literature detailing the beliefs and desires of both patients and professionals in commencing upon this work. This paper provides a comprehensive review of that literature and concludes with a discussion of implications and future directions.