Direct assessments of the processing time hypothesis for the missing-letter effect

When participants search for a target letter while reading, they make more omissions if the target letter is embedded in frequently used words or in the most frequent meaning of a polysemic word. According to the processing time hypothesis, this occurs because familiar words and meanings are identified faster, leaving less time for letter identification. Contrary to the predictions of the processing time hypothesis, with a rapid serial visual presentation procedure, participants were slower at detecting target letters for more frequent words or the most frequent meaning of a word (Experiments 1 and 2) or at detecting the word itself instead of a target letter (Experiment 3). In Experiments 4 and 5, participants self-initiated the presentation of each word, and the same pattern of results was observed as in Experiments 1 and 3. Positive correlations were also found between omission rate and response latencies.     

Trial spacing is a determinant of cue interaction

Four conditioned lick suppression experiments with rats examined the effect of trial spacing on cue interaction. Experiments 1 and 2 found overshadowing to be eliminated with massed compound stimulus-outcome pairings and the usual trial spacing effect to be reversed with compound acquisition trials. Experiment 3 found that whether acquisition compound-outcome pairings were massed or spaced determined the effect of posttraining extinction treatment. Extinction of the overshadowing cue reduced responding following massed training and increased responding following spaced training. Extinction of the context decreased responding following massed training. Experiment 4 found the conditioning and devaluation results to be associative and stimulus specific. These results are in accord with the extended comparator hypothesis (J. C. Denniston, H. I. Savastano, & R. R. Miller, 2001).     

Selective attention determines emotional responses to novel visual stimuli

Distinct complex brain systems support selective attention and emotion, but connections between them suggest that human behavior should reflect reciprocal interactions of these systems. Although there is ample evidence that emotional stimuli modulate attentional processes, it is not known whether attention influences emotional behavior. Here we show that evaluation of the emotional tone (cheery/dreary) of complex but meaningless visual patterns can be modulated by the prior attentional state (attending vs. ignoring) used to process each pattern in a visual selection task. Previously ignored patterns were evaluated more negatively than either previously attended or novel patterns. Furthermore, this emotional devaluation of distracting stimuli was robust across different emotional contexts and response scales. Finding that negative affective responses are specifically generated for ignored stimuli points to a new functional role for attention and elaborates the link between attention and emotion. This finding also casts doubt on the conventional marketing wisdom that any exposure is good exposure.     

Discrete varieties of care in the clinical pastoral tradition: continuing the dialogue

In the current cultural context, clinically trained ministers, lay and ordained, offer themselves to troubled souls through at least three distinct varieties of assistance: pastoral care, pastoral counseling, and pastoral psychotherapy. This essay delineates three accepted disciplines, emphasizing the importance of ascertaining, and perhaps re-evaluating, the particular needs and desires of persons who are in physical, mental, or spiritual distress. "Pastoral care," "pastoral counseling," and "pastoral psychotherapy" each play an important role in fulfilling the traditional mandate for "the cure of souls."     

An approach to the ethics of cloning humans via an examination of the ethical issues pertaining to the use of any tool

Those procedures which, at some future date, could constitute the operations resulting in the cloning of a human being are defined as a tool. As humans have been using tools for some two million years, sets of rules or ethics have been devised to make sure that tools are used to promote the maximum benefit and cause the minimum harm. It would, therefore, seem appropriate to consider the human cloning process as one such tool and approach the ethical issues which might govern its use in a manner which has been informed by how we have approached similar instances of new tool development. In this we can be guided by a range of thought experiments and practical considerations. When we combine these two facilities we may conclude that there are some benefits to be gained by the use of the human cloning tool, while there are other aspects of the use of the tool that need to be carefully controlled and regulated. An outline of a pragmatic approach to the initial uses of the tool is described.     

AUGMENTING SIMPLIFIED HABIT REVERSAL IN THE TREATMENT OF ORAL-DIGITAL HABITS EXHIBITED BY INDIVIDUALS WITH MENTAL RETARDATION

We investigated whether a simplified habit reversal treatment eliminates fingernail biting and related oral-digital habits exhibited by individuals with mild to moderate mental retardation. Although simplified habit reversal did little to decrease the target behaviors for 3 of 4 participants, simplified habit reversal plus additional treatment procedures decreased the behavior to near-zero levels for all participants. These procedures included remote prompting, remote contingencies involving differential reinforcement plus response cost, and differential reinforcement of nail growth. Limitations of habit reversal for individuals with mental retardation along with directions for future research involving therapist-mediated treatment procedures, particularly those involving remote prompting and remote contingencies, are discussed.     

Age-related deficits in generation and manipulation of mental images: I. The role of sensorimotor speed and working memory.

The authors investigated age-related slowing of information processing in mental imagery tasks. Eighty-five healthy adults (ages 18 to 77) performed a visual, sensorimotor, reaction-time task; a visual-perceptual choice reaction task; and 3 mental imagery tasks that varied in apparent difficulty and involved stimuli at 2 levels of graphic complexity. Age was associated with prolongation of response time across all tasks and both levels of stimulus complexity. Accuracy of response was adversely affected by increase in stimulus complexity in all tasks, whereas it was negatively related to age only on the tasks with substantial mental imagery requirements. Slowing of information processing and reduction in accuracy were mediated by declines in working memory but not by decrease of sensorimotor speed.