The Effect of Mental Practice on Performance in a Sequential Reaction Time Task

The effect of mental practice on performance in a dot-location RT task was investigated. Participants (N = 40) were required either to mentally practice, physically practice, or do no practice on an RT task in which the signals appeared in a repeating sequence. Correct mental practice, as opposed to incorrect mental practice and no practice, was predicted to have a positive (enhancing) effect on performance of the RT task. Despite previous evidence that mental rehearsal does enhance performance in many perceptual-motor tasks, neither correct nor incorrect mental rehearsal affected subsequent sequence learning; that is, no mental practice effect was observed. That surprising result is discussed in terms of motivational, psychoneuromuscular, separate memory systems, and transfer-appropriate processing explanations of mental practice.     

Effects of Classically Differentiated Supplementary Feedback Cues on Tracking Skill

Although previous studies had shown that classical predifferentiation of green (CS-j and red (CS+) cues enabled them to facilitate tracking performance when used as supplementary indicators of correct and incorrect responses respectively, the studies were inconclusive concerning specific conditional properties versus nonspecific arousal consequences of the cues. A sample of 108 Ss was exposed to the same predifferentiation procedure, but then were subgrouped in terms of the kind of feedback signal received in tracking (no signal, red only, green only, both signals). A nonspecificity theory predicts subgroup equality of tracking performances while specificity theory predicts the dependence of performance level on the kind of signal received. Results corroborated previous findings and the view that tracking effects were reasonably attributable to the transfer of specific stimulus functions generated in the differentiation trials.     

An Empirical Evaluation of the Diagnostic Criteria for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder: Problems with Sex Specificity and Validity

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder is a psychiatric disorder that reportedly affects between 3 to 8% of women. Although not an official diagnosis in the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, premenstrual dysphoric disorder has received increasing attention in the clinical literature, and considerable debate exists regarding the validity of this proposed condition. This study examined the prevalence of premenstrual dysphoric disorder in a sample of women and men and assessed the construct validity of the disorder. Twenty percent of women met the criteria for provisional diagnosis of premenstrual dysphoric disorder using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual criteria. In addition, 4% of men met these criteria when given sex-neutral assessment forms. Self-reported psychological distress and impaired interpersonal functioning did not predict women's likelihood of meeting the criteria for premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Results cast doubt on the sex-specificity of the diagnostic criteria of premenstrual dysphoric disorder and the construct validity of the disorder. Limitations of this study are discussed.     

The eclipse of heritability and the foundations of intelligence

It is well known that theory in human cognitive ability or ‘intelligence’ is not well developed, especially with regard to sources of trait variation. Roots of theory have been sought in biology, and it is now widely accepted, on the basis of twin studies, and statistical analysis of variance, that at least half of the normal trait variation can be attributed to genetic variation, a correlation known as the trait ‘heritability’. Since the 1990s, methods in molecular biology have been adopted to go ‘beyond’ this mere statistical attribution to the identification of individual genes responsible for trait variation. More than a decade of intense effort, however, has failed to produce unambiguous, replicable findings; explanations for the ‘missing heritability’ are now being demanded; and calls for new perspectives on the roles of genes and environments in development and trait variation are being demanded. Here, I propose a dynamic systems perspective indicating how the processes in which heritability becomes missing are the very ones that provide the roots of new intelligence theory.     

Reciprocity and Rivalry: A Critical Introduction to Mimetic Scapegoat Theory

This paper presents a critical overview of René Girard’s mimetic theory, identifies several concerns about the adequacy of mimetic theory’s account of human agency and interdependence, and suggests ways this account might be clarified and enhanced. We suggest that mimetic theory tends to reify or hypostatize the core reality of mimetic desire, which sometimes is spoken of as a kind of trans-individual entity that directs human action, no doubt because of Girard’s concern to avoid any taint of individualism or subjectivism. We argue, however, that hermeneutic and dialogical philosophies like those of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Mikhail Bakhtin explicate profound human relationality and interdependence in a way that obviates individualism without overriding or obscuring personal responsibility. The concern of many Girardian theorists that hermeneutic philosophy covers over or even rationalizes conflictual and violent human dynamics, we contend, is unfounded. However, we insist that most contemporary social theory, including hermeneutic thought, fails to do full justice to the challenges posed by envy, enmity, and scapegoating violence in human affairs and to the struggle for a good or decent life that mimetic theory richly portrays. Thus, we explore some of the possibilities for a fruitful cross-fertilization of mimetic theory and hermeneutic/dialogical viewpoints. Similarly, we argue that recent work on virtue ethics in theoretical psychology contains rich resources for elaborating what would be involved in a so-called “positive” or “creative” mimesis that moves beyond the destructive kinds of mimetic entanglement upon which Girardian thought has tended to concentrate. Finally, we suggest that any effort of this sort to clarify what Girard terms our “interdividual” human reality and to investigate positive mimesis would be greatly assisted by Eugene Webb’s delineation of a fundamental kind of “beneficient motivation” or positive “existential appetite,” a third species of human desire in addition to the two that Girard clearly identifies, namely finite needs and the kind of insatiable, artificial craving that the term mimetic desire usually designates.     

Risk perceptions,worry, and attitudes about genetic testing for breast cancer susceptibility

This study assessed the unique associations of risk perceptions and worry with attitudes about genetic testing for breast cancer susceptibility. Women (general practitioner clinic attenders, university students, and first-degree relatives of breast cancer survivors; N?=?303) read information about genetic testing and completed measures assessing perceived cancer risk, cancer worry, and genetic testing attitudes and beliefs. Worry was associated with greater interest in genetic testing, stronger beliefs that testing has detrimental emotional consequences, and positive beliefs about benefits of testing and risk-reducing surgeries. Perceived risk was unrelated to interest and associated with more skeptical beliefs about emotional consequences and benefits of testing and risk-reducing surgeries. At low worry levels, testing interest increased with more positive beliefs about testing benefits; at high worry levels, interest was high regardless of benefits beliefs. The findings support Leventhal's Common-Sense Model of self-regulation delineating interactive influences of risk-related cognitions and emotions on information processing and behavior.     

Enhanced orienting effects: Evidence for an interaction principle

Predictive arrow cues, as used in the classic “Posner paradigm”, that were long thought to engage and isolate voluntary attention, may in fact trigger a strong interaction between voluntary and involuntary attention (Ristic & Kingstone, 2006). This interaction produces an orienting effect that exceeds both the effects of involuntary and voluntary attention alone, and the additive combination of involuntary and voluntary orienting. The present study shows that nonpredictive peripheral cues—understood to engage and isolate involuntary attention—if made predictive, result in enhanced orienting effects similar to predictive arrows. The important contribution of these data is that they suggest an “interaction principle”: If attention cues can elicit reliable involuntary orienting, then when they are made spatially predictive, the resulting attention effect will be greater than the sum of involuntary and voluntary orienting alone.     

Effects of gender in social control of smoking cessation.

This study of 93 men and 117 women smokers during an ongoing quit attempt examined the roles of gender and social network influences on quitting. For men, social influences appeared to positively affect their ability to reduce their smoking but were less effective for women. Specifically, increased reports of a spouse or partner's influence, and family and friends' influence, were associated with greater reductions in men's smoking 2 days and 4 months post quit date, respectively. In contrast, for women, greater reports of spouse or partner influence and of family and friends' influence were associated with smaller reductions in smoking. Sex differences in social control strategies and perceived autonomy supportiveness of those strategies are discussed as possible explanations for these results.     

Wide-angle memories of close-up scenes

We report a picture-memory phenomenon in which subjects' recall and recognition of photographed scenes reveal a pronounced extension of the pictures' boundaries. After viewing 20 pictures for 15 s each, 37 undergraduates exhibited this striking distortion; 95% of their drawings included information that had not been physically present but that would have been likely to have existed just outside the camera's field of view (Experiment 1). To determine if boundary extension is limited to recall and drawing ability, Experiment 2 tested recognition memory for boundaries. Eighty-five undergraduates rated targets and distractors on a boundary-placement scale. Subjects rated target pictures as being closer up than before and frequently mistook extended-boundary distractors as targets. Results are discussed in terms of picture comprehension and memory. In addition to its theoretical value, discovery of the phenomenon demonstrates the importance of more widespread use of open-ended tests in picture-memory methodology.     

A Review of Ministering to Older Adults: The Building Blocks

Book reviewed in this article: Donald R. Koepke, Ed. (2005). Ministering to Older Adults: The Building Blocks.