Reduction of the elevator illusion from continued hypergravity exposure and visual error-corrective feedback

Ten subjects served as their own controls in two conditions of continuous, centrifugally produced hypergravity (+2 Gz) and a 1-G control condition. Before and after exposure, open-loop measures were obtained of (1) motor control, (2) visual localization, and (3) hand-eye coordination. During exposure in the visual feedback/hypergravity condition, subjects received terminal visual error-corrective feedback from their target pointing, and in the no-visual feedback/hypergravity condition they pointed open loop. As expected, the motor control measures for both experimental conditions revealed very short lived underreaching (the muscle-loading effect) at the outset of hypergravity and an equally transient negative aftereffect on returning to 1 G. The substantial (approximately 17°) initial elevator illusion experienced in both hypergravity conditions declined over the course of the exposure period, whether or not visual feedback was provided. This effect was tentatively attributed to habituation of the otoliths. Visual feedback produced a smaller additional decrement and a postexposure negative aftereffect, possible evidence for visual recalibration. Surprisingly, the target-pointing error made during hypergravity in the no-visual-feedback condition was substantially less than that predicted by subjects’ elevator illusion. This finding calls into question the neural outflow model as a complete explanation of this illusion.     

Chronic sorrow: A content analysis of parental differences

Sixty-eight mothers and 64 fathers of children with a neural tube defect responded to a questionnaire about chronic sorrow. Mothers reported a mood state change in very intense category from more pessimistic at time of diagnosis to more optimistic at current time. Fathers, although indicating a mood change in the very intense category to more optimistic, also had more pessimistic responses. Parental similarities and differences were also reported in both times and events that triggered the sorrow response. Categories across times and events were primarily related to health care, school/development concerns and social significance. Clinical and research implications of these findings are discussed.     

Long-term benefits of seeding the knowledge base

Exposure to numerical examples (seed facts) produced a substantial long-term reduction in domain-specific innumeracy. In particular, learning the populations of 24 seed countries improved accuracy of estimates of the populations of 75 untrained countries, both at the time of learning and 4 months later. Consistent with abstraction-based theories of learning and memory, the benefits of having been exposed to the seed facts were as large 4 months after the exposure as immediately after it, despite the specific populations of the seed countries having been forgotten during the interval.     

Matching adolescents with foster mothers and fathers: An evaluation of the role of temperament

We tested the notion that better foster care adjustment would be observed when the temperaments of mothers and fathers were matched with those of adolescent foster children. We hypothesized that families in which foster parents and foster children had high (easy) scores on subscales of the Revised Dimensions of Temperament Scale (DOTS-R) would also report higher family functioning and higher foster care adjustment than parents and children from families in which one or both family members had low (difficult) scores on these scales. The hypotheses were supported when the mothers and fathers family assessments were used but rejected when the observations of the case managers and adolescents were tested. Methodological and substantive explanations for the findings are discussed and recommendation for foster care practice and continuing research are provided.     

Stop—reaction time and the internal clock

In astop-reaction-time (stop-RT) task, a subject is presented with a regular, isochronous sequence of brief signals separated by a constant time interval, orstimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). His/her task is to press a response key as fast as possible when the sequence stops. As the sequence unfolds, an internal representation of the SOA duration builds up. Stop-RT is assumed to be triggered when aninternal clock, operating as an “alarm clock,” reaches a time criterion. Criterion setting is contingent upon variability in the SOA’s internal representation. In Experiment 1A, stop-RT was measured for isochronous sequences of brief tones, light flashes, and also sequences of tones and flashes presented in regular alternation (tone-light-tone…). Stop-RT was a linear function of SOA duration (ranging from 250 to 1,000 msec), regardless of modality, supporting a “central-clock” hypothesis. On the other hand, taken together, the results of Experiments 1A, 1B, 2, and 3 suggest that no internal representation of thebimodal (tone-light) SOA of alternating sequences builds up. Indeed, an alternating sequence is physically equivalent to two interlaced isochronous subsequences, one auditory and one visual. So,two internal representations, one for the auditory (tone-tone) and one for the visual (light-light) SOA, could build up, andtwo time criteria running “in parallel” could thus support stop-RT. To provide a critical test of parallel timing, stop-RT was measured for bimodal 5∶3 polyrhythms formed by the superposition of auditory and visual isochronous sequences that haddifferent SOA durations (Experiment 4). Parallel timing accounted for a large proportion of variance in polyrhythmic stop-RT data. Overall findings can be accounted for by assuming a functional architecture of an internal clock in which pulses emitted by acentral pacemaker are available in parallel with twomodality-specific switch-accumulator “timing modules.”     

The outlook of the Tekhne Iatrike and the medical act to the third millenium

Medicine is arriving at a new millenium. One of its most urgent tasks is to reconcile social health demands with a renewed medical paradigm capable of including them. This challenge requires a reexamination of the definition of medicine. This work takes up the original greek definition of medicine (Tekhne Iatrike) and the Medical Act according to P. Lain Entrago, and analyzes Heidegger's interpretation of Tekhne. It points out the two main ways in which current medical practice is sustained: the Instrumental Medical Act (IMA), which organizes medical production, and the Productive Medical Act (PMA), which motivates it. An overwhelmed Medical Act, fighting but incapable of optimizing an insufficient medical production, is observed. This medical act is searching for foundations: an hegemonic IMA, associated disciplines and a new medical hierarchy.     

Touch dominates haptic estimates of discordant visual-haptic size

Observers (72 college students) estimated the size of plastic squares that they held in their fingers and simultaneously viewed through a reducing lens that halved the squares’ visual size. The squares were grasped from below through a cloth that prevented direct sight of the hand. Each estimate was a match selected later, either haptically or visually, from a set of comparison squares. Vision dominated the visual estimates and touch dominated the haptic estimates, whether or not the observers knew in advance which type of estimate they would be asked to make. Neither modality inherently dominates perceived size.     

The making of the group therapist: The role of experiential learning

The purpose of this paper is to review the necessary components of a comprehensive group therapy program. The balancing between the didactic and the experiential portions, and an analysis of the selection criteria, along with the rationale for a particular sequencing of elements in the curriculum, are discussed. A line between supervision and personal therapy is drawn. The author describes the milieu necessary for a successful training program to evolve and makes suggestions for improvements. The various experiential aspects of training are presented and critically evaluated. The training situation is examined from the point of view of the faculty, the trainee and the patients involved. The author marshalls evidence indicating that personal group psychotherapy in a patient group is the preferred form for most trainees for the experiential part of the program. The paper concludes that the sharing and cohesiveness of training philosophies and methods by the faculty is a prerequisite to the success of any training program.     

THE PHYSICS OF DAVID BOHM AND ITS RELEVANCE TO PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to analyze David Bohm's work in terms of physics, philosophy, and theology. First, I discuss the development of Bohm's thought since 1951. Then, using the methodology of Imre Lakatos, I evaluate the scientific status of his research program. Next, I explore the philosophical dimensions of Bohm's views in which realist and idealist, monist and dualist, contingent and determinist outlooks occur in creative tension. Finally, I suggest ways in which Bohm's ideas are relevant to theology through concepts of God and cosmos, beauty and purpose, grace and free will, church, self and evil.

The entire universe is basically a single, indivisible…but flexible and ever changing, unit (Bohm 1951, 140).