The development of collective remembering

This essay outlines a sociocultural, developmental approach to collective memory. This work is grounded in Halbwachs' (1950/1980) theory of collective memory and in recent prospective studies of collective remembering within families from early childhood through adolescence. The claim is that the basic process of collective remembering is present from the earliest conversations about the past between parents and children, but it is not until adolescence that collective memory is informed by family stories and by history. There are both positive and negative consequences of collective remembering as a function of the nature of the collective. In conclusion, researchers are urged to broaden their view of the collective in their studies of autobiographical and collective memory.     

PRIMING FROM THE ATTENTIONAL BLINK:

Abstract —When people must detect several targets in a very rapid stream of successive visual events at the same location, detection of an initial target induces misses for subsequent targets within a brief period. This attentional blink may serve to prevent interruption of ongoing target processing by temporarily suppressing vision for subsequent stimuli. We examined the level at which the internal blink operates, specifically, whether it prevents early visual processing or prevents quite substantial processing from reaching awareness. Our data support the latter view. We observed priming from missed letter targets, benefiting detection of a subsequent target with the same identity but a different case. In a second study, we observed semantic priming from word targets that were missed during the blink. These results demonstrate that attentional gating within the blink operates only after substantial stimulus processing has already taken place. The results are discussed in terms of two forms of visual representation, namely, types and tokens.     

Trust,social categories,and individuals: The case of gender

While the cooperate vs. defect choice in the prisoner's dilemma is not an appropriate paradigm for the study of trust and trusting behavior, the play vs. not play choiceis. We show that femalesas a category are more trusted to cooperate — by both male and female judges — than males. Yet neither male nor female judges use gender to predict cooperation from particular individuals (trust) or as a criterion for choosing to play (trusting behavior) when they have the option of not playing particular prisoner's dilemma games. Further, in our experimental context, female and male did not differ in their cooperation rates. We speculate (a) that subjects' generalized expectations are a response to gender-based role differences outside the laboratory, (b) that subjects' failure to make individual-by-individual discriminations by gender is a response to the fact that the experimental context made such natural-world roles irrelevant, and (c) that our findings about the irrelevance of genderper se in trusting relationships will be true for other social categoriesper se.The research reported in this paper was supported by the National Science Foundation grant SES-9008157 to Orbell and Dawes; any opinions, conclusions or recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Pamela Ferrara played an important role in administering all stages of the experiments; Jean Stockard gave us a helpful methodological and substantive critique; and Debbie Elvin, Tom Morikawa, Matthew Mulford, and Catherine Shatto each helped at several stages of the paper.     

Case vignette: to share or not to share

For years, the notion that researchers should share data freely with fellow scientists has been discussed widely. Some argue that this is especially true when the data are generated in federally funded projects. A recent provision in the reauthorization bill for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would ensconce this principle in law. NIH grantees would be required, on demand, to furnish their data to other researchers. According to the proposed legislation, research data would have to be preserved and made avilable for 3 years after the completion of a project, and for 5 years following publication of the results in a scientific journal. One objective, according to a congressional aide, would be to make it easier for scientists with dissenting views to obtain and reanalyze data collected with public funds. It would also facilitate publication of alternative analyses. Personal records and patent applications would be exempted, but other data from clinical, behavioral, or epidemiological research focused on the evaluation or efficacy of a drug, medical device, or treatment of any sort would be covered immediately. Is such mandatory sharing of data ethical and appropriate scholarship? Does it raise potential for abuse? Should colleagues be required to provide such access to data, whether or not federal support was used in its collection?     

Gender differences in parent-child conversations about past emotions

In this study, we examined the emotional content of parents’ conversations about past events with their 40-month-old children. Subjects were 24 white middle-class children and their mothers and fathers. At separate home visits, each parent independently engaged the child in conversation about three events that parent and child had experienced together only once before. Mothers and fathers talked about emotional aspects of events in similar ways, but they both used a greater number and variety of emotion words with daughters than with sons. Parents also mentioned sad aspects of events more with daughters than with sons. Implications of the differential socialization of emotion for boys and girls are discussed.     

Illusion magnitude as a function of visual field exposure

Forty-eight right-handed subjects divided into four groups, each consisting of six males and six females, were employed in an investigation of cerebral hemispheric influence on the perception of tachistoscopically presented simultaneous and successive versions of the Mueller-Lyer figure. The simultaneous version exposed in the left visual field resulted in a larger effect than did right visual field exposures. The successive version exposed in the right visual field resulted in a larger illusion magnitude than it did in the left visual field. The magnitude of visual field differences in response to the successive version was greater than visual field differences found in response to the simultaneous version     

Cyborg Identities and the Relational Web: Recasting 'Narrative Identity' in Moral and Political Theory

Current debates surrounding liberalism and communitarianism, modernity and postmodernity, ethical theory and narrative ethics fail to account for shifting foundations of personal identity in an increasingly computer-mediated era of human communication. This paper aims to examine some of the conceptual assumptions about identity and community which are being radically undermined by rapidly evolving information networks and are therefore in need of redefinition. Additionally, I argue for an expansion of the literary imagination to include virtual, coauthored fiction sites where exploration of personal identity will bear upon future ethical and political decision-making.     

Connecting the self to traumatic and positive events: links to identity and well-being

Self-event connections in autobiographical narratives help integrate specific episodes from memory into the life story, which has implications for identity and well-being. Previous research has distinguished differential relations between positive and negative self-event connections to psychological well-being but less research has examined identity. In this study, examining self-event connections in emerging adults’ narratives, 225 participants narrated a traumatic and an intensely positive experience and completed questionnaires assessing identity development and well-being. Participants who described more negative connections to self overall had higher psychological distress and identity distress, compared to those who described fewer negative connections. Participants who described positive connections to the self in traumatic events were more likely to have lower psychological distress, higher post-traumatic growth, and higher identity commitment, whereas positive connections in positive events was related to higher identity exploration and marginally higher post-traumatic growth. These findings contribute to a growing body of literature that suggests linking autobiographical memories to self can have differential effects on identity and well-being depending on the valence of the event and the connections made.