Temporal factors in visual perception as related to aging

Older Ss, in the age range 30–55 years, were compared on certain temporal characteristics of visual perception. Experiment I confirmed a previous finding that older adults required an appreciably longer exposure duration to identify forms, even when equated with younger adults on standard measures of visual acuity. Experiment 2 found that older adults have a longer critical duration over which time-intensity reciprocity holds for form identification. The results were discussed in terms of such concepts of psychological time as the psychological moment.     

Exploration Is Sufficient but Not Necessary for Navigation with Landmarks in the House Mouse (Mus musculus)

Exploration is a locomotor and scanning behavior accompanied by the acquisition of information that can be used for topographic orientation and homing. Our experiments demonstrate that the exploring house mouse (Mus musculus) learns the use of distal landmarks for short-range homing. However, mice that had no exploratory experience at all also learned how to use distal landmarks for homing while shuttling between two goals. In addition, exploration-based knowledge in itself appears to be weak or provisional. Whereas one straight line path integration is strong enough to override orientation by distal landmarks based on 1 day of exploration, prolonged straight line shuttling results in navigation by distal landmarks that is strong enough to override path integration based on prolonged straight line shuttling. We conclude that exploratory behavior by itself is sufficient, but not necessary, for learning the use of distal landmarks for navigation within the home range.     

The Backbone of Closing Speeches: The Impact of Prosecution Versus Defense Language on Judicial Attributions1

Subtle attribution cues embedded in language were investigated in a simulated courtroom setting. Lawyers in training as well as lay attorneys gave closing speeches for the defense and for the prosecution. In a first study, distinct linguistic strategies were identified. Prosecutors attributed internal causality to defendants, whereas defense attorneys supported negative intentional attributions to the victim. In a second study, lay persons judged the closing speeches and decided on verdict and punishment. Severity of punishment depended on speaker's role (defense or prosecution), severity of crime, and 2 linguistic strategies, indicating intentionality of negative behavior and dispositionality of negative behavior. It is concluded that subtle language strategies do have a noticeable effect on the attribution of blame and guilt in a legal setting.     

Analytical competence and language impairment in aphasia

Matched groups of Broca's and Wernicke's aphasics, brain-damaged patients without aphasia and chronic schizophrenics were tested in a nonverbal matching task where the subject had to indicate which of two pictures was more closely linked to a clue picture. Eight additional verbal and nonverbal reference tasks were administered. Both aphasic groups performed worse than brain-damaged controls when the identification of individual attributes or actions shared by clue and referent was required, but were unimpaired when the two had a set of referential-situational associations in common. Factor analyses resulted for both groups in two factors, one of which represents general Language Impairment. For the Broca's aphasics this factor was closely related to general organic deficit as measured by the Trail Making Test; for the Wernicke's aphasics it was associated with tasks which might be considered illustrative of analytical competence in isolating and comparing individual features of objects or concepts.     

Student physical symptoms and the social climate of college living groups

Student physical symptoms were related to the social climates of university living groups. A Physical Symptom Risk Scale, a new subscale of the University Residence Environment Scale, which relates consistently to physical symptom complaints for male, female, and coed living groups, was developed. Living groups characterized by high student physical symptoms were perceived by students as low in involvement and support, high in competition, and low in student influence. The results indicate that certain types of social environments may be "high risk" settings in that they support and possibly facilitate complaints of physical symptoms. These settings may be amenable to early "environmental diagnosis," preventive counseling, and change-oriented social systems intervention.     

Scheinbare Wirklichkeit. Zur Idee einer phänomenologischen Philosophie

Presented are here the crucial presuppositions and building-blocks of a phenomenological philosophy. Inspired by Husserl's critique of scientific objectivism and his claim that the life-world as the world of our experience is the only real world, such a philosophy starts from the breaking of the spell of objective reality as the only and true actuality and the acknowledgment of the appearance-character of all actuality and of objective reality itself. It further requires reinterpretations of the notions of sensitivity, subjectivity and consciousness. Foundational for the sketched idea of phenomenological philosophy is the insight that all conscious life is necessarily determined by interests.     

Indikation zur strukturbezogenen Psychotherapie

The distinction of conflict processing and structure promoting psychotherapeutic approaches in the psychodynamic field is now common knowledge and has now been incorporated into the guideline comments. The differentiation of treatment presupposes theoretical knowledge of the dynamics of conflict and structure and corresponding thorough initial diagnostics. Based on these foundations an appropriate focus of therapy can be agreed with the patient and the therapy target can be set. This focussed working towards a joint target is especially important for psychodynamic psychotherapeutic treatment, which is of limited duration. The actively accompanying therapeutic process differs from older assumptions that positive developments on the foundation of a therapeutic relationship occur quasi automatically but possibly need a long time. Aspects of the treatment technique and the therapeutic attitude, estimation of the therapeutic development and typical age-related modifications in adolescents and older persons are discussed.     

Visual associations cued recall A Paradigm for Measuring Episodic Memory Decline in Alzheimer’s Disease

Repeated measurements of episodic memory are needed for monitoring amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Most episodic memory tests may pose a challenge to patients, even when they are in the milder stages of the disease. This cross-sectional study compared floor effects of the Visual Association Test (VAT) and the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) in healthy elderly controls and in patients with aMCI or AD (N = 125). A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to examine whether linear or quadratic trends best fitted the data of cognitive test performance across global cognitive impairment. Results showed that VAT total scores decreased linearly across the range of global cognitive impairment, whereas RAVLT total scores showed a quadratic trend, with total scores levelling off for 90% of aMCI patients and 94% of AD patients. We conclude that the VAT shows few if any floor effects in patients with aMCI and mild AD and is therefore a potentially promising cognitive test for monitoring episodic memory impairment.     

Integrating Anxiety Sensitivity, Distress Tolerance, and Discomfort Intolerance: A Hierarchical Model of Affect Sensitivity and Tolerance

The purpose of the present investigation was to concurrently examine the latent dimensional and hierarchical structure of anxiety sensitivity (AS) and two key theoretically relevant and related affect (in)tolerance and sensitivity constructs: distress tolerance and discomfort intolerance. These constructs were measured using the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (Reiss, Peterson, Gursky, & McNally, 1986), the Distress Tolerance Scale (Simons & Gaher, 2005), and the Discomfort Intolerance Scale (Schmidt, Richey, & Fitzpatrick, 2006). A total of 229 individuals (124 females; M_age = 21.0 years, SD = 7.5) without current Axis I psychopathology participated by completing a battery of self-report questionnaires. A two-stage exploratory factor analysis was conducted to examine the lower- and higher-order latent structural relations among the variables. The factor solution was subsequently evaluated in relation to negative affectivity, anxious arousal, and anhedonic depression. AS and distress tolerance appeared to be related to one another as distinct lower-order facets of a common higher-order affect tolerance and sensitivity factor, whereas discomfort intolerance did not appear to demonstrate similar relations with either AS or distress tolerance at the lower-order or higher-order levels. A unique pattern of association with theoretically-relevant criterion variables was observed between the affect tolerance and sensitivity higher-order factor, the AS and distress tolerance lower-order factors, and the discomfort intolerance factor. Findings are discussed in the context of theoretical and clinical implications and future directions for the study of affect tolerance and sensitivity in relation to emotional vulnerability.