The formation of novel social category conjunctions in working memory: A possible role for the episodic buffer?

Recent research (e.g., Hutter, Crisp, Humphreys, Waters, &; Moffit; Siebler) has confirmed that combining novel social categories involves two stages (e.g., Hampton; Hastie, Schroeder, &; Weber). Furthermore, it is also evident that following stage 1 (constituent additivity), the second stage in these models involves cognitively effortful complex reasoning. However, while current theory and research has addressed how category conjunctions are initially represented to some degree, it is not clear precisely where we first combine or bind existing social constituent categories. For example, how and where do we compose and temporarily store a coherent representation of an individual who shares membership of “female” and “blacksmith” categories? In this article, we consider how the revised multi-component model of working memory (Baddeley) can assist in resolving the representational limitations in the extant two-stage theoretical models. This is a new approach to understanding how novel conjunctions form new bound “composite” representations.     

Why people harm the organization and its members: Relationships among personality,organizational commitment,and workplace deviance

Based on the five-factor model of personality traits and social exchange theory, this study examines the relationships of personality traits, organizational commitment, and two target-based factors of workplace deviance (organizational deviance and interpersonal deviance), using a sample of 113 South Korean employees. By the use of path-analysis, we first found that Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability were meaningfully related to organizational commitment. In addition, both the effect of Conscientiousness on organizational deviance and the effect of Agreeableness on interpersonal deviance were partially mediated by organizational commitment. In sum, results clearly show that the personality traits of Conscientiousness (impersonal) and Agreeableness (interpersonal) function differently in predicting workplace deviance.     

Fluency and response speed in recognition judgments

Previous research has suggested that perceptual fluency can contribute to recognition judgments. In this study, we examined whether fluency in recognition is based upon the speed of preceding operations, as suggested by studies of perceptual fluency. Subjects studied items in both lexical decision and naming tasks, and were then tested on two blocks of lexical decision trials with probe recognition trials. Jacoby’s process dissociation procedure was used, and results from this procedure suggested that recognition judgments in the task were based largely upon familiarity. However, the estimated discriminability available from response time distributions was significantly less than the observed recognition discriminability. Simulated memory operating characteristics confirmed this underdetermination of recognition by response times. The results demonstrate, contrary to previous suggestions, that fluency in recognition is not based upon speed.     

Impulsivity, fight history, and camaraderie as predictors of a willingness to escalate a disturbance

This field study examined the relationships between six predictor variables and a self-report measure of spectators' likelihood of joining in a crowd disturbance. Subjects were males (N = 78) found in attendance at an ice hockey game. The variables jects were males (N = 78) found in attendance at an ice hockey game. The variables related to the likelihood of escalating a disturbance included subjects who were more impulsive, had a history of fighting, were younger, saw provocations as more volatile, liked to watch player fights and attended with others. A multiple regression analysis yielded a solution that accounted for 52.9% of the variance. The results were discussed against the background of previous research examining the factors associated with spectators' propensity for involving themselves in crowd disorders. The authors wish to thank the Medicine Hat Tigers Hockey Club for their cooperation.     

Sociophysiology as the Basic Science of Psychiatry

The medical specialty of psychiatry should possess a basic science in which pathologies are considered deviations from normal brain physiology. Historically, psychoanalytic pathogenesis was considered separately from brain physiology. It was not scientific because observations could not be refuted. Countering this, Eli Robins's legacy stemmed partly from his having been damaged by a psychoanalyst. It eschewed pathogenesis. Attempting to integrate psychiatry with medicine more generally, Robins and colleagues refocused on empiricism, although they acknowledged the brain's centrality. Here I hold that the term biology used in the context of psychiatry should broadly encompass social facets of organismal function. The term “sociophysiology” may best describe the central basic science of psychiatry because it alludes to brain functions used for the person's social realm. Disruptions of such functions result in deviant behaviors and unpleasant feelings which psychiatrists diagnose and treat. Future study encompassing top-down and bottom-up research should include genome-neural-behavioral analyses.     

RELIGION AND THE THEORIES OF SCIENCE: A RESPONSE TO BARBOUR

Abstract. This paper offers a detailed response to “Religion and the Theories of Science” in Barbour's Gifford Lectures I. Topics include: complementarity, indeterminacy, parts and wholes, and Bell's theorem in quantum theory; metaphysical issues raised by relativity theory and thermodynamics, principally the problem of temporality and “top-down” versus “bottom—up” causality; design arguments and the origins of the universe in astronomy and creation; and God's action in the context of evolution and continuing creation. Areas of agreement and disagreement between Barbour and myself over philosophical and theological implications are presented, and endnotes indicate further areas of conversation.     

A Systematic Framework for Integrating Psychological Evaluations and Interventions

A systematic framework for an integrative approach to psychological evaluations and interventions is proposed based on the executive system model of intelligence, the transactional processes of stress and coping, and the field properties of the personal domain. The executive system of intelligence is a comprehensive model that helps to explain the active components of various types of psychotherapies. We are proposing that psychotherapies facilitate clients' uses of their executive functions to develop coping strategies in their transactions with the environment and the events in their life space. A clinical case is presented to illustrate our systematic approach to psychological evaluation and intervention.     

Caregivers of adults with cancer: Multidimensional correlates of psychological distress

The relationship between psychological distress and intrapersonal, family, and socioecological variables was examined in 77 caregivers of adults actively receiving cancer treatment. Results indicated that a sizable minority (29%) of caregivers was experiencing clinically significant psychological distress. Furthermore, family disturbances and maladaptive coping strategies were most predictive of psychological distress in this sample. The clinical implications of these findings in relation to the assessment and treatment of both patients and caregivers are discussed.     

Preferred rates of repetitive tapping and categorical time production

In a constrained finger-tapping task, in which a subject attempts to match the rate of tapping responses to the rate of a pacer stimulus, interresponse interval (IRI) was a nonlinear function of interstimulus interval (ISI), in agreement with the results of Collyer, Broadbent, and Church (1992). In an unconstrained task, the subjects were not given an ISI to match, but were instructed to tap at their preferred rate, one that seemed not too fast or too slow for comfortable production. The distribution of preferred IRIs was bimodal rather than unimodal, with modes at 272 and 450 msec. Preferred IRIs also tended to become shorter over successive sessions. Time intervals that were preferred in the unconstrained task tended to be intervals that were overproduced (IRI > ISI) when they were used as ISIs in the constrained task. A multiple-oscillator model of timing developed by Church and Broadbent (1990) was used to simulate the two tasks. The nonlinearity in constrained tapping, termed theoscillator signature, and the bimodal distribution in unconstrained tapping were both exhibited by the model. The nature of the experimental results and the success of the simulation in capturing them both provide further support for a multiple-oscillator view of timing.