Strategies for attention allocation in multiple input, multiple response tasks

9 tasks involving multiple inputs and multiple responses were administered. The tasks involved monitoring, shadowing, and ignoring, in all combinations, monaural and dichotic meassages. Miss rates were compared to determine the effect of adding additional demands to different tasks. Results suggested that, when a demand was added to a task, attention was allocated away primarily from those demands already receiving the greatest amounts of attention, to accommodate the new demand. When the new demand drew attention toward a channel, those demands already receiving the least amounts of attention gained the largest amounts. There were several exceptions to these trends, suggesting that the total amount of effort available for allocation was apparently an important variable. The implication of the results for research in attention was discussed.     

Cross-national stereotypes of locus of control in university students1

Stereotypes of locus of control were studied in male and female university students from eight countries (Canada, France, West Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, United States). The subjects took the Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control (I-E) Scale in standard fashion (“own” scores) and then in the role of students similar to themselves in their own country (attributed own) and in selected other countries (attributed other). Using the difference between “own” scores and “attributed” scores as the operational measure of stereotype, the results indicate (1) that scores attributed to students in a given country bear little relationship to those students “own” scores, thereby suggesting the presence of stereotypes of locus of control; (2) students in most countries attribute greater externality to the average student in their own country compared to themselves; (3) countries vary in the degree to which they stereotype other countries with the U.S. students significantly attributing greater externality to other countries and Japanese students significantly attributing greater internality to other students; (4) countries vary in the degree to which they are stereotyped with German students perceived as most internal and Italian students as most external; (5) the U.S.S.R. and U.S.A. are perceived differently on content subscales of the I-E Scale although their overall attributed scores do not differ.     

Distinctions Among Stigmatized Groups1

This research investigated how individuals classify and distinguish among stigmatized groups. In Study 1, participants sorted 54 stigmas based on perceived similarity and then provided evaluations. Cluster analysis revealed 7 stigma clusters, including physical disability, mental disability, economically disadvantaged, social deviants, physical appearance, sexual identity, and racial identity. Multidimensional scaling showed that the stigmas differed on dimensions of social undesirability, controllability, and general pity. In Study 2, participants provided evaluation ratings of stigmas across 6 situations. Results confirmed the validity of the 7‐cluster solution.     

An Approach to Teaching Ethics Courses in Human Services and Counseling

This article presents multiple facets of a team approach to teaching and facilitating an ethics course for undergraduate human services students and a graduate ethics course for students majoring in counseling. Starting with general points, this article describes a specific, week‐to‐week approach to a 1‐semester course, concluding with sample student evaluative comments and an experienced professor/author's processing of the experience of preparing and teaching this course for many years.     

Incompleteness and harm avoidance in OCD symptom dimensions

Incompleteness (INC) and harm avoidance (HA) are motivational core dimensions of OCD. While HA-related concepts (e.g., inflated responsibility, overestimation of threat) are a main focus of current cognitive-behavioural OCD research, there is also a renewed interest in INC feelings and "not just right experiences" with an inability to achieve "closure" concerning actions/perceptions. This study systematically examines the association of OCD symptom dimensions with INC and HA in a large clinical OCD sample (n=202). Hierarchical linear multiple regression analyses controlling for anxiety, depression and symptom severity demonstrated a unique association of symmetry/ordering and checking (but not of contamination/washing and obsessional thoughts) with INC, and of obsessional thoughts and checking with HA. Thus, in contrast with symmetry/ordering (predominantly INC-related) and obsessional thoughts (predominantly HA-related), checking was motivationally heterogeneous, i.e., associated with INC and HA to a comparable and substantial degree. Contamination/washing failed to show a unique association with HA in two of three analyses, and with INC in all three analyses. Symptom severity uniquely contributed to INC in two of three analyses, but not to HA. Clinically, our results indicate that a conceptualization of OCD as an anxiety disorder is too narrow.     

How to stop and change a response: the role of goal activation in multitasking

Multitasking was studied in the stop-change paradigm, in which the response for a primary GO1 task had to be stopped and replaced by a response for a secondary GO2 task on some trials. In 2 experiments, the delay between the stop signal and the change signal was manipulated to determine which task goals (GO1, GO2, or STOP) were involved in performance and to determine whether the goals were activated in series or in parallel. As the delay increased, the probability of responding on stop trials changed very little, but GO2 task reaction times decreased substantially. Such effects are consistent with both a nondeterministic serial model (in which the GO1 goal is replaced by the STOP goal, which is subsequently replaced by the GO2 goal) and a limited-capacity parallel model (in which stopping and GO2 processing occur concurrently) with a capacity-sharing proportion that resembles serial processing.     

Exploring the impact of phonological awareness, visual–spatial working memory, and preschool quantity–number competencies on mathematics achievement in elementary school: Findings from a 3-year longitudinal study

This longitudinal study explored the importance of kindergarten measures of phonological awareness, working memory, and quantity–number competencies (QNC) for predicting mathematical school achievement in third graders (mean age 8 years 8 months). It was found that the impact of phonological awareness and visual–spatial working memory, assessed at 5 years of age, was mediated by early QNC, which predicted math achievement in third grade. Importantly, and confirming our isolated number words hypothesis, phonological awareness had no impact on higher numerical competencies (i.e., when number words needed to be linked with quantities [QNC Level II and above]) but predicted basic numerical competencies (i.e., when number words were isolated from quantities [QNC Level I]), explaining the moderate relationship between early literacy development and the development of mathematical competencies.     

The Role of Gender and Ethnicity in Perceptions of Rape and Its Aftereffects

Caucasian-, Hispanic-, and Asian-American male and female students (n?=?764) attending a California (USA) public university reported their perceptions of sexual assault. After reading a rape vignette, participants gave their impressions of the victim; estimated time needed for recovery and treatment; and recommended a sentence for the assailant. Half of the sample received information regarding state sentencing guidelines. Relative to female participants, males perceived the victim as more responsible. Caucasian-American males had stronger reservation about the victim’s judgment. Males were less inclined to assign blame than were females. Ethnicity was the only factor influencing perceptions of recovery. Ethnicity and sentencing guidelines, but not gender, impacted imprisonment decisions. Issues impeding a unified theoretical understanding of perceptions of rape victims were considered.     

Identität und die Ambivalenz gegenüber Fremdem

Zusammenfassung   Anhand der Erz?hlung Ein altes Blatt und des Films Easy Rider wird die Ambivalenz gegenüber Fremdem aufgezeigt: Liebe (Xenophilie) und Hass (Xenophobie) markieren die beiden Pole. Es geht dann um die Entwicklung eines psychoanalytischen Begriffs des allt?glich-lebensweltlichen Selbstseins, der diese Ambivalenz abbildet. Dazu wird das Konzept der Identit?t herangezogen. über Eriksons Verst?ndnis hinausgehend wird Identit?t nicht nur von ihrer Leistungsseite her gesehen, der Schaffung einer einigerma?en als geordnet und sinnhaft erfahrenen Welt (Positivit?t der Identit?t). Diese Leistung wird zugleich als Abwehr verstanden, wobei das Abgewehrte als der Identit?t ebenfalls zugeh?rig betrachtet wird (Negativit?t der Identit?t). Identit?t ist durch eine konflikthafte Dynamik von Selbsterhaltung und Selbstaufhebung gepr?gt. Im allt?glich-lebensweltlichen Kontext dominiert die Selbsterhaltungstendenz. In der Ambivalenz gegenüber Fremdem spiegelt sich die Dynamik von Selbsterhaltung (Ablehnung) und Selbstaufhebung (Anziehung). Genauer noch ist die Anziehung durch das Fremde als M?glichkeit zu verstehen, das Last- und Zwanghafte der Identit?tspositivit?t zu ver?ndern, d. h. ein Anderer werden zu k?nnen. Auf der Grundlage dieser überlegungen werden zwei Aspekte der Identit?t in der Postmoderne dargestellt: die Entwicklung einer adoleszent anmutenden Identit?tsstruktur und die Bedeutung der enormen Fülle von Fremdem, die die Globalisierung mit sich bringt. Ein Fallbeispiel zeigt, wie sich eine Angstsymptomatik als Ausdruck eines Identit?tswiderstands gegen die durchgreifende ?konomisierung der Arbeitsumgebung verstehen l?sst. Das klinische Material macht deutlich, dass die vorangehenden überlegungen auch für den klinischen Diskurs von Relevanz sind.

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Identity and ambivalence towards the stranger

Abstract   On the basis of the tale An Old Leaf and the movie Easy Rider, it will be shown that people have a deep-seated ambivalence towards what they recognize as extraneous to their own way of being. Xenophilia (attraction, love) and xenophobia (repulsion, hatred) are the two poles of the ambivalence. A psychoanalytic concept of being in one’s own everyday life-world in a way which comprehends the ambivalence of xenophilia and xenophobia is formulated. For this purpose the concept of personal identity is used. In contrast to Erikson identity is not restricted to its function of constituting an inner world for the subject, which is at least to a certain degree ordered and meaningful (positivity of identity). Rather, the positivity of identity is functioning defensively as well. What is fended off is not annihilated mentally, but it belongs to the subject’s identity (negativity of identity). Personal identity is thus conceptualized as a dynamic structure with two opposing forces, viz. identity-maintenance (mirrored in xenophobia), and identity-suspension (mirrored in xenophilia). In postmodernity the structure of identity resembles an adolescent one with the centre of identity shifting from the positivity of identity in the direction of its negativity. Due to processes of globalization there is a growing burden of influences on the subject’s identity that come from beyond the everyday life-world. Case material is presented that shows the clinical relevance of the ideas that have been developed. Severe symptoms of anxiety could be understood as an identity-maintaining resistance by opposing the transformation of the patient’s working conditions for the purpose of short-term economic goals only.

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überarbeitete Fassung eines Vortrags, gehalten anl?sslich der DPG-Jahrestagung „Psychoanalyse in Zeiten der Globalisierung. Struktur und Identit?t im Wandel“, 22.–25. 5. 2008 in München