The time of consciousness and vice versa

The temporal granularity of consciousness may be far less fine than the real-time information processing mechanisms that underlie our sensitivity to small temporal differences. It is suggested that conscious time perception, like space perception, is subject to errors that belie a unitary underlying representation. E. R. Clay's (The Alternative: A Study in Psychology, 1882) concept of the "specious present," an extended moment represented in consciousness, is suggested as an alternative to the more common notion of instantaneous experience that underlies much reasoning based on the "time of arrival" in consciousness.     

Idiodynamics in re Personality Theory and Psychoarchaeology

Idiodynamics is the science of the idioverse. The idioverse consists of the population of events experienced by a single unique individual. This conception supersedes that of personality because the idioverse purports to be a more direct and objective formulation. The idioverse is understood, in large measure, by markers that are peculiar to the individual and are discovered through a study of the totality of the individual's expressed experience. Three types of norms afford these data for observation: the nomothetic, the demographic, and the idiodynamic. All are essential for an understanding of how the individual participates in the experience of the self and of others. A biogenic medium and a sociogenic medium overlap in the formulation of the idioverse, and these media overlap and converge to constitute a matrix that provides idiodynamic norms. Comprehension of the idioverse reveals the individual as a self-creative and dynamic process. Idiodynamics should be distinguished from the earlier idiographic approach to individuality. Psychoarchaeology is the reconstruction of biographical identities and/or sources. This methodology is well illustrated in Morton Prince's classic case of dissociation (Sally Beauchamp).     

Introduction to the Symposium on Drug Improvement of Memory

This paper introduces a symposium in which three main speakers discussed the prospect that drugs may improve cognitive functioning, including memory. Even though the participants agreed that presently available drugs can alleviate memory disorders only to a limited extent and do not increase ability of well-functioning individuals, it is important to consider social implications of drugs that might increase learning ability and intelligence. It is also important to consider, as alternatives to drugs, behavioural approaches to improving abilities that do not share possible drawbacks of pharmacological treatments.     

Parfit on Free Will,Desert, and the Fairness of Punishment

In his recent monumental book On What Matters, Derek Parfit argues for a hard determinist view that rejects free will-based moral responsibility and desert. This rejection of desert is necessary for his main aim in the book, the overall reconciliation of normative ethics. In Appendix E of his book, however, Parfit claims that it is possible to mete out fair punishment. Parfit’s position on punishment here seems to be inconsistent with his hard determinism. I argue that Parfit is mistaken here, in a way that leads him to unjustified optimism about the possibility of fair penalization. Insofar as we take the free will problem seriously, we cannot reconcile a belief in the absence of desert with a belief in the fairness of penalization.     

Construct validity of the Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study

Projective and semiprojective techniques are both tools and tests. A schema for assessing the validity of projective devices is proposed: (1) Primary, consisting of (a) construct validity i.e., the soundness of the techniques vis-a-vis its underlying concepts; and (b) criterion-related validity, i.e., the concordance between tool results and specified external criteria. (2) Secondary, viz., pragmatic validity, i.e., the usefulness of the instrument in applied fields. Discussion then focuses on the construct validity of the conceptually-based, semiprojective Rosenzweig P-F Study. specifically the evidence on (a) the self-consistency of its conceptual dimensions; (b) the sequential. social development of the Types and Directions of Aggression; (c) levels of behavior elicited; (d) sensitivity to scorable changes after induced frustration: and (e) physiological correlates oft he aggression categories. In each of these areas evidence exists in support of the validity of the P-F Study.