The change from visible to invisible:

It is argued that the problem of the phenomenal persistence of objects in experience, often called “object permanence,” is actually a problem of the discriminating of persisting from nonpersisting things. A distinction is made between objects that go out of sight and objects that go out of existence, and it is shown that optical information exists to distinguish these two cases. Evidence is provided from a series of motion picture displays to suggest that Os do in fact distinguish them. The various optical transitions are shown to be reversing in the first case, but nonreversing in the second. In particular, the transition that specifies the occlusion of one surface by another is analyzed, together with the inverse of this transition. This study is a sequel to an earlier one of optical transformations.     

Ecological Aspects of Group Behavior in Social Isolation1

The present study examined how socially isolated groups were affected by and used their physical environment during an 8-day period. Pairs of men were isolated under different conditions of privacy, outside stimulation, and expected time in isolation. Measures were taken of environmentally oriented behaviors such as social activities; territoriality for beds, chairs, and areas of the room, use of beds; and performance on team and individual tasks. The results indicate that unsuccessful groups exhibited a pattern of behavior reflecting their misestimate of the demands of the situation. The fact that many different levels of behavior fit together, over time, suggested the importance of an ecological approach to interpersonal behavior which examines many levels of functioning over time as a system, with particular emphasis on the mutual relationship between man and his environment.     

The effect of intermittent feedback and intermittent contingent access to play on printing of kindergarten children

Intermittent grading of papers and the combination of intermittent grading with contingent access to play were evaluated as methods for increasing the accuracy of kindergarten children's printing responses. For a group of target letters, intermittent grading alone failed to produce an increase in accuracy, but when grading was paired with access to play, accuracy increased for every child. These results were then replicated with another letter.     

Faith Without Works: Jesus People, Resistance to Temptation, and Altruism

Students in a large introductory psychology class were given an opportunity to cheat on a class examination. Some time later, they were asked to volunteer to participate in a project designed to help mentally retarded children. On the basis of attitudinal and behavioral self-report measures, the subjects were divided into four groups according to religious belief: Jesus people, religious, nonreligious, and atheists. The four groups did not differ in frequency or magnitude of cheating, nor did they differ in committing themselves to performing the altruistic act. Females showed a significantly higher frequency of altruistic behavior than did males. Resistance to temptation and altruism were essentially unrelated to one another, and level of religiousness did not appreciably affect the magnitude of the relationship.     

Comparisons between one-key and two-key versions of the sinewave schedule for pigeons

When the rate of reinforcement for pigeons' key pecking varied over time following a sine waveform, performances were more consistent and reliable if a constant-rate reinforcement schedule was concurrently available on a second key than if only the sinewave-varying reinforcement schedule was available. In the two-key version, response rates clearly followed varying reinforcement rates with the same frequency, with no phase lag, and without breaks. In both versions, pecking rate was a power function of reinforcement rate. Sinewave-schedule performance waveforms qualified for engineering methods of frequency analysis and met criteria for a standard measurement system.     

Things Unsaid in Group Counseling: An Empirical Taxonomy

Two studies were performed to examine things unsaid in group counseling. In Study 1, 28 group members described 317 things they had left unsaid during group counseling sessions. Cluster analysis identified 10 categories of things unsaid. In Study 2, the derived clusters were used by trained raters to categorize a new set of things unsaid by 28 group members. In addition, the relationships between the type of things unsaid, the stage of group development, and participant sex were examined. As hypothesized there were more advice and outside things unsaid during the orientation-inclusion stage and more positive feeling and empathic things unsaid during affection-cohesion stage of group development. There were also a number of significant interactions between participant sex and stage or group development for several categories of things unsaid. Implications for counseling are discussed.     

An Exploratory Study of Counselor Judgments in Multicultural Research

Archival data were used to explore intake judgments made by 45 counselors about 344 African-American and White clients seen at a counseling center during a 2-year period. Counselor gender was significantly associated with ratings of client severity of current condition. Neither ethnicity nor counselor experience were predictive of intake judgments.     

The father's shadow/father's body

The shadow of the father plays an important role in a son's ability to live a creatively meaningful life. The mythological basis for the father's shadow is found in the myth of Cronos and his son Zeus. This myth symbolizes a father's body being intimately connected to his son getting in touch with his creative bright shadow. The conclusions reached regarding the importance of the father's shadow are based on research conducted with an ongoing men's group. An early underground phallus dream of Jung is examined, along with the creative work of a patient, both offering evidence of the importance of the body-bond with the father for a son's creative development.David Morgan, CSW, is a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City and Teaneck, New Jersey.