Imagery intervention in open and closed tennis motor skill performance

To assess use of imagery intervention in performance of two tennis motor skills the quasi-experimental design included a pre- and posttest and a control group. The tennis service shot and service receiving skill were selected as representative of open and closed skills, respectively. 48 subjects, male tennis players, whose ages ranged from 16 to 18 yr. (M = 17.2), were divided into two groups: (1) Technical practice only which was used as control group and (2) Imagery group who received both imagery and technical practice. Analysis of covariance showed a significant main effect for the imagery intervention on the closed skill (p = .002). Findings suggest that imaging a positive outcome may be more powerful in improving performance of closed skill movements than of open skill movements.     

The Influence of Social Regard on the Customer–Service Firm Relationship: The Moderating Role of Length of Relationship

Purpose  

The authors examine the influence of employees’ social regard toward the customers on customer satisfaction, trust, and word of mouth. In addition, we analyzed the moderating role of length of relationship between the service provider and the customer on the effects of social regard on the customer relationship outcomes.     

TOWARD A SYNTHETIC PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY

The word "synthetic" in the title of this paper has three meanings, each of which highlights a fundamental problem with physiological psychology, and, at the same time, offers a solution. (1) Synthetic means artificial–made by man, not by nature. To separate physiological psychology from medicine, and to build a science of pure function in humans (which is what psychology is), apart from a science of the mechanics of living human tissue (which is what medicine is), synthetic physiological psychology adopts a physically achieved analytic approach to the design, not of people, but of robots that behave like people. This avoids the misuse of reductionism. (2) Analysis by itself is not adequate; every analysis must be validated immediately by synthesis. Some forms of physically achieved analysis and resynthesis, particularly appropriate for synthetic physiological psychology, are contrasted with the hypothetico-deductive method, as a complementary scientific method of arriving at simple facts about complex living systems. (3) Synthetic also means integrative—at present, the various subfields of psychology are not united by principles based on the action of common units of function, derived by a physically achieved analysis. A simple procedure is described that can provide them.     

Deflationary Metaphysics and the Construction of Laboratory Mice

The deflationist turn in recent philosophy of science has attracted attention, in part because it promises to end debates about scientific realism. In its recommendation that we leave metaphysics behind to look at practice, deflationism constructs itself as an end-of-philosophy philosophy, accepting knowledge and the evidence for it at face value. Meanwhile, recent work in philosophy, sociology, and history of science that has focused on practice has underscored problems of such an acceptance: much scientific knowledge is not straightforwardly about the natural world, and we would not want it to be. A concrete example from the history of comparative psychology illustrates this point, and illustrates the value of interpretive work on scientific knowledge. A focus on practice, then, does not end metaphysical discussion, but rather regrounds and reshapes it.     

Gender and ethnic differences in psychosocial stress and generalized distress among Hispanics

This study examined the relationship between gender, ethnicity, psychosocial stress and generalized distress in 593 Hispanic immigrants, Mexican Americans, and Anglo Americans using the Hispanic Stress Inventory (HSI) and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Findings revealed that immigrant females had higher scores on the Cultural/Family Conflict sub-scale of the HSI and on the CES-D than immigrant males. Also, higher levels of generalized distress and psychosocial stress associated with the immigration process were found among immigrants from Central America when compared with Mexican immigrants. Central Americans' stress appraisal ratings on specific HSI items related to pre-migration trauma were significantly higher than the ratings of Mexican immigrants. Our findings indicate that research and clinical service delivery models must be sensitive to the vast heterogeneity within the Hispanic population with respect to differences in the experiences of psychosocial stress as related to gender and ethnicity.This project was partially supported by Grant USPHS MH24854 to the third author from the National Institute of Mental Health, Division of Biometry and Applied Science, Minority Research Resources Branch.     

An experimental comparison of three- versus four-surface phenomenal transparency

The three-surface transparency occurs when an object seen through a transparency does not jut out under the transparent surface. The four-surface transparency occurs when the object juts out. Observers rated the density of the transparent surface in both kinds of transparency. The results seem to show that the topological diversity between the two kinds of transparency has no functional significance. The stimulus conditions ruling the generation of judgments were detected and expressed in terms of an algebraic model.     

An experimental check on Stevens’s explanation of the partition paradox by successive doubling and bisecting

Scaling methods based on direct estimation of sensory ratios and intervals give discrepant results (the partition paradox). Stevens’s explanation of this discrepancy was tested here. Given a psychological magnitude, ψ, observers were required to select a magnitude 2ψ, and subsequently to bisect the interval between ψ and 2ψ. Stevens’s hypothesis predicts that the bisected psychological magnitude falls between 1.41ψ and 1.50ψ. The hypothesis is not substantiated, since a bisected magnitude of 1.55ψ was obtained. Furthermore, observers had to bisect the interval between ψ and an imagined magnitude of 2ψ. The results show that observers are able to producereliably both a visual and a representational double.