Satisfying the Demands of Reason: Hegel's Conceptualization of Experience

Hegel had taken the Kantian categories of thought to be merely formal, without content, since, he argued, Kant abstracted the conditions of thought from the world. The Kantian categories can, as such, only be understood subjectively and so are unable to secure a content for themselves. Hegel, following Fichte, tried to provide a content for the logical categories. In order to reinstate an objective status for logic and conceptuality he tries to affirm the unity of thought and being. The idea that this unity is established by reinstating a pre-Kantian metaphysics has in most of the recent Hegel literature been discredited. In the wake of this non-metaphysical Hegel there is a concern that the architectonic of concepts which is taken as the organizing principle of consciousness offers an account of experience which is too schematic. While Hegel disputes the intuition/concept distinction as it is played out in Kant and Fichte, he does nevertheless retain some residue of a notion of intuition in his theory of the Concept. This is central to understanding his notion of experience as it can't simply be equated with rule governed conceptuality. Satisfying the demands of reason for Hegel requires more than conceiving our experience solely as judgments. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Perceptual completion and object-based representations in short-term visual memory

Object-based representations in visual short-term memory (VSTM) were examined using a change detection memory task. A display comprising two rows of four differently colored elements was followed by a probe display in which only one of the rows reappeared. On same trials, the probed row was identical to the corresponding row in the memory display. On different trials, two of the elements in the probed row had their colors exchanged. In each memory display, a task-irrelevant visual element appeared between the two rows, with the potential to function as an occluder. Performance was enhanced when perceptual completion meant that four, rather than eight, objects were perceived in the memory display and when the probe display revealed that the occluded elements continued behind the occluder. It appears that several forms of representation can co-occur to support VSTM, one of which is object based.     

BEHAVIORAL THERAPY DEVELOPMENT AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE:

Abstract— An abundance of research from diverse areas of psychological science is potentially relevant to behavioral therapy development research. The National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health convened a workshop to reinforce the connection between basic behavioral and therapy development research. The articles in this Special Section are the product of this workshop. Several lines of basic behavioral research are described, and implications for the development of behavioral therapies are discussed. This Special Section highlights the notion that strengthening the bond between behavioral therapy development research and basic behavioral science will accelerate the advancement of knowledge about behavior, behavioral change and therapeutic interventions.     

Spatial cognition and neighborhood use: the relationship in older adults.

Measures of spatial cognition, neighborhood knowledge, and neighborhood use from the research described by Walsh, Krauss, and Regnier (1981) were examined to determine if laboratory tests of spatial cognition were significant predictors of older adults' use of their neighborhoods. The overall results show that laboratory-based measures of spatial cognition and subjects' knowledge of their neighborhoods are both significant predictors of their use of neighborhood goods and services. The ability to learn and remember the location and orientation of objects, when contextual cues were not provided at test, was more predictive of the participants' neighborhood use than either the participants' number of years in the neighborhood or their mobility. Spatial memory as measured by the Educational Testing Service Building Memory task predicted neighborhood knowledge, which was predictive of neighborhood use.     

Duration discrimination of empty and filled intervals marked by auditory and visual signals

Experiments 1 and 2 compared, with a single-stimulus procedure, the discrimination of filled and empty intervals in both auditory and visual modalities. In Experiment 1, in which intervals were about 250 msec, the discrimination was superior with empty intervals in both modalities. In Experiment 2, with intervals lasting about 50 msec, empty intervals showed superior performance with visual signals only. In Experiment 3, for the auditory modality at 250 msec, the discrimination was easier with empty intervals than with filled intervals with both the forced-choice (FC) and the single stimulus (SS) modes of presentation, and the discrimination was easier with the FC than with the SS method. Experiment 4, however, showed that at 50 and 250 msec, with a FC-adaptive procedure, there were no differences between filled and empty intervals in the auditory mode; the differences observed with the visual mode in Experiments 1 and 2 remained significant. Finally, Experiment 5 compared differential thresholds for four marker-type conditions, filled and empty intervals in the auditory and visual modes, for durations ranging from .125 to 4 sec. The results showed (1) that the differential threshold differences among marker types are important for short durations but decrease with longer durations, and (2) that a generalized Weber’s law generally holds for these conditions. The results as a whole are discussed in terms of timing mechanisms.     

Quantitative Analyses of Schooling Effects on Executive Function in Young Children

Developmental studies have demonstrated the utility of select executive function (EF) tasks for the early diagnosis of specific learning-related problems (e.g., Snow, 1998). However, previous data demonstrating schooling effects on EF measures suggests potential pitfalls in clinical interpretation. In the present study three common EF measures, (Wisconsin Card Sort, Thurstone Word Fluency, and a mazes task) in addition to a VIQ estimating task, were administered to a cross-section of 115 children aged 7 to 9. Using a school-entrance cut-off design the unique contributions of formal schooling versus age-related changes to performance on the EF measures were examined. Schooling effects were both task and age-dependent supporting the conclusion that the proper use of EF measures with children in this age range depends upon consideration of factors beyond that usually depicted in net-effect models.     

Latent self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism: Tests of factorial,convergent, and discriminant validity using self- and informant reports

Using latent variables for self-oriented perfectionism (i.e., demanding perfection of oneself) and socially prescribed perfectionism (i.e., perceiving others are demanding perfection of oneself) has advantages. However, few studies have specifically examined the psychometric properties of these latent variables. The present study addresses this shortcoming by testing the factorial, convergent, and discriminant validity of self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism latent variables using self- and informant reports. It was hypothesized that (a) the factor structure of the self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism latent variables would be supported, (b) self- and informant reports would moderately converge, and (c) the self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism latent variables would be discriminable. A sample of 242 undergraduate women and 378 informants (218 mothers, 160 fathers) was recruited. Undergraduate women completed self-reports, and mothers and fathers completed informant reports. Results were consistent with hypotheses, thereby supporting (a) the factorial validity of the self-oriented and socially prescribed latent variables using self- and informant reports, (b) the convergent validity of the self-oriented and socially prescribed latent variables via moderately to strongly correlated self- and informant reports, and (c) the discriminant validity of the self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism latent variables. Findings suggest research using these latent variables is warranted.     

Monaural Loudness Adaptation for Middle-Intensity Middle-Frequency Signals: The Importance of Measurement Technique

Using the Simple Adaptation technique (SA) and the Ipsilateral Comparison Paradigm (ICP), the authors studied monaural loudness adaptation to a middle-intensity [60 dB(A)] tone at signal frequencies of 250, 1000, and 4000 Hz in the left and right ears. Adaptation effects were absent when the SA procedure was used. However, they were observed uniformly across all frequency values with the ICP, a result that challenges the assertion in the literature, on the basis of SA measures, that loudness adaptation for middle-intensity signals occurs only at frequencies above 4000 Hz. The ICP features periodic intensity modulations (±10 dB relative to the base signal) to accommodate listeners' needs for referents by which they can gauge subtle changes in the loudness of the adapting tone, a key component that is missing in the SA method. Adaptation effects in this investigation were similar in both ears, supporting the equal susceptibility assumption common in loudness adaptation studies.