An alternative view of the “Gibson normalization effect”

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics - Two experiments are reported which show that (1) a curve tends to be perceived as more curved than its physical dimensions warrant, (2) after a period...     

The Consequences of Terrorism: Disentangling the Effects of Personal and National Threat

The events of 11 September 2001 have led to a higher perceived risk of terrorism in the United States. A better understanding of the political consequences of 9/11 requires a more complete accounting of the nature and consequences of perceived threat. Here, the distinction between perceived personal and national risks is examined in terms of two competing hypotheses: (1) The personal threat of terrorism has a pervasive influence even on national decisions and perceptions, in line with its highly arousing nature. (2) The effects of personal threat are highly circumscribed and overshadowed by the impact of perceived national threat, consistent with findings on the meager impact of self–interest and other personal concerns on public opinion. A survey of 1,221 residents of Long Island and Queens, New York, explored the degree to which personal and national threat affect perceptions of the consequences of, and possible solutions to, terrorism. As expected, there was a clear distinction between perceived personal and national threat, although the two are related. Perceived personal threat did not influence the perceived economic consequences of terrorism, although it had a narrow effect on personal behaviors designed to minimize risk. Overall, the findings imply that the effects of personal threat are circumscribed, consistent with past research on the limited personal basis of political judgments. However, the tests of these hypotheses were constrained by a limited set of dependent variables that included national consequences but not policy solutions designed to limit terrorism.     

Sensory modality and stimulus control in the pigeon: Cross-species generality of single-incentive selective-association effects

In earlier studies with rats, the effectiveness of the auditory element of a tone–light discriminative stimulus was enhanced when the conditioned incentive value of the compound was negative rather than positive. The present experiment systematically replicated these results in pigeons trained to press a treadle in the presence of a tone–light compound under food-reinforcement or shock-avoidance schedules. Positive incentive value was conditioned to the compound by associating it with either food or relative safety from shock. The compound was made negative in other groups by associating it with shock or the absence of food. When tone and light were presented separately following this training, control by the auditory element was significantly enhanced in the conditions designed to make the compound negative rather than positive. The similarity of this constraint on learning in rats and pigeons suggests that it involves a fundamental attentional and incentive-motivational process with widespread species generality.     

德性与幸福：康德对亚里士多德

本文译自《难以描述的日常性:哲学的可能性之研究》(The elusiveness of the ordinary:Studies in the possibility of philosophy,Yale University Press,2002)第三章:"康德和海德格尔:对亚里士多德的先验替换".作者认为,亚里士多德及其后继者非常关心幸福或至福,把它当作人类努力的最高实现,康德在这点上与亚里士多德具有内在的一致性,尽管他以配享幸福来代替幸福.但是,虽然他承认幸福是人类努力的一个基本目标,他对幸福论的攻击则为19世纪突显的诸如以满足(黑格尔)与工作(尼采)来替代古典的幸福观作了准备.我们可以满足于我们已尽了最大努力以配享幸福,即便我们不能肯定因而也不是真正幸福的.满足无疑低于幸福,而工作则意味着在无尽劳作这有限意义上的满足.在20世纪,幸福被代之以焦虑(克尔凯郭尔已经讨论过并把它从属于宗教的拯救或永福)与本真性(海德格尔).作者认为,幸福观的这种没落史与实践哲学的持续败坏,和它在现代数学与经验科学图景下的转型有关,而加速其没落的,则是本体论与认识论的兴盛,更不用说行为理论与更时髦的人工智能哲学了.在这一章中,作者让亚里士多德分别与康德和海德格尔这两位现代大哲对质,意在让我们看到完全免于先验论或本体论意图的对日常生活的理解如何不同于先验论或本体论意图的理解.亚里士多德与康德的对质点在于从日常或前理论生活中形成出德性的方式不同,而另一对质的要点则在于把日常生活变形为本体论,伦理与政治于是从对"日常性"的考虑中被清除掉了.译者认为,作者所努力的方向,即把现代大师放在更广大的背景特别是古典的视野中进行考察,对于我们如何以适当方式继承自康德以来的现代哲学传统,意义重大.本文所翻译的是这一章的前半部分,题目是译者所拟.     

PREP inside and out: marriage education for inmates

Although research has demonstrated that marriage education has positive effects on relationship quality, little is known about how such services impact relationships where one partner is incarcerated. The current study implemented an adapted version of the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP Inside and Out) for inmates in Oklahoma correctional facilities. Inmates, with or without their partners, participated in the 12-hour program. The impact of the program was investigated on a range of relationship variables including satisfaction with relationship, dedication, confidence, communication skills, friendship, and negative interactions as reported by the inmate partner. Participants reported substantial gains in all variables and in overall satisfaction with their relationship after completing the program, regardless of their gender and racial/ethnic background. Implications for future marriage education programs and research in prisons are discussed.     

Development and empirical validation of symmetric component measures of multidimensional constructs: customer and competitor orientation

Atheoretical measure purification may lead to construct deficient measures. The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretically driven procedure for the development and empirical validation of symmetric component measures of multidimensional constructs. Particular emphasis is placed on establishing a formalized three-step procedure for achieving a posteriori content validity. Then the procedure is applied to development and empirical validation of two symmetrical component measures of market orientation, customer orientation and competitor orientation. Analysis suggests that average variance extracted is particularly critical to reliability in the respecification of multi-indicator measures. In relation to this, the results also identify possible deficiencies in using Cronbach alpha for establishing reliable and valid measures.     

Community-based co-occurring disorder (COD) intermediate and advanced treatment for offenders

Against a backdrop of increasing concern about the adequacy of treatment for co-occurring substance use and mental disorders (typically known as "co-occurring disorders," or COD) in the criminal justice system, this article attempts to provide empirical evidence for a typology of levels of COD treatment for offenders in both prison and community settings. The paper investigates two levels of treatment programs for COD; "intermediate" programs, in which treatment programming has been designed primarily for offenders with a single disorder, and "advanced" programs, in which programming has been designed to provide integrated substance abuse treatment and mental health services. Findings from a national survey of program directors indicated that both intermediate and advanced COD treatment programs were similar in their general approach to substance abuse treatment, but differed considerably in their treatment of mental disorders, where the advanced programs employed significantly more evidence- and consensus-based practices. Results provide support for the distinction between intermediate- and advanced-level services for offenders with COD and support a typology that defines advanced programs as integrating a range of evidence- and consensus-based practices so as to modify treatment sufficiently to address both diseases.     

Effects of parental divorce on marital commitment and confidence

Research on the intergenerational transmission of divorce has demonstrated that compared with offspring of nondivorced parents, those of divorced parents generally have more negative attitudes toward marriage as an institution and are less optimistic about the feasibility of a long-lasting, healthy marriage. It is also possible that when entering marriage themselves, adults whose parents divorced have less personal relationship commitment to their own marriages and less confidence in their own ability to maintain a happy marriage with their spouse. However, this prediction has not been tested. In the current study, we assessed relationship commitment and relationship confidence, as well as parental divorce and retrospectively reported interparental conflict, in a sample of 265 engaged couples prior to their first marriage. Results demonstrated that women's, but not men's, parental divorce was associated with lower relationship commitment and lower relationship confidence. These effects persisted when controlling for the influence of recalled interparental conflict and premarital relationship adjustment. The current findings suggest that women whose parents divorced are more likely to enter marriage with relatively lower commitment to, and confidence in, the future of those marriages, potentially raising their risk for divorce.     

Blockade of IP3-mediated SK channel signaling in the rat medial prefrontal cortex improves spatial working memory

Planning and directing thought and behavior require the working memory (WM) functions of prefrontal cortex. WM is compromised by stress, which activates phosphatidylinositol (PI)-mediated IP3-PKC intracellular signaling. PKC overactivation impairs WM operations and in vitro studies indicate that IP3 receptor (IP3R)-evoked calcium release results in SK channel-dependent hyperpolarization of prefrontal neurons. However, the effects of IP3R signaling on prefrontal function have not been investigated. The present findings demonstrate that blockade of IP3R or SK channels in the prefrontal cortex enhances WM performance in rats, suggesting that both arms of the PI cascade influence prefrontal cognitive function.