The AMBEGUJAS phenomenon and colour constancy

The AMBEGUJAS phenomenon is a reversible flat figure that is spontaneously shifting between two apparent 3-D shapes-'tile' and 'roof'. 2-D perceptions have very rarely been reported. Tied to the shifts between the tile and roof shapes are remarkable changes of perceived colour. In our example, the tile appears to have orange (top half) and blue-green (bottom half) surface colours in white light. The roof appears grey but in an orange illumination and with a blue-green shadow. This phenomenon appears whether a grey display is presented in two coloured illuminations, or a chromatic display with two surface colours (orange and blue-green) is presented in white light. In the coloured illuminations the tile is an example of non-constancy, since its colours are non-veridical colour perceptions. The centre stripe of the display appears to have the same orange and blue-green colours as the lateral stripes but in a shadow. This seems like a colour constancy in a non-constancy situation. An alternative to the classical definition of colour constancy is discussed.     

Children's Assignment of Gender to Animal Characters in Pictures

Tests showed that 4- to 6-year-old children believe that people can be influenced or “controlled” both by thinking (e.g., both wishful thinking and magical behavior) and by realistic means (e.g., positive reinforcement, example, and group pressure). Belief in control by thinking did not vary by the subjects' sex or age, influence type (wishing or magical behavior), or target response (behavior, emotion, or thought). Quantitative measures, however, suggested that magical behavior was seen by subjects as being more efficient than wishing, and that emotion was considered easier to influence than thinking. Beliefs in control by thinking were not related to a measure of fantasy—reality differentiation (realism).     

Vicissitudes of ideas of cure in analysands and their analysts: a longitudinal interview study

This longitudinal prospective study focuses on analysands' and analysts' implicit ideas of how psychoanalysis might help analysands' psychological problems. Seven analysands and their analysts were periodically interviewed. Single ideas of cure from 75 interviews were inductively categorized. Nine distinct types of cures emerged, representing the wished-for goals of psychoanalysis, as well as the actions to achieve the wished-for changes. Each category might comprise more or less utopian ideas of wished-for cure as well as ideas of an attainable, more limited cure, or combinations of these. The utopian ideas of wished-for cures persisted throughout the psychoanalytic process for more than half the analysands and analysts. The abandonment of these ideas was related to the experienced outcome of psychoanalysis. The relation between the theories of one analysand and her analyst is explored in depth in a case study with special emphasis on the analytic process. The study suggests that the psychoanalytic process might profit from the analyst's observance of such incongruities and an openness to work through them.