Near-death experience: A review from pastoral psychology

Published interpretations of near-death experience from the vantage of pastoral psychology are virtually nonexistent. Subjective reports from survivors and investigative contributions from other disciplines are scattered and diverse. A comparison of twenty-one near-death experience transcendence accounts with the available literature may not only offer direction for further systematic inquiry but also contribute to our pastoral understanding of life and death.He is a candidate for the S.T.D. in pastoral psychology at San Francisco Theological Seminary, San Anselmo, California, and a Fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors.The author gratefully acknowledges the help of his brother, Michael B. Sabom. M.D., of the Emory University Medical School, Atlanta. Georgia, in the preparation of this article, it is to his continuing pastoral work with NDE survivors that this article is dedicated.     

Retardation of autoshaping following pretraining with unpredictable food: Effects of changing the context between pretraining and testing

In Experiment 1, pigeons exposed to US ONLY pretraining were observed to be retarded in the acquisition of autoshaping relative to naive controls; however, gross changes in contextual stimuli between pretraining and testing alleviated the retardation effect. In Experiment 2, groups of pigeons exposed to CS ONLY, US ONLY, or random CS-US presentations (TRC) were tested for the acquisition of autoshaping. The US ONLY and TRC groups were retarded relative to naive controls. The context change manipulation eliminated the US ONLY retardation effect and attenuated, but did not eliminate, the TRC retardation effect. Context blocking accounts for the US ONLY effect and contributes to the TRC effect; however, context-independent retardation following TRC pretraining suggests the operation of the learned irrelevance cognition.     

Discriminative responding on associated mixed and multiple schedules as a function of food and ICS reinforcement

Performance on associated mixed and multiple variable-interval-extinction schedules was studied as a function of food versus intracranial stimulation (ICS) reinforcement. For the mixed schedule, differential responding was greater for an ICS reinforcement group than for a food reinforcement group, demonstrating that conditions affecting resistance to extinction help to determine the control exerted by a mixed schedule. Performance on the multiple schedule demonstrated greater differential responding for an ICS group than for a food reinforcement group during the early training sessions, indicating that the control exerted by mixed schedules interacts with that exerted by the exteroceptive discriminative stimuli. The results suggest that the influence of the associated mixed schedule on discriminative responding would be greater, the greater the difficulty of the stimulus discrimination.     

Reinforcement of eye movement with concurrent schedules

Human macrosaccadic eye movements to two areas of a four-dial display were conditioned by concurrent variable-interval schedules of signals. Reinforcers (signals) were delivered to the two right-hand dials on one schedule and to the two left-hand dials on another, independent schedule. The use of a changeover delay between crossover eye movements and reinforcement had the effect of changing the pattern of scanning from fixating four dials in succession or in a Z-shaped pattern to scanning vertically the dials on either side with fewer crossovers. In the presence of a changeover delay, subjects matched relative eye-movement rates and relative reinforcement rates on each schedule. Rate of crossover eye movements, with a changeover delay in effect, was also inversely related to the difference in reinforcements arranged by the concurrent schedules. The results suggest that for stimuli whose critical components are arranged spatially, conditioned eye movements play an important part in selective stimulus control.     

Linear representation of temporal location and Stevens’s law

Ss were asked to indicate points 1 week, 7 months, 3 years, and 9 years in the past and future on two time lines representing birth to present and present to death. Data for 90 college-age Ss fit a psychophysical power function following Stevens’s law. with negatively accelerated growth indicating proportionately greater linear representation of periods nearer to the present. Variability was greater for the representations of the future than of the past, with monotonic increases in variability as distance from the present increased.     

The personal and marital adjustment of parents as related to observed child deviance and parenting behaviors

The purpose of this study was to document the relationship of parents' personal and marital adjustment to their own behavior as parents and the behavior of their children. A total of 31 families who had been referred for behavioral counseling regarding their male child's behavior problems were given a diagnostic battery which included home observations as well as administration to parents of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the LockeWallace Marital Adjustment Test. Results revealed consistent negative relationships between marital satisfaction and the observed level of child deviance. Similarly, there were consistent negative relationships between marital satisfaction and the level of observed “negativeness” to the child. Analyses using the MMPI indicated that a large number of the fathers ' MMPI scales were related to child deviance, but this finding was not replicated for mothers. Several MMPI scales were related to marital satisfaction for both parents. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for the assessment and treatment of families with a problem child.     

Bayesian inference and the classical test theory model: Reliability and true scores

A general one-way analysis of variance components with unequal replication numbers is used to provide unbiased estimates of the true and error score variance of classical test theory. The inadequacy of the ANOVA theory is noted and the foundations for a Bayesian approach are detailed. The choice of prior distribution is discussed and a justification for the Tiao-Tan prior is found in the particular context of the “n-split” technique. The posterior distributions of reliability, error score variance, observed score variance and true score variance are presented with some extensions of the original work of Tiao and Tan. Special attention is given to simple approximations that are available in important cases and also to the problems that arise when the ANOVA estimate of true score variance is negative. Bayesian methods derived by Box and Tiao and by Lindley are studied numerically in relation to the problem of estimating true score. Each is found to be useful and the advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed and related to the classical test-theoretic methods. Finally, some general relationships between Bayesian inference and classical test theory are discussed. Supported in part by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development under Research Grant 1 PO1 HDO1762. Reproduction, translation, use or disposal by or for the United States Government is permitted.     

Feature saliency and recognition memory for schematic faces

Memory for schematic faces was studied using a recognition memory paradigm. Ss indicated whether two faces, separated by delays of 6, 12, or 18 sec, were the same or different. Theoretical interest centered on the effects of component feature saliency on response bias and detectability. The main results were that there were fewer misses and more false alarms on the more salient features. Analysis showed that the main effect of feature saliency was on response bias, not detectability.     

Apparatus conceptualization for psychopathological research inmonkeys

Investigation of psychopathology in monkeys requires analysis of multiple variables mediating specific behaviors. Assessment of both the relative contribution of each variable and the interactions among them is facilitated by the use of apparatuses whose designs permit separate or simultaneous manipulation of several variables. Three such devices, the pit, the tunnel of terror, and the standard living-experimental cage, each specifically constructed for the production of depression or despair in monkeys, are described.     

Detection and identification of geometric forms using peripheral and central viewing

Two tasks. using identical geometric forms. compared nasal peripheral. temporal peripheral. and central viewing. In the first task. using a yes-no confidence rating scale procedure, four Ss judged the presence or absence of a known geometric form (detection). In the second task. the same Ss judged which of several know forms was presented (identification). The major result is that nasal and temporal peripheral viewing are similar and that both peripheral regions differ from central viewing. Also, detection and identification are relatively independent processes; the ease of detection of a form does not predict the ease of identification of that form.