Raymund Schwager on the Dramatic Justice and Mercy of God

This article explores and develops Raymund Schwager's understanding of the nature of justice and mercy, especially in the face of the Christian doctrine of hell. Schwager follows Anselm of Canterbury closely in seeing a deep harmony between justice and mercy, finding their unity in an expansive notion of God's goodness, which gives abundantly but always also in a way that respects the dignity of the receiver. This unity can thus only be understood in the context of the dramatic interplay of freedoms. An overview of Schwager's theological project provides the background for then exploring his notions of justice, mercy, freedom, self‐judgement and hell. The article concludes with the exploration of some of the logical consequences of Schwager's thought.     

Time perception and the filled-duration illusion

A reproduction design is used to show that temporal intervals containing brief tones appear longer than empty intervals of the same duration, the effect being independent of duration. These and previous data are discussed within a theoretical framework which allows for the interrelation of data from different time perception tasks; and a reversible encoding model is stated which accounts for much of the data obtained with empty intervals. A “chunking” model, in which tones occurring in an interval serve to segment the interval during encoding, can account for the filled-duration illusion if certain conditions are met. Finally, mechanisms that are consistent with these conditions are stated.     

Separate verbal memory and naming deficits in attention deficit disorder and reading disability

In this study, verbal memory and naming abilities were investigated in reading disabled (RD) and control children who were characterized according to the presence or absence of attention deficit disorder (ADD). Results indicate that deficits in learning and memory for recently acquired information occur as a function of ADD rather than RD while deficits in naming are specific to RD rather than ADD. We conclude that ADD is a major source of additional and separate cognitive morbidity in RD children.     

Temporal properties of responding during stimuli that precede response-independent food

Pigeons' keypecks were reinforced with grain on the average of once per minute by schedules that maintained low response rates and by schedules that maintained high response rates. During these schedules, a fixed-duration conditioned stimulus (CS) ranging from 7.5 to 120 sec in duration across conditions terminated with response-independent food. Response rates during the CS were inversely related to CS duration. The rates and the temporal patterns of responding during the shortest CS were similar whether the ongoing schedule maintained high response rates or low response rates. As CS duration increased, the rate and pattern of responding during the CS converged on the rate and pattern of responding maintained by the baseline schedule. These data indicate that changes in responding during stimuli that signal response-independent reinforcement are not homogeneous throughout the CS; that response measures, such as “suppression ratios”, which presume homogeneity may mislead us; and that conditioned suppression and conditioned enhancement may be better talked about in terms of species-specific approach and avoidance than in terms of emotional states.     

COUNSELEES' RATINGS OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF EMPLOYMENT SERVICE COUNSELORS AND PROSPECTIVE HIGH SCHOOL COUNSELORS

The purpose of this study was to determine whether differences exist between Employment Service counselors and prospective high school counselors in the following areas: perceptions of counselor as a person, perceptions of assistance received by the counselees in educational planning, vocational guidance, personal and social matters, and the use of tests in counseling. This study was designed also to find out whether NYC and HS background, sex of the counselees, and number of sessions attended by the counseled affected their ratings of counselor effectiveness.     

Reflection-impulsivity in normal and behavior-disordered children

The primary index of reflection- impulsivity is Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFF), which yields both a latency and an error score. To evaluate further the construct validity of these measures, both the latency and error scores of 9- and 15-year-old normal and acting-out behavior-disordered children were compared. Young behavior-disordered children were found to be more impulsive than the other groups on the MFF error measure. No differences occurred on the MFF latency measure. This result is consistent with previous findings with normal children in supporting the construct validity of the MFF error score and raising questions about the construct validity of the MFF latency score. Findings were inconsistent with Kagan's assertion that normal children become more reflective with age. The older behavior-disordered children were more reflective on the error measure than the younger behavior-disordered children and had equivalent error scores to both age groups of normals. This finding suggested a lag in the development of reflection in behavior-disordered children.The authors wish to thank Dr. Kenneth C. Molkner for his valuable assistance in obtaining subjects and for his kind support.     

The effect of prior recall on multiple response recognition

Certain investigators have found that recognition is impaired when a recall test is interpolated during the retention interval. One possible explanation of this finding is that interpolated recall leads subjects to employ a more stringent recognition criterion. In the two experiments reported here, the influence of the recognition criterion was eliminated by using a multiple-response test requiring subjects to rank a recognition list consisting of old and new items. Nevertheless recall impaired subsequent recognition in both experiments, the effect being most marked for lowly ranked items. The recognition test in the first experiment was carried out in two stages. This made possible a direct examination of whether recall has an effect on the recognition criterion. No evidence for such an effect was obtained. Other ways in which recall may affect the recognition criterion are discussed.