Introduction: Social Cognition, Psychodynamic Psychology, and the Representation and Processing of Emotionally Significant Information

ABSTRACT This special issue examines two perspectives on how people comprehend and respond to significant features of their lives: psychoanalytic psychology and social cognition. The articles included present new empirical findings relevant to die overlap of psychoanalysis and social-cognitive psychology, as well as commentaries from each perspective. This introduction summarizes important conceptual and methodological challenges in the integration of two such distinct approaches to emotionally significant information.     

EFFECTS OF TRANSMITTER TUNING ON ATTITUDE CHANGE PERSISTENCE:

Abstract— assiter, Petto, and Apple (this issue) replicated the effect of transmitter tuning on attitude change persistence (Boninger, Brock, Cook, Cruder, & Romer, 1990) and included an additional condition as the basis for an alternative explanation. Although their independent replication is an important contribution that provides significant empirical corroboration, a superficial rendering of the interrupted-task literature (Zeigarnik, 1927/1938) and ambiguity in the operationalization of the additional condition appear to weaken their proposed interruption-perseveration explanation. We also summarize ancillary data from our earlier work (Boninger et al., 1990) that shed further doubt on this alternative explanation.     

The development of moral beliefs: A retrospective study

The present study tested a model of moral belief development based on Erikson’s (1963) and McAdams’ (1989) theories of personality development. The sequence of moral belief development is beliefs about outcomes, outcome certainty, beliefs about humanity, and social concern. The developmental antecedents of these beliefs were measured using 13 rationally constructed scales based on background data items. The belief and developmental scales were given to a sample of 246 undergraduates. Using a series of hierarchical blocked regressions, we found a pattern among the beliefs that supported a stage or contingent sequence model of belief development. The results suggest that a supportive, conventional and consistent family environment is a major antecedent of beliefs about outcomes and outcome certainty. Adjustment to the demands of adult culture rather than peer culture is the major antecedent of belief about humanity and social concern. Parts of this research were supported by a grant from the U.S. Office of Naval Research (Contract No. N00014-91-J-4167), Michael D. Mumford and Theodore L. Gessner, Principal Investigators.     

Longitudinal Associations Between Fathers’ Heavy Drinking Patterns and Children’s Psychosocial Adjustment

Psychosocial adjustment in children of alcoholics (N = 114) was examined in the year before and at three follow-ups in the 15 months after their alcoholic fathers entered alcoholism treatment, testing the hypothesis that children's adjustment problems will vary over time as a function of their fathers' heavy drinking patterns. Three unique patterns of heavy drinking in alcoholic fathers were identified through cluster analysis. The results demonstrated significant and meaningful associations between these drinking patterns in fathers and adjustment problems in children over time. Overall, children whose fathers remained mostly abstinent following their treatment showed lowest and decreasing adjustment problems, while children whose fathers continued and increased heavy drinking following their treatment showed greatest and increasing adjustment problems over time.     

Seeing vs. believing: Is believing sufficient to activate the processes of response co-representation?

It has been suggested that the observation of another person's action affects the behavior of the observer because the observation of action leads to the excitation of similar response codes in the observer. It is unknown, however, if one must witness the action or if it is sufficient for one to believe that the other agent is responding for response co-representation to occur. To this end, participants in the present study performed a joint spatial-compatibility task with a confederate when: (1) the confederate sat beside the participant; and, (2) the confederate left the room and told the participant that they would continue to perform their component of the task on a networked computer in another room. Even though participants believed that the confederate performed the task in another room, joint spatial-compatibility was only observed when the confederate was present. These results reveal that the actions of another person may only be represented by the observer when the observer is able to witness a portion of the action.     

Computer program for standardization of curriculum-based probes

This computer program will compute standard scores with any desired mean and standard deviation. The program requires the user to enter the raw scores of each member of the sample to be standardized. The program accepts input from the computer keyboard, stores data in files on a floppy disk, and produces output on the printer.     

Spatial memory averaging, the landmark attraction effect, and representational gravity

The effect of a large stationary landmark on memory for the location of a stationary target was examined. Memory for a stationary target was displaced toward the landmark, and targets that were larger, further from, or above the landmark exhibited greater magnitudes of displacement. Displacement was generally larger when the landmark vanished prior to judgment than when the landmark was visible during judgment. Memory for stationary targets offset from the major vertical or horizontal cardinal axis of the landmark was also displaced toward that cardinal axis. The data support the hypotheses that spatial memory averaging of the locations of a target and landmark occurs, and that this averaging may be combined with representational gravity in determining the remembered position of a stationary target. Received: 17 May 1999 / Accepted: 8 February 2000     

A low-cost, accurate method of producing large quantities of digitally filtered images

We demonstrate how to produce complex image transformations of bitmap files for vision experiments using the Cogimatic Vision Starter Kit (VSK) library of mathematical routines along with Visual Basic, C++, or the Delphi Pascal compiler. Implementing this system on an IBM-compatible PC running Windows 95, 98, or NT4 enables researchers to quickly and economically manipulate images for vision research. The VSK includes a simple stand-alone image-processing application. In addition, VSK has the ability to automate image transformations and to fully integrate image processing into new experimental software on the PC platform.     

Do you see what I see? Co-actor posture modulates visual processing in joint tasks

ABSTRACT

Interacting with other people is a ubiquitous part of daily life. A complex set of processes enable our successful interactions with others. The present research was conducted to investigate how the processing of visual stimuli may be affected by the presence and the hand posture of a co-actor. Experiments conducted with participants acting alone have revealed that the distance from the stimulus to the hand of a participant can alter visual processing. In the main experiment of the present paper, we asked whether this posture-related source of visual bias persists when participants share the task with another person. The effect of personal and co-actor hand-proximity on visual processing was assessed through object-specific benefits to visual recognition in a task performed by two co-actors. Pairs of participants completed a joint visual recognition task and, across different blocks of trials, the position of their own hands and of their partner's hands varied relative to the stimuli. In contrast to control studies conducted with participants acting alone, an object-specific recognition benefit was found across all hand location conditions. These data suggest that visual processing is, in some cases, sensitive to the posture of a co-actor.