Does gratitude to R for ϕ-ing imply gratitude that R ϕ-ed?

Philosophical Studies - Many find it plausible that for a given beneficiary, Y, benefactor, R, and action, ?, Y’s being grateful to R for ?-ing implies Y’s being grateful that...     

Does Social Drinking Affect Memory in Older Adults?

The present study examines the possible impact of drinking status on objective memory performance in older adults. Subjects were 214 seniors who were participating in a memory research project and had been screened for cognitive impairment. Cognitive measures included the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) and the visual reproduction subtest of the Wechsler Memory Scale–Revised. Drinking status classification (i.e., abstinent, past drinker, light drinker, moderate drinker, and problem drinker) was based on the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test scores for the past year and report of past drinking history. Very few subjects were classified in the problem group, with the majority abstaining in the past year. Findings indicated that problem drinkers differed from moderate social drinkers on immediate visual memory, and also had a trend for more retroactive interference on the CVLT. There was no evidence that moderate social drinking (average 13.6 standard drinks) had an adverse impact on memory in this population.     

Iris Murdoch's Mortal Asymmetry

Iris Murdoch holds that the best sort of life is a figurative death of the self. This figurative death is informed by an acceptance of real mortality. A recognition of mortality is supposed to help redirect our attention away from self and towards others. Yet these others are also mortal but (unlike the self) remain worthy of love, care and consideration. That is to say, the significance of mortality for Murdoch depends on whose mortality is at issue, whether it is the mortality of the self or of the other that is in question. My rejection of two ways of making sense of this self/other asymmetry is used to motivate the view that her attitude towards death requires a prior commitment to unselfing. And this is a problematic moral project.     

Covert orienting to the locations of targets and distractors: Effects on response channel activation in a flanker task

The role of covert orienting of attention in response channel activation was examined using the flanker interference and precueing paradigms. Four experiments assessed the influence of distractors on the discrimination of a target colour patch under cueing conditions (three with non-informative, exogenous cues and one with informative, endogenous cues) that modulated attention at the flanker or target locations. Across all of the experiments, the amount of interference generated by the distractors was not modulated by the facilitation and inhibition of return induced by spatial attention precues. These results are consistent with previous reports of patients with neglect, which demonstrated that flanker interference proceeds at unattended locations (Audet, Bub, & Lecours, 1991; Cohen, Ivry, Rafal, & Kohn, 1995), and they suggest that response channel activation can occur independently from spatial attention.     

Innovation relies on the obscure: a key to overcoming the classic problem of functional fixedness

A recent analysis of real-world problems that led to historic inventions and insight problems that are used in psychology experiments suggests that during innovative problem solving, individuals discover at least one infrequently noticed or new (i.e., obscure) feature of the problem that can be used to reach a solution. This observation suggests that research uncovering aspects of the human semantic, perceptual, and motor systems that inhibit the noticing of obscure features would enable researchers to identify effective techniques to overcome those obstacles. As a critical step in this research program, this study showed that the generic-parts technique can help people unearth the types of obscure features that can be used to overcome functional fixedness, which is a classic inhibitor to problem solving. Subjects trained on this technique solved on average 67% more problems than a control group did. By devising techniques that facilitate the noticing of obscure features in order to overcome impediments to problem solving (e.g., design fixation), researchers can systematically create a tool kit of innovation-enhancing techniques.     

An Investigation into the Effects of Hypnosis on Basketball Performance

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of hypnosis on set- and jump-shooting performance among male collegiate basketball players. A single-subject ABA research design combined with a procedure that monitors the internal experience of the participants (Wollman, 1986) was implemented. The results indicated that all three participants increased their mean jump- and set- shooting performance from baseline to intervention, with all three participants returning to baseline levels of performance postintervention phase. Finally, each participant reported they had felt the intervention had increased sensations they associated with peak performance. These results support the hypothesis that a hypnosis intervention can improve jump- and set-shooting performance and increase feelings and cognitions that are associated with peak performance.     

Alleviating Choking: The Sounds of Distraction

“Choking” is defined as a critical deterioration in the execution of habitual processes as a result of an elevation in anxiety levels under perceived pressure, leading to substandard performance. In the current study, music was used in a “dual-task” paradigm to facilitate performance under pressure. Three “choking-susceptible” experienced female basketball players were purposively sampled from 41 screened players. Participants completed 240 basketball free throws in a single-case A₁-B₁-A₂-B₂ design (A phases = “low-pressure” and B phases = “high-pressure”), with the music intervention occurring during the B₂ phase. Following completion of the phases, an interview was conducted to examine perceptions of choking and cognitions associated with the effects of the music lyrics. Participants improved performance in the B₂ phase, and explained that choking resulted from an increase in public self-awareness (S-A). The music intervention decreased S-A, and enabled participants to minimize explicit monitoring of execution and reduce general distractibility.     

Frames of Homosexuality: Comparing Los Angeles Times’ Coverage of California’s Proposition 6 (1978) and Proposition 8 (2008)

In this essay, I use qualitative framing analysis to discern frames of homosexuality, lesbian and gay identity, and same-sex attraction present in the Los Angeles Times’ coverage of Proposition 6 (1978) and Proposition 8 (2008)—propositions aimed to regulate the rights of lesbian and gay persons. I specifically describe differences between the coverage of each proposition, and I illustrate how the news coverage of homosexuality, lesbian and gay identity, and same-sex attraction, at least by one source, has changed over the span of 30 years.