The dark side of analytic conviction: impasses of omniscience and complacency

It is common for analysts to struggle with substantial periods of impasse, and with the associated subjective feelings of shame and failure, while analyzing patients who rely heavily on narcissistic defenses. Facing the feelings that accompany periods of impasse, while at the same time pushing oneself to take necessary creative risks, is a huge and painful task for the analyst if it is deeply confronted. These patients engage in false uses of the analytic process in which the pursuit of understanding is systematically undermined. In response, the analyst is susceptible to being drawn in to processes of mutual seduction, false conviction, and impasse. Through the analyst's partial living out of the patient's projective identifications (and eventually observing the patient's living out of the analyst's projective identifications), the analyst is able to gain a depth of understanding of the patient, of him- or herself, and of the interaction that might not otherwise be possible. Because analysts tend to employ theory defensively, it is essential that they attend, through self-analysis and consultation, to the ways in which they use it. Two cases are presented in which prolonged impasses were eventually understood and resolved.     

Magnetic stimulation studies of foveal representation

The right and left visual fields each project to the contralateral cerebral hemispheres, but the extent of the functional overlap of the two hemifields along the vertical meridian is still under debate. After presenting the spatial, temporal, and functional specifications of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), we show that TMS is particularly suitable to study the question of foveal representation as it allows one to study the effects of selective disruption of left or right hemisphere functions on the processing of centrally presented stimuli. Future strategies for the use of TMS in further tests of visual word recognition are suggested.     

Evidence for separate tonal and segmental tiers in the lexical specification of words: a case study of a brain-damaged Chinese speaker

We present an acoustic study of segmental and prosodic properties of words produced by a female speaker of Chinese with left-hemisphere brain damage. We measured the location of the point vowels /a, e, [Symbol: see text], i, y, o, u/ and determined their separation in the vowel plane, and their perceptual distinctivity. Similarly, the acoustic properties of the four lexical tones were measured in the F0 x time space. The data for our brain-damaged speaker were compared with those of a healthy control speaker. Results show that the patient's vowels hardly suffered from her lesion (relative to the vowel dispersion in the healthy control speaker), but that the identifiability of the four lexical tones was greatly compromised. These findings show that the tonal errors in aphasic speech behave independently of the segmental errors, even though both serve to maintain lexical contrasts in Chinese, and are therefore part of the lexical specification of Chinese words. The present study suggests that the specification of segmental and tonal aspects of lexical entries in Chinese, and in tone languages in general, are located or processed separately in the brain.     

Category number impacts rule-based but not information-integration category learning: further evidence for dissociable category-learning systems

Category number effects on rule-based and information-integration category learning were investigated. Category number affected accuracy and the distribution of best-fitting models in the rule-based task but had no effect on accuracy and little effect on the distribution of best-fining models in the information-integration task. In the 2 category conditions, rule-based learning was better than information-integration learning, whereas in the 4 category conditions, unidimensional and conjunctive rule-based learning was worse than information-integration learning. Rule-based strategies were used in the 2-category/rule-based condition, but about half of the observers used rule-based strategies in the 4-category unidimensional and conjunctive rule-based conditions. Information-integration strategies were used in the 4-category/ information-integration condition and by the end of training were used in the 2-category/information-integration condition.     

Call usage learning in gray seals (Halichoerus grypus)

Call usage learning can be demonstrated on 4 different levels: signaling on command, signaling and refraining from signaling on command, responding to a trained stimulus with a signal from a specific signal class, and responding to the playback of any untrained stimulus with one from the same signal class. Two young gray seals (Halichoerus grypus) were trained successfully to demonstrate the first 2 levels. They also learned to respond to 9 moan stimuli and 9 growl stimuli with vocalizations of the same class (Level 3). However, novel moan and growl stimuli tended to elicit growls. This casts doubt on the possibility that gray seals can reach the 4th level, but it demonstrates that they are capable of the first 3 levels of usage learning.     

In defense of the signal detection interpretation of remember/know judgments

Donaldson (1996) argued that remember/know judgments can be conceptualized within a signal detection framework by assuming that they are based on two criteria situated along a strength-of-memory decision axis. According to this model, items that exceed a high criterion receive a remember response, whereas items that only exceed a lower criterion receive a know response. Although a variety of findings have been presented in evidence against this idea, Dunn (2004) recently showed that detection theory is fully compatible with those findings. We present a variety of new results and new analyses that weigh strongly in favor of the detection interpretation. We further show that a dual-process account of recognition memory is compatible with a unidimensional detection model despite the common notion that such a model necessarily assumes a single process. The key assumption of this model is that individual recognition decisions are based on both recollection and familiarity (not on one process or the other).     

The influence of unilateral and bilateral arm flexion versus extension on judgments: an exploratory case of motor congruence

Two experiments were conducted to examine how activation of the motivational systems of approach and withdrawal (arm flexion vs. extension) through 2 different bodily mechanisms (right arm vs. left arm) influenced participants' evaluations of neutral Chinese ideographs. Study 1 found that unilateral flexion on the right side and unilateral extension on the left side led to more positive evaluations than unilateral flexion on the left side and unilateral extension on the right side. Using bilateral movements, Study 2 found that simultaneous performance of a right-arm flexion and a left-arm extension led to more positive evaluations than a left-arm flexion and a right-arm extension. A motor congruence hypothesis was offered to account for these findings.     

Attentional blink and attentional capture: endogenous versus exogenous control over paying attention to two important events in close succession

Identification of the second of two targets is impaired if it is presented less than about 500 msec after the first This attentional blink (AB) occurs under dual-task conditions in which observers are required to report both targets. AB magnitude has been estimated by subtracting the accuracy scores in the dual task from the corresponding scores in a single task in which observers are instructed to ignore the first target. Experiment 1 showed this procedure to be inappropriate, because the first target cannot be ignored. The remaining three experiments elaborated on this finding andrevealed separate endogenous and exogenous sources of the second-target deficit. A parallel was drawn between the AB deficit and the deficit observed in attentional capture. Both types of deficit can be explained on the basis of a hybrid input-filtering model in which endogenous and exogenous factors are subserved by different pathways.