A Joint Declaration?: Justification as Theosis in Aquinas and Luther

In the wake of the Lutheran-Catholic Joint Declaration on Justification, this essay attempts to explore ecumenical convergences in the writings of Thomas Aquinas and Martin Luther on the question of justification. Specifically, this essay takes the recent Finnish uncovering of the theme of theosis in Luther's work and probes Aquinas' Summa Theologiae for similar themes of ontological participation of the human in the divine. I first display Aquinas' doctrine of God and show how human participation in the Trinitarian life is written into the structure of his account of God. I then show how Aquinas' understanding of participation informs his analysis of the virtues. Finally, I present some of the Finns' findings on Luther and examine covergences with Aquinas. Overall, I suggest that language of participation can help overcome the overdrawn contrast between Aquinas' account of the virtues and the forensic interpretation of Luther.     

Determining the number of factors to retain: Q windows-based FORTRAN-IMSL program for parallel analysis

Parallel analysis (PA; Horn, 1965) is a technique for determining the number of factors to retain in exploratory factor analysis that has been shown to be superior to more widely known methods (Zwick & Velicer, 1986). Despite its merits, PA is not widely used in the psychological literature, probably because the method is unfamiliar and because modern, Windows-compatible software to perform PA is unavailable. We provide a FORTRAN-IMSL program for PA that runs on a PC under Windows; it is interactive and designed to suit the range of problems encountered in most psychological research. Furthermore, we provide sample output from the PA program in the form of tabled values that can be used to verify the program operation; or, they can be used either directly or with interpolation to meet specific needs of the researcher.     

Evaluation of a Web-based introductory psychology course: II. Contingency management to increase use of on-line study aids

In a Web-based general psychology course, students were observed to postpone use of on-line study aids until 2 days prior to examinations, thus negating any influence of advance organizers (Taraban, Maki, & Rynearson, 1999). We attempted to modify this behavior by providing course credit in the form of short quizzes as rewards for using on-line study aids to preview each chapter. Some students received quizzes after previewing frequently asked questions (FAQ); other students received quizzes after previewing chapter outlines. Students who received quizzes for previewing FAQ pages accessed those pages more frequently than did students who received quizzes for previewing outline pages. Increased access to FAQs was associated with higher scores on FAQ-related midterm examination questions. However, the advantage on examination items was not apparent on a cumulative final examination. Navigational structures and reward values need to be considered when one is managing contingencies in Web courses.     

Behavior and autonomic nervous system function assessed via heart period measures: The case of hyperarousal in boys with fragile X syndrome

Physiological responses may inform us about and help us to interpret behavioral responses. For example, hyperarousal may be a source of behavior problems in children with fragile X syndrome (FXS). To evaluate this approach, we examined heart period data in specific contexts in boys with FXS and in normally developing chronological-age-matched boys. Spectral analysis was used to evaluate the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems’ contributions to heart period. Boys with FXS had shorter interbeat intervals, lower parasympathetic activity, and similar sympathetic activity. Also, the groups were differentially responsive to experimental challenge. These results have important implications for our understanding of the basic nervous system dysfunction in FXS and for the strategies likely to be effective in terms of pharmacological intervention with these children. These methods can be applied to a variety of contexts and populations, including children who are sensory defensive, socially avoidant, inattentive, or hyperactive.     

Ambiguity,Competition, and Blending in Spoken Word Recognition

A critical property of the perception of spoken words is the transient ambiguity of the speech signal. In localist models of speech perception this ambiguity is captured by allowing the parallel activation of multiple lexical representations. This paper examines how a distributed model of speech perception can accommodate this property. Statistical analyses of vector spaces show that coactivation of multiple distributed representations is inherently noisy, and depends on parameters such as sparseness and dimensionality. Furthermore, the characteristics of coactivation vary considerably, depending on the organization of distributed representations within the mental lexicon. This view of lexical access is supported by analyses of phonological and semantic word representations, which provide an explanation of a recent set of experiments on coactivation in speech perception (Gaskell & Marslen–Wilson, 1999).     

Why Is It Now?

Adolf Grünbaum, following J.J.C. Smart, has argued that the A-Theory of time is untenable due to its inability to answer the question, uniquely attending the A-theory, as to why it is now 2000. I argue, however, that Grünbaum's explication of the question's meaning makes the question a triviality. But there may be lurking here a somewhat different question, which is meaningful on a A-Theory of time, the answer to which may have surprising implications concerning the past infinitude of time.     

Quality control and the practice of clinical psychology

Because of current health care reforms, quality control, accountability, and cost-effectiveness have become important issues in the practice of clinical psychology. It is imperative that practicing clinicians begin to evaluate their services to assess whether they demonstrate high quality and cost-effectiveness, as well as a continued commitment to qualify improvement. Deming's (1986) approach to quality control is discussed as a useful strategy for improving effectiveness in the practice of clinical psychology. This approach emphasizes the process of identification of the client population, improvements through incremental processes, and evaluation of outcomes. Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) techniques are also reviewed as useful ways in which to supplement and improve on Deming's approach to quality control. Science and quality control are discussed as being inherently coherent. The scientist—practitioner model dictates that services provided to clients should be rigorously evaluated. Various procedures for evaluating the quality of services provided in clinical practice are discussed.     

Social demand characteristics in children's and adults' eyewitness memory and suggestibility: the effect of different interviewers on free recall and recognition

Shortly after viewing a video of a theft, 5‐ and 7‐year‐old children and adults were interviewed with free recall and either misleading or unbiased‐leading questions. After a 2‐day delay, participants were interviewed with free recall and recognition questions administered by either the same or a different interviewer. Results from day 1 replicate previous findings with levels of recall and resistance to suggestibility increasing with age. Counter to predictions, correct recognition performance on day 2 was greater for some participants interviewed by the same as opposed to a different interviewer, and incorrect recognition was greater for all groups of participants for those interviewed by a different as opposed to the same interviewer. Results are discussed in terms of the role of context dependence on memory performance. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.