II—Patrick Greenough

ABSTRACT To get to grips with what Shapiro does and can say about higher-order vagueness, it is first necessary to thoroughly review and evaluate his conception of (first-order) vagueness, a conception which is both rich and suggestive but, as it turns out, not so easy to stabilise. In Sections I–IV, his basic position on vagueness (see Shapiro [2003]) is outlined and assessed. As we go along, I offer some suggestions for improvement. In Sections V–VI, I review two key paradoxes of higher-order vagueness, while in Section VII, I explore a possible line of response to such paradoxes given by Keefe [2000]. In Section VIII, I assess whether which Shapiro might adapt Keefe's response to combat both paradoxes.     

Psychodynamic Formulation in the Age of Neuroscience: A Dynamical Systems Model

The dichotomy between biological and psychosocial psychiatry has stood as a deep divide in psychiatric treatment and training since the advent of psychoanalysis. It is now complicated by the proliferation of diverse theoretical perspectives, both psychotherapeutic and neurochemical. Our deepening understanding of neural network dynamics can provide empirical constraints in validating psychotherapeutic approaches, while the appreciation of the patient–therapist intersubjective matrix can inform biological treatment. The Cartesian mind–body fallacy can now be analyzed as a unified complex dynamical system in the same light as Einstein’s integration of the seemingly divergent concepts of space and time into a unified fabric of spacetime.

Dynamical systems approach to neural network functioning offers the most comprehensive foundation for psychotherapy available to us today. Recurrent patterns of thinking, feeling, and relating can be analyzed by modeling the dynamical landscape of cortical and subcortical network processes. Dynamical Systems Therapy (DST) stands as a trans-theoretical model with the explanatory power to integrate systems of synaptic networks with systems of meaning. It powerfully argues for shifting the clinical emphasis from our patient’s symptomatic presentation as the focus of clinical attention to conceptualizing psychopathology as fixed patterns of adaptive attractors in response to the dysfunctional developmental environment. Patients come to be seen as active agents who create the meaning of their experiences based on their unique implicit templates. In this view, DST-informed psychodynamic formulation helps us chart the patient’s dysfunctional attractor basins, and therapeutic relationship becomes our tool in reshaping the dynamical landscape topology to reestablish self-organizing process.     

MouseTrace: A better mousetrap for catching decision processes

This paper describes MouseTrace, a computer program designed to monitor the process by which people make decisions by presenting complex choice information to subjects in the form of an alternative-by-attribute matrix. MouseTrace is a Windows-based extension of another program called MouseLab; however, MouseTrace accommodates significantly more information and allows for multiple responses, as well as multiple decision stages. It is also easier to use for both subjects and experimenters and more sophisticated in terms of its features and the data it records. These data include what information was examined, when, and in what order. This information can be used to derive a variety of cognitive process measures, including those related to search depth, sequence, and content, which in turn can be used to provide unique insights into decision-making theory, individual differences, and a variety of decision variables.     

Transporting a Manualized Treatment for Children’s Disruptive Behavior to a Community Clinic

We compared a research-based, manualized intervention called Helping the Noncompliant Child (HNC; McMahon and Forehand 2003) to treatment as usual (TAU) for 194 children, 3–9?years old, with disruptive behavior disorders in a community clinic. The two interventions did not produce different outcomes or levels of parent satisfaction. However, almost three times as many parents in the HNC condition stated they ended therapy because their goals had been met, and almost three times as many parents in TAU stated they terminated because of practical obstacles. Number of sessions was related to outcome in the HNC condition but not in TAU.     

Amygdala response to mother

In altricial species, like the human, the caregiver, very often the mother, is one of the most potent stimuli during development. The distinction between mothers and other adults is learned early in life and results in numerous behaviors in the child, most notably mother-approach and stranger wariness. The current study examined the influence of the maternal stimulus on amygdala activity and related circuitry in 25 developing children (n = 13) and adolescents (n = 12), and how this circuitry was associated with attachment-related behaviors. Results indicated that maternal stimuli were especially effective in recruiting activity in the left dorsal amygdala, and activity in this amygdala region showed increased functional connectivity with evaluative and motor regions during viewing of maternal stimuli. Increases in this left dorsal amygdala activity and related amygdala-cortical functional connectivity were associated with increased mother-approach behaviors as measured by in-scanner behavioral responding and out-of-scanner child-report. Moreover, age-related changes in amygdala activity to strangers statistically mediated the developmentally typical decline in stranger wariness seen across this period. These results suggest that mother-induced behaviors are enacted by maternal influence on amygdala-cortical circuitry during childhood and adolescence.     

Fragile visual short-term memory is an object-based and location-specific store

Fragile visual short-term memory (FM) is a recently discovered form of visual short-term memory. Evidence suggests that it provides rich and high-capacity storage, like iconic memory, yet it exists, without interference, almost as long as visual working memory. In the present study, we sought to unveil the functional underpinnings of this memory storage. We found that FM is only completely erased when the new visual scene appears at the same location and consists of the same objects as the to-be-recalled information. This result has two important implications: First, it shows that FM is an object- and location-specific store, and second, it suggests that FM might be used in everyday life when the presentation of visual information is appropriately designed.