Object processing for action across childhood

Human adults process and select the opportunities for action in their environment rapidly, efficiently, and effortlessly. While several studies have revealed substantial improvements in object recognition skills, motor abilities, and control over the motor system during late childhood, surprisingly little is known about how object processing for action develops during this period. This study addresses this issue by investigating how the ability to ignore actions potentiated by a familiar utensil develops between ages 6 and 10 years. It is the first study to demonstrate that (1) the mechanisms that transform a graspable visual stimulus into an object‐appropriate motor response are in place by the sixth year of life and (2) graspable features of an object can facilitate and interfere with manual responses in an adult‐like manner by this age. The results suggest that there may be distinct developmental trajectories for the ability to ignore motor responses triggered by visual affordances and the stimulus response compatibility effects typically assessed with Simon tasks.     

Principles of coparticipant inquiry: An introductory outline and implications for therapeutic action

Abstract

Historically, two paradigms have been dominant in clinical psychoanalysis: the classical paradigm, which views the impersonal analyst as objective mirror, and the interpersonal/relational model, which views the analyst as intersubjective participant-observer. An evolutionary shift in psychoanalytic consciousness has, however, been quietly taking place, giving rise to coparticipant inquiry, a third paradigm that integrates the individualistic emphasis of classical theory and the social focus of participant-observation, avoiding the reductionism of each. This new perspective, which is rooted in the radical teachings and clinical experiments of Sandor Ferenczi, represents a significant shift in analytic theory and has major clinical implications. This essay articulates the seven guiding principles of coparticipant inquiry and reviews its contribution to the psychoanalytic theory of therapeutic action. The curative process of reconstructive new experience in the analytic situation, referred to as the “living through” process, is seen to subtend curative change, for both patient and analyst. The inherent mutuality and bi-directionality of this beneficial “living through” process is examined in both its direct and its dialectic coparticipatory aspects.     

Al-Ghazali's Use of the Terms “Necessity” and “Habit” in his Theory of Natural Causality

The present article aims at analyzing the terms “necessity” (Al-darura) and “habit” (al-āda) in al-Ghazali's (1058?–?1111) theory of natural causality (Al-Sbābiah al-Tabī'īa) by answering the following question: Why does Al-Ghazali use term “habit” and negation of “necessity” with regard to natural Causality? Al-Ghazali denies causal necessity that links cause and effect since this relationship does not draw on logical rules that make it necessary. This, however, does not mean that he denies the existence of a causal relationship between things, as he recognizes its existence. He, however, denies the necessity of that relationship, as he claims that the source of causal necessity stems from a psychological emotion rather than from being inherent in things themselves. Al-Ghazali also attempts to base causal necessity on “habit” by claiming that the similarity of event A as cause and event B as effect stems from observation, repetition and the sequencing of natural phenomena. Al-Ghazali, then, endeavors to prove that science is based on expectation and assumption that draws on observation, the senses, and repetition and does not consider it as constant and absolute.     

Evolutionary Theologies and Divine Action1

Abstract

Two challenges loom large for efforts to develop a theology of evolution. The first is the problem of purpose: can evolutionary processes, in which chance plays so prominent a role, be understood as the context of God's purposive action? The second is the problem of the pervasiveness of suffering and death in evolution. To the extent that we succeed in responding to the first difficulty by giving an account of how God's purposes are enacted in the history of life, we deepen the conundrum about God's relation to natural evils. In particular, if we embrace evolution as God's clever way of making life make itself, we will find it difficult to sustain the classical theological claim that death is a disruptive interloper in God's good creation.     

Religiously Affiliated Continuum of Care Retirement Communities

SUMMARY

The paper introduces an action research initiative called Spirited Scotland, an embryonic movement seeking to restore spirituality to an appropriate place in health and social care. It locates the initiative in the changing social and spiritual circumstances of post-industrial Scotland and identifies some challenges it faces associated with the prevailing understandings of health, becoming ill, and successful ageing. The paper also considers some policy and practice challenges raised by Spirited Scotland, in terms both of content and process.     

Distinct Visual Cues Mediate Aperture Shaping for Grasping and Pantomime-Grasping Tasks

The authors examined whether the top-down requirements of dissociating the spatial relations between stimulus and response in a goal-directed grasping task renders the mediation of aperture trajectories via relative visual information. To address that issue, participants grasped differently sized target objects (i.e., grasping condition) and also grasped to a location that was dissociated from the target object (i.e., pantomime-grasping condition). Just noticeable difference (JND) values associated with the early through late stages of aperture shaping were computed to examine the extent to which motor output adhered to, or violated, the psychophysical principles of Weber's law. As expected, JNDs during the late stages of the grasping condition violated Weber's law: a result evincing the use of absolute visual information. In contrast, JNDs for the pantomime-grasping condition produced a continuous adherence to Weber's law. Such a result indicates that dissociating a stimulus from a response is a perception-based task and results in aperture shaping via relative visual information.     

Schema Theory: A Critical Appraisal and Reevaluation

The authors replicated and extended results from the gunfight paradigm (A. Welchman, J. Stanley, M. Schomers, R. Miall, & H. Bulthoff, 2010a) in which participants moved faster when reacting to the perceived initiation of an opponent compared to initiating an action themselves. In addition to replicating these movement time effects, the authors found that time to peak velocity, peak velocity, and movement-endpoint dispersions were similarly impacted. The findings are discussed in terms of a triggering mechanism involved in ballistic and internally generated movements.     

Quiet Eye Duration,Expertise, and Task Complexity in Near and Far Aiming Tasks

Skilled (n = 12) and less skilled (n = 12) billiards players participated in 2 experiments in which the relationship between quiet eye duration, expertise, and task complexity was examined in a near and a far aiming task. Quiet eye was defined as the final fixation on the target prior to the initiation of movement. In Experiment 1, skilled performers exhibited longer fixations on the target (quiet eye) during the preparation phase of the action than their less skilled counterparts did. Quiet eye duration increased as a function of shot difficulty and was proportionally longer on successful than on unsuccessful shots for both groups of participants. In Experiment 2, participants executed shots under 3 different time-constrained conditions in which quiet eye periods were experimentally manipulated. Shorter quiet eye periods resulted in poorer performance, irrespective of participant skill level. The authors argue that quiet eye duration represents a critical period for movement programming in the aiming response.     

Interference Effects from Observed Movement in Parkinson's Disease

Previous research has demonstrated that Parkinson's disease patients have an increased susceptibility to response conflict. In the present study, the authors investigate whether Parkinson's patients have a similar sensitivity to interference from observed movements. In all, 10 patients and 10 controls performed horizontal and vertical arm movements while watching a video of either a person performing similar movements or a moving dot. Movements were performed in the same plane (congruent) and orthogonal to the observed movement (incongruent). The off-axis variance of movements was our index of interference. Although patients tended to exhibit more off-axis variability than did controls, both groups demonstrated similar congruence effects, with greater variance in incongruent conditions. These results indicated that increased susceptibility to interference in Parkinson's disease does not extend to interference from observed movements.