Evaluating the stage learning hypothesis

A procedure for evaluating the Genevan stage learning hypothesis is illustrated by analyzing Inhelder, Sinclair, and Bovet's (Learning and the development of cognition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1974) guided learning experiments. The method is a chi-square-based model fitting strategy which enables comparisons to be made among different models. The method eschews critical measurement problems and is easily implemented. There appears little evidence for the Genevan position, although failure to report critical data and sample size considerations makes definitive evaluation of the Genevan position difficult. Suggestions for future research are proposed.     

Pupillary activity while listening to verbal passages

Twelve college students were presented with neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant verbal passages each of 120 sec duration. Changes in pupil diameter before, during, and after each passage were continuously monitored. Dilation accompanied the pleasant and unpleasant passages relative to the neutral passage. No evidence for defensive pupillary constriction was found. Habituation occurred during periods of silence as well as during the stimulus passages. These results suggest that a study reported by Hess and Goodwin (1974) as demonstrating pupillary constriction to unpleasant visual material may be interpreted as reflecting differential habituation.     

Hemispheric emotional asymmetry in a dichotic listening task.

In a dichotic listening experiment white noise was played to one ear and either music or poetry to the other ear. Subjects rated the stimuli on each of three dimensions. The results showed that both music poetry were judged as more pleasant when heard at the left than the right ear. In addition the music, but not the poetry, was perceived as more soothing at the left ear. The findings are discussed in relation to other indications in the literature that left and right cerebral hemispheres differ in their emotional make-up.     

Individual versus organizational predictors of job satisfaction and turnover among professionals

In a constructive replication and extension of previous research, the relative importance of individual (personality and professional attitudes) versus organizational (professional reward system and tenure) variables in predicting job satisfaction and turnover was investigated for the case of professionals. Support among a sample of computer specialists was found for the notion that, among professionals, individual variables are more important than organizational factors in predicting satisfaction with the work itself; but individual variables often played a major role in satisfaction with contextual aspects of the job as well. Organizational factors were found to be significantly predictive of satisfaction with all aspects of the job, but were the only significant predictors of turnover. Thus the importance of organizational factors over individual factors for professionals was supported more clearly for the behavioral outcome, turnover, than for attitudinal outcomes.     

Mirror,mirror on the wall … Comments on the chimeric face task used by Roszkowski and Snelbecker (1982)

A critique is presented of the chimeric face task used as a measure of cerebral laterality by M. J. Roszkowski and G. E. Snelbecker (1982, Brain and Cognition, 1, 404–409). Problems arise because the faces used are not true mirror images of each other, but in fact differ in facial details. Data are presented to illustrate that the earlier results are not caused by cerebral laterality but by the fact that the two drawings are not equally happy—even when placed in the same left-right orientation.     

Between lived and the law: power,empire, and expansion in studies of North American religions

Taking debates about the Park51 (or ‘Ground Zero’) mosque and Islamic Community Center as a case study, this article demonstrates the need for scholars of religious traditions in North America to move beyond liberal modes of historicizing that pluralize narratives about religion but ignore how religion is defined and regulated. Liberal modes of historicizing create space for different traditions by first naturalizing differences as ostensibly fixed, inherent, and eternal – a dynamic that has proven to produce antagonistic narratives and relations as well as ‘tolerant’ ones. This is in part due to the fact that such narratives somewhat broaden the inclusivity of the U.S. public sphere but in so doing obscure the various means and power dynamics by which the boundaries of acceptable religiosity are policed. Finally, this article examines and offers analyses that provide more robust mechanisms by which to understand issues of religious diversity and liberty in the United States.