Facial reactions to auditory stimuli: Sex differences

This study explored whether males and females differ in facial muscle activity when exposed to tone stimuli with different intensity. Males and females were repeatedly exposed to 95 dB and 75 dB 1000 Hz tones while their facial electromyographic (EMG) activity from corrugator and zygomatic muscle regions were measured. Skin conductance responses were also measured. It was found that 95 dB but not 75 dB tones evoked increased corrugator activity. This effect differed significantly between males and females. Thus, it was only females that reacted with a significant increased corrugator response to the high intensity tone. While facial responses differed between the sexes, the skin conductance response patterns did not. Consistent with previous research it is concluded that females are more facially expressive than are males.     

Tempo discrimination in infants

An habituation/dishabituation paradigm demonstrates that 2- and 4-month-old infants are able to discriminate auditory sequences that vary slightly in tempo. Discriminations were only observed for intermediate tempi (600 ms but not 100, 300, 1500 ms IOI), suggesting that infants have the same optimal tempo range as adults.     

小学儿童对习俗时间的周期性特点的认知

本研究探讨了小学儿童对习俗时间周期性特点的认知发展．实验任务是让被试判断两个给定日期之间的时间距离是正向接近还是反向接近。结果表明:儿童对习俗时间的周期性特点的认知成绩随年龄增长而不断提高;随着两个日期之间距离的增大,反应时不断增加,正确率不断降低,在两个日期相互接近的方向发生改变的边界处,反应时最长,正确率最低,表现出显著的“距离效应”和“边界效应”;儿童可以利用数字系统进行判断,他们的认知加工策略包括计数、数字运算和凭借习俗时间的空间表象进行模拟加工等等。     

Aging families: The personal, permanent group

Later life families present a very special instance of group psychotherapy with older adults. This paper describes the challenges faced by later life families, including major life events to which multiple family members must adapt, and the increasing dependency of some elderly members. A developmental framework for later life problems is offered as a therapy frame useful to families. Key aspects of therapy process with later life families are also presented. Goals, strategies, structures of therapy, and the therapist’s role are all shaped by the long and intimate history of the members of this special form of group.     

A review and critique of the process approach in neuropsychological assessment

This paper surveys the process approach literature with an emphasis on higher level cognitive functions like attention and concentration, learning and memory, and problem solving and executive functioning. In particular, it discusses organizational strategies and kinds of errors found on a variety of tests as well as behavioral, situational, and interpersonal issues as they relate to test procedures. It critiques the process approach and suggests future directions.     

Circular definitions,circular explanations,and infinite regresses

This paper discusses some of the ways in which circular definitions and circular explanations entail or fail to entail infinite regresses. And since not all infinite regresses are vicious, a few criteria of viciousness are examined in order to determine when the entailment of a regress refutes a circular definition or a circular explanation.I would like to thank Professors Robert Tully, Howard Sobel, and Derek Allen for their constructive comments.     

Developing the matrix representation grid (MRG): A method for observing group processes. Findings from time-limited group psychotherapy for alcohol-dependent patients

The MRG was published 1988 in order to support developments in group psychotherapy methods as one of the all too few process observation research methods for studying group-as-a-whole. After 9 years of what pilot studies have labeled successful clinical trials, this study aims at validating the MRG against the established SAVI: Structural Analysis of Verbal Interaction (Agazarian & Simon 1989). Videotaped group sessions from short-term groups for alcohol dependent patients conducted along two therapy methods, one behaviorally oriented and the other group analytic, are used as material. The MRG is validated in the study, confirmed to be clinically valuable, and some interesting comparisons between the two treatment modalities are also made.     

RESPONSE TO CRITIQUES OF ETHICS IN AN AGE OF TECHNOLOGY

Abstract. Both Roger Shinn and Robert Stivers ask whether technology has a momentum of its own that is difficult if not impossible to control (“autonomous technology” or “technological inevitability”). I reply that the difficulty in controlling technology is a product of economic and political institutions (such as corporate lobbying and campaign contributions) rather than of any inherent characteristics of technology. Against Stivers's assertion that the ecosystem should be the center of value in environmental ethics, I defend the process view that all beings are valuable, but they are not equally valuable in their richness of experience or their contribution to the experience of others. I also consider his caveats about ambiguities in the concept of sustainability. Two questions raised by Mary Gerhart are taken up: the difficulties of interdisciplinary writing and the role of theological ethics in discussions of public policy. In dialogue with Frederick Ferre I explore the role of alternative visions of the good life as a source of social change. In the face of diminished concern about social justice and environmental sustainability among citizens and in Congress since the book was written, I express long-range hope, but not optimism about the short-term prospects for change.     

Infant auditory perception: Tonal masking

The results of an earlier study (Olsho, 1984) indicated that 5- to 8-month-old infants were relatively better at discriminating among high-frequency pitches than low. In the present study, sensory and nonsensory explanations for that effect were evaluated by examining infants' performance in a task requiring similar sensory processing but differing in the demands placed on processes such as memory. Infants' ability to resolve frequency was tested using a tonal masking paradigm, the psychophysical tuning curve. Twenty-four infants were tested at probe frequencies ranging from 500 to 4000 Hz; a group of young adults served as a comparison. Masked and unmasked thresholds were estimated using the visually reinforced head turn procedure in conjunction with an adaptive psychophysical method. Although infants' tuning curves fell below those of adults (indicating poorer performance), the widths and slopes of the infants' curves were not different from the adults'. Moreover, the difference between age groups remained constant across probe frequencies. These findings imply that by 5 months of age, the infant's ability to resolve sound frequency is similar to the adult's.     

The second offspring of General Process Learning Theory: Overt behavior as the ambassador of the mind

Wasserman suggested in a recent book review that the study of intervening cognitive processes represents a current focus of interest in animal learning and that this has led to a revitalization of comparative psychology. An examination of the volume reviewed suggests that he may have overstated the case. Most of the authors to whom he refers expressed dissatisfaction with traditional stimulus-response associationism but few argued for the extreme (information processing) sort of cognitive approach described by Wasserman.