Defense Mechanisms and Object Relations as Factors in Marital Satisfaction

Two hundred and seven married men and 202 married women completed the Defense Mechanisms Inventory (DMI; Ihilevich & Gleser, 1986) and the Marital Satisfaction Inventory (MSI; Snyder, 1981). The DMI was scored to yield defensive as well as object relations indices. Results show that Turning Against the Object exacerbates conflict while Principalization minimizes it. Marital satisfaction is seen as correlated with mastery of object relations. Results are discussed in the context of DMI psychometrics.     

Transference, the transcendent function, and transcendence

People in analysis come into direct contact with the transcendent – that which surpasses not only our ego consciousness but the whole psyche – through the transcendent function working in the transference–countertransference field. Reductive and synthetic methods of interpretation of transference, in both objective and subjective levels of meaning, inaugurate moving the ego out of center stage into the process of relating to the Self. The transcendent function is the means of enlarging psychic space in the transference field to make room for coinciding opposites and a 'creative solution' that arises from their conversation. That solution, or set of symbols, addresses us with such compelling authority that Jung likens it to 'the voice of God', A clinical case illustrates the connection of transference, the transcendent function, and the experience of the transcendent which, I believe, we must identify as such in order to go on relating to it.     

Statistical inference for multiple choice tests

Finite sample inference procedures are considered for analyzing the observed scores on a multiple choice test with several items, where, for example, the items are dissimilar, or the item responses are correlated. A discrete p-parameter exponential family model leads to a generalized linear model framework and, in a special case, a convenient regression of true score upon observed score. Techniques based upon the likelihood function, Akaike's information criteria (AIC), an approximate Bayesian marginalization procedure based on conditional maximization (BCM), and simulations for exact posterior densities (importance sampling) are used to facilitate finite sample investigations of the average true score, individual true scores, and various probabilities of interest. A simulation study suggests that, when the examinees come from two different populations, the exponential family can adequately generalize Duncan's beta-binomial model. Extensions to regression models, the classical test theory model, and empirical Bayes estimation problems are mentioned. The Duncan, Keats, and Matsumura data sets are used to illustrate potential advantages and flexibility of the exponential family model, and the BCM technique.The authors wish to thank Ella Mae Matsumura for her data set and helpful comments, Frank Baker for his advice on item response theory, Hirotugu Akaike and Taskin Atilgan, for helpful discussions regarding AIC, Graham Wood for his advice concerning the class of all binomial mixture models, Yiu Ming Chiu for providing useful references and information on tetrachoric models, and the Editor and two referees for suggesting several references and alternative approaches.     

Conditions for Piagetian Stage IV search errors in a task using transparent occluders

In a Piagetian Stage IV search task in which the object was in plain view under transparent covers, Butterworth (1977) obtained errors from nearly half the infants but noted few errors when the object was uncovered. This study investigates the possibility that errors arise in the former case because novel transparent covers present a particular distraction. Butterworth's results with transparent covers were replicated under his conditions of administration, but virtually no errors were obtained when infants were familiarized with the covers prior to testing. From this and other results it is suggested that errors in search for a visible object only occur when the infant's attention is drawn by other features of the array.     

Enumeration versus multiple object tracking: the case of action video game players

Here, we demonstrate that action video game play enhances subjects' ability in two tasks thought to indicate the number of items that can be apprehended. Using an enumeration task, in which participants have to determine the number of quickly flashed squares, accuracy measures showed a near ceiling performance for low numerosities and a sharp drop in performance once a critical number of squares was reached. Importantly, this critical number was higher by about two items in video game players (VGPs) than in non-video game players (NVGPs). A following control study indicated that this improvement was not due to an enhanced ability to instantly apprehend the numerosity of the display, a process known as subitizing, but rather due to an enhancement in the slower more serial process of counting. To confirm that video game play facilitates the processing of multiple objects at once, we compared VGPs and NVGPs on the multiple object tracking task (MOT), which requires the allocation of attention to several items over time. VGPs were able to successfully track approximately two more items than NVGPs. Furthermore, NVGPs trained on an action video game established the causal effect of game playing in the enhanced performance on the two tasks. Together, these studies confirm the view that playing action video games enhances the number of objects that can be apprehended and suggest that this enhancement is mediated by changes in visual short-term memory skills.     

Treating the “Wise Baby”

In a previous examination of Ferenczis concept of the Wise Baby (1996), I had noted both its applications and its limitations in the analytic treatment of an unusually intelligent adult. Ferenczis concepts of the origin of intellect in trauma and of the wise baby have often left the indistinct impression of being interrelated phenomena. In this paper, I regard as arguable the notion that very high intelligence is pathological when it is precocious. This return visit to the territory of the wise baby extends Ferenczis ideas about the origin and use of the intellect to include a consideration of what may constitute effective treatment for those who suffer from giftedness.Judith E. Vida, M.D. edits On the Arts for this journal. She is a Founding Member and Faculty of the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles, CA, a member of both American and International Psychoanalytic Associations, and of the Sándor Ferenczi Society of Budapest. Her private practice is in Pasadena, CA.Address correspondence to Judith E. Vida, 301 S. Fair Oaks Ave., Suite 406A, Pasadena, CA 91105, USA; e-mail: jvida@spence.net     

Why does visual working memory ability improve with age: More objects,more feature detail,or both? A registered report

We investigated how visual working memory (WM) develops with age across the early elementary school period (6–7 years), early adolescence (11–13 years), and early adulthood (18–25 years). The work focuses on changes in two parameters: the number of objects retained at least in part, and the amount of feature-detail remembered for such objects. Some evidence suggests that, while infants can remember up to three objects, much like adults, young children only remember around two objects. This curious, nonmonotonic trajectory might be explained by differences in the level of feature-detail required for successful performance in infant versus child/adult memory paradigms. Here, we examined if changes in one of two parameters (the number of objects, and the amount of detail retained for each object) or both of them together can explain the development of visual WM ability as children grow older. To test it, we varied the amount of feature-detail participants need to retain. In the baseline condition, participants saw an array of objects and simply were to indicate whether an object was present in a probed location or not. This phase begun with a titration procedure to adjust each individual's array size to yield about 80% correct. In other conditions, we tested memory of not only location but also additional features of the objects (color, and sometimes also orientation). Our results suggest that capacity growth across ages is expressed by both improved location-memory (whether there was an object in a location) and feature completeness of object representations.     

Dynamics of the dyad: How mothers and infants co-construct interaction spaces during object play

Studies of dyadic interaction often examine infants’ social exchanges with their caregivers in settings that constrain their physical properties (e.g., infant posture, fixed seating location for infants and adults). Methodological decisions about the physical arrangements of interaction, however, may limit our ability to understand how posture and position shape them. Here we focused on these embodied properties of dyadic interaction in the context of object play. We followed 30 mother–infant dyads across the first year of life (at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months) and observed them during 5 min of play with a standard set of toys. Using an interval-based coding system, we measured developmental change in infant posture, how mothers and infants positioned themselves relative to one another, and how they populated interaction spaces with objects. Results showed that mother–infant dyads co-constructed interaction spaces and that the contributions of each partner changed across development. Dyads progressively adopted a broader spatial co-orientation during play (e.g., positioned at right angles) across the first year. Moreover, advances in infants’ postural skills, particularly increases in the use of independent sitting in real time, uniquely predicted change in dyadic co-orientation and infants’ actions with objects, independent of age. Taken together, we show that the embodied properties of dyadic object play help determine how interactions are physically organized and unfold, both in real time and across the first year of life.