Detecting objects is easier than categorizing them

Two experiments compared performance in an object detection task, in which participants categorized photographs as objects and nonobject textures, and an object categorization task, in which photographs were categorized into basic-level categories. The basic-level categorization task was either easy (e.g., dogs vs. buses) or difficult (e.g., dogs vs. cats). Participants performed similarly in the detection and the easy-categorization tasks, but response times to the difficult-categorization task were slower. This latter finding is difficult to reconcile with the conclusions of Grill-Spector and Kanwisher (2005) who reported equivalent performance on detection and basic-level categorization tasks and took this as evidence that figure-ground segregation and basic-level categorization are mediated by the same mechanism.     

Educational Reforms in the Former Soviet Union

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, there have been movements toward a range of education reforms. In this article, an historical account is presented of education from communist roots to current times.     

Antecedents of risk-taking behaviour among South African adolescents

This study aimed to investigate contextual predisposition to risk-taking behaviour among South African adolescents. Participants included 194 black adolescents from central South Africa (female = 50.5% between the ages of 16 and 19 years). The adolescents completed a youth risk behaviour survey as well as a questionnaire on their parental, peer, school, and community relationships. Data were analysed by means of multivariate analyses of variance and standard multiple regression analyses in order to predict risk-taking behaviour (violence, substance use, and risky sexual behaviour) from various relationship contexts (parents, peers, school, and community). Irrespective of relationship context, males portray a higher risk for all types of risky behaviour, and the more time adolescents spend with their peers, the higher their risk for engagement in risk-taking behaviour. Parental monitoring predicted a lower risk for portraying risky behaviour.     

“A Failure of Curiosity”

ABSTRACT

This essay discusses the clinician's defense against and resolution of the experience of boredom in the countertransference as an incident of projective identification in the treatment of a woman with dissociative identity disorder. The essay details the inner mind of the therapist as she discovers both her own feelings and judgements of those feelings. As the essay progresses, she begins to grasp the significance of her discomfort in informing the therapeutic process. We watch as this material is made use of to move forward a stalled therapy into new territory.     

论医疗纠纷鉴定结论的质证

近年来,医患双方的紧张关系不断显现,医疗纠纷已成为当今社会热点问题之一,人民法院受限于专业限制将医疗纠纷鉴定结论作为首要的处理医疗纠纷的基本依据.审核现有医疗纠纷鉴定规则及其程序,存在医疗知识不确定、鉴定规则不完备、鉴定内容难以掌握等因素,导致双方对鉴定结论产生疑惑,造成了当事人对裁判依据的不信任与不认可.对此,完善针对医疗鉴定的质证制度是最重要的程序和手段.目前,主要切入口是完善鉴定人到场制度和建立专家参与审判制度.