ON THE BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHOANALYTIC FIELD THEORY,PART 2

Advances in Contemporary Psychoanalytic Field Theory: Concept and Further Development. Edited by S. Montana Katz, Roosevelt Cassorla, and Giuseppe Civitarese. London/New York: Routledge, 2017. 212 pp.     

The effect of the validity of co‐occurrence on automatic and deliberate evaluations

Co‐occurrence of an object and affective stimuli does not always mean that the object and the stimuli are the same valence (e.g., false accusations that Richard is a crook). Contemporary theory posits that information about the (in)validity of co‐occurrence has stronger influence on deliberate than automatic evaluation. However, available evidence supports that hypothesis only when the (in)validity information is delayed. Further, the existing evidence is open to alternative methodological accounts. In six high‐powered experiments (total N = 1750), we modified previous procedures to minimize alternative explanations and examine whether delayed (in)validity information has a discrepant effect on automatic versus deliberate evaluation. Casting doubt on the generality of the hypothesis, we found more sensitivity of deliberate than automatic evaluation to delayed validity information only when automatic evaluation was measured with the Implicit Association Test and not with the evaluative priming task or the affective misattribution procedure.     

Which came first,personality traits or identity processes during early and middle adolescence?

No previous studies examined longitudinal associations between personality facets and identity dimensions in early and middle adolescence. To uncover these relationships, we test the direction of effects of domain- and facet-level personality traits with identity dimensions in early and middle adolescence. For this purpose, we used two annual waves of longitudinal data on 1233 Japanese early and middle adolescents. Cross-lagged models provided evidence for bidirectionality between personality and identity in early and middle adolescence. Moreover, our results highlighted that the relationships between the facets-level personality and identity dimensions were more complex than the associations between the domain-level of personality and identity dimensions. Our study facilitates a better understanding of the personality-identity interplay.     

Language Use and Coalition Formation in Multiparty Negotiations

The alignment of bargaining positions is crucial to a successful negotiation. Prior research has shown that similarity in language use is indicative of the conceptual alignment of interlocutors. We use latent semantic analysis to explore how the similarity of language use between negotiating parties develops over the course of a three‐party negotiation. Results show that parties that reach an agreement show a gradual increase in language similarity over the course of the negotiation. Furthermore, reaching the most financially efficient outcome is dependent on similarity in language use between the parties that have the most to gain from such an outcome.     

Shared Moral and Spiritual Development Among Human Persons and Artificially Intelligent Agents

Technical advances in artificial intelligence make somewhat likely the possibility of robotic or software agents exhibiting or extending human-level intelligence within a few decades. Theological investigation can help meet significant research goals in artificial intelligence by orienting the development of agent communication and moral reasoning toward a shared moral and spiritual development of human persons and intelligent agents. In particular, Josiah Royce’s Loyalty-to-Loyalty initiates a moral stance within which humans and intelligent agents can develop constructive ethical frameworks and his semiotic philosophy of community can guide the development and functioning of an agent’s interpretive processes and can model shared spiritual formation.     

Unit price and choice in a token-reinforcement context

Pigeons were exposed to multiple and concurrent second-order schedules of token reinforcement, with stimulus lights serving as token reinforcers. Tokens were produced and exchanged for food according to various fixed-ratio schedules, yielding equal and unequal unit prices (responses per unit food delivery). On one schedule (termed the standard schedule), the unit price was held constant across conditions. On a second schedule (the alternative schedule), the unit price was either the same or different from the standard. Under conditions with unequal unit prices, near-exclusive preference for the lower unit price was obtained. Under conditions with equal unit prices, the direction and degree of preference depended on ratio size (number of responses per exchange period). When this ratio differed, strong preferences for the smaller ratio were observed. When this ratio was equal, preferences were nearer indifference. Response rates on the multiple schedule were generally consistent with the preference data in showing sensitivity to ratio size. Results are discussed in terms of a unit-price model that includes handling and reinforcer immediacy as additional costs. On the whole, results show that preferences were determined primarily by delay to the exchange period.     

Stimulus significance effects in habituation of the phasic and tonic orienting reflex

Phasic and tonic measures of electrodermal activity were examined in a simple habituation paradigm, using innocuous visual stimuli. Separate groups were used to investigate the effects of stimulus significance, as manipulated by instructions. One group had no stimulus-related task (indifferent group), while the other was asked to silently count the stimuli to report to the experimenter later (significant group). Prestimulus skin conductance levels were considered as measures of the arousal level at each stimulus presentation, and the subsequent electrodermal responses were taken as the phasic orienting reflex (OR) elicited by each stimulus. Changes in prestimulus arousal were taken as measures of the tonic OR to the experimental series. Marked group differences were found in both phasic and tonic components of the OR. Some, but not all, of the significance effects in the phasic OR were attributable to differences in arousal. The results are discussed in the context of theoretical accounts of the OR.     

Affecting Factors in Second Language Learning

The present study investigated the influence of sex, handedness, level in second langua ge (L2) and Faculty choice on the performance of phonological, syntactical and semantic tasks in L2. Level in L2 and sex were the most affecting factors. Subjects who achieved higher scores on L2 tasks had strong second language aptitude skills since they were those who had obtained a professional degree in the second language. Females performed better than males in syntax and semantics which is explained by the general female superiority on verbal tasks based on differences in hemispheric specialization for language functions between the sexes. Handedness and Faculty choice on the part of the participants had an impact on our results but only when combined with other factors.