A Bishop Saving ‘Singers’: Tales of Torture in Pinochet's Chile

Abstract : The article provides a brief biographical introduction of Lutheran Bishop Helmut Frenz, co‐founder of the Committee for Peace, credited with saving at least 6,000 lives of persecuted Chileans following the September 1973 military coup at the hands of the brutal general Agosto Pinochet. Excerpts from Frenz' book, Mi Vida Chilena, document Pinochet's acknowledgment that torture was the regime's official policy, and share the poignant story of one suspected leftist's brutal torture.     

Visual distance estimation in static compared to moving virtual scenes

Visual motion is used to control direction and speed of self-motion and time-to-contact with an obstacle. In earlier work, we found that human subjects can discriminate between the distances of different visually simulated self-motions in a virtual scene. Distance indication in terms of an exocentric interval adjustment task, however, revealed linear correlation between perceived and indicated distances but with a profound distance underestimation. One possible explanation for this underestimation is the perception of visual space in virtual environments. Humans perceive visual space in natural scenes as curved, and distances are increasingly underestimated with increasing distance from the observer. Such spatial compression may also exist in our virtual environment. We therefore surveyed perceived visual space in a static virtual scene. We asked observers to compare two horizontal depth intervals, similar to experiments performed in natural space. Subjects had to indicate the size of one depth interval relative to a second interval. Our observers perceived visual space in the virtual environment as compressed, similar to the perception found in natural scenes. However, the nonlinear depth function we found can not explain the observed distance underestimation of visual simulated self-motions in the same environment.     

Die „angenehmste Entfernung“ zur Betrachtung sozialer Objekte

Zusammenfassung 3 Experimente wurden durchgeführt, in denen die Versuchspersonen (39 Studenten) aufgefordert wurden, die ihnen am angenehmsten erscheinende Entfernung zu verschiedenen Reizobjekten zu wählen. Es zeigte sich, daß die Versuchspersonen näher an Personen als an Fotografien von Personen oder Gegenständen herangingen. Männliche Versuchspersonen gingen näher an weibliche als an männliche Reizpersonen heran. Es bestand außerdem die Tendenz einer größeren Annäherung an Personen, wenn diese die Versuchsperson anblickten. Die angenehmste Entfernung war individuell verschieden und über mehrere Wochen stabil. Sie war außerdem vom räumlichen Bezugssystem abhängig; in diesem Zusammenhang konnte die Ausbildung von Einstellungen gezeigt werden. Die Ergebnisse wurden im Hinblick auf ein Gleichgewichtsmodell sozialer Kräfte von Argyle u. Dean diskutiert.

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The most comfortable distance for observing social objects

Summary Three experiments were conducted in which subjects (39 students) were to choose the distance from various stimulus objects which appeared most comfortable to them. It was shown that subjects approached actual persons more closely than they did photographs of persons or objects. Male subjects approached female stimulus objects more closely than they did males. There was a tendency of greater approach if the stimulus persons gazed at the subjects. The most comfortable distance was specific for the individual and remained stable over a period of several weeks. It also depended upon the spatial frame of reference; in this connection the development of sets could be shown. The results were discussed in relation to a model for the equilibrium of social forces from Argyle and Dean.

     

AMICAI: A Method Based on Risk Analysis to Integrate Responsible Research and Innovation into the Work of Research and Innovation Practitioners

Science and Engineering Ethics - The integration of ethics into the day-to-day work of research and innovation (R&I) is an important but difficult challenge. However, with the Aachen method...