Traditional Christian Belief and Belief in the Supernatural: Diverging Trends in the Netherlands Between 1979 and 2005?

Is there an ongoing decline in religious beliefs in the Netherlands? Using cross-sectional data from 1979 up to 2005, we focus on traditional Christian faith and belief in the supernatural; the literature suggests that they undergo diverging trends. We first describe these trends using the Social and Cultural Developments in the Netherlands surveys covering the 1979–2005 period. Explanations for the trends are formulated and tested using OLS regression models and a counterfactional simulation technique. Our findings indicate that during the 1979–2005 period both traditional Christian faith and belief in the supernatural declined, although the latter at a slower rate. Since church membership rates are continuously declining as well, belonging and believing still go hand in hand in the Netherlands. The most important explanation for both the decline in traditional Christian faith and the decline in belief in the supernatural is the slow but continuous replacement of older religious affiliated cohorts with younger nonaffiliated cohorts.     

Foveal-to-peripheral priming in letter identification reflects response bias, not enhanced visibility

Several studies have suggested that it might be easier to identify a letter when its replication is simultaneously presented in the visual display. We have measured identification accuracy for a memorized target letter that was shown in the peripheral field in two conditions in which a letter either identical or different in shape was flashed simultaneously at fixation. The results of three forced-choice experiments showed that, contrary to Geiger and Lettvin's (1986) previous findings, an identity prime did not improve the visibility of a temporally backward masked target letter. However, the foveal prime letter could apparently bias the subject's decision so that he/she was much more ready to report the more visible prime letter as the peripheral target.     

The role of instructions,practice, and stimulus-hand correspondence on the Simon effect

Numerous studies of two-choice reaction tasks, including auditory and visual Simon tasks (i.e., tasks in which stimulus location is irrelevant) and visual compatibility tasks, have found that only spatial stimulus-response (S-R) correspondence affected S-R compatibility. Their results provided no indication that stimulus-hand correspondence was a significant factor. However, Wascher et al. (2001) suggested that hand coding plays a role in visual and auditory Simon tasks when the instructions are in terms of the finger/hand used for responding. The present experiments examined whether instructing subjects in terms of response locations or fingers/hands influenced the Simon effect for visual and auditory tasks. In Experiments 1-3, only spatial S-R correspondence contributed significantly to the Simon effect, even when the instructions were in terms of the fingers/hands. However, in Experiment 4, which used auditory stimuli and finger/hand instructions, the contribution of stimulus-hand correspondence increased with practice.     

Image reconstruction and Gestalt formation in human spatial vision

A sampling theoretical and experimental framework for the study of spatial vision is introduced. It is suggested that spatial Gestalt perception can be fruitfully analyzed by applying the concepts and methods of modern spatial filtering theory as they are known in the theory of image sampling and reconstruction. Demonstrations of the sampling processes in spatial vision are given and an experimental method for estimating the spatial reconstruction power of the human visual system is described. The experimental results presented suggest that high spatial frequency information has a special significance for human vision. Evidently, high frequency information is transmitted more easily through the visual system than has been generally assumed on the basis of contrast sensitivity studies.     

Multiple spatial codes and temporal overlap in choice-reaction tasks

Experiments by Umiltà and Liotti (1987) and Lamberts, Tavernier, & d'Ydewalle (1992) examined the Simon effect (an influence of irrelevant stimulus location on reaction time) as a function of multiple frames of reference. The Simon effect was absent for all reference frames in the former experiment, leading Stoffer (1991) to propose that a spatial code is formed only if the last step in directing attention to the imperative stimulus is a lateral shift. However, the Simon effect was evident for all frames in the latter experiment. Hommel (1994) proposed that the multiple spatial codes implied by Lamberts et al.'s findings were also activated in Umiltà and Liotti's experiment but had decayed by the time the relevant stimulus information had been identified. Experiments 1, 2, and 3 examined these accounts of attention shifting, multiple codes, and temporal overlap for variations of the Simon task in which the stimulus could occur in one of either eight or four possible stimulus locations. Three stimulus sets that differed in ease of discriminability were used in each experiment. Experiments 1 and 2 were replications and extensions of those of Lamberts et al. and Umiltá and Liotti, respectively. In both experiments, two boxes, with a stimulus inside of one, appeared simultaneously, and the subject was to respond to the identity of the stimulus. Experiment 3 used a procedure in which the four stimulus locations were demarcated by three vertical lines. Two of the three experiments showed Simon effects with respect to multiple frames of reference, and the magnitude of these effects was a decreasing function of the difficulty of stimulus discriminability. Spatial compatibility proper was examined in Experiment 4 using the same layout as Experiment 3. In this case, only the relevant frame of reference was coded. On the whole, the results indicate that multiple codes are formed, but not automatically, and that those codes decay when irrelevant.     

Auditory stimulus-response compatibility: Is there a contribution of stimulus-hand correspondence?

 Simon, Hinrichs, and Craft found that when subjects responded to a tone in the left or right ear with a left or right keypress, both ear-response-location correspondence and ear-hand correspondence affected reaction time. This outcome is in contrast to results obtained for auditory and visual Simon tasks (i.e., tasks in which stimulus location is irrelevant) as well as results obtained in visual stimulus-response (S-R) compatibility studies, which show only an effect of spatial S-R correspondence. Experiment 1 was a replication of Simon et al.'s experiment in which spatial mapping and hand placement (uncrossed, crossed) were varied. The results were inconsistent with those of Simon et al., showing no ear-hand compatibility effect. Experiment 2 was a second replication with an additional condition examined in which the stimuli were visual locations. The results showed no contribution of stimulus-hand correspondence for either auditory or visual stimuli. Experiment 3 was a replication of another experiment by Simon et al. in which tone pitch was relevant and tone location irrelevant. Like Simon et al.'s data, our results showed no indication that stimulus-hand correspondence is a significant factor. Overall, our results imply that regardless of whether tone location is relevant or irrelevant, ear-response-location correspondence is the only factor that contributes to S-R compatibility in auditory two-choice reaction tasks. Received: 15 March 1999 / Accepted: 8 June 1999     

Intrahemispherical activation,visuomotor transmission,and the Simon effect: comment on Wascher et al. (2001)

On the basis of 3 experiments E. Wascher, U. Schatz, T. Kuder, and R. Verleger (2001) concluded, "The variety of tasks subsumed under the term Simon effect turned out to be heterogeneous" (p. 749). This comment critically evaluates the validity of their conclusion by considering their hypotheses methodology, specific conclusions, and proposed broader implications. Although the Simon effect is a behavioral phenomenon, E. Wascher et al. relied heavily on physiology in hypothesis generation, methodology, and interpretation of results. Moreover, methodological differences from most previous studies, combined with limited statistical support, nonreplication of previously reported behavioral phenomena inconsistencies in results across experiments, and evidence against a contribution of intrahemispherical activation by visuomotor pathways, strongly suggest that their conclusion should be viewed with caution.     

The Relationship Between Diverse Components of Intelligence and Creativity

Intelligence and creativity are accounted for in terms of two different mental operations referred to as ‘convergent thinking’ and ‘divergent thinking’, respectively. Nevertheless, psychometric evidence on the relationship between intelligence and creativity has been controversial. To clarify their relationship, we characterized the relationship between diverse components of intelligence and creativity through the administration of psychometric tests on a large sample (WAIS, RPM, and TTCT‐figural: n = 215; TTCT‐verbal: n = 137). The general intelligence factor (g) score showed significant correlations with both TTCT‐figural and TTCT‐verbal scores. However, sub‐dimensional analysis demonstrated that their association was attributable to the specific components of both TTCTs (TTCT‐figural: Abstractness of Titles, Elaboration, and Resistance to Premature Closure; TTCT‐verbal: Flexibility) rather than to their common components (Fluency and Originality). Among the intelligence sub‐dimensions, crystallized intelligence (gC) played a pivotal role in the association between g and the specific components of both TTCTs. When the total sample was divided into two IQ groups, these phenomena were more evident in the average IQ group than in the high IQ group. These results suggest that the mental operation of creativity may be different from that of intelligence, but gC may be used as a resource for the mental operation of creativity.