How big is this sound? Crossmodal association between pitch and size in infants

We examined 4- and 6-month-old infants’ sensitivity to the perceptual association between pitch and object size. Crossmodal correspondence effects were observed in 6-month-old infants but not in younger infants, suggesting that experience and/or further maturation is needed to fully develop this crossmodal association.     

Hypnotizability, imaginative involvement, and anxiety

Forty-five undergraduate students were investigated to determine the relationship between hypnotizability, imaginative involvement (absorption), and anxiety responses. Hypnotizability was measured independently with the Creative Imagination Scale (CIS), and imaginative involvement was measured with the Absorption Scale (ABS). The results indicated moderate significant correlations between CIS, ABS, and several of the anxiety measures. In particular self-reported physiological aspects of anxiety/activation were associated with the CIS and the ABS. Three of the subjects reported having panic attacks. These subjects also exhibited high hypnotic responsiveness, and their scores on the ABS and several of the anxiety scales were considerably elevated as compared with the group mean level.     

Some reflections on the notion of hypotyposis in Kant

In the Critique of Judgement, Kant, despite his strong condemnation of rhetoric, introduces the figure of hypotyposis at the very moment he sets out to tackle the philosophical problem of presentation as such. This study holds that this choice of the rhetorical term is not fortuitous. Its connotations of vivid illustration, synopsis, and moral grandeur serve Kant in arguing that, on a transcendental level, presentation secures the mind's life, unity, and self-affection. Although of rhetorical origin, hypotyposis is thus shown to link up with a specifically philosophical meaning of the term in the writings of Aristotle.     

Creating nonbelieved memories for bizarre actions using an imagination inflation procedure

The current experiments examined the creation of nonbelieved true and false memories after imagining bizarre and familiar actions using the imagination inflation procedure (Goff & Roediger, 1998). In both experiments, participants took part in three sessions. In Session 1, participants had to perform or imagine simple familiar actions (e.g., “stir the water with the spoon”) and bizarre actions (e.g., “balance the spoon on your nose”). A day later, participants needed to imagine simple actions of which some were new actions, and some were old actions that appeared in the first session. After a week, the participants completed a recognition task. For those actions that were correctly or incorrectly remembered as having been performed, the participant was challenged that the action was not performed in order to evoke nonbelieved true and false memories. In general, we found that the imagination inflation procedure can successfully induce participants to produce nonbelieved memories. In Study 1, we successfully induced nonbelieved memories for bizarre actions, although in general nonbelieved memory rates were low. In Study 2, more participants formed nonbelieved memories for bizarre actions than for familiar actions. Also, we found that especially belief was more susceptible to revision when memories were challenged than recollection. In two experiments, we showed that nonbelieved memories can successfully be induced for both familiar and bizarre actions.     

A multi-modal approach to cognitive training and assistance in minimally invasive surgery

Minimally-invasive surgery (MIS) offers many benefits to patients, but is considerably more difficult to learn and perform than is open surgery. One main reason for the observed difficulty is attributable to the visuo-spatial challenges that arise in MIS, taxing the surgeons’ cognitive skills. In this contribution, we present a new approach that combines training and assistance as well as the visual and the auditory modality to help surgeons to overcome these challenges. To achieve this, our approach assumes two main components: An adaptive, individualized training component as well as a component that conveys spatial information through sound. The training component (a) specifically targets the visuo-spatial processes crucial for successful MIS performance and (b) trains surgeons in the use of the sound component. The second component is an auditory display based on a psychoacoustic sonification, which reduces and avoids some of the commonly experienced MIS challenges. Implementations of both components are described and their integration is discussed. Our approach and both of its components go beyond the current state of the art in important ways. The training component has been explicitly designed to target MIS-specific visuo-spatial skills and to allow for adaptive testing, promoting individualized learning. The auditory display is conveying spatial information in 3-D space. Our approach is the first that encompasses both training for improved mastery and reduction of cognitive challenges in MIS. This promises better tailoring of surgical skills and assistance to the needs and the capabilities of the surgeons and, thus, ultimately, increased patient safety and health.     

The goal as process: music and the search for the Self

This paper explores and compares the processes of music and analysis from the author's experience as a musician, piano teacher and analyst. It explains how the use of music improvisation in analysis (with simple percussion instruments) can powerfully enhance the dialogue between the unconscious and conscious psyche, as well as deepen the relationship between analyst and analysand. This is connected theoretically to Jung's active imagination and Winnicott's concept of play within the analytic encounter. Finally, the question is raised whether analytic trainings could do more to expose trainees to the possibility of using music within the analytic encounter. This touches on the more basic and controversial issue (which often separates analytical psychology and psychoanalysis) of whether expressive therapy should be used in analysis at all.     

Art, dreams and active imagination: a post-Jungian approach to transference and the image

The term active imagination is sometimes applied rather uncritically to describe all forms of creative activity that take place in depth psychology. Whilst there are many forms of expression that evoke or are evoked by active imagination, they cannot automatically be classed as active imagination. In this article investigation of visualized mental imagery, dreams and art reveals three distinct forms of image-based psychological activity. Integrated and mediated within the transference and countertransference dynamic, it is proposed that the engagement in active imagination reflects and is influenced by the transference. Distinctions between sign and symbol, simple and big dreams as well as diagrammatic and embodied imagery clarify the differences. Examples from clinical practice demonstrate each mode in action within the analytic frame.     

An fMRI study of temporal sequencing of motor regulation guided by an auditory cue—a comparison with visual guidance

The neuronal system to process and transfer auditory information to the higher motor areas was investigated using fMRI. Two different types of internal modulation of auditory pacing (1 Hz) were combined to design a 2×2 condition experiment, and the activation was compared with that under a visual guidance. The bilateral anterior portion of the BA22 (ant-BA22) and the left BA41/42 were more extensively activated by the combined modulation condition under the auditory cue than that under the visual cue. Among the four auditory conditions with or without the two types of internal modulation, the activation in the ant-BA22 was augmented only on the left side by the combined modulation condition. The left ant-BA22 may be especially involved in integrating the external auditory cue with internal modulation, while the activation on the right side did not depend on the complexity. The role of the left BA41/42 in motor regulation may be more specific to the processing of an auditory cue than that on the right side. These two areas in the left temporal lobe may be organized as a subsystem to handle the timing of complex movements under auditory cues, while the higher motor areas in the frontal lobe support both sensory modalities for the cue. This architecture may be considered as ‘audio-motor control’, which is similar to the visuo-motor control of the front-parietal network.     

On the function of weak phantasmata in perception: Phenomenological,psychological and neurological clues for the transcendental function of imagination in perception

Weak phantasmata have a decisive and specifically transcendental function in our everyday perception. This paper provides several different arguments for this claim based on evidence from both empirical psychology and phenomenology.I would like to express my gratitude to Bill McKenna for his help with the English text and his critical remarks. This paper was presented in the Cork Roundtable for Philosophy in March 2003, at University College, Cork, and I would like to thank Julia Jansen, Tony O’Connor and the other participants for their constructive critique.