Sea lions and equivalence: expanding classes by exclusion

Experiments have shown that human and nonhuman subjects are capable of performing new arbitrary stimulus-stimulus relations without error. When subjects that are experienced with matching-to-sample procedures are presented with a novel sample, a novel comparison, and a familiar comparison, most respond by correctly selecting the novel comparison in the presence of the new sample. This exclusion paradigm was expanded with two California sea lions that had previously formed two 10-member equivalence classes in a matching-to-sample procedure. Rather than being presented with a novel sample on a given trial, the sea lions were presented with a randomly selected familiar member of one class as the sample. One of the comparisons was a randomly selected familiar member of the alternative class, and the other was a novel stimulus. When required to choose which comparison matched the sample, the subjects reliably rejected the familiar comparison, and instead selected the unfamiliar one. Next, the sea lions were presented with transfer problems that could not be solved by exclusion; they immediately grouped the new stimuli into the appropriate classes. These findings show that exclusion procedures can rapidly generate new stimulus relations that can be used to expand stimulus classes.     

Agonistic behavior and growth in newly emerged brown trout (Salmo trutta L) of sea‐ranched and wild origin

Selection experiments and game theory models have revealed that the changes in agonistic behavior following selection for rapid growth rate of fish depend on the access of food. If food is spatially restricted and in excess of demand, the intensity of agonistic behaviors will decrease. This prediction was tested in an experiment on wild and sea‐ranched brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) fry originating from a common stock. Agonistic behavior, activity, and specific growth rate were studied in tanks (56 × 56 cm) at high (159.4 fry/m²) and low (9.6 fry/m²) stocking densities given either a large or small food ration (3.0% and 1.5%, respectively, food per total body weight and day). Observations were done during 4 days in each trial. Generally, fry of sea‐ranched origin had a higher growth rate. No differences in activity were found. Intensity of agonistic behavior was higher among wild groups. There was a tendency for interaction between density and strain, e.g., wild fish were relatively more aggressive at higher densities. Food ration had no effect on level of agonistic behavior. These results indicate that the selection for rapid growth in hatcheries may indirectly select for reduced aggressiveness. Genetic integrity and diversity of wild populations may be threatened when interbreeding occurs between wild and hatchery fish. Aggr. Behav. 28:145–153, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

A visit paid to Jung by Alwine von Keller

In the winter of 1943-1944, Jung had suffered a coronary thrombosis which almost cost him his life. During his illness, Jung experienced a series of visions, described in his Memories, Dreams, Reflections, which were also to influence significantly the development of his theoretical thinking. On 27(th) September 1944, Alwine von Keller (1878-1965) paid a visit to Jung, while he was still convalescing, in Zurich and documented her meeting with him in a series of notes, recently discovered, which testify to the fact that, at the time of their meeting, Jung was engaged in writing the 'Salt' chapter of Mysterium coniunctionis and investigating the alchemistic symbolism of the 'sea'. This theme seems to testify to a continuity of interests on Jung's part with the seminar he held at Eranos the previous year on the cartographic art of Opicinus de Canistris (1296-c.1352). With its addition of many unpublished details, Alwine von Keller's notes supplement the report which Jung made of his visions experienced during his sickness in MDR. In particular, these attest to the fact that Jung had attributed the terrible experience which he had endured to the problem of the conjunctio, which was confronting him from the theoretical point of view in his writing of Mysterium coniunctionis.     

Internal objects' or ‘chimerical monsters’?: the demonic ‘third forms’ of the internal world

The concept of 'object' whether internal or external, is a hold-over from the Enlightenment and from the positivistic certainty of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century science, Its use in current psychoanalytic theory and practice is now obsolete because of the contributions of post-modernism and their emphasis on subjectivity and relativity. In plate of the word 'object', the author favors a return to pre-Enlightenment psychology in order to address the presence and clinical manifestation of what the term 'object' screened, i.e., demons, monsters, chimerae, ghosts, spirits, etc. In terms of external 'objects', he favors such terms as 'persons' or 'subjects', which also reflects an adjustment to the post-modem emphasis on the ineffability of the Other.     

The Effects of a Self-sacrificing Minority on Pro-environmental Norms and Behavior: An Investigation Using a Sea Pollution Game

This research investigated how a minority member sacrificing his/her personal benefits to protect the environment might influence the attitudes and behavior of others. The experiment, using a sea pollution game, employed a 2(minority factor)×2(cost factor) factorial design. Under the high-cost condition, in which an ecological minority bears the substantial cost it was hypothesized that the rate of subjects' pro-environmental behavior would be higher in the one-minority case than in the no-minority case. In contrast, under the low-cost condition, the differences between these two cases would decrease. The results supported this assumption. In prompting pro-environmental behavior, a self-sacrification minority member is more influential than one whose behavior is not self-sacrificing. Moreover, under the one-minority condition, path analyses indicated that the subjects' cost evaluation did not affect their behavior. It was concluded that when the subjects saw an ecological minority, the inhibiting effects of cost on their pro-environmental behavior would decrease.     

From the numinous to the sacred

Abstract :  Jung took the idea of the 'numinous' from Rudolf Otto's book Das Heilige (E.T. The Idea of the Holy ) and made it central to his understanding of religion. However, as Lucy Huskinson has recently pointed out, this involves a misreading of Otto's work in which we have to look beyond the numinous (which is the non-rational factor in religion) towards the 'holy' which, like a symbol, holds the rational and non-rational aspects of religious experience together in a personally transformative way. This understanding of the spiritual and psychological journey is supported by case material in which a numinous experience, arising in the context of intensive analytical psychotherapy, proved to be but the first step in a process which led, through a period of mourning, towards the development of the patient's capacity to symbolize. In the light of this, the author suggests that the sacred is to be found in the capacity for a certain quality of symbolic relatedness—to self and other—which may or may not be attended by numinous experience.     

Equivalence classification by California sea lions using class-specific reinforcers

The ability to group dissimilar stimuli into categories on the basis of common stimulus relations (stimulus equivalence) or common functional relations (functional equivalence) has been convincingly demonstrated in verbally competent subjects. However, there are investigations with verbally limited humans and with nonhuman animals that suggest that the formation and use of classification schemes based on equivalence does not depend on linguistic skills. The present investigation documented the ability of two California sea lions to classify stimuli into functional classes using a simple discrimination reversal procedure. Following the formation of functional classes in this context, the second experiment showed transfer of the relations that emerged between class members to a matching-to-sample procedure. The third experiment demonstrated that the functional classes could be expanded through traditionally defined equivalence relations. In these three experiments, appropriate within-class responding produced class-specific food reinforcers. Experiment 3 addressed the role of these reinforcers in equivalence classification and showed that the class-specific reinforcers were sufficient to relate new stimuli to the functional classes. These findings show that sea lions can form equivalence classes in simple and conditional discrimination procedures, and that class-specific reinforcers can become equivalence class members.     

The Restitution of Primary Identification Psychoanalysis

The paper discusses different well-known imagined monsters. Starting with the fairy tale and the films on The Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête), hidden meanings from several psychodynamically valid perspectives are proposed with the aim of finding out what makes this story so popular and everlasting. Projected demons or impulses in Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are are discussed as well as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and his monster who are presented and connected to facts in this author’s life. In the summary links to psychoanalytic thinking are proposed.