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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

A Longitudinal Investigation Of Information Processing And Cognitive Organization In Clinical Depression: Stability Of Schematic Interconnectedness., D J Dozois, K S Dobson Dec 2001

A Longitudinal Investigation Of Information Processing And Cognitive Organization In Clinical Depression: Stability Of Schematic Interconnectedness., D J Dozois, K S Dobson

Psychology Publications

This study longitudinally investigated information processing and cognitive organization in clinical depression. The main hypothesis was that individuals whose depression had remitted would show a significant cognitive shift on information processing (e.g., deactivation of negative processing) but not on cognitive organizational tasks, Forty-five individuals with clinical depression completed 2 information processing and 2 cognitive organizational tasks at initial assessment. At 6-month follow-up, the sample (23 remitted, 22 stable depressed) was readministered the tasks. As expected, information processing shifted significantly in individuals who had improved symptomatically, whereas negative cognitive organizational indices remained stable. The implications of these results are discussed as …


Discrimination Of Computer-Graphic Stimuli By Mice: A Method For The Behavioral Characterization Of Transgenic And Gene-Knockout Models., T J Bussey, L M Saksida, L A Rothblat Aug 2001

Discrimination Of Computer-Graphic Stimuli By Mice: A Method For The Behavioral Characterization Of Transgenic And Gene-Knockout Models., T J Bussey, L M Saksida, L A Rothblat

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

An automated method is described for the behavioral testing of mice in an apparatus that allows computer-graphic stimulus material to be presented. Mice responded to these stimuli by making a nose-poke toward a computer monitor that was equipped with a touchscreen attachment for detecting responses. It was found that C57BL/6 mice were able to solve single-pair visual discriminations as well as 3-pair concurrent visual discriminations. The finding that mice are capable of complex visual discriminations introduces the possibility of testing mice on nonspatial tasks that are similar to those used with rats, monkeys, and humans. Furthermore, the method seems particularly …


Spirituality In Late Adulthood, Lisa M. Heintz, Imants Barušs Jun 2001

Spirituality In Late Adulthood, Lisa M. Heintz, Imants Barušs

Psychology

MacDonald's Expressions of Spirituality Inventory was used to examine spirituality in late adulthood using a sample of 30 people (22 women, 8 men) whose mean age was 72.6 yr. While average scores are higher on scales measuring spiritual and religious beliefs and practices for the sample than for a standardization group of undergraduate students with a mean age of 21.0 yr., means are lower on scales measuring paranormal beliefs. Low scores on death anxiety are correlated only with Existential Well-being and age. And, while some religious behaviors such as frequent religious practice, prayer, and church attendance are correlated with some …


Failure To Replicate Electronic Voice Phenomenon, Imants Barušs Jan 2001

Failure To Replicate Electronic Voice Phenomenon, Imants Barušs

Psychology

Electronic voice phenomenon (EVP) refers to the purported manifestation of voices of the dead and other discarnate entities through electronic means. This has typically involved tuning radios between stations and recording the output on audiotape, although more recently anomalous voices, visual images and text have purportedly been found using telephones, television sets and computers in a phenomenon known as instrumental transcommunication. Given the lack of documentation of EVP in mainstream scientific journals, a review of its history is given based on English language information found in psychical research and parapsychology periodicals and various trade publications and newsletters. An effort was …


The Art Of Science: Science Of The Future In Light Of Alterations Of Consciousness, Imants Barušs Jan 2001

The Art Of Science: Science Of The Future In Light Of Alterations Of Consciousness, Imants Barušs

Psychology

In presenting the data concerning altered states of consciousness in an even-handed manner, I have found that I cannot at the outset assume that materialism is the correct theory of reality. As demonstrated by survey data, the beliefs about consciousness and reality of academics and scientists who could write about consciousness in the academic literature range along a material-transcendent dimension from materialist through conservatively transcendent to extraordinarily transcendent positions, each with its corresponding notions of consciousness and proper methodology. Scientists need to undertake a process of self-examination in order to determine their personal beliefs and learn to set them aside …


Eye Position Sense Contributes To The Judgement Of Slant., F M James, S Whitehead, G K Humphrey, M S Banks, T Vilis Jan 2001

Eye Position Sense Contributes To The Judgement Of Slant., F M James, S Whitehead, G K Humphrey, M S Banks, T Vilis

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

We measured monocular judgements of the slant of a cube face while varying eye position in the absence of stereoscopic and external lighting cues. Errors were found to be small, only 10% on average of the cube's eccentricity. Two factors appear to have contributed approximately equally to this error: an underestimate of cube slant as seen by the eye and an underestimate of eye position. When prism adaptation altered the sensed eye position, the pattern of slant judgements changed to reflect the altered sense of eye position.


Why Do Children Draw Horizontal Arms On Circular Bodies In Conventional Human Figures?, Marvin L. Simner Jan 2001

Why Do Children Draw Horizontal Arms On Circular Bodies In Conventional Human Figures?, Marvin L. Simner

Psychology Publications

Two accounts have been offered to explain the presence of horizontal arms on the circular bodies that often appear in conventional human figure drawings. The studies reported below, which support predictions from the radial bias account but not those from the Arnheim/Shaefer-Simmern account, suggest that a key factor in determining the angle of departure of the arms of the body might not be the child's attempt to draw the arms at right angles to the midline vertical axis of the body. Instead, the presence of horizontal arms could be due to the child's normal preference for locating the arms midway …