bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Recognition failure and integration
Authors: ÄRLEMALM TORE , NILSSON LARS‐GÖRAN
Published: May 2008

If a recognition test is followed by a cued recall test then the probability of recognition given recall generally follows the Tulving‐Wiseman function. Despite this regularity two types of exceptions have been discovered. Both poor integration and cue overlap causes an observed value of recognition given recall that is higher than predicted. The present study explores the first type of exception by proposing and testing an analytical tool, which emanates from confidence ratings given to recall responses, for relating poor integration directly to variations in the degree of deviation from the function. It is demonstrated that very poor integration produces a deviation above the function, whereas a very good integration produces a deviation below the function. The effect of integration (and cue overlap) is explained by means of a conceptualization cue dependency. Support is also given to the notion that an enhanced variability of goodness of encoding contributes to an enhanced dependence between recall and recognition.
Time pressure and the application of decision rules: Choices and judgments among multiattribute alternatives
Authors: EDLAND ANNE
Published: May 2008

The effects of time pressure on decisions and judgments were studied and related to the use of different decision rules in a multiattribute decision task. The decision alternatives were students described by their high school grades in Swedish, Psychology and Natural Science. The subjects were asked to choose the student they thought would be most able to follow a university program and graduate as a school psychologist. On the basis of earlier findings using the same kind of decision task (Svenson et al., 1990) it was hypothesised that subjects under time pressure would prefer candidates having the maximum grade across all attributes to a greater extent than subjects under no time pressure. Furthermore, it was hypothesised that subjects under time pressure would also focus more on the most important attribute and choose the alternatives being best on that attribute. The results supported these hypotheses.
Thirty‐year secular trends in the cognitive abilities of Danish male school‐leavers at a high educational level
Authors: TEASDALE T. W. , OWEN D. R.
Published: May 2008

A nationally representative sample of Danish males finishing school in 1989, or shortly before, with a studentereksamen (the highest qualification in the Danish school system) was found to score generally lower on a battery of four cognitive tests than a comparable sample of Danish males who had taken the same tests shortly after finishing school in the late 1950s or early 1960s. This decline appears attributable to the increasing proportions of students who obtain the stundentereksamen and is quite compatible with an overall increase in test scores, also found in our data, for the general population over the same time period. For those who obtain the stundentereksamen, the decline has been most marked in a test of verbal analogies. It has been smaller for tests of logical and spatial reasoning, and scores on a test of numerical ability have actually improved over the 30 years. This differential pattern may be the result of both student changes and auricular changes within Danish schools.
Reliability and validity of mothers' developmental estimates for children between 4 and 41 months
Authors: GUDMUNDSSON EINAR , GRETARSSON SIGURDUR J.
Published: May 2008

The feasibility of mothers estimating their own children's development is explored in this paper. Construction, reliability and validity of a mothers' developmental inventory for children from 4 months to 41 months is described. The inventory consists of six subtests: Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Language Expression, Language Comprehension, Personal‐Social Competence and Self Help. A preliminary version of the inventory was item analyzed on a sample of 105 mothers of 4 to 37 months old children. This reduced the inventory to 164 items with satisfactory reliability and age discrimination on half‐year intervals. The list was cross‐validated on a sample of 275 mothers, for which medians of alpha coefficients for the six subtests ranged from 0.69 to 0.96, with most (26 out of 36) coefficients being 0.77 or higher. Again, the age discrimination was satisfactory, although floor effects appeared on four subtests for children younger than 12 months and ceiling effects on two subtests for children older than 24 months.
To drive or not to drive: Neuropsychological assessment for driver's license among stroke patients
Authors: SUNDET KJETIL , GOFFENG LARS , HOFFT EVA
Published: May 2008

Seventy‐two stroke patients, 43 with right hemisphere (RHD) and 29 with left hemisphere damage (LHD), and 7 coronary infarct controls with no evidence of cerebral damage, were neuropsychologically tested as part of an assessment program for driver's license. Mean age in the group was 53 years. Stroke patients were tested on average 4 months post injury. The groups did not differ on major demographic variables except that RHD patients were more often hemiplegic than LHD patients. The test battery was factor analyzed into 4 valid principal components: (I) visual perception, (II) spatial attention, (III) visuospatial processing, and (IV) language/praxis. The presence of hemianopia (factor I) excludes driving. In addition, measures of neglect and reduced speed of mental processing from factor II, III and IV, were found to be the most discriminating variables when classifying patients for driving. Even though neglect was more frequently observed among RHD than LHD patients, the two hemisphere groups did not differ significantly in number of patients denied driving, 58% RHD compared to 41% LHD patients. The need for comprehensive neuropsychological assessment is underlined.
Determinants of word fragment completion
Authors: OLOFSSON ULRICH , NYBERG LARS
Published: May 2008

A current debate in the memory literature concerns the validity of word fragment completion (WFC) as a test of implicit memory. It has been claimed that language variables exert a strong influence on the task, and that the task reflects memory only to a small extent (Hintzman & Hartry, 1990). For these reasons, the use of contingency analyses of recognition and WFC performance as a means of studying underlying memory processes has been criticized. The present study addressed this issue by examining the influence of language variables on completion of a set of computer generated single‐solution fragments of Swedish words (Olofsson & Nyberg, 1992). It was found that language variables indeed had a large effect on completion performance, and that priming only accounted for a small portion of variance in the task. It is therefore suggested that the method of triangulation should be employed for contingency analyses involving WFC.
Psychophysiological arousal related to Type A components in adolescent boys
Authors: RÄIKKÖNEN KATRI , KESKIVAARA PERTTI , KELTIKANGAS‐JÄRVINEN LIISA , BÜTZOW EVA , LYYTINEN HEIKKI
Published: May 2008

The association between psychophysiological responses (heart rate, skin conductance and blood volume) and Type A behavior was studied in adolescent boys (n = 48) in computer‐controlled experiments. Although psychophysiological arousal was related to the type of stress‐evoking element, task‐specificity did not result in significant psychophysiological differences between Type As and Nontype As. The indication is that physiological arousal may be a constitutional characteristic of Type A behavior. The multidimensionality of type A behavior must be considered in any investigation examining the psychophysiological Type A‐Nontype A differences. Different Type A dimensions, together with previously found psychological differences, were related to specific psychophysiological reactions.
The role of emotionality and typicality in speechreading
Authors: JOHANSSON KARINA , RÖNNBERG JERKER
Published: May 2008

Two experiments were carried out to investigate how emotionality and typicality could influence speechreading performance. Typical and atypical sentences for a certain script, and emotional sentences (happy and sad content, presented with happy, sad or neutral facial expression) were shown without sound on a TV‐screen. Two different scripts (restaurant and doctor) were used. In Experiment 1, hearing‐impaired subjects participated and in Experiment 2, normal‐hearing subjects participated. Experiment 2 also evaluated the effects of tactile information. The results from both experiments showed that typical restaurant sentences were the easiest to speechread of all sentence‐types, in line with script‐theory (Abelson, 1981; Anderson, 1983; Bellezza & Bower, 1981; Nottenburg & Shoben, 1980; Yekowich & Walker, 1986). For the doctor script, sad sentences were better speechread than happy sentences, also according to script‐theory. In addition, perception of emotional content was enhanced by tactile information. Generally, both the cognitive and emotional effects are script‐dependent, suggesting important social constraints on speechreading accuracy.
Sex role orientation and its relationship to the development of identity and moral thought
Authors: SKOE EVA E.
Published: May 2008

This paper examined the links among sex role orientation, ego identity development and moral reasoning. 76 female and 58 male students were assessed on Bern's sex role inventory, ego identity, care‐based and justice‐based moral thought. For women, identity was negatively related to femininity and positively related to androgyny. Also, high levels of care‐based moral reasoning, i.e., a balanced concern for the welfare of self and others, was related to androgyny for women. There were no significant findings for men. No significant relationships were found between sex role orientation and justice‐based moral reasoning. Thus, the results suggested that for women in particular, relinquishing the stereotyped sex role definition and becoming more androgynous is important for their ego identity as well as care‐based moral development.
Personality disorders and psychosocial changes after intensive psychotherapy: A prospective follow‐up study of an outpatient psychotherapy project, 5 years after end of treatment*
Authors: MONSEN JON , ODLAND TORLEIV , FAUGLI ANNE , DAAE ELISABETH , EILERTSEN DAG ERIK
Published: May 2008

This report presents the results of a 7‐year prospective outcome study designed to examine the psychosocial changes during and after therapy among 25 outpatients suffering from personality disorders and psychoses. The therapeutic approach was based mainly on object relations theory and psychodynamic self‐psychology, and focused in particular on affect consciousness, parental images, self‐image and interpersonal relations. Twenty patients completed the form which measured psychosocial changes during therapy, and 21 persons participated at follow‐up. The data show statistically significant changes in the capacity to tolerate intimate relationships and actually establish such relationships, improved quality of contact in relationships with friends, a general raising of socioeconomic status and reduced use of ordinary health and social services. Both the global psychosocial outcome at follow‐up as measured by HSRS and the general level of symptoms measured by SCL‐90 suggest that 76% of the sample had reached a level of psychosocial functioning and adaptation that can be defined as “no‐caseness”.
Falsifiability of political opinions
Authors: LINDSTRÖM PER
Published: May 2008

The concept of “falsifiability,” taken from philosophy of science, was applied to the individual's political reasoning. 131 undergraduates, taking a position on the nuclear power issue, estimated: (a) importance attached to factual arguments supporting held opinion, and (b) degree of opinion change evoked by hypothetical disconfirmation of the arguments. The relation between these estimates was analyzed in two respects: (1) the difference served as an indicator of opinion falsifiability, and (2) the correlation served as an indicator of rationality, inasmuch as rationality dictates that disconfirmation of important arguments will evoke a more considerable opinion change than disconfirmation of unimportant arguments. Results showed that nuclear power opponents and subjects holding radically formulated opinions were more reluctant to opinion falsification, whereas degree of involvement in the issue was of no importance. No significant differences in rationality were observed, although additional analyses showed subjects to be more sensitive to disconfirmation of accepted, but opinion contradicting, arguments than to disconfirmation of opinion supporting arguments.
Preferential looking: A sudden shift in visual fixation pattern at 32 months of age
Authors: JACOBSEN KARL , MAGNUSSEN SVEIN , SUNDET JON MARTIN
Published: May 2008

Observations of eye movements of young children in a modified preferential looking task suggest a change in the visual looking pattern taking place during a very brief time between 32 and 33 months of age. In the younger children, a grating stimulus elicited eye movements towards the target followed by a few seconds of focused attention; in the older children a visual avoidance behavior was observed where subjects looked consistently in the opposite direction of the target. An analysis of video recordings suggests that this avoidance pattern was a composite of a very brief initial target‐directed eyemovement which was quickly arrested, and followed by eye movements in the opposite direction, initiating a search of the visual scene.
Content variations and performance on formal operational tasks by gender, social class and ability1
Authors: GuðBJÖRNSDÓTTIR GUðNY
Published: May 2008

The role of task content, gender, social class and cognitive ability in performance on two formal operational tasks is explored in this paper. The participants were 110 Icelandic 12‐year‐olds, early and late developers, males and females from all socio‐economic groups. Two tasks of variable isolation (the pendulum and three content versions of the “plant” problem) and two measures of volume conservation (three traditional tasks and three tasks formally identical whose content was pictorial social play) were presented individually in a school setting. The results suggest that content variations have differential consequences for the performance of early and late developers at age 12. Both the nature of logical competence and task content affect solutions, as suggested by Overton and collaborators in 1987. Some social class and gender differences were observed on two Piagetian tasks (pendulum and volume), which was reduced by changing the task content in the case of social class but not in that of gender. As the gender difference in volume conservation was not reflected ins chool achievement nor on other cognitive tasks it was interpreted as a gender bias. The findings are discussed in view of recent literature on the development of cognitive theory with increased emphasis on context and meaning in a post‐structural intellectual climate.
The informational value of dreams and associations
Authors: OLSSON GUDRUN
Published: May 2008

The manifest dream has usually been the object of study by researchers, while psychotherapists mainly have paid attention to the latent content of the dream, reached through free associations. The question is which aspects of the dream, manifest content or associations, yield information about the dreamer's psychic life. In the present study it is suggested that the manifest dream to a large extent maintains thematic continuity with the dreamer's associations. However, with regard to emotions, there is no clear overlap between the information contained in the manifest dream and in its associations. The associations make the dream into the dreamer's own personal dream. Associating to a dream changes strangers into known people in the life of the dreamer. The dreamer comes to recognize aspects of himself or herself in these people. In associations, the dreamers portray themselves as more responsible of emotions, while they in dreams rather ascribe emotions to others, and they themselves become objects of these emotions. The author argues for the value of both the manifest dream in its own right and the enhanced experiental closeness afforded by the dreamer's associations.
Serial position effects in visual short‐term memory for words and abstract spatial patterns
Authors: KORSNES M. S. , MAGNUSSEN S. , REINVANG I.
Published: May 2008

Two experiments tested the effects of list postion, and retention‐interval in recognition for two distinct stimulus categories in young adults. Stimulus categories were spatial abstract patterns and words presented on a computer screen. At short delay intervals recency effects predominates and at longer delay intervals a primacy effect predominates in both experiments, indicating similar basic memory processes producing the serial position functions for the two different categories of visual stimuli, but as length of retention‐interval increases, memory for first list items improves for words and remains constant for abstract patterns. Recency functions are similar for both stimulus categories tested.
Multivariate modelling and personality organization: A comparative study of the Defense Mechanism Test and linguistic expressions
Authors: SUNDBOM ELISABET , JEANNEAU MADELEINE
Published: May 2008

The main aim of the study is to establish an empirical connection between perceptual defences as measured by the Defense Mechanism Test (DMT)–a projective percept‐genetic method–and manifest linguistic expressions based on word pattern analyses. The subjects were 25 psychiatric patients with the diagnoses neurotic personality organization (NPO), borderline personality organization (BPO) and psychotic personality organization (PPO) in accordance with Kernberg's theory. A set of 130 DMT variables and 40 linguistic variables were analyzed by means of partial least squares (PLS) discriminant analysis separately and then pooled together. The overall hypothesis was that it would be possible to define the personality organization of the patients in terms of an amalgam of perceptual defences and word patterns, and that these two kinds of data would confirm each other. The result of the combined PLS analysis revealed a very good separation between the diagnostic groups as measured by the pooled variable sets. Among other things, it was shown that NPO patients are principally characterized by linguistic variables, whereas BPO and PPO patients are better defined by perceptual defences as measured by the DMT method.
Working memory capacity and summarizing skills in ninth‐graders
Authors: LEHTO JUHANI
Published: May 2008

The relationship between students' working‐memory (WM) capacity and their ability to include main points (macropropositions) in their summaries was investigated. Sixty Finnish ninth‐grade students summarized a modified expository passage by E. Kintsch (1990). When writing the first, unconstrained, summary the students had access to the text and when they wrote the second, constrained, summary with 30 words at maximum, they had access to the first summary. Working‐memory capacity was measured using Turner and Engle's (1989) sentence‐word and operation‐work span tasks which tax both storage and processing functions of working memory. The results indicated that WM capacity is an important factor in the processing of lower‐level macropropositions. This finding is in agreement with a number of earlier studies which have investigated the relationship between WM capacity and different aspects of text comprehension. The results could not, however, conclusively describe the role of WM in selection of the highest‐level information (topics and subtopics) in a subject's summary.
Individuality and community: The contrasting role of the state in family life in the United States and Sweden1
Authors: SCARR SANDRA
Published: May 2008

Underlying moral values of individuality versus community and assumptions about what is a “just society” make public policies toward children vastly different in Sweden and the United States. This article explores the origins, cost, and benefits of welfare policies that permit child poverty in the U. S. as a cost of the high value of autonomy/individuality, and policies that prevent child poverty in Sweden, at the cost of economic competitiveness and individual initiative. I conclude that both extremes of moral values have more social costs than benefits but that children should be protected in any nation as the future of the society.
Predicting 13‐year‐olds' drinking using parents' self‐reported alcohol use and restrictiveness compared with offspring's perception
Authors: AAS HENRIK , JAKOBSEN REIDAR , ANDERSSEN NORMAN
Published: May 2008

This study examined whether offspring's perception of parental frequency of alcohol use and restrictiveness towards offspring's alcohol use could be used as a substitute for parental self‐reports. Offspring's perception were compared with parents' self‐reported alcohol use and restrictiveness in ability to predict offspring's own alcohol use. Respondents were 924 offspring, 642 fathers and 729 mothers. Correlations between fathers' and mothers' self‐reported frequency of drinking alcohol and offspring's reports of parental frequency of drinking alcohol ranged from 0.55 to 0.70. Fathers' and mothers' self‐reported alccohl use and restrictiveness explained less than two per cent of the variance in their offspring's alcohol use in regression analyses, while offspring's perception of parental drinking frequency and restrictiveness exaplained about eight per cent of the variance in offspring's alcohol use. These results represent a challenge to studies of young adolescents which interpret offspring's reports of parents' alcohol use as a surrogate measure ‘of parents’ self‐reported alcohol use.
Spectral factors in the perception of vowel quantity in Icelandic
Authors: PIND JÖRGEN
Published: May 2008

Previous research has shown that the ratio of vowel to rhyme (vowel + consonant) duration is a major cue for quantity in Icelandic. In particular it serves as a higher‐order invariant which enables the listener to disentangle those durational transformations of the speech signal which are “extrinsic” (e. g. due to changes in speaking rate) from those which are “intrinsic” to the phonemic message, involving a change of phonemic quantity. Previous research has been based on speech segment contrasts which are purely durational, involving vowels with a uniform spectrum whether phonemically long or short, such as [a] or [I]. This paper looks at the role of spectral factors in vowels which are spectrally dissimilar in their long and short varieties. It is shown that in these cases the spectral differences can be sufficiently great to override the previously established relational invariant for quantity. The implications of this finding for a model of quantity perception are discussed.
Luck: The art of a near miss
Authors: TEIGEN KARL HALVOR
Published: May 2008

In six studies, student subjects were given short descriptions of persons experiencing the same degree of success under different circumstances, and asked to decide in each case who is most lucky (in the case of success), and who is most unlucky (in the case of failure). Typically, the most ‘lucky’ person is the winner who most easily could, or should, have lost, and the most ‘unlucky’ is the loser who could, or should, have won. Factors contributing to counterfactual closeness, and thus to the experience of luck, are: Physical closeness, temporal order, choice, how “real” is the alternative, and how much is it deserved. By manipulating such factors, a vignette describing two misfortunes can appear lucky (because they move the victim away from close counterfactual success); and a vignette where one out of two lottery players wins a big prize can be construed as an example of bad rather than good luck (if the other deserved to win).
Recognition failure of recallable words: problems of mathematical constraint and dependence
Authors: JUNGE KENNETH
Published: May 2008

The graph space of P(RN|RL) vs. P(RN), probabilities of recognition given recall and overall recognition, is the setting for the Tulving‐Wiseman (TW) function of recognition failure research. According to Hintzman (1991, 1992), the moderate scatter of data points about the TW curve is an artefactual regularity caused by a mathematical constraint when P(RN) < P(RL). However, both constrained and unconstrained (when P(RN) ≥P(RL)) points conform equally well to the TW function, consistent with the unobserved fact that the location of both kinds of points is determined by the same mathematical rule. Hintzman's claim that there is no regularity in the data plot when P(RN) < P(RL) other than that produced by the constraint is not supported by this study. He based his claim on an incorrect use of the measure of dependence (association) called gamma. The graph space corresponding to gamma is that of P(RN|RL) vs. P(RN|nRL), as shown by using the Bayes function (Bayes' theorem). The margin‐free measure gamma is a function of two thetas, theta being a margin‐sensitive measure of dependence that is the parameter of the Bayes function. The variance of gamma reflects the fact that it is compounded of the theta variances, so a margin‐free measure is obtained at the expense of greater variability.
What does it take for context to support action memory?
Authors: HELSTRUP TORE
Published: May 2008

Previous research on the relation between context and action memory has given ambiguous results. Some experiments have found positive context effects, whereas other experiments have failed to demonstrate a context effect in action memory. Under nonmotor encoding conditions orderly action‐locus pairings have been found to yield better recall than random pairings, this not being the case with motor encoding (Helstrup, 1989a). Three new experiments explored whether memory for loci could be linked with memory for action–using modified replications. The first experiment provided item‐specific reasons for the action‐locus connections, whereas the second experiment used a whole‐list relational context task. Both experiments indicated that contexts can influence action memory also under enactment conditions, with strongest effect for whole‐list contexts. The third experiment demonstrated how a positive context effect can be removed when the functional value of whole‐list relational support cues is reduced.
Developmental pathways of behavior problems in the young child: factors associated with continuity and change
Authors: BORGE ANNE I. H.
Published: May 2008

The continuity and discontinuity of behavioral problems from age 4 through age 7 until 10 were examined in 120 children. The mothers rated childhood behavior problems at the three age points. Problems were defined as above 80th percentile. Individual transition classification of problematic and non‐problematic children showed that 7% had stable behavior problems, 60% stable non‐problematic behavior and the rest displayed transitions related to either onset or offset of problems. The mechanisms involved in onset were different from those involved in offset. Children showing onset of problems had fewer friends, participated less often in organized leisure activities and were more passive in class than the well‐functioning children. Maternal characteristics such as continued education, current employment and high educational ambitions for the child were associated with having children changing their pathway from risk to an adaptive one.
Lexical status of inflectional and derivational suffixes: Evidence from Finnish
Authors: LAINE MATTI
Published: May 2008

The present study tested whether Finnish inflectional or derivational suffixes have lexical access units separate from word roots. In three lexical decision experiments, pseudowords carrying a case‐inflection required significantly longer rejection times than nonaffixed pseudowords. This suggests that case‐inflections have separate lexical access units. Similar effects were obtained for productive derivational suffixes, too. A specific lexical architecture, being able to account for both the present pseudoword results as well as earlier ones obtained with real Finnish nouns, is proposed.
Long‐term rod dark adaptation in man. Threshold measurements, rhodopsin regeneration and allosteric sensitivity regulation. An evaluation
Authors: STABELL ULF , STABELL BJØRN
Published: May 2008

Recent evidence strongly suggests that the relationship between threshold elevation (T) and fraction of bleached rhodopsin (B), obtained during a major, middle period of long‐term rod dark adaptation in man, is well described by a power function, i. e., T=k·Bn, where k is a multiplicative constant and n is the exponent. Due primarily to the low reliability of measurements of rhodopsin regeneration, however, the exponent n of the power function cannot, at present, be given an exact value. Available information indicates that the value of the exponent ranges between 2.4 and 4. Implications of this uncertainty are discussed within the framework of the allosteric, tetrameric model of rod dark adaptation. It is concluded that this model in its simplest form may only offer a first approximation of the real system implicated in the process.
Procedural dependence in action memory: Effects of verb form and individual vs group conditions
Authors: HELSTRUP TORE , MOLANDER BO
Published: May 2008

Two experiments explored whether the magnitude of the enactment effect in action memory (i. e., higher recall with motor than with non‐motor encoding) may depend upon the use of individual or group testing procedures. Nonmotor encoding instructions, requiring the subjects to listen to orally presented action items, were compared to instructions which also required enactment. With encoding treated as a within‐subject factor, the observations failed to reveal any significant difference between individual and group testing. With encoding treated as a between‐subject factor, the results showed an interaction between test and encoding conditions, such that an enactment effect was found only with group testing. Different support value for auditory cues in group and individual test situations was assumed to account for this difference. In a third experiment the indicative and imperative verb forms were compared. An interaction was observed, showing that in Norwegian, enacted verbs were remembered better when presented in the indicative than in the imperative. No corresponding difference was found under non‐enactment conditions. For this finding, a social interaction interpretation was offered.
Psychological defense mechanisms and electroencephalographic arousal
Authors: ERIKSEN HEGE R. , OLFF MIRANDA , MANN CHRIS , STERMAN MAURICE B. , URSIN HOLGER
Published: May 2008

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between psychological defense as measured by the Kragh tachistoscopic Defense Mechanisms Test (DMT), and general arousal properties of the individual as measured with electroencephalogram (EEG). The DMT assesses defense by presenting neutral and threatening pictures with very short exposure times. EEG characteristics were measured in the 8–12 Hz EEG frequency band during DMT testing. Twenty‐one male subjects participated in the study. All were US Air Force personnel on active duty. Personnel with high defense mechanisms, defined in this connection as slow perception of the threat, tended to have higher cortical arousal after Stimulus exposure than the subjects with low defense mechanisms. The differences occurred mainly with new stimulus material without any threatening content. The differences in arousal response to novel stimuli may contribute to an understanding of the relationships between the Kragh DMT test and performance in life‐threatening situations.
Environmental influences on psychological restoration
Authors: HARTIG TERRY , BÖÖK ANDERS , GARVILL JÖRGEN , OLSSON TOMMY , GÄRLING TOMMY
Published: May 2008

Research on psychological restoration and restorative environments is a needed complement to work on stress and environmental stressors. Two laboratory experiments tested the utility of two restorative environments theories, one concerned with directed attention capacity renewal and the other with stress reduction and associated changes in emotion. Various strategies were employed to distinguish restorative effects from other effects, to limit the role of arousal reduction in attentional restoration, and to begin mapping the time course for the emergence of outcomes. Both experiments tested for differential emotional and performance effects as a function of photographic environmental simulation (natural or urban environment). Across the experiments the natural environment simulation engendered generally more positive emotional self‐reports. That consistent performance effects were not found in either study suggests that attentional restoration as reflected in performance is a more time‐intensive process.
Foveal‐to‐peripheral priming in letter identification reflects response bias, not enhanced visibility
Authors: LAARNI JARI , NYMAN GÖTE
Published: May 2008

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 long‐lasting now: Disorganization in subjective time in long‐standing pain
Authors: HELLSTRÖM CHRISTINA , CARLSSON SVEN G.
Published: May 2008

This paper presents a phenomenological‐hermeneutical case study on long‐standing pain (LP), a public health problem of great importance. Although there has been intensive research interest in this phenomenon, most studies have been based on traditional medical and cognitive‐behavioral approaches. Our thesis is that new frames of reference can provide additional heuristic insights.

The phenomenon of LP shows a strong association with existential factors. Our case study focuses on the meaning‐structure of lived temporality, a fundamental existential constituent in the lifeworld of the pain patient. A series of in‐depth interviews with four subjects showed that lived temporality is disrupted in pain experience, causing a disorganization of the patient's being in the world. The results generate several hypotheses about implications for time estimation in pain experience.
Regulation for Safe Food: A Comparison of Five European Countries
Authors: Elvbakken Kari Tove , Lægreid Per , Rykkja Lise Hellebø
Published: May 2008

This article explores food safety regulation in five European countries by comparing their main legislation and organizational characteristics. The aim is to gain insight into the particular characteristics of food safety regulation, understand major differences and similarities, and reach a firmer understanding of how regulation evolves. Food safety regulation concerns vital questions, and is a field with a long history. Food scandals – in particular the 1996 BSE crisis – and European integration have prompted major changes. The BSE scandal revealed important underlying conflicts of interest and dilemmas concerning the twin objectives of ensuring safe food while also ensuring honest trade in food. This led to a questioning of existing structures and paved the way for new regulation. The authors’ main finding is that food safety regulation has similar origins, addresses similar tasks, and raises similar problems and conflicts in all five countries. A tension between protecting public health and paying heed to business interests, and a struggle for control over this policy field between the administrations of health and agriculture, are common features. However, the configuration of food safety regulation in legislative and organizational terms varies. The comparative focus reveals that national context and history are important for understanding change. This leads to the conclusion that the framing and reframing of the field depend largely on how it is structured and regulated initially, as well as on the constellations of interests and values that are operative and legitimate in each context.
Self‐interest or Ideology? The Attitude of Norwegian Medical Specialists towards Private Welfare Services
Authors: Martinussen Pål E.
Published: May 2008

A striking common characteristic in many Western countries at the turn of the millennium is the debate on the role of private actors in public health care systems. Following the long line of Norwegian political scientists paying attention to attitudes towards privatization, this article uses data from 2005 on medical specialists to investigate their preferences for private welfare services, and to uncover the relative role of political ideology and self‐interest in affecting their attitudes. So far, few attempts have been made to test in depth the impact of ideology and self‐interest as alternative explanations of the attitudes of a professional group toward a policy issue that is important to its interests. The analysis documents the fact that both public and private specialists display scepticism towards leaving welfare services in the hands of private actors. The empirical model for the multivariate analysis builds on the large body of literature on political attitudes, and incorporates variables that are derived from economic and psychological theories in order to test the impact of ideology and subjective self‐interest (emphasis on high salary for job satisfaction) and objective self‐interest (private economy). In addition, the model also controls for a vector of individual characteristics and professional background. For the group of full‐time public specialists, both subjective and objective self‐interest, together with ideology, turns out to be the major determinants of view on private welfare services. The attitudes of the private specialists are, on the other hand, not at all affected by self‐interest – only by ideology.
Back to the Archives? A Critique of the Danish Part of the Manifesto Dataset
Authors: Hansen Martin Ejnar
Published: May 2008

The dataset of the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP) is one the best known and often used datasets in comparative studies of Western Europe. However, the Danish part of the data is very problematic. On average, nearly a third of the content of the Danish manifestos is deemed impossible to code. A close examination of the Danish data reveals large variations in the number of coded sentences across time and parties. An analysis of the manifestos on which the coding is based sets all the warning lights flashing. First, not all manifestos are in fact manifestos; a number consist of other political texts (i.e. speeches, drafts) or even stem from different elections (e.g. municipal manifestos masquerading as national manifestos). Second, the large variation in the length of the manifestos across time suggests that the information derived from them is not readily comparable. This leads to a distorted picture of the positions of the Danish parties. The conclusion of this article is that in order for the Danish part of the CMP dataset to become more trustworthy, it is necessary to search the archives, find the actual manifestos and recode them.
Stasis and Change in Forty Years of Southeast Asian Agriculture
Authors: Hill R.D.
Published: May 2008

Agricultural change in Southeast Asia over the last three decades is reviewed within the context of structural change of the region’s economies. An agricultural typology is outlined and the degree to which agricultural systems have remained static is examined leading to the identification of various kinds and degrees of change amongst the systems – extensification, intensification and disintensification. The paper concludes that while macro‐level structural change is the basic process driving changes in agriculture, there remain important issues of long‐term sustainability, poverty and distribution of benefits.
Employment Structure and the Environment in Cape Coast, Ghana
Authors: Kendie S.B.
Published: May 2008

The relationships between poverty, population growth and government policy in the creation of poor sanitary environments in low income residential areas are discussed. In recent years, the implementation of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) in Sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countries has had the effect of shrinking the formal/modern sectors and expanding the informal sector. While small scale informal sector activities have dominated Cape Coast’s economic base for a long time, the contraction of the formal sector resulting from structural adjustment conditionalities has engendered a disproportionate growth of the informal sector. This paper examines the environmental implications on an urban economy (Cape Coast) dominated by informal sector activities. It shows how the low pay associated with available employment reduces the ability of the municipal authority to promote urban development especially environmental health on the basis of taxes alone.
Women, Disempowerment and Resistance: An Analysis of Logging and Mining Activities in the Pacific
Authors: Scheyvens Regina , Lagisa Leonard
Published: May 2008

There are many arguments supporting the need for a reduction of large scale logging and mining activities in Pacific Island countries. In addition to ecological and economic concerns, logging and mining have had significant social impacts, including gendered impacts. Women tend to be excluded from decision‐making processes, and they have limited access to royalty payments and business and employment opportunities which emerge. Women also bear a disproportionate share of the responsibility for dealing with the social and environmental mess which accumulates. However, women are not simply passive victims of logging and mining activities, as this discussion of the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea will argue. They are often the first to feel dissatisfaction with logging and mining and it is such dissatisfaction which has fuelled civil unrest, from family break‐ups to sabotage of machinery to civil war, in some communities. It may thus be useful for companies to more carefully monitor the effects of their activities on women and involve women more actively in decision‐making bodies if they wish to avoid such unrest in the future.
Issues in the Conservation and Management of Forests in Laos: The Case of Sangthong District
Authors: Thapa Gopal B.
Published: May 2008

Amidst the increasing concern about steadily depleting forests in Laos, this paper examines its causes and existing forest management systems in Sangthong District. Forests in Sangthong were virtually undisturbed until the early 1970s. Guided by customary law, a relatively small local population utilised the forest sustainably for food, fodder, wood fuel and construction materials. Subsequently the government effectively abolished customary law through the declaration of forests as state property and the sanctioning of logging. Logging was banned in the early 1990s but forest degradation continues as a result of ongoing logging, the open access to forests, the government policy of utilising degraded forests for agriculture, and population pressure from in‐migration. Village surveys show that local people appreciate ecological and economic values of forest resources and are willing to contribute to their management. These social qualities lay the foundation of a sustainable forest management system, but the evolution of this type of system has been prevented by the “open access” to forest resources. For effective forest conservation a management strategy focused on property rights reform, public participation and integrated rural development is proposed.
Trust and Welfare State Reform: The Example of the NHS
Authors: Taylor‐Gooby Peter
Published: May 2008

This article discusses the impact of New Public Management on public trust in welfare state institutions, using the example of NHS reform. Discussion of trust in public institutions across political science, psychology and sociology indicates that it is based on both rational/objective considerations (competence and capacity to deliver the service) and affectual/subjective factors (shared values, belief that the trustee shares the trustor's interests). The New Public Management foregrounds individual responsibility and incentives for both suppliers and users of services, in the NHS example in quasi‐markets, management by target and patient choice. These accord with an individualized market rational‐actor model rather than with affective considerations. Analysis of attitude survey data on the NHS confirms that rational/objective and affectual/subjective factors contribute to public trust in this field. However, a comparison between perceptions in England, where the internal market has been vigorously pursued, and Scotland, where the purchaser/provider split was discarded after devolution, indicate that the market does not offer a royal road to perceptions of superior quality in the objective factors. Conversely, the more market‐centred system can make progress in relation to the more subjective affectual factors.
Motivation and Commissioning: Perceived and Expressed Motivations of Care Home Providers
Authors: Matosevic Tihana , Knapp Martin , Le Grand Julian
Published: May 2008

Commissioning of social care for older people has seen major changes since the early 1990s. Considerable responsibility now rests with local authority staff, whose views of care home providers’ motivations, their perceived strengths and weaknesses as service providers, will have a bearing on commissioning decisions. We examine commissioners’ views of provider motivations in eight English local authorities and compare their perceived motivations with providers’ expressed motives. Data were collected through semi‐structured face‐to‐face interviews with commissioners and care home providers. Providers are generally perceived by commissioners as highly altruistic, but also relatively financially motivated individuals. Further analysis revealed significantly different views towards profit‐maximizing, which commissioners perceive as very important, while providers consider it to be of little motivational value. Private sector providers are described by commissioners as significantly more motivated by personal income. Associations are found between commissioners’ perceptions of motivations and the nature of their relationships with providers. Perceptions of providers’ motivations appear important within the commissioning framework.
Efficiency and deficiency considerations in the symmetry problem
Authors: Albers W.
Published: May 2008

Summary Usually, two statistical procedures A and B are compared by means of their asymptotic relative efficiency e. If e= 1, however, it is more informative to compare A and B by means of the concept of deficiency, which was introduced by Hodges and Lehmann [7]. In the present paper we use this concept for the comparison of linear rank tests and parametric tests for the symmetry problem. In this problem, the hypothesis has to be tested that a sample comes from a distribution that is symmetric about zero. The results provide new and strong edivence for the nice performance of linear rank tests for the symmetry problem. The present paper gives a survey of the results obtained by Albers, Bickel and van Zwet [1] and by Albers [2].
A GENERALIZED SIGNED–RANK TEST FOR COMPARISON OF P TREATMENTS
Authors: Fidler V. , Nagelkerke N.J.D.
Published: May 2008

Abstract. Several generalizations of the signed–rank test for testing of equality of p treatments in p related samples against general and trend alternative are discussed. A new generalized test is described and exemplified.