David Aderman

Expectancy as a determinant of functional units in perceptual recognition

Abstract This experiment provides support for (1) Gibson et al. s (1962) hypothesis that either an individual letter or a spelling pattern (i.e., a cluster of graphemes in a given linguistic environment which has an invariant pronunciation according to the rules of English) can serve as a functional unit in the tachistoscopic recognition of letter strings, and (2) Neissers (1967) hypothesis that S s expectancy determines which one of these functional units is used. On each of 16 trials a letter string was presented tachistoscopically followed immediately by a two-choice recognition test of one of the letters. On the first 14 trials half the S s expected and received letter strings containing spelling patterns (SPs) while the remaining S s expected and received letter strings containing only unrelated letters. The former group of S s performed significantly better than the latter group on these 14 trials. On Trial 15 S s expectancy was again confirmed but on Trial 16 S was presented with a letter string from the unexpected class (SPs or unrelated letters). The results from the last two trials showed that letter strings containing SPs were recognized more accurately than unrelated letters when S expected SPs but not when he expected unrelated letters.

Clinical Research and the Stages of Dying

Kübler-Rosss claim that terminal patients near death pass through five psychological stages in a predictable order is examined and found not to be supported by other investigators. Their data show the process of dying to be less rigid and even stageless. There is some consensus among all researchers that terminal patients are depressed shortly before they die, but there is no consistent evidence that other affect dimensions characterize the dying patient.

How the medical staff copes with dying patients: a critical review.

Although not conclusive, the literature reviewed suggests that as a result both of their personality structures and the training they receive, medical practitioners associate dying patients with failure and disappointment and tend to cope with death by avoiding it. Not only is the dying patient frequently neglected by physicians and nurses, but his desire to be informed about his condition is typically ignored. Although research data suggest that most terminal patients suffer no permanent negative consequences if they are informed tactfully about the true nature of their illness, the majority of physicians adhere to a policy of not sharing their diagnosis with the dying patient.

On the relationship between empathy and the actor versus observer hypothesis

Abstract Subjects listened to a tape recording of a dyadic interaction. It was predicted that the observational set instructions received by the subjects (to empathize with one member of the dyad or not to empathize with this person) would create evaluation effects similar to those created for attributions of responsibility by actor-observer differences: The actor would receive credit for his positive outcome and blame for his negative outcome more when evaluated by nonempathizing observers, and the social environment would receive credit and blame for the actors outcomes more when evaluated by empathizing observers. The predicted three-way interaction was obtained. Additional results are discussed in terms of previous empathy research.

On the Recall of Initial Attitudes following Counterattitudinal Advocacy: An Experimental Reexamination

The possibility that choice subjects in the Bem and McConnell study knew their initial attitudes but chose not to report them was investigated in the present research. Subjects were first induced to write a counterattitudinal essay under either choice or no-choice conditions, and then were either provided or not provided a monetary incentive for being accurate in recalling their initial attitudes (obtained a week earlier). As hypothesized, the attitude-recall error in the choice-no-incentive condition was found to be considerably greater than in the other three conditions. It was concluded that, contrary to the claim of self-perception theory, initial attitudes are not overwhelmed by counterattitudinal advocacy.