Treinta métodos para destruir la creatividad de los candidatos a psicoanalistas / Thirty ways to destroy the creativity of psychoanalytic candidates / Trente méthodes pour détruire la créativité des candidats a psychanalystes

El autor examina aspectos formales de la formación psicoanalítica que provienen de fomentar o inhibir la creatividad en el trabajo de los candidatos. Cita treinta características de los institutos psicoanalíticos que inhiben la creatividad de los candidatos en su trabajo y que, indirectamente, arrojan luz sobre problemas de la formación psicoanalítica que requieren nuestra atención. Tales características incluyen el hacer, sistemáticamente, más lento el progreso institucional de los candidatos; la enseñanza repetitiva e incuestionable de los artículos clave de Freud; tendencias monolíticas en cuanto a los enfoques teóricos; aislamiento de los candidatos respecto de las actividades profesionales y científicas de la sociedad psicoanalítica; incremento de las relaciones jerárquicas entre los docentes del psicoanálisis; rituales de graduación; desánimo de contribuciones originales por parte de los candidatos; aislamiento intelectual de los institutos; falta de presentación de trabajos clínicos por los miembros docentes de más experiencia; descuido del estudio de las controversias relativas a la técnica psicoanalítica; características «paranoiagénicas » de la relación entre docentes respecto de los requisitos exigidos a los candidatos; el sistema «convoy» (de superprotección); descuido del estudio de los límites científicos y culturales y de las aplicaciones del psicoanálisis y efectos de los conflictos institucionales sobre la admisión de analistas en formación

The author examines formal aspects of psychoanalytic training relevant to the fostering or inhibiting of creativity in the work of candidates. He refers to thirty features of psychoanalytic institutes that inhibit candidates' creativity and, by implication, illustrate problems in psychoanalytic education that require our attention. These features include systematic slowing clown of institutional progression of candidates, repetitive and unquestioning teaching of key papers by Freud, monolithic tendencies regarding theoretical approaches, isolation of candidates from the professional and scientific activities of the psychoanalytic society, accentuation of the hieratical relations among the psychoanalytic faculty, graduation rituals, discouragement of original contributions by candidates, intellectual isolation of institutes, lack of full presentation of clinical work by senior members of the faculty, neglect of studies of controversies regarding psychoanalytic technique, "paranoiagenic" features of the relationship among faculty and rega.rding requirements far candidates, the "convoy" system, neglect of explorat1on of the sc1ent1fic and cultural boundaries and applications of psychoanalysis and the eff ects of institutional conflicts around the appointment of training analysts

L' auteur examine des aspects formels de la formation psychanalytique venant a promouvoir ou inhiber la créativité dans le travail des candidats. Il cite trente caractéristiques des instituts psychanalytiques qui inhibent la créativité des candidats dans leur travail et qui, indirectement, mettent l' accent sur les problemes de la formation psychanalytique qui exigent notre attention. Ce sont des caractéristiques telles que rendre, systématiquement, plus lent le processus institutionnel des candidats; l' enseigne~e?t répétitif et indiscutable des articles dé de Freud; des tendances monohth1ques en ce qui concerne les approches théoriques; l'isolement des candidats concernant les activités professionnelles et scientifiques de la Société Psychanalytique; l' augmentation des relations hiérarchiques entre les enseignant.s de la psychanalyse; rites de remise de diplomes; découragement de contnbutions originales de la part des candidats; isolement intellectuel des instituts; manque de présentations de travaux cliniques par les Membres enseignants plus expérimentés; négligence de l' étude des différends relatifs a la technique psychanalytique; caractéristiques «parano'iagéniques» de la relation entre les enseignants concernant les requis exigés aux candidats; le systeme «conboy» (de surprotection); négligence de l' étude des limites scientifiques et culturelles et des applications de la psychanalyse; et effets des conflits institutionnels sur l' admission des analystes en formation

El procedimiento de consecuencias diferenciales mejora el reconocimiento de rostros con independencia de su valencia emocional / The differential outcomes procedure improves face recognition irrespective of their emotional valence

En los últimos años, diversos estudios han demostrado que el procedimiento de consecuencias diferenciales (PCD) es una herramienta que mejora tanto el aprendizaje discriminativo como la memoria a corto plazo en diferentes poblaciones. Con respecto a esta última, los estudios realizados hasta el momento se centran, principalmente, en tareas de reconocimiento de caras neutras que no presentan ningún tipo de expresión facial emocional. En el presente estudio, nuestro objetivo fue explorar en jóvenes universitarios si el PCD mejoraría la ejecución de una tarea de memoria a corto plazo de reconocimiento de caras que presentan diferentes expresiones faciales emocionales en el momento de su reconocimiento. Los participantes mostraron un mejor reconocimiento demorado de caras cuando se administraron consecuencias diferenciales tras sus respuestas correctas. Estos resultados añaden nueva información acerca del funcionamiento del procedimiento y refuerzan la idea de que el PCD puede ser una herramienta útil en contextos más aplicados(AU)

In the last years, several studies have demonstrated that the differential outcomes procedure (DOP) facilitates both discriminative learning and short-term memory in different populations. It is worth to note that in most published studies exploring the usefulness of the DOP to improve memory, it has been used recognition memory tasks with neutral faces without emotional expressions. Our primary purpose in the present study was to test whether this procedure might increase performance of a facial recognition memory task when emotional facial expressions were used as comparison stimuli. Participants showed a significantly better delayed face recognition when differential outcomes were arranged. This novel finding adds information about how the DOP works and strongly suggests that this procedure can be a useful technique in applied contexts(AU)

Object recognition testing: statistical considerations.

The object recognition task is a commonly used test for the assessment of memory functions in rodents. In this paper different aspects concerning the analysis of object recognition data are discussed. Using a set of experimental studies and fictive data sets, it was shown that the absolute discrimination measure (d1) behaves different from the ratio measures (d2 and d3). Furthermore, it is suggested that, besides group differences, one should also examine whether each individual group actually discriminates between the novel and the familiar object. For this purpose, the use of a fictive group showing no discrimination is advisable. Furthermore, on basis of 48 object recognition task studies it is shown that discrimination performance does not fall significantly below zero. Therefore one-sided testing is allowed, provided that place- or object biases can be ruled out. Finally, it was shown that differences in exploration levels may affect the statistical evaluation of group differences. Several suggestions for statistical analysis are given.

Effects of spatial frequency content on classification of face gender and expression.

The role of different spatial frequency bands on face gender and expression categorization was studied in three experiments. Accuracy and reaction time were measured for unfiltered, low-pass (cut-off frequency of 1 cycle/deg) and high-pass (cutoff frequency of 3 cycles/deg) filtered faces. Filtered and unfiltered faces were equated in root-mean-squared contrast. For low-pass filtered faces reaction times were higher than unfiltered and high-pass filtered faces in both categorization tasks. In the expression task, these results were obtained with expressive faces presented in isolation (Experiment 1) and also with neutral-expressive dynamic sequences where each expressive face was preceded by a briefly presented neutral version of the same face (Experiment 2). For high-pass filtered faces different effects were observed on gender and expression categorization. While both speed and accuracy of gender categorization were reduced comparing to unfiltered faces, the efficiency of expression classification remained similar. Finally, we found no differences between expressive and non expressive faces in the effects of spatial frequency filtering on gender categorization (Experiment 3). These results show a common role of information from the high spatial frequency band in the categorization of face gender and expression.

A method to study global spatial patterns related to sensory perception in scalp EEG.

Prior studies of multichannel ECoG from animals showed that beta and gamma oscillations carried perceptual information in both local and global spatial patterns of amplitude modulation, when the subjects were trained to discriminate conditioned stimuli (CS). Here the hypothesis was tested that similar patterns could be found in the scalp EEG human subjects trained to discriminate simultaneous visual-auditory CS. Signals were continuously recorded from 64 equispaced scalp electrodes and band-pass filtered. The Hilbert transform gave the analytic phase, which segmented the EEG into temporal frames, and the analytic amplitude, which expressed the pattern in each frame as a feature vector. Methods applied to the ECoG were adapted to the EEG for systematic search of the beta-gamma spectrum, the time period after CS onset, and the scalp surface to locate patterns that could be classified with respect to type of CS. Spatial patterns of EEG amplitude modulation were found from all subjects that could be classified with respect to stimulus combination type significantly above chance levels. The patterns were found in the beta range (15-22 Hz) but not in the gamma range. They occurred in three short bursts following CS onset. They were non-local, occupying the entire array. Our results suggest that the scalp EEG can yield information about the timing of episodically synchronized brain activity in higher cognitive function, so that future studies in brain-computer interfacing can be better focused. Our methods may be most valuable for analyzing data from dense arrays with very high spatial and temporal sampling rates.

The case for implicit category learning.

This article evaluates the evidence regarding the claim that people can learn a novel category implicitly--that is, by an implicit memory system that is qualitatively different from an explicit system. The evidence that is considered is based on the prototype extraction task, in which participants are first exposed to a set of category exemplars under incidental learning instructions and are then required to categorize novel test items. Knowlton and Squire (1993) first reported that memory-impaired patients performed normally on the prototype extraction task while being impaired on a comparable recognition task. Several studies have replicated these results, but other articles have criticized the evidence for implicit category learning on both methodological and theoretical grounds. In this article, we consider five of these criticisms-for example, that the normal performance of the patients is due to intact working memory mechanisms (see, e.g., Palmeri & Flannery, 1999) or to the lesser cognitive demands of prototype extraction rather than recognition (e.g., Nosofsky & Zaki, 1998). For each of the five criticisms, we offer counterevidence that supports implicit category learning.

When standards are wide of the mark: nonselective superiority and inferiority biases in comparative judgments of objects and concepts.

People are frequently required to judge how particular group members measure up against others in their group. According to the local-comparisons-general-standards (LOGE) approach, in these member-to-group comparisons, people fail to use the normatively appropriate local (group) standard and are infelicitously affected by a more general standard (involving instances from outside the judged group). Within positive groups, target group members are judged superior to the other members of the group, and within negative groups, inferior. To date, these nonselective superiority and inferiority biases have been demonstrated solely in judgments about human beings. In 6 experiments, nonselective biases were found in perceptual, affective, and cognitive judgments of nonhuman targets, objects, and concepts, thus supporting a cognitive rather than a social account.

Comparing supervised and unsupervised category learning.

Two unsupervised learning modes (incidental and intentional unsupervised learning) and their relation to supervised classification learning are examined. The approach allows for direct comparisons of unsupervised learning data with the Shepard, Hovland, and Jenkins (1961) seminal studies in supervised classification learning. Unlike supervised classification learning, unsupervised learning (especially under incidental conditions) favors linear category structures over compact nonlinear category structures. Unsupervised learning is shown to be multifaceted in that performance varies with task conditions. In comparison with incidental unsupervised learning, intentional unsupervised learning is more rule like, but is no more accurate. The acquisition and application of knowledge is also more laborious under intentional unsupervised learning.