A STATISTICAL ATTACK ON THE RUNNING KEY CIPHER

The frequencies of n-graphs, groups of n letters, for n as large as 6 are compiled and used to launch a statistical attack on a running key cipher. Programs written in C++ make the calculations possible. The results of the attack for various values of n are analyzed.     

Review of The Metaphysical Club: A story of ideas in America.

Reviews the book, The Metaphysical Club: A story of ideas in America by Louis Menand (2001). In this highly entertaining and readable history, Menand examines the lives and thinking of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., William James, Charles Sanders Peirce, and John Dewey, members of an informal (and short-lived) discussion group that met in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1872 that called itself the Metaphysical Club. Beginning with the Civil War and ending in 1919 with the Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Abrams, this insightful and thought-provoking book tells a story of the creation of the ideas and values that have shaped how Americans think and how we live. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Origins of Systems Biology in William Harvey’s Masterpiece on the Movement of the Heart and the Blood in Animals

In this article we continue our exploration of the historical roots of systems biology by considering the work of William Harvey. Central arguments in his work on the movement of the heart and the circulation of the blood can be shown to presage the concepts and methods of integrative systems biology. These include: (a) the analysis of the level of biological organization at which a function (e.g. cardiac rhythm) can be said to occur; (b) the use of quantitative mathematical modelling to generate testable hypotheses and deduce a fundamental physiological principle (the circulation of the blood) and (c) the iterative submission of his predictions to an experimental test. This article is the result of a tri-lingual study: as Harvey’s masterpiece was published in Latin in 1628, we have checked the original edition and compared it with and between the English and French translations, some of which are given as notes to inform the reader of differences in interpretation.     

The radical empiricism of William James and philosophy of history.

William James's philosophy of history is explored in his classic psychological and philosophical works and in 2 articles he devoted specifically to the topic. Historical issues are set forth in terms of James's individualism, pragmatism, and radical empiricism. It is argued that a Jamesian philosophy of history provides a reasoned and believable middle way between the extremes of realism and constructionism. James believed that historical change is brought about both by the contributions of individuals and by forces in cultures and the environment that help shape the direction of things. Finally, the author explores implications of James's pluralism for history and his quarrel with absolutistic conceptual schemes that attempt to reduce all things to 1 thing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introspecting in the spirit of William James: Comment on Fox, Ericsson, and Best (2011).

Fox, Ericsson, and Best's (2011) thoughtful justification of the use of think-aloud protocols for revealing the stream of consciousness comes on the centennial of the death of William James, history's greatest practitioner and advocate of introspection. This confluence naturally invites speculation about how James might have responded to the analysis of Fox et al. I suggest that although James would likely view the think-aloud procedure as a scientifically rigorous form of introspection, he would also admonish us not to overlook its limitations. Most notably, although the think-aloud procedure readily captures substantive verbal thoughts, it is less able to capture inchoate cognitions. The conclusion that verbal protocols are nonreactive also raises several additional issues. First, the nonreactivity of thinking aloud does not necessarily speak to its validity. Second, the conclusion that verbal protocols are benign is at odds with recent findings in which verbalization impairs performance on various tasks. I suggest that whereas James might express some concerns regarding aspects of conscious thought that may be overlooked by the think-aloud procedure as well as some caution regarding the possible situations in which thinking aloud might still be reactive, he would almost certainly be pleased to see introspection finally getting the scientific grounding that it deserves. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

William Bevan.

Presents an overview of the career and contributions of William Bevan. For more than 25 years William Bevan has made continued and important contributions to psychology in the public interest: As Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and as Publisher of Science. In the American Psychological Association, as President, Chair of the Association for the Advancement of Psychology, member of the Board of Trustees of the Insurance Trust, and Associate Editor of American Psychologist, where he encouraged the publication of articles on public interest topics; at Duke University as Provost and Director of The Round Table on Science and Public Affairs; in the State of North Carolina as a member of the Board of Governors of the Center for Creative Leadership; and nationally as a member of the American Council of Learned Societies' Committee on Soviet Emigre Scholars and as a member of dozens of committees established by the National Academy of Sciences, (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

William A. Hunt (1903–1986).

William A. Hunt was one of our country's early scientist-clinicians. He began his career with study of a psychology that was a meld of Titchener's structuralism and Harvard's functionalism and completed it 50 years later in the field of health psychology. Hunt spent all but a few of those 50 years as a full-time teacher, at schools that included Dartmouth College, Connecticut College for Women, and Northwestern University. While doing his dissertation, he had mastered and used the structuralist's experimental method of introspection, applying it to the study of human emotion, specifically the James-Lange theory. In 1941, Hunt entered the Navy. He discerned that the screening for military duty of some 15 million women and men required an approach suited to the rapid, albeit individual, screening of large numbers of such personnel. His teaming up with a psychiatrist, Cecil Wittson, led to their joint development of a screening interview lasting one to two minutes that, with continued refinement, proved remarkably effective. Their goals as the mental health specialists participating in the medical examination conducted at this intake station were twofold: (a) to improve the efficiency of the Navy by removing those neuropsychiatric high-risk recruits who were potential psychiatric casualties if they continued in the Navy and (b) by such removal, to save these recruits the disastrous personal experience of subsequent breakdown during military duty. In his own still active research in the 1960s and 1970s Hunt continued to apply the same methods he earlier had used (in his Navy research) to the judgmental processes clinical psychologists used to identify psychological test responses that were pathognomonic of schizophrenia, mental retardation, and related forms of psychopathology. Hunt remained, until his death at age 82, an active scientist-clinician. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Guest editor's introduction: Tool and methodology evaluation

The first ACM Sigsoft-sponsored Software Engineering Symposium focused on the issue of evaluating the effectiveness of software engineering tools, techniques, methods, and environments. In this paper we overview and summarize a collection of symposium papers that collectively indicate the state of development in the area of tool and methodology evaluation.     

Ursula Bellugi and Edward S. Klima.

Ursula Bellugi and Edward S. Klima are cited for their contributions to the neuropsychology of language. They have pursued over many years a program of rigorous behavioral research, guided by a commitment to the key theoretical issues of their field. Their systematic research into the normal structure and function of American Sign Language (ASL); their groundbreaking studies of ASL aphasia; and their ambitious, cross-disciplinary program of research into Williams syndrome will help determine how language relates, psychologically and neurologically, to general cognitive function. A biography and selected bibliography are provided for both Bellugi and Klima, as well as a discussion of the research they have conducted jointly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Awards for distinguished scientific contributions: William J. McGuire.

Presents the citation, biography, and selected bibliography for William J. McGuire, one of the 1988 recipients of the American Psychological Association's Awards for Distinguished Scientific Contributions. McGuire was honored for introducing models of cognitive functioning that illuminate the nature and outcome of our beliefs and attitudes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)