Jaap van Heerden

Maastricht University | UM · Department of Clinical Psychological Science

Top-down processes like heuristics and gap filling create consis- tency in normal perception. Sometimes top-down processes cause illusory perceptions. Top-down processes are also involved in the creation of hallu- cinations, experienced in phenomena like sensory deprivation and phantom limbs. Moreover, it has been argued that the left hemisphere is...

Several authors have argued that survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) who report to have repressed their traumatic memories are more skilled in forgetting emotional stimuli than survivors who have always remembered the abuse. The current experiment employed a list-wise directed forgetting task to investigate whether women reporting repressed (...

Women with repressed or recovered memories have raised levels of dissociative symptoms. There are two interpretations of this. One emphasizes the defensive function of dissociation, while the other emphasizes the overlap between dissociation and fantasy proneness. This study aimed to investigate these two interpretations. Women with repressed (n =...

Extending a strategy previously used by , we administered a neutral and a trauma-related version of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm to a sample of women reporting recovered (n=23) or repressed memories (n=16) of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), women reporting having always remembered their abuse (n=55), and women reporting no history of abuse (...

This article advances a simple conception of test validity: A test is valid for measuring an attribute if (a) the attribute exists and (b) variations in the attribute causally produce variation in the measurement outcomes. This conception is shown to diverge from current validity theory in several respects. In particular, the emphasis in the propos...

Patiënten die getroffen zijn door een beroerte in de rechter hemisfeer vertonen frequent een onverschilligheid voor hun paralyse (d.w.z. anosognosie). Volgens de neuroloog Ramachandran zijn deze patiënten het beste bewijs voor het bestaan van verdringing. De linker hemisfeer heeft immers vrij spel, zodat deze helft kan ontkennen en rationaliseren....

This article examines the theoretical status of latent variables as used in modern test theory models. First, it is argued that a consistent interpretation of such models requires a realist ontology for latent variables. Second, the relation between latent variables and their indicators is discussed. It is maintained that this relation can be inter...

This paper analyzes the semantics of test validity. First, a simple definition of validity is given: Test X is valid for the measurement of attribute Y, if and only if the proposition ‘Scores on test X measure attribute Y’ is true. We analyze the meaning of validity by examining the truth conditions of the proposition. These truth conditions depend...

In this article, a distinction is made between absolute and relative measurement. Absolute measurement refers to the measurement of traits on a group-invariant scale, and relative measurement refers to the within-group measurement of traits, where the scale of measurement is expressed in terms of the within-group position on a trait. Relative measu...

The literature on thought experiments has been mainly concernedwith thought experiments that are directed at a theory, be it in aconstructive or a destructive manner. This has led somephilosophers to argue that all thought experiments can beformulated as arguments. The aim of this paper is to drawattention to a type of thought experiment that is no...

In explaining the attributional error researchers have to explain subjects’ negative behavior. They tend to explain it in internal dispositional terms of personal need or ego weakness. But even if they explain it in situational terms, it remains questionable to what extent they themselves make an attributional error. Are they liable to the self-exc...

The Mller-Lyer illusion is the natural consequence of the construction of the vertebrate eye, retina and visual processing system. Due to imperfections in the vertebrate eye and retina and due to the subsequent processing in the system by ever increasing receptive fields, the visual information becomes less and less precise with respect to exact lo...

Er was een tijd dat het een psycholoog in zijn artikelen niet misstond de grote schrijvers te citeren. Dostojevski, Proust en Joyce werden aangehaald om te illustreren of zelfs om te bewijzen wat de psycholoog over de mens wilde beweren. De Utrechtse professor Linschoten zei in 1951 over de belletrie 'Een zeer speciale bron van niet-wetenschappelij...

The association of ideas has a long-standing tradition in the theory of knowledge as can be illustrated by an historical account of philosophical empiricism. From the very beginning association of ideas has played a dominant role in psychology too. Its value as an explanatory concept has only recently been doubted by psychologists who prefer a cogn...

Discusses the practices used in psychology departments at 7 Dutch universities in 1976-1977 and 1986-1987 to recruit Ss for participation in experimental research studies. Differences in time requirements, compensation, and recruitment methods are considered.

Critiques P. White's analysis of R. Nisbett and T. Wilson's work on the limitations to conscious awareness of mental processes. A reanalysis of White's data demonstrated no evidence for his hypothesis that report accuracy is improved by memory for the events of the relevant process. In addition, White's experimental design is queried and a construc...

Three experiments tested how the presence of a one-way mirror raises feelings of vulnerability and test anxiety. In Exp I, 37 male undergraduates performed 5 tasks measuring social desirability, personal history, and ethics either in front of a one-way mirror or not. Exp II duplicated Exp I, but used 93 undergraduates and also measured anxiety, ins...

In order to investigate misconceptions of chance fluctuations, researchers can use the terminology of the random walk. The problem at issue can be elucidated by a graph representing, for instance, a series of coin tossings. One must, however, be careful in using such graphs. It appears that the extent to which people make erroneous predictions also...

J. Van Heerden and J. Hoogstraten (see record 1980-22512-001) reported that in responding to a questionnaire containing no questions but merely indicating possibilities, people show clear preference for certain options over others. The present study with 235 college students attempted to replicate these findings. Ss completed a 10-item questionnair...

In a replication of an earlier study by Berg and Rapaport (1954), a questionnaire with items lacking content and containing merely answer possibilities was administered to 197 Dutch psychology fresh men. Students clearly did not react in accordance with the laws of statistical probability but showed, like Berg and Rapaport's subjects, a preference...

Analysis of the Freudian interpretation of the Oedipus myth which functions as a paradigm case for the Oedipus complex reveals the neglect of certain essential details. Moreover, it appears that clinical material as presented by psychoanalysts in support of the Oedipus complex is strongly biased towards the acceptance of the hypothesis that the Oed...

Discusses the importance of connectionist theory for modern psychology. The basic characteristics and concepts of the theory, including the assumptions of parallel activity and distributed representation, are presented and the historical background of connectionism is described. The application of connectionist theory to a model of simulation of br...

In a replication of a study by B. L. Dubey and S. K. Verma (1980, unpublished), a questionnaire containing merely answer possibilities was administered to 140 Dutch psychology freshmen, under standard instructions and an induced frustration set. In addition, 2 more response sets were experimentally induced. Like Dubey and Verma's Ss in India, the i...