This paper describes a questionnaire measure of self-reported failures in perception, memory, and motor function. Responses to all questions tend to be positively correlated, and the whole questionnaire correlates with other recent measures of self-reported deficit in memory, absentmindedness, or slips of action. The questionnaire is however only weakly correlated with indices of social desirability set or of neuroticism. It is significantly correlated with ratings of the respondent by his or her spouse, and accordingly does have some external significance rather than purely private opinion of the self. The score is reasonably stable over long periods, to about the same extent as traditional measures of trait rather than state. Furthermore, it has not thus far been found to change in persons exposed to life-stresses. However, it does frequently correlate with the number of current psychiatric symptoms reported by the same person on the MHQ; and in one study it has been found that CFQ predicts subsequent MHQ in persons who work at a stressful job in the interval. It does not d o so in those who work in a less stressful environment. The most plausible view is that cognitive failure makes a person vulnerable to showing bad effects of stress, rather than itself resulting from stress.During the past few years a considerable amount of interest has developed in the assessment of minor everyday slips or errors. This interest is perhaps due more to the work of Reason (1977Reason ( , 1979 than of any other single individual; starting from the analysis of accident reports, he has progressed to the recording of bizarre episodes of 'absentmindedness' in diaries kept during everyday life, and to general questionnaires of the frequency with which such episodes are reported by individuals. The lapses which have interested him can be typified by the pilot who sets his course by the wrong end of the compass needle, or who closes down the suruiuing engine when one fails; or who forgets to change fuel tanks. A particularly interesting detailed example is given by Ruffell-Smith (1979), of a flight engineer who repeatedly miscalculated the safe load of fuel to retain in a (simulated) aircraft during an emergency landing, and finally concluded that his instruments must be in error. Similar though less dramatic episodes occur to all of us during the average week; as the examples show, they may involve perceptual failures, or failures of memory, or actions which are misdirected. The common element is that there is a departure from the normal smooth flow of function, and events do not proceed in accordance with intention. The situation is rather different from the failures of ability which again we all reach at our limits, and which may arise at quite low levels of difficulty for some individuals. In the lapses we are now discussing, the ability is certainly present and the functions may on other occasions be regarded as laughably simple; but they do sometimes fail.Quite apart from the initiative of Reason, there are practical and theore...

The co-authors are also at the above address.University of Oxford, South Parks Rd, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK.

No abstract

In this article we examine the opinion structure of Irish Labour party members and supporters. Our purpose is to test May's law of curvilinear disparity by dividing party members into two groups as outlined by Kitschelt. By focusing on ideological differences within political parties Kitschelt identifies two types of members: ideologues and pragmatists. We use two individual‐level data sets: the Labour Leadership Election Study (LLES) and the Irish National Election Study (INES), to test May's law. We find some limited support for May's law and Kitschelt's extensions to this model.

The relationship between observers' taste and the sitter's face orientation as function of sitter sex in painted portraits was investigated. The historical tendency in portraiture is that the sitter's left side of the face is more likely than the right to be turned towards the viewer and this side bias is stronger with women than with men. Correctly oriented and reversed museum portraits were viewed by subjects who gave ratings of "liking" the portrait as a whole (Experiment 1) and for "attractiveness" of the sitter (I?periment 2). Only portraits of women showed a left-right difference With right favored significantly over left, irresrective of orientation or type of rating. These findings go against the historica pattern of the sex-related bias in portraiture. They suggest that most women are painted in an orientation which is less favorable to them.