A Very Special Relationship: Basil Liddell Hart, Wehrmacht Generals and the Debate on West German Rearmament, 1945-1953

Abstract

Social cues, such as eye gaze and pointing fingers, can increase the prioritisation of specific locations for cognitive processing. A previous study using a manual reaching task showed that, although both gaze and pointing cues altered target prioritisation (reaction times [RTs]), only pointing cues affected action execution (trajectory deviations). These differential effects of gaze and pointing cues on action execution could be because the gaze cue was conveyed through a disembodied head; hence, the model lacked the potential for a body part (i.e., hands) to interact with the target. In the present study, the image of a male gaze model, whose gaze direction coincided with two potential target locations, was centrally presented. The model either had his arms and hands extended underneath the potential target locations, indicating the potential to act on the targets (Experiment 1), or had his arms crossed in front of his chest, indicating the absence of potential to act (Experiment 2). Participants reached to a target that followed a nonpredictive gaze cue at one of three stimulus onset asynchronies. RTs and reach trajectories of the movements to cued and uncued targets were analysed. RTs showed a facilitation effect for both experiments, whereas trajectory analysis revealed facilitatory and inhibitory effects, but only in Experiment 1 when the model could potentially act on the targets. The results of this study suggested that when the gaze model had the potential to interact with the cued target location, the model's gaze affected not only target prioritisation but also movement execution.

Rearme y baja percepción de amenaza interestatal en Sudamérica. ¿Es posible tal coexistencia?

“…Tal percepción pareció confirmarse con el estallido de la Guerra de Corea en 1950. Este escenario contribuyó a que Estados Unidos concluyera que la defensa convencional de Europa era inviable sin la ayuda de Alemania (Searle, 1998).…”

“…situaciones en las que predomina una elevada percepción de amenaza interestatal o en la que se espera el estallido de la guerra en forma inminente (Peden, 1978;McKercher, 2001;Mowrer, 1936;Thomas, 1992;Weste, 1999;Searle, 1998;Warner, 1995). Este elevado nivel de amenaza está acompañado del incremento del gasto militar y el aumento exponencial en el número de tropas y equipamiento bélico.…”