Automated system for acoustic research

An automated system is described for stimulus presentation and response collection in psychoacoustic research. The system is capable of producing rapidly and precisely a wide range of discrete frequencies.     

Automated Simultaneous Assembly for Multistage Testing

This article offers some solutions used in the assembly of the computerized Uniform Certified Public Accountancy (CPA) licensing examination as practical alternatives for operational programs producing large numbers of forms. The Uniform CPA examination was offered as an adaptive multistage test (MST) beginning in April of 2004. Examples of automated assembly using mixed integer programming (MIP) solutions in Optimization Programming Language software (OPL Studio 3.6.1©, ILOG Inc., Gentilly, France) illustrate MST design features and implementation strategies that can be generalized to other testing programs. This article affords a compromise between the best possible combination of test content and sustainability and security over time by linear programming techniques that make use of mixed integer optimization algorithms. Relative optimization functions are formulated to ensure a variety of constraints are always met for "testlets" of differing difficulties to form panels for the MST design. Technical information is discussed to assist other practitioners and researchers with test assembly optimization problems. Some practical consequences from the selection of statistical targets on testlet exposure are illustrated. These results are described with respect to the fundamental principles of automated test assembly and continuous administration based on MST when testlet or item exposure and inventory rotation are critical concerns.     

Automated theorem proving for non-classical logics

Automated theorem proving for non-classical logics     

Prime display offset modulates negative priming only for easy-selection tasks

Responses to probe targets that have been distractors in a prime display are slower than responses to new targets, a finding called negative priming (NP). The selective attention model, which attributes NP to lingering inhibition of the prime distractor, predicts that NP should occur only when the prime display has disappeared before the probe display is processed. The present study tested this prediction both in easy- and in difficult selection tasks. In Experiments 1, 2, and 3A, target selection was easy, and NP was observed only after prime display offset, regardless of whether offset was manipulated between or within participants. In Experiment 3B, target selection was difficult, and NP was found with and without prime display offset. Experiment 4 replicated the finding of NP without prime display offset in a difficult-selection task. A modified version of the selective attention model can explain the results of the present study. However, we also discuss the results in light of episodic retrieval theory and temporal discrimination theory.     

Workers' compensation for mental stress cases

Workers' compensation, the USA's oldest social insurance program, is encountering new challenges in the form of mental stress claims. It is necessary to sort these cases three ways, in the terminology of compensation practitioners, physical-mental, mental-physical, and mental-mental. Although each of these appear to represent only a small part of all compensation claims presently, each category is difficult to administer, and all hold the potential for large growth in activity. At the extreme, any of the three could swamp a state's compensation program, administratively or economically. A case can be made that mental stress cases are simply variants of challenges previously posed and in many instances, successfully resolved by the state systems. That question will be determined by the future decisions of legislators, courts, and state administrators. The economic impact of such cases is not known. Their importance, however, extends well beyond the direct costs of indemnity and medical benefits paid. Ultimately, the indirect efforts on employer-worker-union relations may be larger than the direct costs.     

Automated problem solving for the behavioral sciences

In view of the obvious advantages of computers for the behavioral sciences, the question is raised as to how to make more effective use of computing capabilities. One idea is to require that fledgling behavioral scientists receive brief training in flowcharting and algorithm generation rather than a full course in computing skills. Such training would be an important adjunct for those who would go on for further instruction, especially in view of current deficiencies in many computer courses. One recurrent deficiency lies in the lack of specific guidelines for conceptualizing problems for computer implementation. Such guidelines are developed here, along with other suggestions designed to attenuate the difficulty in conceptualization.     

The compensation for movement-produced changes of object orientation

When one moves forward, one views objects to the side of one’s path successively from different directions. In the mover’s visual field, such objects change their orientation; relative to him they undergo a partial rotation. Although this rotation is given in several ways, it is hardly ever perceived. This is due to a compensating process that takes O’s change in position relative to the object into account. We demonstrated the existence of this compensating process and measured the accuracy with which it operates by means of a device that made an object turn in response to O’s position change so that the normal rotation of a stationary object relative to the moving O could be augmented or diminished to various degrees.     

Automated preference testing apparatus for rating palatability of foods

An electronic preference testing apparatus is described for measuring taste preference of rodents and other small animals with solid or liquid foods. The apparatus is designed on the principle of the two-choice, preference technique. It operates photoelectrically with a sequence of presentations so that whenever a subject eats from a compartmentalized food tray, a standard and a test food are each briefly sampled alone before both foods are presented together (in alternate positions) for preference determination. Preferences are automatically recorded on digital counters. The apparatus is built in two modules (a preference tester and the master control) connected by multiconductor cable. The modular design provides portability and isolation of the animals from the major noise-producing components. Diagrams of the apparatus are given, and test results from a trial that evaluated positional bias and a sucrose-concentration preference experiment are presented to demonstrate its application in research.     

Intentional compensation for selective loading affecting human gait phases

The locomotor strategies used by 12 subjects, instructed to hold their walking speed constant, were examined under various dynamic conditions in order to determine the means by which subjects can act upon their basic locomotor synergy. The dynamic conditions were modified either by adding a load or applying an impeding force. These modifications were designed to selectively affect either the stance phase or the swing phase. The results show that (a) subjects were able to rapidly calibrate their efforts to hold their walking speed constant, (b) in all conditions, the same walking speed was achieved with the same stride lengths and durations, and (c) at the within-cycle level, a change in duration synergically affected both phases and not just the perturbed one. The above results are discussed in terms of intentionally controlled parameters. Because cadence is closely linked to walking speed, it can be used as feedback; the control of walking speed in our experiments may thus be achieved simply by increasing the exerted force until the same cadence is produced.     

A compensation for field expansion caused by moving forward

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics - When an object increases in size and its retinal image expands, it is perceived to grow. But image expansion caused by one’s approaching an object...     

Errors in auditory direction-finding after compensation for visual re-arrangement

Ss walked about out of doors wearing laterally displacing prisms, and sound-attenuating muffs. Errors occurred in an auditory localization task during exposure to visual displacement. With continued exposure these errors tended to disappear after about 108 min. The errors disappeared earlier when muffs were not worn.