State-dependent thinking: a comparison of waking and dreaming thought

Thinking is known to be state dependent but a systematic study of how thinking in dreams differs from thinking while awake has not been done. The study consisted of analyzing the dream reports of 26 subjects who, in addition to providing dream reports also provided answers to questions about their thinking within the dream. Our hypothesis was that thinking in dreams is not monolithic but has two distinct components, one that is similar to wake-state cognition, and another that is fundamentally different. We found that cognition within a dream scenario was similar to that of wake-state cognition, but that thinking about the scenario itself was deficient and very different than wake-state thinking.     

Processing of information about location during locomotion: Effects of a concurrent task and locomotion patterns

How maintenance of orientation during locomotion in unfamiliar environments is accomplished was investigated by having subjects walk behind a moving light line (1.12 m/sec) in a dark room and, from a stopping point, numerically estimate direction and distance to the starting point. Two linear distances (5.0–8.4 m) and the angle of direction change (45, 90, and 135 deg) were orthogonally varied as 12 locomotion patterns. Eight high-school students were assigned to each of three conditions, two in which the starting point was invisible, one in which it was visible. In one of the former conditions the subjects counted backwards rapidly during walking. Lower accuracy and longer latency times were found in the counting condition whilst the other two conditions differed only slightly. The results suggested that accurate maintenance of orientation is achieved by recurrent encoding, coordination and decoding of information about direction change and locomotion distance, processes which demand central processing capacity and therefore are interfered with by a concurrent task.     

Detection of the relevant type of locomotion in infancy: crawlers versus walkers

Human infants show a preference for individuals who are similar to them. Using point-light displays of human walkers and crawlers as stimuli, we examined whether infants' preference for the motions of crawling and walking changes between, before, and after the onset of bipedal walking. The results show that crawling and walking infants prefer the types of locomotion that are similar to their own, respectively. These indicate that the infants detect the similarities between the motions they performed and they observed, which provides the behavioral evidence that the production of a particular motion is connected to its perception in infancy.     

The kinematics of locomotion toward a goal

A mathematical model is developed that treats rats in runways as uniformly accelerated bodies. The purpose of the model is to permit conversion of the continuously varying measures of runway speeds at different points in the alley into three invariant parameters of performance: start latency, acceleration, and brakepoint. This simple model fits most of the data examined, and changes in the parameters throw new light on phenomena such as the partial reinforcement acquisition effect. In particular, it is shown that partially reinforced rats accelerate faster but cease accelerating earlier in the runway than do continuously reinforced rats. This explains the qualitative differences often found between start and goal speed measures. The analysis takes as its unit patterns of terminal behavior rather than the rate of the responses that constitutes them, and thus may permit coherent treatment of instrumental and operant behavior.     

Effects of response type on coordinated responses during arm movement

This paper reports some experimental results on the coordination of finger and vocal responses with passing through a target position in multjjoint arm movement. In Experiment 1, we found that the difference in the timing of finger and vocal responses cannot be attributed entirely to efferent or representational effects. Instead, it appears to reflect the extent to which information about the internal stimuli generated by the arm movement are available to the centers controlling these different responses. That is, it is a compatibility effect. In Experiment 2, the case in which a finger response is made on the same side of the body as the moving arm was compared with the case in which it is made with the contralateral hand, which remains static. The interaction effect observed suggests that the path-ways subserving coordinated responses are informationally encapsulated, so that information about arm movement is not shared between the neural centers controlling different coordinated responses.     

Acquisition of locational information about reference points during blindfolded and sighted locomotion: Effects of a concurrent task and locomotion paths

Acquisition of cognitive maps (locational information about reference points) was investigated by requiring subjects to walk repeatedly according to paths consisting of 2, 4 and 6 linear segments. The starting point of each path was designated as a reference point, to which direction and distance were estimated by the subjects at the end of the path. Acquisition was indicated by the finding that variable errors and latencies decreased across blocks of trials. Interfering with central processing of locational information during locomotion by means of a concurrent task, while impairing orientation performance, did not seem to prevent acquisition. As suggested by an increase in latencies with the number of path segments, the subjects performing the concurrent task may have been able to infer and store the location of the starting point after walking. Finally, orientation performance did not improve for blindfolded subjects, probably because they were unable to use stored information about locations.     

Effect of sulpiride on amphetamine-induced activity and stereotyped locomotion

To investigate the hypothesis that sulpiride potentiates stereotyped locomotion at an intermediate dose of amphetamine, rats were assigned to one of four treatment groups (n=7 per group): vehicle + saline; 20 mg/kg sulpiride + saline; vehicle + 3.5mg/kg amphetamine; 20 mg/kg sulpiride + 3.5 mg/kg amphetamine. An automated tracking system was used to record distance moved and sequences of movements between quadrants in a circular open-field. The results showed that amphetamine increased horizontal distance moved, and increased the number and proportion of thigmotaxic trips around the perimeter of the apparatus. Sulpiride reduced amphetamine-induced hyperactivity and the number of perimeter trips, but had no effect on the proportion and maximum run length of perimeter trips. Thus sulpiride reduces the hyperactivity produced by an intermediate dose of amphetamine, but does not appear to affect the stereotyped nature of locomotion under the drug.     

Effect of opponent type on moral emotions and responses to video game play

This study suggests that fighting against different types of opponents in video games (e.g., human opponents vs. monster opponents) may lead to different emotional responses and moral judgments toward game characters. Based on Bandura's moral disengagement theory, this study proposes that shooting at monster opponents makes game players feel less guilty and judge the player-controlled character as more morally justified. An experiment was conducted in which participants played shooting games with either human opponents or monster opponents. The results show that when playing against monster opponents, participants felt both less ashamed and less guilty, reported enjoying the game more, and judged their character as more justified than participants who played against human opponents.     

The persuasive effects of character presence and product type on responses to advergames

Abstract The use of online video games as an advertising channel has become an integrated part of branding for many marketers in an increasingly fractured media environment. The primary question motivating this research is whether the use of an animated spokes-character embedded in online game affects the persuasiveness of advertising. Specifically, this study looks at how product types moderate the magnitude of such effects. The results show a significant interaction effect between character presence and product type on both brand attitude and purchase intention. The effects of an animated spokes-character on brand evaluation and purchase intention were more pronounced for utilitarian products than for hedonic products.     

Effects of response type on coordinated responses during arm movement.

This paper reports some experimental results on the coordination of finger and vocal responses with passing through a target position in multijoint arm movement. In Experiment 1, we found that the difference in the timing of finger and vocal responses cannot be attributed entirely to efferent or representational effects. Instead, it appears to reflect the extent to which information about the internal stimuli generated by the arm movement are available to the centers controlling these different responses. That is, it is a compatibility effect. In Experiment 2, the case in which a finger response is made on the same side of the body as the moving arm was compared with the case in which it is made with the contralateral hand, which remains static. The interaction effect observed suggests that the pathways subserving coordinated responses are informationally encapsulated, so that information about arm movement is not shared between the neural centers controlling different coordinated responses.     

Effects of the interval between exposure to a novel environment and the occurrence of shock on the freezing responses of rats

Rats were exposed to a novel environment (E1) at time T1, given a footshock at time T2, and tested for freezing in E1 or in a second environment (E2). The function relating freezing to the T1-T2 interval among rats tested in E1 was an inverted U-shape. Rats exposed to short T1-T2 intervals displayed just as much freezing in E2 as in E1, whereas rats exposed to longer intervals froze less in E2 than in E1. These differences between the freezing responses in E1 and in E2 were obtained when the T1-T2 intervals were varied, but time spent in the shocked E1 was equated. Rats given two shocks in E1 differentiated between E1 and E2 when the initial shock occurred some time after exposure to E1, but not when the initial shock was presented shortly after that exposure. Rats shocked some time after exposure to E1 on Day 1 and shortly after exposure to that environment on Day 2 differentiated between E1 and E2 more than did rats exposed to the reverse sequence of T1-T2 intervals. The results were attributed to the formation of a network of connections among the E1 cues in rats exposed to moderate or long T1-T2 intervals, and to an impairment in the formation of this network as a result of the conditioning of a subset of cues in rats exposed to short T1-T2 intervals.     

The impact of object carriage on independent locomotion

The current study examined whether carrying objects in one's hands influenced different parameters associated with independent locomotion. Specifically, 14- and 24-month-olds walked in a straight path under four conditions of object carriage – no object (control), one object carried in one hand (one object-one hand), two objects carried in each of the hands (two objects-two hands), and one object carried in both hands simultaneously (one object-two hands). Although carrying objects failed to influence a variety of kinematic parameters of gait, it did affect children's arm postures, with children adopting less mature arm positions when carrying objects. Finally, arm position was related to walking skill, but only for older children when they were not carrying objects. These findings indicate that although a relation does exist between arm positions and gait parameters, this relation is easily disrupted by carrying loads, even small ones.     

Qualitative dynamics of disordered human locomotion: a preliminary investigation

A qualitative approach to the evaluation of disordered locomotion is introduced within the framework of dynamical systems theory. Exemplar phase plane and angle-angle plots of knee and ankle movements were constructed from limb trajectories of neurologically impaired individuals and qualitatively compared with similar plots, reflecting normal locomotion. In phase plane trajectories of normal locomotion, characteristics of spring-like dynamics dominated the loading and unloading phases whereas those of ballistic pendular dynamics were seen during swing. The overall squareness of the normal phase plane trajectories suggested precisely timed and narrowly focused controls. in contrast, phase plane records from hemiparetic subjects had markedly reduced segmental velocities, pronounced velocity reversals in both stance and swing, and a loss of overall squareness. Knee-ankle plots of normal locomotion revealed important features of intersegmental coordination such as coupled out-of-phase coordination in loading and unloading, a decoupled phase offset in early swing, and a kind of active partitioning in late swing in which one segment moved while the other remained constant. These intersegmental relations were absent or distorted in the hemiparetic angle-angle plots. It is suggested that this qualitative approach, together with electromyography and force dynamics, may allow the characterization of the movement disorders associated with given neuropathologies.     

The influence of visual flow and perceptual load on locomotion speed

Visual flow is used to perceive and regulate movement speed during locomotion. We assessed the extent to which variation in flow from the ground plane, arising from static visual textures, influences locomotion speed under conditions of concurrent perceptual load. In two experiments, participants walked over a 12-m projected walkway that consisted of stripes that were oriented orthogonal to the walking direction. In the critical conditions, the frequency of the stripes increased or decreased. We observed small, but consistent effects on walking speed, so that participants were walking slower when the frequency increased compared to when the frequency decreased. This basic effect suggests that participants interpreted the change in visual flow in these conditions as at least partly due to a change in their own movement speed, and counteracted such a change by speeding up or slowing down. Critically, these effects were magnified under conditions of low perceptual load and a locus of attention near the ground plane. Our findings suggest that the contribution of vision in the control of ongoing locomotion is relatively fluid and dependent on ongoing perceptual (and perhaps more generally cognitive) task demands.     

A note on modulations and structuring of locomotion in children and adults

The aim of this study was to investigate the modulations of locomotion induced by a rhythmic cognitive task (counting one's steps). Subjects (6- and 8-year-olds and adults) were requested to walk freely, and then to walk while counting their steps. Here a decrease in cadence values was observed in children only, with quasi-total repercussions on velocity at the age of 6 only. The spatiotemporal structuring of locomotion described here is already present at 6 years of age and is not altered in the step-counting situation: strong links were observed between cadence and velocity, and between stride length and velocity, and weak links between cadence and stride length.