A digital ultrasound recorder

A system that continuously monitors and records rodent ultrasonic vocalizations over the frequency range 10–90 kHz is described. The system records vocal frequency, sound pressure, time, and duration of call. Data are stored digitally. The system was validated by a pilot study in which distress calls of rat pups were selectively activated while they were subjected to a cold environment.     

The effect of white-noise mask level on sinewave contrast detection thresholds and the critical-band-masking model

It is known that visual noise added to sinusoidal gratings changes the typical U-shaped threshold curve which becomes flat in log-log scale for frequencies below 10c/deg when gratings are masked with white noise of high power spectral density level. These results have been explained using the critical-band-masking (CBM) model by supposing a visual filter-bank of constant relative bandwidth. However, some psychophysical and biological data support the idea of variable octave bandwidth. The CBM model has been used here to explain the progressive change of threshold curves with the noise mask level and to estimate the bandwidth of visual filters. Bayesian staircases were used in a 2IFC paradigm to measure contrast thresholds of horizontal sinusoidal gratings (0.25-8 c/deg) within a fixed Gaussian window and masked with one-dimensional, static, broadband white noise with each of five power density levels. Raw data showed that the contrast threshold curve progressively shifts upward and flattens out as the mask noise level increases. Theoretical thresholds from the CBM model were fitted simultaneously to the data at all five noise levels using visual filters with log-Gaussian gain functions. If we assume a fixed-channel detection model, the best fit was obtained when the octave bandwidth of visual filters decreases as a function of peak spatial frequency.     

A simple analog to digital converter

Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science -     

A digital noise and sine-wave generator

A circuit is described that will digitally generate three kinds of signal useful in auditory research: broad-band pseudorandom noise, low-pass-filtered Gaussian noise, and low-distortion sine waves. This digital circuit has two advantages over its analog counterparts, ease of calibration and adaptation to computer control.     

A digital frequency discriminator for biofeedback research

The design and construction of a digital frequency discriminator, useful in various research and clinical applications of biofeedback, is presented. The module may be constructed for approximately $25 (excluding power supply and mounting hardware).     

A comparison of item and source forgetting

The purpose of the present research was to compare memory for an item with memory for the item’s source. Experiment 1 investigated discrimination between two external sources: each item in a list of words was spoken in either a male or a female voice. Subjects received a test of item recognition and a test of source monitoring at each of four delay intervals (immediate, 30 min, 48 h, 1 week). In contrast with previous research, no evidence of differential forgetting rates for item and source information was found. With delay intervals of 0 and 48 h, Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 while adding a reality monitoring condition that required discrimination between an internal (i.e., self-generated) and an external source. Subjects were better at making internal-external discriminations than at making external-external discriminations, but both types of source monitoring declined at the same rate as memory for the items themselves.     

A low-cost research-oriented biofeedback thermometer with digital readout

The construction of a research-oriented biofeedback thermometer with digital readout is described. The device uses recently developed low-cost integrated circuits and has a liquid crystal readout with capability of .1° and .01°F display. Internal calibration circuitry enables precision monitoring of overall performance stability. The basic thermometer design has potential application as a general instrument for behavioral and physiological research.     

A comparison of recollective memory and source monitoring

Participants in recognition memory experiments are often asked for additional information about their memories after each positive recognition response. Two experiments were conducted that were identical, except that the first asked participants to make remember/familiar judgments about the items they recognized, and the second asked them to make source judgments. The similarity between the recollection and source judgment data has implications for measurement issues and theory development.     

A low-cost high-speed digital data acquisition and display system

A flexible and inexpensive data acquisition and display system based upon the KIM-1 microcomputer module is described. A simple signal-conditioning circuit and program are shown that will allow events to be counted at rates to 1,000/sec and stored in successive time bins. The program counts events from each of two event detectors and stores the count of each detector in an independent set of time bins. Up to 127 16-bit bins are available to each event detector and bin width can be varied from 1 msec to 1 min. A separate input can be used to time-lock data collection to a specific stimulus allowing poststimulus histograms or IRTs to be collected. The collected data can be sequentially displayed as a decimal number on a built-in LED display and stored for later analysis on an inexpensive audio cassette recorder.     

A computer-compatible multichannel event counting and digital recording system

An inexpensive multichannel event counting digital recording system has been designed for compatibility with automated data analysis equipment. For as many as 16 channels, events are simultaneously summed over preselected repetitive time intervals and recorded. Each data entry is marked with the time of day and a code identifying each channel’s data. The data is formated to be computer compatible and is logged on inexpensive readily available digital magnetic tape cassettes.     

A digital programmer for use with audio tape decks

A flexible inexpensive programming device for use with a magnetic tape deck is described. The programmer provides independent control for up to 15 different experimental events. It can be constructed from digital ICs for less than $50 and may be used with an inexpensive tape deck. A general-purpose transistor switch is also described.     

The influence of targeted digital advertising on consumers' purchase intention: Comparative analysis based on the perspective of ads content source

Targeted digital advertising (TDA) is immensely popular among marketing practitioners; investigating its effects is increasingly becoming a subject of academic research. Brands can push advertisements of the same product from different sources to consumers in a targeted manner; however, the differences in the impact on consumers of TDA with different content sources are surprisingly understudied. Therefore, this study analyzes the consumers' purchase intentions in the context of TDA with different content sources (stars vs. bloggers vs. top e-commerce streamers), and the perceived differences between consumers with different thinking styles. Through two experimental studies, this study finds that TDA with top e-commerce streamers' recommendation source can better improve consumers' purchase intentions more than TDA with a star endorsement and TDA with a blogger evaluation. For consumers who prefer the rational thinking style, TDA with a star endorsement and TDA with top e-commerce streamers recommendation can be better; For consumers who prefer the empirical thinking style, TDA recommended by bloggers and TDA with top e-commerce streamers recommendation can be better. Furthermore, this study finds that consumers' mental simulation and perceived usefulness can mediate the relationships described above, and that the two play a chain mediation role. The findings contribute to the precision marketing literature by enriching the understanding of the psychological mechanism underlying consumers' perceptions of and decision factors toward the TDA.     

The analyst's theory: A third source of countertransference

The author asserts that the analyst's theory, personal and/or academic, is an important source of countertransference which complicates our traditional understanding of the analyst's emotional responses as being constructed from a mix of his transferences and the patient's effects on him. From this perspective, theory - because it has no intrinsic relevance to the essential phenomena of individual analytic processes - may be a confounding, as well as a necessary, factor in clinical work. Although the analyst's theory might be conceptualized as a component of his personality that shapes his emotional reactions to a patient, the author believes that there is a valuable increment of conceptual clarity and additional clinical utility to thinking about a more direct role of theory in the process of countertransference formation. He uses aspects of the clinical analysis of narcissistic resistances to illustrate how some theories might predispose an analyst to confounding unconscious enactments by generating either positive or negative countertransferences which can be used defensively by the patient and/or analyst. He also illustrates how, in some contexts, an analyst's theory might attenuate potentially informative countertransference reactions and interfere in this way with the analyst's apprehension of the patient's psychic functioning. Finally the author addresses the importance of 'fit' between an analyst's working theory and a patient's psychopathology, and considers implications of his ideas for psychoanalytic training and practice.     

Fluorescent lighting: A purported source of hyperactive behavior

Seven first-grade children with conduct disorders and/or hyperactivity attended full-day sessions at a laboratory school classroom. During an 8- week period, the classroom lighting conditions alternated at the end of each week. During oddnumbered weeks, the classroom was illuminated by a standard coolwhite fluorescent system. On even-numbered weeks, illumination was a daylightsimulating fluorescent system of equal footcandles with controls for purported soft X rays and radio frequency (RF). There were no effects of lighting conditions on hyperactive behavior as assessed by (a) independent observations of task orientation or (b) ratings of activity level. A Critical Flicker Fusion (CFF) measure, a reported indicator of visual-sensory fatigue, indicated that the daylight-simulating condition was associated with a decreasing CFF across weeks.This research was a joint endeavor initiated by Alan Rosenbaum and directed by Dr. Daniel O'Leary. Dr. Philip Hughes and Mr. Frank LaGuisa and their associates at the General Electric Lighting Development Section consulted with us in all phases regarding lighting and electromagnetic radiation. We are very grateful to Dr. Susan O'Leary, director, and Marlene Schneider, head teacher, of the University Laboratory School, where this study was conducted. Special thanks go to Mark Durand, Ruth Shepard, and Michael Mignone, who contributed to variousphases of this study. The observers were Wilma Meyers and Frank Tucci. This research was supported in part by General Electric and in part by the State University of New York, Stony Brook. Detailed technical information concerning the lighting and measurement is available in a full text from the authors.