Hypnotic susceptibility, visual distraction, and reports of Necker cube apparent reversals

Subjects, either susceptible (n = 50) or resistant (n = 50) to hypnotic suggestion, were asked to report on frequency of apparent reversals (ARs) to the Necker cube illusion. Such reports were made in the presence or absence of various types of visual, geometric surrounds (squares, triangles, crosses, or parallelograms). In agreement with a number of previous experiments, susceptible subjects reported perceiving more ARs than did resistant subjects. This difference held whether visual surrounds were present or absent. The presence of surrounds did serve to reduce AR reports regardless of hypnotic susceptibility level. The results are examined in terms of the ability of subjects to selectively attend when confronted with potential visual distractors.     

Latency and frequency reports to the Necker cube illusion: effects of hypnotic susceptibility and mental arithmetic

An experiment (N = 32) was conducted to assess latency of first apparent reversal (AR) and AR frequency while observing the Necker cube illusion. Subjects who were either high in hypnotic susceptibility (susceptibles) or low in hypnotic susceptibility (resistant subjects) observed the cube either while performing or not performing mental addition problems. Susceptibles reported perceiving the first AR more quickly and a greater frequency of ARs than did resistant subjects. Also, latency of the first AR was negatively correlated with AR frequency. These results were interpreted in terms of the ability of susceptibles to allocate concentrative or selective attention in a manner that was conducive to faster performance, when faced with competing tasks.     

Necker cube and autokinetic illusions after awakening from REM and NONREM sleep: lack of effect.

Earlier studies demonstrated differential perceptions of the visual illusions, beta movements and spiral aftereffect, following awakening from REM and NONREM sleep. The present study tested the effects of awakening from the two phases of sleep on two additional visual illusions, the Necker cube and autokinetic illusions. 12 young adults were wakened from REM and NONREM sleep and tested on both illusions for three 1-min. trials, within 1 to 2 min. of the awakening. Comparison of the post-REM and post-NONREM illusions indicated a nonsignificant difference between the two waking conditions in the passive spontaneous reversal rates of the Necker cube. Data for the autokinetic illusion were not reported as they were unreliable.     

思维风格对中美大学生课堂学习行为的影响研究

对长期以来具有争议的中美学生存在课堂学习行为差异的现象,研究者推测中美学生由于具有思维风格的差异,造成他们对课堂内容的处理方式的区别,从而影响他们不同的课堂行为反应。研究对来自于中国学生、中国留美学生和美国学生三组样本的数据进行分析。结果表明在控制了文化组别和学习动机因素后,思维风格仍能显著预测课堂学习行为,并能部分地解释中美学生之间存在的课堂学习行为差异。     

Sex-dependent effects of neonatally administered morphiceptin and D-ala-D-leu-enkephalin on maze learning in rats

Newborn rats were injected (ip) with morphiceptin [72.7 micrograms/kg (a mu-type opioid receptor agonist)], D-alanine2-D-leucine5-enkephalin [79.4 micrograms/kg (a delta-receptor agonist)], or saline for 7 days after birth. Testing on a complex maze on Day 25 revealed a significant sex-dependent facilitation of performance by the opioid peptides. Peptide-treated females performed better than the males on the first day of training as measured by errors. Opioid treatment increased mortality, as three times as many peptide-treated animals died in comparison to the saline control group. Peptide treatment did not affect locomotor activity measured in an open field. Weight at Day 24 was also affected by the peptide treatment, females and males injected with the opioids being lighter and heavier, respectively, than the control group.     

The effect of cul length and hippocampal lesions on maze learning in the rat

Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science - Twenty-four tats, 8 with bilateral hippocampal lesions, 8 with cortical lesions and 8 unoperated rats, were tested on one of 2 mazes. Half of each...     

Effects of neocortical ectopias and environmental enrichment on Hebb-Williams maze learning in BXSB mice

Approximately 40-60% of BXSB mice have neocortical ectopias, a developmental anomaly characterized by migration of neurons into the neuron-sparse layer I of cortex. Previous studies have shown that ectopic BXSB mice have superior reference, but inferior working, memory on spatial tasks. Female BXSB mice were housed either in an enriched environment or in standard cages at weaning. Subsequently, these animals were tested on four of the Hebb-Williams mazes in a water-based version of this maze. Theoretically, two of the maze configurations placed greater emphasis on reference memory to find the goal, whereas the other two favored working memory. Ectopics reared in standard housing conditions were better than nonectopics on mazes that favored the use of reference memory, but poorer on mazes that favored working memory. In contrast, subjects raised in the enriched environment showed no ectopia differences. A comparison of enriched and standard housing conditions found that the enriched animals had better reference memory but poorer working memory. The latter effect may be because the enriched environment, although more stimulating, did not change in time or space; and other researchers have shown that daily replacement of stimuli in complex environments is correlated with better working memory.     

The effects of binge MDMA on acquisition and reversal learning in a radial-arm maze task

The current study used the partially-baited radial-arm maze paradigm to study the effects of a single-treatment high-dose exposure ('binge') to MDMA (± 3,4-methylenedioxymethaphemtamine or 'Ecstasy') on memory task acquisition. Sprague-Dawley rats were administered a binge dose (4 × 10 mg/kg) of MDMA and their ability to subsequently acquire the radial-arm maze task was compared against saline controls. The MDMA-treated rats were significantly slower to learn the task and made more reference memory errors than the controls. Working memory function was found to be relatively unimpaired. Following a reversal of task rules the MDMA-treated rats were again significantly slower to acquire the appropriate rule despite having eventually achieved a similar level of overall performance as control rats. However evidence of drug tolerance was found when all rats were challenged with an acute low dose of MDMA (1 × 4.0 mg/kg) because the binge MDMA rats were relatively less impaired. Therefore, although binge treated MDMA rats were able to achieve very accurate performance equivalent to the controls they took significantly longer to do this and were less able to adapt their behavior to a change in task rules. In addition the binge treated MDMA rats displayed tolerance to acute MDMA exposure. These findings are consistent with the possibility that human Ecstasy users may show deficits in acquiring information and may experience deficits in cognitive flexibility as well as developing tolerance to the drug with repeated exposure.     

Learning what from where: Effects of spatial regularity on nonspatial sequence learning and updating

The current study examined the influence of redundant stimulus features on our ability to build and update representations of our environment. We hypothesized that our ability to process redundant spatial features would speed our ability to adapt to changing nonspatial regularities. Using a computerized version of the children's game “rock–paper–scissors”, undergraduates were instructed to win as often as possible against a computer opponent. The computer's plays were repeating sequences of five choices that were presented either with spatial regularity (i.e., “rock” would always appear on the left, “paper” in the middle, and “scissors” on the right) or without spatial regularity (i.e., the items were equally likely to appear in any of the three locations). Once participants learned a sequence, the computer switched to a different sequence without participants being informed that a switch had occurred. Redundant spatial regularity improved a participant's ability both to learn sequences of plays and to update their plays to reflect new computer sequences. Our results suggest that our perceptual system is sensitive to redundant spatial stimulus features and that this information can improve learning and updating.     

当代大学生专业承诺与学习风格的研究

本研究采用自编的《大学生专业承诺量表》和修订的《学习风格检测表》,调查和分析了福州地区673名大学生的专业承诺和学习风格。结果为：我国大学生的专业承诺水平不是很高,在性别、年级、专业、学校类型上差异显著;不同性别、年级、专业、学校类型的大学生的学习风格基本没有显著差异,这表明我国大学生基本没形成适合所学专业的学习风格。     

Learning about sounds contributes to learning about words: Effects of prosody and phonotactics on infant word learning

This research investigates how early learning about native language sound structure affects how infants associate sounds with meanings during word learning. Infants (19-month-olds) were presented with bisyllabic labels with high or low phonotactic probability (i.e., sequences of frequent or infrequent phonemes in English). The labels were produced with the predominant English trochaic (strong/weak) stress pattern or the less common iambic (weak/strong) pattern. Using the habituation-based Switch Task to test label learning, we found that infants readily learned high probability trochaic labels. However, they failed to learn low probability labels, regardless of stress, and failed to learn iambic labels, regardless of phonotactics. Thus, infants required support from both common phoneme sequences and a common stress pattern to map the labels to objects. These findings demonstrate that early word learning is shaped by prior knowledge of native language phonological regularities and provide support for the role of statistical learning in language acquisition.