Discrimination of vibrotactile frequencies in a delayed pair comparison task

This study quantified human short-term-memory decay functions for delayed vibrotactile frequency discriminations. Subjects indicated which of two successive intervals contained the higher or lower frequency of a pair separated by delay periods of 0.5–30 sec. Performance decreased as a function of length of delay and was higher when delays were unfilled than when they were filled with a backwardscounting task. This interpolated task may have interfered with rehearsal of a coded representation of the remembered vibrotactile frequency. A change in decay rate after 5-sec delays suggests a switch from reliance on sensory memory to the coded frequency representation. Performance and decay rate depended on presentation order of higher or lower frequency within pairs. Reciprocal performance asymmetries seen in high- versus low-frequency ranges did not result from simple response bias.     

An electronic device for detecting activity in caged rodents

An electronic device for detecting movement in small animals is described. The principle involves assessing changes in resistance between pairs of grid bars in a cage. The device is inexpensive, sensitive to movement, easy to calibrate and install, reliable across different activity arenas, and indifferent to animal size.     

Versatile electronic timer for synchronous switching of multiple electrical devices

An electronic timer consisting of CMOS integrated circuits is described that synchronously switches multiple electrical devices on and off on either circadian or noncircadian cycles. Precision is attained to within 1 min when used in the circadian mode or to within 16.7 msec when used at the highest speed (60 Hz). The electronic timer is useful for behavioral studies, control of environmental chambers, and control of general laboratory appliances.     

A device for recording automatic audio tape recording

Adaptation of a commercially available timer for use as a means of operating an audio tape recorder several times during the day is described. Data on a mother's rates of commanding her children were collected via both physically present observer and recorder methods in order to compare the usefulness of the recordings with direct observation. There was a high positive relationship between observer-recorder command rates, with the observer rates being consistently higher, when data were collected via both methods simultaneously as well as at different points in time.     

Durable,efficient, and economical electronic toilet-training devices for use with retarded children

Instrumented behavior observation and modification is typically an expensive process, yet the instruments used are often relatively simple and limited in function. Two sets of electronic devices were constructed to aid in training correct toileting behavior with retarded children. The body-worn alerting unit monitors the residents’ elimination as he moves through his environment. This set consists of a moisture detection circuit enclosed in a durable plastic box which is worn by the resident in either a harness or vest. The body-worn alerting unit is connected, via a cord, to underwear which have pliable wires running along their midline. The other set of units monitors elimination on a commode or toilet, and consists of a signaling box containing the moisture-detection circuit and a circular plate which is hung on the toilet or commode. Over 3 years of field testing have shown the units to be very durable and efficient.     

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.     

A simple and inexpensive click-free audio switch

This paper describes a click-free audio switch that functions by controlling the rate of onset and decay of a signal. The principle component of the switch is a device whose resistance is a function of the light intensity falling upon it. Circuit diagrams and suggested applications are provided.     

A method for the preparation of audio tapes for dichotic listening research

A simple method for producing audio tapes with temporally synchronized messages is described. The duration and spacing of words can be precisely controlled. This method requires a minimum of elaborate equipment, yet synchronization is very accurate with highly intelligible speech.     

A broadband digitizing rat detector: Simultaneous recording from all sound frequencies in the range of rat ultrasonic vocalizations

A system is described that digitizes rodent vocalizations after the signals have passed through a spectrum analyzer. The system’s capacity to record simultaneously from all frequencies in a range selected by the experimenter is demonstrated. In the graphic display, both single and simultaneous multiple vocalizations of rats ranging freely in large experimental rooms are presented. The capacity of this system to record simultaneous vocalizations in a form that permits rapid analysis of many of the parameters of the signals is especially useful in the analysis of rodent social behavior.     

A token-actuated timer for line-voltage devices

A token-actuated timer that detects the insertion of a flat washer (“token”) is described. The unit provides a timed line-voltage output and counts the number of times the line-voltage device has been operated. Using behavioral token economies, this device has been used to control the television watching of children by monitoring television watching time, and by controlling the amount of time the television is on.     

Acceptance of visual and audio interventions for distracted pedestrians

Distraction from mobile devices increases pedestrian risks at intersections. Innovative interventions are currently installed at road and rail intersections to alert pedestrians. These interventions will be effective only if pedestrians modify their behaviour. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) posits that behaviour changes as a result of behavioural intention, which is affected by perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. However, the link between intention and actual behaviour is often overlooked. The current study aims to investigate this link and apply this theoretical framework to interventions for distracted pedestrians. We conducted a day-time field study at three railway level crossings in New Zealand with such interventions reminding pedestrians to look for trains: in-ground flashing lights located at footpath level, an audio warning message, and in-ground flashing lights combined with the audio warning message. Participants (N = 34, Mean age 33.6, SD = 8.6 years) walked through level crossings while performing a distractor task (visual and auditory distraction) or when not distracted. Actively checking for trains from both sides of the crossing was used as a measure of actual behaviour. All three interventions were perceived as useful (5.1 ± 0.4) and easy to use (5.6 ± 0.2) and resulted in positive intention to use the technology (5.8 ± 0.3). Statistical analyses confirmed that the TAM constructs - particularly perceived usefulness - affected intention, and intentions lead to behavioural change with improved crossing behaviours. This study highlights the importance of perceived usefulness and intentions to use the interventions with reducing distracted pedestrian behaviours.     

A corpus-based analysis of verb continuation frequencies for syntactic processing

In the experimental study of how much verb guidance occurs in parsing syntactic ambiguity, the preference of an ambiguously subcategorized verb for its continuations is a relevant factor in the choice of the stimuli and in the interpretation of the results. Many methods have been used to measure this bias, ranging from experimenter's intuitions to sentence completion studies. In this paper, I assume that an acceptable definition of frequency is the count of the occurrences in a corpus, and I provide some cooccurrence counts calculated on a set of verbs and their syntactic siblings in a subset of the Penn Treebank (Marcus, Santorini, & Marcinkiewicz, 1993). Second, I perform some correlations with sentence completion and sentence production studies, which show that the two data collection methods are not strongly correlated with the corpus counts. Finally, I analyze the stimuli of some experiments which have shown evidence both in favor of the garden path theory of sentence processing and the lexical guidance theory. I argue that all the stimuli were balanced, and that a minimal attachment effect is not a consequence of the overall NP-bias of the stimuli. Moreover, evidence from the relation between processing times and verb completions with declarative and interrogative complementizers is used to argue that the parser is sensitive to the lexical content of the complementizers.     

A computer-aided digital audio recording and encoding system for improving the encoding of verbal reports

The increasing use of verbal reports in psychological research requires tools for improving the ease and reliability of collecting and coding verbal report data. An approach is described that maintains the verbal report data in digitally recorded audio form throughout the collecting and encoding processes. A new computer-aided encoding tool, CAPAS, is described, which randomly selects and plays individual protocol segments and stores computer keyboard-entered codes in an SPSS-formatted data file.     

A test of the overconfidence phenomenon using audio signals

The existence of the overconfidence phenomenon was examined using a signal detection paradigm. Fifty-five participants were asked to decide whether they heard a signal or noise only, and to rate how certain they were of their decisions. The results confirmed the existence of overconfidence as well as the "hard-easy" effect.     

A simple device for detecting saccades and judging their intervals

A simple device is described with which the occurrence of saccades can be detected and their intervals classified by reference intervals determined by experimental requirements. The device reliably detects saccades of greater than 2 deg.     

A unilateral field advantage for detecting repeated elements

Previous studies have shown that letter repetitions are detected more rapidly when presented bilaterally (one letter in each visual field) than when presented unilaterally (both in the same field) when subjects have to report matches independently of case or font (e.g., Aa). This pattern of results is referred to as a bilateral field advantage. Here, we present evidence of an opposite pattern of results for detecting repeated items when they are physically identical. In our repetition detection paradigm, subjects indicated whether there was a repetition of any two of four presented items, one in each quadrant of the visual field. Stimulus classes tested included letters, color, size, orientation, and motion paths. The subjects were significantly faster at detecting unilateral versus bilateral repetitions for four out of the five stimuli classes tested, with a trend in the same direction for the fifth. This unilateral field advantage suggests that low-level processes group physically identical items more efficiently within hemifields than across.     

Vividness of visual imagery and source memory for audio and text

Two groups of high and low vivid imagers heard an audiotape of a crime, read an account of it with both correct and new information, then took recognition and source memory tests. While listening and reading, both groups were told to attend carefully, but one was also instructed to form visual images of the scene. Recognition memory accuracy was greater for material from the text only than from the audio only, whereas source memory accuracy was greater for audio than for text. For source memory of text, high imagers performed more poorly than low imagers under imagery instructions. These results replicate previous work and extend it from an initial film source to an audio source. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.