Sensorimotor performance as a function of eye dominance and handedness.

Performance on a speeded target striking task was significantly associated with eye dominance and handedness for a sample of 30 subjects. They showed the expected higher performance with the dominant hand but also showed an effect of eye of input. Highest performance was obtained with binocular viewing, next best used the dominant eye, and poorest performance the nondominant eye. Effects were additive with no interaction between hand and eye dominance.     

Monocular asymmetries in recognition after an eye movement: Sighting dominance and dextrality

Although monocular recognition scores for targets presented immediately after an eye movement do not differ, the two eyes show marked recognition asymmetries when both eyes are receiving inputs but a specific target is only presented to one. In general, the right eye performs better than the left, although there are interactions with sighting dominance and the direction of eye movement.     

Hemispheric dominance, dichotic listening and lateral eye movement behaviour

Abstract.— Because lateral corrective eye movements have been shown to influence the results of the dichotic listening test, it was supposed that differences in the scoring on this test by right and left eye movers could be found. Only in the entire group of 22 right handed subjects and in the subgroup of 8 right eye movers a significant right ear superiority was found. In the left mover group (14 subjects) right ear superiority in dichotic listening was not significant. These results are interpreted in terms of possible interhemispheric differences in the level of "activity", facilitating or hampering perception of verbal material in the contralateral ear.     

Chromatic perception in relation to an hypothesized cerebral dominance

On the basis of the cerebral dominance, we have hypothesized an asymmetry (for saturation or brightness) between the two eyes in perception of chromatic stimuli. 51 subjects were tested on chromatic perception (green, red, yellow, blue). For each subject also an ocular-dominance score was obtained. The results substantially confirmed the hypothesis of cerebral dominance in color perception. Subjects with high ocular-dominance scores (right- or left-dominant subjects) showed for the green stimulus asymmetric behavior, while subjects with low ocular-dominance scores showed a tendency toward symmetry in perception.     

Inability to condition a peripheral activating drug

Previous research on the adaptation of the conditional renal secretion reflex (CR) has resulted in contradictory data. Although the early work of Bykov in Russia on dogs and of Hoferet al. in the United States on humans indicated that a renal CR is possible, experiments of Corson, Reese and Dykman (in normal dogs) and of Frances Watt Baker and Gantt (in dogs with transplanted kidneys) showed little or no capacity for forming a renal CR. The present work is a partial completion of a comprehensive survey of the ability and mechanism of the kidneys to form CRs. The production of glycosuria produced byperipheral stimulation cannot be conditioned. The results of 110 days of experiments with an externalized ureter dog injected with 2.5 mg of phloridzin (im) in 0.5 ml of normal saline were: 0.40 mg, 0.43 mg (control before phloridzin injection), 0.96, 8.71, 10.96, 7.28 and 4.36 mg glucose. On the test days an equal amount of normal saline was injected with the following results: 0.29, 0.38 mg glucose (control), 0.33, 0.45, 0.38, 0.32 and 0.35 mg. All readings are glucose per minute, average of 10 experiments for each of the above readings. The results of 75 days of experiments with the cervical kidney dog injected with the same amount of phloridzin as above in normal saline were: 0.29, 0.37 mg glucose/min (control), 1.72, 4.56, 5.43, 3.92 and 2.54 mg glucose/min (after phloridzin). On test days an equal amount of saline was injected, results: 0.27, 0.28 mg (control), 0.25, 0.29, 0.36, 0.26 and 0.29 mg of glucose/min, average of 10 experiments for each of the above readings. All figures are for 15 minute collections. Conclusion: Glycosuria produced by tubular inhibition (phloridzin) cannot become a conditional response. One explanation of this failure to form a CR is that phloridzin acts peripherally rather than centrally.     

Dimensional dominance and stimulus discriminability.

The relationship between the discriminability of scaling stimuli and assessed dimensional dominance was investigated in three studies. Sixty kindergarten children were assessed using a psychophysical scaling method to determine JND values for the size, brightness, and orientation dimensions. Thirty of the same subjects were then assessed for dimensional dominance using stimuli of two levels of known discriminability, based on the obtained JND values. In a third experiment, the remaining 30 subjects were assessed for dimensional dominance using stimuli that systematically emphasized the values of one dimension relative to the other two dimensions, again based on obtained JND values.The results indicated that (1) kindergarten children were able to perform consistently during psychophysical scaling, and there was little variability between children in their judgments of stimuli, (2) the overall level of discriminability affects dimensional dominance scaling behavior, with subjects more likely to exhibit dominance for one dimension when all the values of scaling stimuli are high in discriminability, and (3) some support for the hypothesis that dimensional dominance scaling behavior can be manipulated by manipulating the relative discriminability of scaling stimuli was found, though the trend was not clear.The relative discriminability of scaling stimuli appears to have some effects on dimensional dominance scaling behavior of young children. However, some pre-experimental bias to attend to a particular dimension seems to remain even when the values of all dimensions present are of equal and known discriminability. Dimensional dominance is a function of an interaction between discriminability of scaling stimuli and the experiential bias or perceptual set of the subject.     

Social dominance orientation and prejudice in an Italian sample

Social dominance orientation has been proposed as an important variable in the explanation of prejudice. For an Italian sample of 355, correlations with measures of blatant and subtle prejudice against migrant people showed social dominance orientation was positively related to blatant prejudice. Persons with less education scored higher on social dominance orientation.     

The eye as an optical instrument: from camera obscura to Helmholtz's perspective.

The era of modern vision research can be thought of as beginning in the seventeenth century with Johannes Kepler's understanding of the optics of the camera obscura with a lens and its relation to the eye. During the nineteenth century, Helmholtz used "The eye as an optical instrument" as the title for one of his Popular Lectures, and such a conception of the eye is now accepted as a fundamental feature of visual science. In analysing the optics of the eye, Helmholtz constructed some novel optical instruments for studying the eye. The development of optometers, ophthalmometers, and ophthalmoscopes is presented historically, with emphasis on how these instruments and camera analogies helped scientists to understand the functions of the eye, especially the enigma of accommodation. "The laws of optics are so well understood, and the knowledge of the eye, when considered as an optical instrument, has been rendered so perfect, that I do not consider myself capable of making any addition to it; but still there is a power in the eye by which it can adapt itself to different distances far too extensive for the simple mechanism of the parts to effect." (John Hunter in a letter to Joseph Banks in 1793, published by Home 1794, page 24).     

The sounds of dominance.

A study was conducted to determine the effects of vocal cues on judgements of dominance in an interpersonal influence context. Physical measures of human vocal cues and participant ratings of dominance were obtained from videotapes of actors delivering short influence messages. After controlling for linguistic and visual content of messages, results indicated that mean amplitude and amplitude standard deviation were positively associated with dominance judgments, whereas speech rate was negatively associated with dominance judgments. An unexpected interaction revealed that mean fundamental frequency (F₀) was positively associated with dominance judgments for male speakers but not significantly associated with dominance judgments for female speakers. F₀ standard deviation was not significantly associated with dominance judgments. Results support the conclusion that dominance judgments are inferred from multiple sources of information and that some vocal markers of dominance are more influential than others.     

Cerebral dominance in aphasia recovery.

This investigation studied the patterns of ear preference of a group of 25 aphasic adults through the administration of two verbal dichotic tests and retests over a 2-month interval of time. These dichotic tests were a Dichotic Digits Test (DDT) and a Dichotic Animal Names Test (DANT). Schuell's short test of aphasia was given twice over this interval to assess language recovery. Results indicated that as aphasics improve in language, cerebral dominance becomes more firmly established in the right cerebral hemisphere. The data in this study tend to support a dominance shift hypothesis in the recovery of language after aphasia.     

Rhythm and dominance

Subjects were tested by a short experimental procedure involving tapping of a rhythm with one limb with a simultaneous regular beat with another limb. Informal observations had suggested a rhythm dominance effect—that is was dramatically easier with some limb combinations. Notably it was easy when the right hand tapped the rhythm and the left hand the beat but almost impossible the other way round. Equally, both hands dominated both feet. Our tests revealed enormous individual differences, subjects separating neatly into three groups. Some people could not do the task at all, some could do it with any limb combination, the latter group including all the serious musicians tested. For the remainder the rhythm dominance effect was clear. However, the laterality effect was the same (right hand advantage) for a majority (60%) of left handers. We conclude, then, that this effect is linked to language dominance and not handedness. In addition it seems there is a task scheduler which imposes its own view in combining this laterality effect with the dominance of hands over feet.     

The Police,Black and Hispanic Boys: A Dangerous Inability to Mentalize

ABSTRACT

In this article the authors attempt to explore the contemporary socially toxic situation between Black and Hispanic male youth and police officers from both a historical perspective and through the lens of the psychoanalytic concept of mentalization. As a result of the failure to mentalize Black and Hispanic male youth they are not depicted as vulnerable or in need of guidance and support but rather their behavior are quickly criminalized resulting in a punitive social response. The authors conclude that effective change warrants multiple systems to address this situation, including mental health, education, criminal justice system, as well as the creation of employment opportunities.