The localization over time of exogenous aldosterone and angiotensin II in various organs

Central nervous system effects have been demonstrated for angiotensin II and suggested for aldosterone. In order to determine whether either of these chemicals naturally crosses the blood-brain barrier, radioactive aldosterone and angiotensin II were introduced via intracardiac injections in rats. Samples of blood, liver, kidney, adrenals, cerebral cortex, and hypothalamus were collected at three, 15, and 60 minutes, frozen, dissolved, and counted. Blood levels for aldosterone and angiotensin II remained constant over 60 minutes. Aldosterone accumulated in the liver, kidney, adrenals and hypothalamus three minutes after injection, and levels diminished over time. Angiotensin II levels peaked in the adrenal, kidney, and liver after three minutes, and in the hypothalamus after 15 minutes. Cerebral cortex levels were lower than hypothalamic levels by 30% for aldosterone and 50% for angiotensin II. This suggests that both drugs may enter the central nervous system and selectively accumulate in the hypothalamus.     

Perception of clicks in music

Subjects were asked to judge the position of a click that occurred during a short piece of music. Clicks were, on average, judged to be later than their actual position. The click and the music were presented through headphones to different ears, and the clicks were judged to be significantly later if they arrived at the right ear rather than at the left. There was also a significant tendency for clicks to be attracted to phrase boundaries in the music. These last two results are similar to those from experiments with a click during speech, but the late judgments of a click in music contrast with the early judgments of a click in speech.     

Semantic errors or statistical flukes? a note on allport's “on knowing the meaning of words we are unable to report”

Allport (1977) has claimed that normal subjects who view briefly a multi-word array, which is then pattern-masked, produce semantic errors analogous to those made by subjects with “deep dyslexia”. We claim that the rate at which normal subjects make such errors is consistent with their arising purely by chance.     

Ethology,ethogeny, etics,emics, biology,culture: On the limitations of dichotomies

Ethogeny, supposedly patterned on ethology, differs as an approach to human social behaviour in obvious respects. Ethogenists follow an emic research strategy, whereas human ethologists have strongly favoured etic research options. However, recent trends to a broader, evolutionary approach in human ethology suggest that an avoidance or rejection of verbal reports and ethogenic methods merits reconsideration, The distinctions involved in the eticlemic contrast are examined, and compared to Richer's distinction between D- and N-type agreements. It is argued that none of the distinctions are dichotomous. The useful aspects of the distinctions refer to the generality of findings, and the validity of evidence. Bearing these in mind, ethogenic methods have a place in a broader human ethology. So far as validity is concerned, the value of a comparison of information from different sources, such as verbal and non-verbal data, is stressed. So far as generality is concerned, ethogenists may consider this to be very limited because of idiosyncratic cultural factors in the causation of human social action. A reconsideration of the biology/culture dimension in terms of function rather than causation may lead to more optimism in this respect, and be more productive scientifically.     

Noise and levels of processing

Three experiments investigated the view that people make more use of relatively surface levels of coding when noise is present, neglecting semantic levels of analysis. In experiment 1 subjects classified words in different ways and then recalled as many as possible. Subjects who received the noise conditions in the order noise-quiet recalled more words than those who received the conditions in the order quiet-noise, but noise failed to interact with the nature of the classification conditions although the usual advantage of the semantic condition over letter-case and rhyme conditions was obtained. Experiment 2 failed to show any effect of noise on physical-name match differences when letter pairs were presented simultaneously. In experiment 3 a delay was introduced between the letters; the noise-quiet subjects were then faster on the physical match than the name match whereas the slower quiet-noise subjects showed the reverse pattern. This could represent an instance of asymmetric transfer from noise to quiet or it could be due to speed per se.Overall, these results argue against a general explanation of noise effects in terms of a passive shift in levels of processing.     

ACQUISITION,DISCRIMINATIVE STIMULUS CONTROL,AND RETENTION OF INCREASES/DECREASES IN BLOOD PRESSURE OF NORMOTENSIVE HUMAN SUBJECTS1

The aims of this study of 24 normotensive subjects were: to compare a free-operant with a discrete-trials training format; to determine the most effective training procedure by comparing instrumental conditioning with instructional set and a control; to see if both increases and decreases in blood pressure could be brought under discriminative control, and to examine the maintenance of acquired self-control of blood pressure. A 2 × 3 design was employed in which two trial formats (free operant and discrete trials) were factorially compared with three training conditions (instrumental conditioning, instructional set, and control). Instrumental conditioning was found superior to both the instructional set and control conditions in producing increases and decreases in mean diastolic blood pressure. The free-operant format led to a greater degree of learned BP control in that subjects were able to increase and decrease their blood pressure by 10% to 15% of basal value and to maintain the blood-pressure operant after contingent auditory feedback/reinforcement was removed. Training was discontinued when subjects in the other five groups failed to reach criterion after 10 consecutive acquisition sessions.     

Perceived probability and evaluation of balance,agreement, and attraction: Toward a solution of conflicting results

Fifty-four subjects rated sixteen hypothetical situations on four evaluative and four probability scales. The situations were of the P-O-X type, consisting of two persons and an issue. A2×2×2×2 factorial design was used to test the relative importance of attitude (P to × relation), issue (marijuana or premarital sex), agreement (P to × and O to × relations), attraction (P to O relation), and balance (agreement × attraction interaction) on the evaluation and probability variables. As predicted from a critical review of past research on balance theory, balance was the main determinant of perceived probability. Attraction was the main determinant of evalution. In light of a review of past balance research and of the present data, we propose to restrict the balance hypothesis to cognitive variables, i.e., expectancy and perceived probability. In addition, support was obtained for the hypothesis that the more dogmatic a person is, the more frequently he will perceive balanced relationships as occurring and the more positively he will evaluate balanced situations.     

Methodological issues in judgment and decision-making research: Concurrent verbal protocol validity and simultaneous traces of process

This paper examines two dimensions of concurrent verbal protocol validity. First, whether verbalization affects process and outcome (reactivity) was examined by comparing concurrent verbal protocol traces with those from a computer search process tracing method, the latter being a complete trace of information acquisition from experimental materials. Earlier findings that verbalization affects time were confirmed. However, verbalization did not affect amount and pattern of acquisition or accuracy of judgments. Second, whether concurrent verbal protocols are complete was examined by comparing concurrent verbal protocol and computer traces that were simultaneously obtained in a treatment in which subjects verbalized as they acquired information from the computer. The verbal traces less completely captured information acquisition behavior than computer search. This suggests that, although concurrent verbal protocols provide greater insight into decision behavior than computer search, the latter is a more reliable information-acquisition trace. Thus, if information acquisition is of primary interest and if computer search activities can be naturally integrated into performing the primary task, computer search is preferred to concurrent verbal protocols. However, if information use or retrieval from long-term memory is of primary interest, concurrent verbal protocols are preferred to computer search. Finally, this paper examined whether the simultaneous use of concurrent verbal protocols and computer search provides traces of information acquisition and use that are as complete as when each method is independently applied. Although computer search tended to limit subjects verbalizations of evaluative operators, this effect may be eliminated by practice on the computer prior to collecting data.