Revisiting the learning-without-awareness question in human pavlovian autonomic conditioning: Focus on extinction in a dichotic listening paradigm

Numerous studies have indicated that, consistent with current “cognitive” accounts of information processing, human Pavlovian autonomic discrimination acquisition cannot occur without awareness of the CS-US relationship. However, extinction studies have suggested that awareness is not necessary, findings that, in information-processing terms, have been explained by assuming that the processing by the extinction stage is parallel (automatic) rather than serial (controlled). This explanation was tested in an 80-subject study. The first, acquisition phase was a standard semantic differential conditioning arrangement with a 96-db white noise as US, and a “long” CS-US interval of 8 s, with ten trials each of CS+ (paired with US) and CS− (unpaired) trials. In extinction (USs omitted), in order to obtain non-autonomic indices of processing and thereby test the information-processing account of “unaware” autonomic conditioning during extinction, a dichotic listening task was implemented, with the CSs presented in the unattended channel (ear), while the subject had to perform a semantic differential reaction task in an attended-to channel (other ear). In early extinction, the electrodermal response occurring at an interval of 9–15 s after CS onset (i.e., following placement of the US during acquisition) and the finger-pulse-volume response occurring at an interval of 4–11 s after CS onset both showed reliable conditioning, but reaction-time and subjective-report data for the recognized critical words indicated serial rather than parallel processing of the CSs during extinction.     

Spatial-frequency-contingent color aftereffects: adaptation with two-dimensional stimulus patterns.

The spatial-frequency theory of vision has been supported by adaptation studies using checkerboards in which contingent color aftereffects (CAEs) were produced at fundamental frequencies oriented at 45 degrees to the edges. A replication of this study failed to produce CAEs at the orientation of either the edges or the fundamentals. Using a computer-generated display, no CAEs were produced by adaptation of a square or an oblique checkerboard. But when one type of checkerboard (4 cpd) was adapted alone, CAEs were produced on the adapted checkerboard and on sine-wave gratings aligned with the fundamental and third harmonics of the checkerboard spectrum. Adaptation of a coarser checkerboard (0.80 cpd) produced CAEs aligned with both the edges and the harmonic frequencies. With checkerboards of both frequencies, CAEs were also found on the other type of checkerboard that had not been adapted. This observation raises problems for any edge-detector theory of vision, because there was no adaptation to edges. It was concluded that spatial-frequency mechanisms are operating at both low- and high-spatial frequencies and that an edge mechanism is operative at lower frequencies. The implications of these results are assessed for other theories of spatial vision.     

Spatial-frequency-contingent color aftereffects: Adaptation with one-dimensional stimuli

The McCollough effect was shown to be spatial-frequency selective by Lovegrove and Over (1972) after adaptation with vertical colored square-wave gratings separated by 1 octave. Adaptation with slide-presented red and green vertical square-wave gratings separated by 1 octave failed to produce contingent color aftereffects (CAEs).However, when each of these gratings was adapted alone, strong CAEs were produced. Adaptation with vertical colored sine-wave gratings separated by 1 octave also failed to produce CAEs, but strong effects were produced by adaptation with each grating alone. By varying the spatial frequency of the test sine wave, CAEs were found to be tuned for spatial frequency at 2.85 octaves after adaptation of 4 cycles per degree (cpd) and at 2.30 octaves after adaptation of 8 cpd. Adaptation of both vertical and horizontal sine-wave gratings produced strong CAEs, with bandwidths ranging from 1.96 to 2.90 octaves and with lower adapting contrast producing weaker CAEs. These results indicate that the McCollough effect is more broadly tuned for spatial frequency than are simple adaptation effects.     

Book reviews

S tein , M urray , Practicing Wholeness
S piegelman , J. M arvin . Psychotherapy as a Mutual Process.
S hearer , A nn . Athene: Image and Energy.
C olman , A rthur D. Up from Scapegoating: Awakening Consciousness in Groups.
K ahr , B rett . D. W. Winnciott: A Biographical Portrait.
S iegel , A llen M. Heinz Kohut and the Psychology of the Self.
S tewart , H arold , with chapters by E lder , A ndrew , & G osling , R obert . Michael Balint: Object Relations Pure and Applied.
A dams , M ichael V annoy . The Multicultural Imagination: 'Race', Color and the Unconscious.     

Book reviews

F ordham , M ichael . Analyst-Patient Interaction: Collected Papers on Technique
E dinger , E dward G. The Aion Lectures: Exploring the Self in C. G. Jung's 'Aion'
S edgwick , D avid The Wounded Healer: Countertransference from a Jungian Perspective
S horter , B ani . Susceptible to the Sacred: The Psychological Experience of Ritual
Mc lynn , F rank . Carl Gustav Jung
S ymington , J oan & S ymington , N eville . The Clinical Thinking of Wilfred Bion
H azell , J eremy . H. J. S. Guntrip: a Psychoanalytical Biography
M ace , C hris (ed). The Art and Science of Assessment in Psychotherapy
G ray , R ichard M. Archetypal Explorations: An Integrative Approach to Human Behavior     

Book reviews

Freud and his Early Circle: The Struggles of Psycho-Analysis. By Vincent Brome. London: W. Heinemann Ltd. 1967. Pp. xii+275. 63s.

Fundamentals of Measurement (Second Edition). By N. M. Downie. New York: Oxford University Press. 1967. Pp. xiii + 482. 52s.

Psychological Measurement and Prediction. By Paul Horst. Belmont, California: Wadsworth. London: Prentice-Hall, 1967. Pp. vii + 455. 72s.

Attention and Performance. Edited by A. F. Sanders. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co. 1967. Pp. xii + 452. £6.

Sensory Inhibition. By Georg von Bekesy. London: Oxford University Press; Princeton University Press. 1968. Pp. x + 1265. £4 Is.

Ellements of Psychophysics, Volume I. By Gustav Fechner. Transhlated by Helmut E. Adler. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston Inc. 1966. Pp. xxxi + 286. 56s.

Human Information Processing. By Lawrence J. Fogel. London: Prentice-Hall. 1968. Pp. Ix + 420. 70s.

Vision and the Eye. By M. H. Pirenne. 2nd Edition. London: Chapman & Hall; New York: Barnes & Noble. 1967. Pp. xvi + 224. Hardback 50s. Paperback 25s.

The Human Operator in Complex Systems. Edited by W. T. Singleton, R. S. Easterby and D. Whitfield. London: Taylor & Francis Ltd. Pp. xx + 198. 57s. 6d. Also published as Vol. Io, No. 2, of the Journal Ergonomics.

Behavior. An Introduction to Comparative Psychology. By John B. Watson. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 1967. Pp. xxi + 439. $dollar;7.95.

The Psychology of Communication. By George A. Miller. London: Allen Lane the Penguin Press. 1968. Pp. vii + 197. 35s.     

Book Reviews

S idoli , M ara and B ovensiepen , G ustav (eds). Incest Fantasies and Self-Destructive Acts: Jungian and Post-Jungian Psychotherapy in Adolescence
S tevens , A nthony . Private Myths, Dreams and Dreaming
K ast , V erena . Imagination as Space of Freedom: Dialogue Between the Ego and the Unconscious
S egal R obert A. (ed.). The Allure of Gnosticism: The Gnostic Experience in Jungian Psychology and Contemporary Culture
E dinger , E dward F. The Eternal Drama: The Inner Meaning of Greek Mythology
H illman , J ames . Healing fiction
K napp , B ettina L. Manna and Mystery: A Jungian approach to Hebrew Myth and Legend
B lÉandonu , G Érard . Wilfred Bion: His Life and Works, 1897–1979
B roadribb , D onald . The Mystical Chorus: Jung and the Religious Dimension
S ymington , N. Emotion and Spirit: Questioning the Claims of Psychoanalysis and Religion
N egri , R. The Newborn in the Intensive Care Unit: A Neuropsychoanalytic Prevention Model
E arly , E mmett . The Raven's Return: The Influence of Psychological Trauma on Individuals and Culture