Conjoined twinning & biological individuation

Philosophical Studies - In dicephalus conjoined twinning, it appears that two heads share a body; in cephalopagus, it appears that two bodies share a head. How many human animals are present in...     

Perceptual masking: Peripheral vs central factors

Perceptual masking was studied under binocular and dichoptic conditions in order to separate peripheral and central interference effects. Under binocular conditions, when the test flash (TF) and the blanking flash (BF) fell on both retinas, both retroactive and proactive masking were demonstrated. Under dichoptic conditions, when the TF fell on one eye and the BF on the other eye, thus eliminating opportunity for intraretinal interference, there was partial retroactive perceptual masking and no proactive masking. These results suggest that binocular proactive masking is due to peripheral light adaptation, that binocular retroactive masking is due to both peripheral and central effects, and that dichoptic masking is due solely to central retrochiasmal interference. It is proposed that dichoptic retroactive perceptual masking affords a method of investigating central perception time, i.e., the time to consolidate a perceptual experience.     

Evaluating a treatment without extinction for elopement maintained by access to stereotypy

Elopement is a common and potentially dangerous form of problem behavior. Results of a functional analysis found that the elopement of a child with autism was maintained by access to stereotypy in the form of door play. We implemented functional communication training and contingency-based delays dependent on the absence of elopement and increased the amount of time the participant waited prior to engaging in stereotypy. We also conducted treatment-extension probes, with the participant waiting up to 10 min without elopement.     

A contribution to the study of phenomenal causation

In his studies of the perception of causality, Michotte describes a number of “impressions” concomitant with precisely defined experimental conditions, of which “Launching” and “Triggering” are two of the most important. Two major factors influencing the nature of the impressions are the relative speeds of the two rectangles representing objects participating in dynamic inter-relationships, and the length of path of the more passive of the two objects. This investigation was an attempt to discover the quantitative relationships obtaining between these two independent variables and the dependent variable of the subjects' responses to the experimental conditions.     

Effects of Irrelevant Sounds on Phonological Coding in Reading Comprehension and Short term Memory

The effects of irrelevant sounds on reading comprehension and short-term memory were studied in two experiments. In Experiment 1, adults judged the acceptability of written sentences during irrelevent speech, accompanied and unaccompanied singing, instrumental music, and in silence. Sentences varied in syntactic complexity: Simple sentences contained a right-branching relative clause ( The applause pleased the woman that gave the speech ) and syntactically complex sentences included a centre-embedded relative clause ( The hay that the farmer stored fed the hungry animals ). Unacceptable sentences either sounded acceptable ( The dog chased the cat that eight up all his food ) or did not ( The man praised the child that sight up his spinach ). Decision accuracy was impaired by syntactic complexity but not by irrelevant sounds. Phonological coding was indicated by increased errors on unacceptable sentences that sounded correct. These error rates were unaffected by irrelevant sounds. Experiment 2 examined effects of irrelevant sounds on ordered recall of phonologically similar and dissimilar word lists. Phonological similarity impaired recall. Irrelevant speech reduced recall but did not interact with phonological similarity. The results of these experiments question assumptions about the relationship between speech input and phonological coding in reading and the short-term store.     

Is schizophrenia what it was? A re-analysis of Kraeplin's and Bleuler's population

It has been noted that the term "schizophrenia" is now applied to a group in many ways dissimilar to Emil Kraepelin's cases of dementia praecox and Eugene Bleuler's of schizophrenia. No detailed explanation has been offered for the difference. This article offers evidence that Kraepelin's and Bleuler's concepts were derived from a population largely suffering from organic disorders including the Parkinsonian sequelae of encephalitis lethargica; it describes the conceptual confusion which followed the introduction of the concept of post-encephalitic Parkinsonism and discusses some implications for the modern concept of schizophrenia. It is suggested that the differences between earlier and later groups of schizophrenics may be accounted for by the decline in prevalence of post-encephalitic Parkinsonism and of the neurological and behavioral sequelae of other diseases, and by the parallel unsystematic development of the concept of schizophrenia.     

The Relationship Between Religious Service Attendance and Coronary Heart Disease and Related Risk Factors in Saskatchewan, Canada

Research suggests that attending religious services could provide small yet important protective benefits against coronary heart disease (CHD) and CHD risk factors (e.g., diabetes, hypertension). The extent to which these benefits apply to Canada deserves study because approximately one-third of adult Canadians attend religious services at least monthly. Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine the association between frequency of religious service attendance and prevalence of (1) CHD, (2) diabetes, and (3) hypertension in Canada. We used the Saskatchewan sample (n = 5,442) of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS-4.1) and built multivariable logistic regression models to evaluate associations between religious service attendance and self-reported CHD, diabetes, and hypertension. After controlling for demographic, socioeconomic and health behavior variables, the association between religious service attendance and prevalence of CHD was not significant (OR = 0.82; 95 % CI 0.61–1.11). However, persons who attended religious services more than once a week exhibited lower prevalence odds of diabetes (OR = 0.60; 95 % CI 0.45–0.80) and hypertension (OR = 0.82; 95 % CI 0.68–0.99) compared to persons who attended less than once a year. The findings of this study are the first to suggest religious service attendance may be associated with a lower prevalence of CHD risk factors in Canada.