STUDIES IN THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF A NEW DRUG (DIETHYLPROPION): Subjective effects in the natural environment

Two doses diethylpropion, one dose pipradrol, one dose amobarbital and placebo were administered to 116 subjects, who rated their state on twenty variables. The variables were intercorrelated under pipradrol and pentymal. The correlation matrices were subjected to factor analysis. Four factors were found in both studies: Happiness, Alertness, Relaxation, and Flight of thoughts. There is some agreement between the two factor analyses. There were few significant effects of the drugs on factor scores, but the structure is quite unambiguous: pipradrol and diethylpropion are stimulating, and amobarbital tranquilizing.     

Response latencies in naming objects

After some preliminary analysis of what is involved in naming objects, in which the possible role of classificatory systems in the memory store is discussed, it is shown experimentally that there are consistent differences between the times taken to respond to presented objects by uttering their names, variations between the performances of different individuals being outweighed by variations due to the different objects. Moreover, there is a high consistency between different individuals as to the ordering of objects in respect of their naming latencies. It is further shown that a high correlation exists between the time taken to name an object and the frequency with which its name occurs in the language as a whole, as estimated in the Thorndike-Lorge Word List. Some implications of these findings are discussed, especially with reference to possible mechanisms by which presented objects are visually identified, and the appropriate names retrieved from the “word-store.”