Octave generalization of specific interference effects in memory for tonal pitch

An experiment is described which demonstrates that certain highly specific disruptive effects in immediate memory for tonal pitch generalize across octaves. Pitch recognition was required after a retention interval during which six other tones were played. The effects of including in the interpolated sequence tones which were removed by exactly an octave from those which had already been demonstrated to produce disruption were investigated. Generalization of these interference effects was found to result both from tones which were displaced an octave higher and (to a lesser extent) from tones which were displaced an octave lower. It is concluded that the memory store that retains information concerning the pitch of ifidividual tones is bidimensional in nature, both “tone height” and “tone chroma” being represented.     

THE SILENCING THE SELF SCALE: Schemas of Intimacy Associated With Depression in Women

The Silencing the Self Scale (STSS), derived from a longitudinal study of clinically depressed women, measures specific schemas about how to make and maintain intimacy hypothesized to be associated with depression in women. To assess its psychometric properties, the STSS was administered with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) to three samples of women: college students ( n = 63), residents in battered women's shelters ( n = 1401, and mothers ( n = 270) (of 4-month-old infants) who abused cocaine during pregnancy. The STSS had a high degree of internal consistency and test-retest reliability and was significantly correlated with the BDI in all three samples.     

Sustained operations and military performance

A militarily realistic schedule is one that demands several days with only very limited opportunities for sleep, followed by several days without any opportunity for sleep. A trial was carried out to study the effects of total sleep deprivation following partial sleep deprivation. Twelve infantry soldiers, divided into two groups of six, took part in a 6-day trial in which the experimental group was scheduled for 1.5 h of sleep every 24 h for 3 days followed by 3 days in which no sleep was scheduled. The control group was scheduled to have 4 h of sleep every 24 h for 6 days. Following the sleep-deprivation period, unlimited sleep was permitted for both groups in a 40.25-h (1.7-day) rest period. Three of the six subjects in the experimental group completed the 152 h (6.3-day) trial; all six subjects in the control group completed the trial. On the last sleep-deprivation day, cognitive performance was 37% of the baseline value for the experimental group and 94% for the control group.     

Evoked potential augmenting-reducing and personality differences

Normal volunteers (N = 120) were screened on the evoked potential (EP) measure of augmenting/reducing introduced by Buchsbaum and Silverman (1968). Extreme augmenters were compared with extreme reducers on the Zuckerman Sensation-seeking Scales, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM) and a measure of pain sensitivity. Reducers are more extraverted and more sensation-seeking than augmenters; they are also less sensitive to pain and they have higher scores on the RAPM test. The fact that individuals selected for contrasting EP response patterns differ on these psychological variables supports the idea that there is a neurophysiological basis for individual differences in personality, pain perception and intelligence.     

Theoretical and empirical comparison of Luce’s choice model and logistic Thurstone model of categorical judgment

Theoretical predictions of the two models are analyzed and shown to be different if the number of categories is three or more. Then two common methods of testing mathematical models empirically are examined: (1) direct testing of predictions embodied in constraint equations, and (2) minimum chi-square methods. In the experimental investigation, two undergraduate subjects performed an eight-stimulus, 8-response category judgment of loudness in a neutral and a payoff biased condition. There were no significant departures from the Thurstone model, but substantial and significant departure from the choice model, especially in the biased condition. Chi-square tests were more powerful than constraint tests, but less good at identifying the source of conflict between data and theory.     

The impact of education and selected traits on sex-role related goals and attitudes

Questionnaires that assessed educational goals, career goals, preferred and expected career commitment, sex-role attitudes, age, college class, height, and weight were completed by 884 male and female undergraduates representing two racial groups and two age groups. Age, size, and college class were unrelated to women's goals and attitudes, whereas men chose more traditional careers as their education progressed. Technical college students tended to be more traditional than university students. Implications for related research are discussed.     

Binaural integration of melodic patterns

It has been argued that there is a limit to the rate at which we can switch attention between ears in monitoring auditory information. Listeners identified melodic configurations formed by rapid sequences of tones. When these sequences were presented binaurally, excellent performance was obtained. Yet when the component tones of the melody were distributed between the ears, performance was largely nullified when a drone (i.e., a lower constantfrequency tone) was presented to the ear opposite that receiving the melody component. This improvement in performance cannot be attributed to processing the harmonic relationships between melody and drone, since when, instead, the drone was presented to the same ear as the melody component, performance was at chance. Onset-offset asynchronies between the drone and melody components resulted in performance levels between those where the drone and melody components were synchronous and those where the melody switched between ears without an accompanying drone. It is argued that difficulties in binaural integration are due not to processing limitations, but to a mechanism that is invoked under certain conditions to prevent confusion in monitoring individual sound sources.     

The influence of stimulus scale-interval upon the assessment of pain threshold

An experiment concerning the influence of the scale of stimulus values upon the perception of heat-pain is reported in which it is found that the value of the threshold stimulus is dependent upon the size of the steps between successive stimuli.

The results are analysed in the light of a paper by Brown and Cane (1959) in which they point out that the value of a sensory threshold yielded by the Limiting Method is mathematically dependent upon the size of the steps between successive values of the variable stimulus. The threshold values reported here are found to be dependent on the step-size between stimuli to a greater extent than that which would be predicted by Brown and Cane.

In view of these results, an attempt is made to explain the wide variety of pain threshold values reported in the literature.     

Latent Class Analysis of Individual-Level Characteristics Predictive of Intervention Outcomes in Urban Male Adolescents

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Preventive intervention research dictates that new techniques are needed to elucidate what types of interventions work best for whom to prevent...