Monogeusia for fructose,glucose, sucrose,and maltose

We investigated the ability of subjects to discriminate sugars with a whole-mouth forced-choice paradigm, in which a standard solution was compared with a test solution of varied concentration. Discrimination probabilities were U-shaped functions of test concentration: for 6 subjects and pairwise combinations of fructose, glucose, and sucrose, discriminability always declined to chance over a narrow range of test concentrations. At concentrations ≦ 100 mM, maltose was indiscriminable from fructose but discriminable at higher concentrations for 4 subjects. By analogy with themonochromacy of night vision, whereby any two lights are indiscriminable when their relative intensities are suitably adjusted, we call the gustatory indiscriminability of these sugarsmonogeusia. The simplest account of monogeusia is that all information about the indiscriminable sugars is represented by a single neural signal that varies only in magnitude. The discriminability of maltose from the other sugars at higher concentrations is consistent with the hypothesis that maltose also activates a second gustatory code.     

Suicide: Dynamics and Implications for Counseling

‘The authors discuss the dynamics of suicide, how to work with a potentially suicidal client in the counseling relationship, and legal and ethical implications for the counselor.     

The kinematics,movement phasing and timing of a skilled action in response to varying conditions of uncertainty

This study was designed to provide a detailed analysis of the parameters which interact to produce a field hockey drive. The drive was performed by an elite performer under two conditions of uncertainty (Blocked and Random). The subject was asked to drive a field hockey ball toward a specified target. In the Blocked condition the speed of the approaching ball remained constant (20, 30 and 40 m.p.h.) while in the Random condition these speeds were randomly assigned to each trial. Cine analysis of the subject's successful responses under the two experimental conditions led to an investigation of the kinematics, phasing, and timing of the stroke. The subject placed emphasis upon varying the initial phases of the stroke (i.e., backswing and preparatory phases) in order to produce a temporally consistent ballistic downswing to ball contact. It seemed likely that the subject appraised the ball speed that was being delivered and then incorporated additional stick movement to ‘mark time’ before initiating temporally consistent movement phases, as spatial uncertainty increased, the subject delayed her response initiation, but then tended to respond in intervals of one reaction time for each stroke phase. Consistency was evident for displacement and initiation point values, but to a lesser extent than existed for the other variables. However, as a result of this adjustment in spatial location and displacement of the stick end during the preliminary phases of the response, the subject was able to produce a consistent and accurate ballistic downswing.     

What's in a name?

Medical students pose as physicians during clinical training. This article presents three cases where students justify misrepresenting their status for different reasons: self-concern for career, necessity for clinical training, and belief that the truth could cause undue psychological stress in the patient. The author suggests that serious consequences of this practice should be constantly reviewed in a critical light.     

Circadian factors during sustained performance: Background and methodology

Cornell University Medical College, Westchester Division, The New York Hospital, White Plains, New York It is well established that there is a complex timekeeping mechanism in the human brain. This mechanism is associated with a variety of physiological and psychological rhythms having a period of about a day, and thus referred to as circadian rhythms. The circadian system has recently been modeled in terms of two underlying oscillators, one much more resistant to changes in routine than the other. These oscillators are considered to be endogenous, that is, internal to the organism, and not reliant for their existence upon changes in the person’s environment or general behavior. They thus continue to run even when the sleep/wake cycle is suspended, as in sustained operations. Thus, by their very nature, sustained operations require the individual to override the inputs that are coming from his or her circadian system (especially the indication that sleep is required). The aim of this paper is to provide a background to the area of circadian rhythms research, including a section on the methodology, so that the impact of the circadian system on sustained operations can be better understood.     

Interviewer evaluations of interviewee nonverbal behavior

Personnel representatives (N = 52) were shown one of four videotaped job interviews in which the verbal content of the 16-min interview was identical, but the interviewee's nonverbal behavior was manipulated. A “low nonverbal” interviewee was defined by minimal eye contact, low energy level, lack of affect and voice modulation, and a lack of speech fluency. The “high nonverbal” interviewee demonstrated the opposite behavior on each of these components. The subjects were asked to rate the videotaped candidates on dimensions previously identified as critical in influencing a job interviewer's decisions. Nonverbal behavior was found to have a significant effect on almost every rating made by subjects in this study. After reviewing the entire 16-min interview, 23 of the 26 subjects who saw the “high nonverbal” candidate would have invited him/her for a second interview. All 26 of the subjects who saw the “low nonverbal” candidate would not have recommended a second interview.     

Remembering the levels of information in words

The qualitative nature of the incidental memory trace produced by perceptual and conceptual processing within a speeded inference task was examined. Performance on recall and auditory recognition tests replicated the general finding that semantic processing leads to better retention of words than does nonsemantic processing. This pattern of results was reversed on a visual recognition test designed to measure the amount of perceptual information remembered. These data suggest that different types of processing result in different aspects of the stimulus being encoded, with conceptual processing resulting primarily in the encoding of semantic information and perceptual processing resulting primarily in the encoding of physical information. Thus, the effectiveness of a particular kind of processing for good memory performance depends on the kind of information being tested.