Free visual imagery sequences in reactors and nonreactors

The technique of Free Visual Imagery Sequences was used with 32 outpatients, M age of 33.9, to determine the differences between Visual Imagery Reactors and Nonreactors as defined in previous studies. Reactors showed significantly more responses associated with Affect/Conflict material, frequently including bizarre and distorted images. The Affect/Conflict responses occurred earlier and had longer duration spans in Reactors. Neutral content was more prevalent in Nonreactors. An interpretive approach involving a regulatory processing system is proposed. Free Visual Imagery Sequences appears to be a simple and efficient clinical technique which can contribute data useful in determining the extent to which imagery techniques could be employed in certain forms of psychotherapy.     

A behavioral quantal theory of brain function: an alternative to Lashley's continuity theory of mass action

A behavioral quantal theory of brain function is formulated on the basis of a newly discovered step-wise relationship invariably present among the findings of three experiments by Tsai, et al. on the effects of (1) cerebral decortication, (2) cranial x-radiation, as well as (3) insulin, metrazol, and electroconvulsive shocks upon white rats' adaptive behavior during their learning of successive habit reversals and one-trial reversal problems. Confirmatory results from earlier investigators who studied effects of various current strengths of ECS upon learning and retention of various maze habits are also cited in support of the behavioral quantal theory of brain function which is proposed here as a close-up, more refined alternative to Lashley's continuity theory of mass action.     

Smoking, body weight, and their effects on smoking behavior: a comprehensive review of the literature

This article provides a comprehensive review of the research on smoking and body weight. The relationships between smoking and body weight are evaluated in 70 cross-sectional and longitudinal investigations. The mechanisms responsible for differences in body weight are discussed, the weight-related issues that promote smoking behavior are reviewed, methods for reducing postcessation weight gain are summarized, and future research directions are proposed. A proposed working research model for studying the relationship between smoking, energy balance, and weight gain is offered. It is concluded that smoking and body weight relationships are closely related and pose significant challenges for smoking researchers.     

Hypnotic susceptibility and its relationship to outcome in the behavioral treatment of asthma: some preliminary data

12 subjects from an experiment on relaxation therapy for asthma were given the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A. Full scale hypnotic susceptibility scores were positively correlated, at a borderline significance, with improvement in the methacholine challenge test, a measure of asthma severity. Performance on the amnesia item of the Harvard Group Scale was correlated with improvement in self-reported symptoms of asthma.     

Patient variable biases in clinical judgment: conceptual overview and methodological considerations

Specific conceptual factors are presented as having contributed to the negative findings of past psychotherapy bias research. Among these factors are the restrictive nature of both the definition of bias and the model of the biased clinician. A review of published studies of several patient variable biases (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, and age) indicated that bias may best be defined in broader terms and that its occurrence may be more circumscribed than originally conceived. In addition, the lack of a theoretical perspective in this area of research is noted and the applicability of some social cognitive processes is discussed. Methodological factors are also considered, and recommendations for future research are offered.     

Blocking Effects in Two-Choice Discrimination Tasks in Rhesus Monkeys Macaca Mulatta

The Psychological Record - The present experiments investigated blocking effects in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) in a discrimination learning paradigm using a single stimulus modality. Two...     

Stressed vowel perception in word recognition

The purpose of this study was to measure subjects' ability to detect deliberate stressed, front-vowel misarticulations embedded in two-syllable words. Reaction times to words with various vowel-height misarticulations were examined for 25 women to assess the effect of a specific vowel height change on listeners' ability to recognize a word. Statistical analysis indicated no significant differences between reaction times to initial, stressed vowel changes along the height dimension, suggesting that subjects responded similarly to all vowel errors on the detection task. This finding provides further evidence that stressed-vowel information may serve as a perceptual anchor in guiding a listener during word recognition.     

Do response time advantage and interference reflect the order of processing of global- and local-level information?

Navon's (1977) global precedence hypothesis was based primarily on the joint occurrence of two effects: a response time (RT) advantage for identifying global targets, and interference by global distractors on responding to local targets. Although the hypothesis has been questioned on the basis of experiments in which it has been shown that a local RT advantage and local interference can occur, it is still frequently assumed that these two effects are a valid measure of the order in which local and global levels of structure are processed. In the present experiment, this assumption was examined. Subjects identified target letters that occurred randomly at the global or local level in a divided-attention task. The visual angle subtended by the stimulus pattern was varied, a manipulation known to affect the relative speed of response to local- or global-level information. Local targets were identified faster than global targets at the larger visual angles, but there was no difference in RT at the smallest visual angle. Despite this change in RT advantage, the interference effect did not change as a function of the visual angle of the stimulus pattern. Moreover, global distractors interfered with responding to local targets but local targets had no effect on responding to global targets, which is exactly the opposite of the finding one would expect if RT advantage and interference reflected order of processing. These findings are not consistent with the assumption that RT advantage and interference reflect order of processing in a simple way.     

Spatial frequencies and the cerebral hemispheres: contrast sensitivity, visible persistence, and letter classification

The hypothesis that the two cerebral hemispheres are specialized for processing different visual spatial frequencies was investigated in three experiments. No differences between the left and right visual fields were found for: (1) contrast-sensitivity functions measured binocularly with vertical gratings ranging from 0.5 to 12 cycles per degree (cpd); (2) visible persistence durations for 1- and 10-cpd gratings measured with a stimulus alternation method; and (3) accuracy (d') and reaction times to correctly identify digitally filtered letters as targets (L or H) or nontargets (T or F). One significant difference, however, was found: In Experiment 3, a higher decision criterion (beta) was used when filtered letters were identified in the right visual field than when they were identified in the left. The letters were filtered with annular, 1-octave band-pass filters with center spatial frequencies of 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 cpd. Combining four center frequencies with three letter sizes (0.5 degrees, 1 degree, and 2 degrees high) made some stimuli equivalent in distal spatial frequency (cycles per object) and some equivalent in proximal spatial frequency (cycles per degree). The effective stimulus in the third experiment seemed to be proximal spatial frequency (cycles per degree) not distal (cycles per object). We conclude that each cerebral hemisphere processes visual spatial frequency information with equal accuracy but that different decision rules are used.