The effect of moving and static trans-scleral illumination of visual afterimages

The inside of the eye was illuminated by shining a small light through the upper eyelid and the sclera. After viewing a bright light flash, Ss closed their eyes and reported the duration of the afterimage under the following conditions: the light on and moving across the S’s eyelid (moving trans-scleral illumination), the light on but stationary (static trans-scleral illumination), and two corresponding control conditions in which the light was turned off (darkness). Results indicate that when the trans-scleral light is moving, afterimages are seen clearly for periods of approximately the same duration as those seen in complete darkness. However, when the trans-scleral illumination is stationary, the duration of the afterimages is significantly reduced. These results are compatible with other afterimage data that suggest that changes within the field after initial stimulation are needed to prolong afterimages.     

Children's cued recall: Developmental differences in retrieval operations

Second and fifth grade children were aurally presented a study list containing eight target items plus primacy and recency buffers, followed first by free recall, then by cued recall for items not produced in free recall. Two additional buffer items were used at Grade 5 in an effort to equate the two age groups in free recall of targets. The cues were either of high or of moderate associative strength, and equal for the two age groups. Free recall of targets did not differ with age, suggesting equivalent storage of targets. At Grade 2 the cued recall level matched expectations based on a simple associative account of cuing effects. However, cued recall at Grade 5 was much higher than the normative association values, implicating strategic retrieval operations, the possible nature of which was discussed.     

Behavioral treatment of obesity: a two-year follow-up

Data obtained from a two-year follow-up of 10 obese women treated via behavioral methods is presented. Failure to obtain lasting results was noted, and reasons for this failure suggested. Implications of these data for investigators in the area of obesity were discussed.A review of the recent literature indicates a number of studies with encouraging results obtained via the behavioral treatment of obesity (Hall and Hall, unpublished). However, long-term follow-up data are generally lacking. This lack of long-term data is especially troublesome in the area of obesity. With regard to traditional treatment methods, such as drugs, psychotherapy, and nutritional counseling, it has generally been noted that those overweight individuals who complete a course of treatment, and who lose weight, regain the weight lost (Stunkard and McClaren-Hume, 1958) Within the literature on the behavioral treatment of obesity, only one study (Stuart, 1967) has provided weight data for as long as 1 year after initiation of treatment Stuart's data indicated a gradual loss of weight over the year. However, these data did not reflect S's ability to control weight following termination of treatment, for during the year, follow-up sessions were scheduled monthly, and thus, therapist contact was available.The present paper, in an attempt to fill the need for long-term follow-up data, presents data obtained 2 years after the termination of a behavioral treatment program. None of the Ss had been in contact with the therapist since the termination of the study 2 years earlier.     

The effects of experimenter's instructions, feedback, and praise on teacher praise and student attending behavior

Systematic use of experimenter's instructions, feedback, and feedback plus social praise was used to increase teacher praise for student attending behavior of three elementary school teachers. Experimenter's verbal interactions with teachers, teacher's verbal praise for student behaviors, and pupil attending behavior were recorded during baseline conditions. As the three successive experimental conditions were introduced first with Teacher A, then with Teacher B, in a multiple baseline design, behaviors of the experimenter, the two teachers, and eight students were measured and recorded. In the cases of Teachers A and B, experimental condition one (Instructions) and experimental condition two (Feedback) produced inconclusive results. Experimental condition three (Feedback Plus Social Praise) produced more teacher praise for student attending behavior. The entire "Package" of Experimenter's Instructions, Feedback, and Feedback Plus Social Praise was introduced to Teacher C in a single experimental condition. As in the cases of Teachers A and B, behaviors measured were: (1) the experimenter's verbal interactions, (2) the teacher's praise of students, and (3) the student's attending behavior. Introduction of the "Package" also produced more teacher praise for student attending behavior.     

The storage of physical and name properties in short-term visual memory

Two experiments investigated the hypothesis that short-term visual memory is based primarily on physical features of the visual input. Subjects were required to recall visually presented figures or the names of those figures presented either visually or aurally at a number of different retention intervals. Subjects shadowed words during the retention interval presented aurally in Experiment I and visually in Experiment II. In both experiments, figures were recalled better than names and no differences in recall of names were found due to presentation modality. Recall of both names conditions showed a steady decline across retention intervals whereas recall of figures remained at a relatively high level. These findings were interpreted as providing further support for the existence of short-term visual memory not subject to auditory recoding and based primarily on physical features of the input. It was suggested that such visual memory is limited in capacity so that input exceeding this capacity is recoded into an auditory-verbal-linguistic form.     

THE CHANGING CRITERION DESIGN

This article describes and illustrates with two case studies a relatively novel form of the multiple-baseline design called the changing criterion design. It also presents the design's formal requirements, and suggests target behaviors and circumstances for which the design might be useful.     

Brightness and loudness as functions of stimulus duration

The brightness of white light and the loudness of white noise were measured by magnitude estimation for sets of stimuli that varied in intensity and duration. Brightness and loudness both grow as power functions of duration up to a critical duration, beyond which apparent magnitude is essentially independent of duration. For brightness, the critical duration decreases with increasing intensity, but for loudness the critical duration is nearly constant at about 150 msec. Loudness and brightness also grow as power functions of intensity. The loudness exponent is the same for all durations, but the brightness exponent is about half again as large for short durations as for long. The psychophysical power functions were used to generate equal-loudness and equal-brightness functions, which specify the combinations of intensity E and duration T that produce the same apparent magnitude. Below the critical duration ET equals k for equal brightness, and ET^a equa Is k for equal loudness. The value a is about 0.7 for threshold and about 1.25 for supraliminal loudness.     

Rate and frequency as determinants of learning with complete and discrete list presentation

In Experiment 1, complete presentation of the study list produced better free recall learning than did the usual item-by-item (discrete) presentation. The difference was large and held for items occurring one, two, or three times within a list, whether items were spaced or massed, and for discrete presentation rates of 2, 4, and 6 sec/item. Experiment 2 replicated this superiority of complete over discrete presentation (equating total study time), and Experiment 3 extended the finding to paired associate learning. Experiments 2 and 3 indicated that multiple presentations of a list at fast rates were superior to a single presentation at a more standard rate and only slightly inferior to a single, complete presentation. Practical implications for instruction were pointed out, as were problems that certain of the results pose for theories that emphasize strategic (or at least extended) processing of items for encoding.     

Repetition and lag effects in movement recognition

Whether repetition and lag improve the recognition of movement patterns was investigated. Recognition memory was tested for one repetition, two-repetitions massed, and two-repetitions distributed with movement patterns at lags of 3, 5, 7, and 13. Recognition performance was examined both immediately afterwards and following a 48 hour delay. Both repetition and lag effects failed to be demonstrated, providing some support for the claim that memory is unaffected by repetition at a constant level of processing (Craik & Lockhart, 1972). There was, as expected, a significant decrease in recognition memory following the retention interval, but this appeared unrelated to repetition or lag.     

The relationship between memory for order and other cognitive tasks

Measures of memory for order were correlated with measures requiring mental manipulation, achievement, and aptitude using college and fifth grade students. Memory for order was not significantly related to measures of mental manipulation nor achievement measures for college students. For fifth graders memory for order was significantly related to mental manipulation, intelligence, and achievement measures. It is suggested that the nature and capacity of short-term memory changes with age.