Contrasting visuomotor functions of tectum and cortex in the golden hamster

Summary Visually-guided orientation (spatial localization) and visual discrimination were dissociated by means of brain lesions in the golden hamster. After ablation of visual cortex, hamsters failed to discriminate visual patterns, but showed nearly normal ability to localize an object in space by means of vision. Ablation of the superior colliculus produced opposite effects: these animals were completely unable to orient to the position of a visual stimulus, but nevertheless showed excellent pattern discrimination.

---

Zusammenfassung Visuell gesteuerte Orientierung (räumliche Lokalisation) und visuelles Unterscheidungsvermögen beim Goldhamster werden durch Hirnläsionen funktionell getrennt. Nach Entfernung der Sehrinde können die Tiere keine visuellen Musterunterscheidungen, wohl aber noch in fast normaler Weise visuelle Objektlokalisationen vornehmen. Entfernung des Colliculus superior führt zu entgegengesetzten Effekten: die Tiere können sich nicht mehr nach der Position eines visuellen Reizes orientieren, zeigen aber trotzdem ausgezeichnete Musterunterscheidung.

---

---

During the period of the reported research, the author was supported by a U.S. Public Health Service predoctoral fellowship. Additional support was received from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences under their Training Grant STl GM 1064-04 BHS.For a more detailed report of this work, and reports of further experiments, see Schneider (1966).     

Curriculum and training reform in clinical psychology: Improving the integration of science and practice

Current graduate curricula do not fully grapple with and take advantage of the dialectical interplay of science and practice that is at the core of the scientist—practitioner (Boulder) model. This article addresses factors that interfere with the realization of the Boulder model and offers suggestions for curriculum reform. It emphasizes the importance of both science and practice, as well as the merit of both nomothetic and idiographic approaches to clinical training. The article discusses how academic politics often interfere with the incorporation of empirically supported treatments or assessment methods into training programs. Even when evidence-based approaches are a part of the curriculum, the challenges continue. Because empirically supported treatments are almost always associated with treatment manuals that rely on categorically defined diagnostic categories, they may inadvertently discourage idiographic functional analyses and the appreciation of underlying change principles. In addition, in light of the fact that many, if not most, students eventually pursue applied careers and because science-based interventions and assessment methods are currently underused by clinicians in the field, it is argued that clinical training should receive more recognition in scientist—practitioner programs. Programs should be mindful of the need to prepare a certain subset of interested students for scientifically based careers in applied settings. This article also highlights the importance of educating and training students in communicating and disseminating science-based clinical psychology to nonacademic psychologists and health professionals from other disciplines.     

The capacity for selective concentration on color versus form of consonants

The concept of active exclusion or inhibition of some stimuli while focusing on others has been largely ignored or rejected in recent work in the field of attention. As part of an ongoing series of studies involving five posthypnotically cued levels of mental concentration, it was possible to test the capacity for active blurring of one stimulus attribute (form) while simultaneously perceiving another attribute (color) accurately. In lowered concentration conditions three highly trained hypnotic Ss were dramatically successful in blurring the form and thereby impairing identification of colored consonants flashed tachistoscopically at speeds ranging from 300 msec down to 50 msec—without any concomitant loss in accuracy of identification of the color in which the letter was printed. Among a supplemental series of control experiments, it was further demonstrated that the active inhibitory process can be reversed so as to act upon color but not form; and that the Ss were unable to duplicate these feats in the waking state without benefit of posthypnotic programming. A theoretical interpretation of the findings, in terms of a conceptual model of the mind, is offered.     

Advocating Worker Justice

Catholic moral theology possesses a number of tools that can be employed to promote worker justice. Some of these tools, such as Catholic social teaching on solidarity and workers’ rights, have been used to this end before. However, advocates of workers’ rights have seldom utilized other concepts, such as cooperation in evil, scandal, and evangelization. This essay provides a theoretical introduction to several tools in the “toolkit” of Catholic ethicists, engaging contemporary scholarship on them. It then applies the concepts to two cases in order to demonstrate their usefulness in the struggle for worker justice. Both cases involve Catholic universities, which means the ethical concepts introduced from the Catholic moral tradition should have normative status for these institutions. The first case entails a divestment campaign at the University of Notre Dame. The second case confronts the unjust treatment of adjunct faculty members at Catholic colleges and universities.