The effect of alcoholic intoxication upon calorically induced oculogyral illusion

Ten male and 10 female subjects, half of whom were classified as “heavy” and half as “light” drinkers, ingested a 4-1 combination of tonic water and 80-proof vodka in an amount calculated to produce a state of moderate intoxication (average estimated peak blood alcohol level=.075). This resulted in an increased sensitivity (latency, magnitude, and duration) to the calorically induced “oculogyral illusion” (OGI) relative to a placebo (tonic water) condition. “Heavy” and “light” drinkers did not differ significantly on any of the measures. It was speculated that the alcoholic enhancement of the OGI was due either to a decreased ability to suppress vestibular nystagmus when attempting to fixate a visual stimulus or to the expenditure of extra-normal effort in order to maintain fixation.     

Discrimination of time intervals marked by brief acoustic pulses of various intensities and spectra

Experienced observers were asked to identify, in a four-level 2AFC situation, the longer of two unfilled time intervals, each of which was marked by a pair of 20-msec acoustic pulses. When all the markers were identical, high-level (186-dB SPL) bursts of coherently gated sinusoids or bursts of band-limited Gaussian noise, a change in the spectrum of the markers generally did not affect performance. On the other hand, for 1-kHz tone-burst markers, intensity decreases below 25 dB SL were accompanied by sizable deterioration of the discrimination performance, especially at short (25-msec) base intervals. Similarly large changes in performance were observed also when the two tonal markers of each interval were made very dissimilar from each other, either in frequency (frequency difference larger than 1 octave) or in intensity (level of the first marker at least 45 dB below the level of the second marker). Time-difference thresholds in these two latter cases were found to be nonmonotonically related to the base interval, the minima occurring between 40- and 80-msec onset separations.     

Reaction time in reading a tachistoscopic display for a memory set item

Reaction times were measured in a task which requires the subject to search a brief visual array for a critical letter embedded in a row of background letters. In Experiment 1, the position of a critical letter in an instructed reading order and the size of a set of memorized letters were varied. Mean reaction time increased monotonically with distance of the critical letter from the beginning of the instructed reading path in the display. The variables reading position and memory set size were additive in their effect on mean reaction time. Data from a second experiment in which the retinal location of the critical letter and its reading position were varied showed that both reading position and retinal location influenced mean reaction time, but the effect of reading position on reaction time was greater. These variables interacted.     

Depression and marital interaction.

A family-systems model of depression is presented and discussed. In this model, the intrapsychic concept of cognitive schema and the interpersonal concepts of social stimulation and social reingorcement are integrated within a systems-theory perspective. The effects of positive and negative feedback are delineated, and a concept of depression-triggering and depression-maintaining feedback loops is described. A clinical illustration is utilized to exemplify the theoretical model.