Comparative meta-analysis of behavioral interventions for insomnia and their efficacy in middle-aged adults and in older adults 55+ years of age.

Meta-analyses support the effectiveness of behavioral interventions for the treatment of insomnia, although few have systematically evaluated the relative efficacy of different treatment modalities or the relation of old age to sleep outcomes. In this meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (k = 23), moderate to large effects of behavioral treatments on subjective sleep outcomes were found. Evaluation of the moderating effects of behavioral intervention type (i.e., cognitive-behavioral treatment, relaxation, behavioral only) revealed similar effects for the 3 treatment modalities. Both middle-aged adults and persons older than 55 years of age showed similar robust improvements in sleep quality, sleep latency, and wakening after sleep onset. A research agenda is recommended to examine the mechanisms of action of behavioral treatments on sleep with increased attention to the high prevalence of insomnia in older individuals.     

The devil in heaven: A near-death experience with both positive and negative facets

Although the considerable majority of reported near-death experiences (NDEs) are associated with positive affect, there are occasional cases of so-called negative NDEs that are dominated by fear and anguish. The phenomenological status of the negative experiences and their relationship to the more typical positive NDEs have been the subject of increasing speculation. In that light, the NDE described in this paper is of interest because it began to unfold as a positive experience but then changed course to become a negatively toned one. We present the details of this case and note its principal theoretical implications.     

Inspection time and its relation to intelligence

Inspection time, defined as the minimum duration for which two different stimuli must be presented if they are to be perceived as different, was measured for both auditory and visual stimuli. The minimum durations were determined by means of a two- alternative forced-choice task for 50 children whose average age was 12 years 2 months. The times were correlated with the children's verbal (Mill-Hill vocabulary) and nonverbal (Raven matrices) intelligence. The Kendall correlation coefficients were ?.3188 and ?.0929 for the auditory and visual inspection times with verbal intelligence, and ?.2322 and ?.2676 for those times with nonverbal intelligence. Auditory and visual inspection times were correlated .1721 with each other. These results do not support earlier claims that inspection time is closely related to conventional measures of intelligence.     

Visual discrimination thresholds for one- and two-dimensional Markov spatial constraints

Forced-choice discrimination thresholds were obtained for visual displays of a large number (1,000-3,600) of binary encoded elements with one- and two-dimensional Markov spatial constraints. Several factors which delimit such thresholds were explored. The primary determinant of sensitivity was the number of constrained elements within the display. Configurational features, such as the shape of the display have little influence on sensitivity. Thresholds for one-dimensional spatial constraints were consistently lower than for two-dimensional spatial constraints.     

Ecological Aspects of Group Behavior in Social Isolation1

The present study examined how socially isolated groups were affected by and used their physical environment during an 8-day period. Pairs of men were isolated under different conditions of privacy, outside stimulation, and expected time in isolation. Measures were taken of environmentally oriented behaviors such as social activities; territoriality for beds, chairs, and areas of the room, use of beds; and performance on team and individual tasks. The results indicate that unsuccessful groups exhibited a pattern of behavior reflecting their misestimate of the demands of the situation. The fact that many different levels of behavior fit together, over time, suggested the importance of an ecological approach to interpersonal behavior which examines many levels of functioning over time as a system, with particular emphasis on the mutual relationship between man and his environment.     

Discrimination of restrictions in sequentially blocked auditory displays: Shifting block designs

Finite-state Markov sequences were generated by a digital computer, translated to electrical pulse trains, and converted to sound by earphones. The sequences were constrained in terms of the maximum number of occurrences of any state within any block of successive items. The discriminability among such sequences was measured in terms of the threshold interstate interval difference that is required to achieve a given level of discrimination among the sequences. These thresholds are closely related to the number of selections available to the source generator for each position of the sequence.     

Discrimination of restrictions upon auditory sequentially encoded information: Block parity

Finite-state sequences were generated bya digital computer, converted to interval-coded pulse sequences, and transduced to sound by means of earphones. Within each block of B successive intervals, (B ? 1) intervals were randomly selected and the Bth interval was selected to achieve a fixed parity sum over the block. Discriminability among the sequences—as measured by interstate interval thresholds-reflects both the specific form and the extent of the sequential restrictions introduced by parity. Parity restrictions upon interval-coded sequences may bediscriminable through modification of distributions of runs.     

The “magic” paradigm revisited

The “magic” paradigm was devised to assess conservation of number in young children. Previous results with the paradigm have suggested that children acquire the ability to conserve number by 3 years of age. Because these results indicate a very precocious development of number conservation relative to performance on the classic conservation task, a comparison of these two procedures was made. Several differences which might account for the superior performance with the magic paradigm were noted: The arrays are presented successively rather than simultaneously, the arrays are presented side by side rather than parallel to one another, and the displacement is performed surreptitiously rather than openly. In the present research the magic paradigm was modified in several steps so that these differences between procedures were removed. None of the changes had an impact on the performance of 3-year-olds. It was concluded that insofar as small numbers are concerned, young children treat displacement as irrelevant to number. In regard to the question of whether young children are capable of conserving small numbers, it was concluded that no answer can be given. Basically, the problem is that we lack sufficient information on how young children solve the magic paradigm.     

Detection of informational constraints related to multi-variate visual displays

A contingent uncertainty of one bit is perceptible when imposed upon a combination of two binary-coded visual display variables, but not when imposed upon a combination of three variables. Why? The limitation may be sought in the average amount of the constraint, in the form of the constraint, or in the particular selection of display variables. Tests were carried out in which apparently equivalent informational constraints were imposed upon a single display variable. Such constraints were highly discriminable. Further tests reveal that the limiting feature for the detection of multi-variate constraints is probably the mean constraint level, averaged over all display elements, rather than the constraint level imposed upon the constrained display elements.