Role of optical flow field asymmetry in the perception of heading during linear motion

During linear translation through a stationary environment, the pattern of optical flow generated on each retina is symmetrical when the head is aligned with the heading, but during lateral gaze the optical flow is asymmetric. We assessed whether human subjects could use the magnitude of this asymmetry to determine the direction of heading during passive translation through a 3-D environment. When allowed to move their heads in order to look in the direction of self-motion, subjects indicated their heading precisely and accurately. When the head was locked in alignment with the misaligned body, and gaze adjustments were not allowed, responses were quite precise, but showed a large bias which increased with increasing heading angle.     

The effect of serving as a model of self-control on subsequent resistance to deviation in children

The effect of having a child serve as a rule-following model for other children on the model's own subsequent rule-following was investigated in a resistance to deviation situation. First- and second-grade boys (age range 73 to 94 months) who were told they would serve as self-controlling models for others and who actually served in this capacity touched prohibited toys less than did boys who were not told they would serve as models. Boys told they were to serve as models but who were prevented from performing deviated at a level between the models and boys given no responsibility. Having children serve as rule-following models for others is suggested as an effective, non-punitive technique to increase their self-control.     

The extinction of within-compound flavor associations

Three experiments studied extinction of the associations which are formed between two flavors presented in a simultaneous compound. In Experiment 1 those associations were identified by a sensory preconditioning procedure in which the poisoning of one element of the compound led to the rejection of the other element. Separate presentation of either element between their joint occurence and the poisoning of one element sharply attenuated the rejection of the other element. That attenuation was interpreted in terms of the extinction of within-compound associations. Experiment 2 obtained similar results with an alternative extinction procedure in which the elements of the original compound were presented in other compounds. Experiment 3 obtained similar results when the existence of the within-compound associations was determined by an alternative assessment procedure in which one element of the compound was made more attractive by the induction of a specific hunger. These experiments suggest that within-compound associations can be extinguished when the elements are separately presented outside of the compound. Experiments 2 and 3 make less plausible an alternative interpretation of the effects of separate element presentation in terms of reduction of the novelty of the element. The findings may be taken as implying that the elements of a simultaneously presented compound are joined by a single symmetrical association which acts at various points during a sensory preconditioning experiment.     

Paid work,child care,and housework: A national survey of high school seniors' preferences for sharing responsibilities between husband and wife

A large national sample of high school seniors rated their preferences for the allocation of work and family duties within their own prospective marriages. The results indicate that many seniors favor half-time or full-time work for wives without children. On the other hand, the majority prefer that the mother of preschool children stay home, although half-time work is acceptable to many. Respondents who are male or White or did not have a working mother themselves are somewhat more conservative on these issues. Virtually all seniors view less than full-time employment by the husband as unacceptable. With regard to child care and housework, most seniors prefer equal sharing between the spouses. A comparison of four senior classes reveals a slight trend from 1976 to 1979 toward increased sharing of duties.     

Oculomotor programming disturbances in the dementia syndrome

Three types of oculomotor programming disturbances are described in patients with the dementia syndrome. This report describes two of these abnormalities, poorly regulated gaze patterns and a programming type of gaze perseveration. All patients showed poorly regulated gaze patterns in contrast to the normal controls, whereas on the whole only the moderately affected patients showed the programming type of gaze perseveration. The third type of oculomotor programming disturbance is efferent perseveration of gaze (a hypokinetic, "staring" type of gaze pattern) and can be seen with severe dementia. The possible significance of these findings is discussed.     

Depth of nontarget processing in an attention task

Two studies examined the effect of the sensory discriminability of targets from nontargets on depth of nontarget processing. Subjects shadowed target words that were binaurally presented with coincident nontarget words. Targets and nontargets were spoken in the same male voice under low sensory discriminability and in male and female voices, respectively under high sensory discriminability. Across the two studies, depth of nontarget processing was assessed in three ways: extent to which shadowing accuracy was disrupted by a semantic overlap between targets and nontargets, expenditure of capacity (reaction time to subsidiary light signals), and nontarget recall. All three possible measures of depth of nontarget processing decreased as sensory discriminability increased. The data support the assumption of multiple-loci theories of attention that nontargets can be perceptually inhibited; they contraindicate the assumption of late-selection theories that perceptual processing is automatic and irrepressible.     

A head-mounted scene holder for eye movement research

An inexpensive head-mounted scene holder is described. In contrast to the usual biteboard/fixed-head approach, the present apparatus allows head movements without introducing substantial artifact. This enables eye movement investigations of brain-damaged or psychiatric subjects who often cannot maintain prolonged head immobility; also, the unit makes possible subjects’ verbal reports coincident with visual scanning.     

Stage 2 processing and the divided-attention effect

In two experiments subjects performed a choice-reaction-time (CRT) task and a second task concurrently. The second task was a simple reaction-time task in Experiment 1 and sentence generation and recall tasks in Experiment 2. Both studies yielded two main findings: Performance of the second task was not affected by CRT memory load (one, two, or four items), and the requirement to perform the second task did not affect the rate of increase of CRT with memory load. The first finding indicates that the effect of memory load on CRT is attributable to memory scanning, or Stage 2 processing, and is not an artifact of the rehearsal demands of the CRT memory set. The second finding indicates that Stage 2 processing is not sensitive to division of attention between the CRT and a second task.