Light and dark adaptation of visually perceived eye level controlled by visual pitch

The pitch of a visual field systematically influences the elevation at which a monocularly viewing subject sets a target so as to appear at visually perceived eye level (VPEL). The deviation of the setting from true eye level averages approximately 0.6 times the angle of pitch while viewing a fully illuminated complexly structured visual field and is only slightly less with one or two pitched-from-vertical lines in a dark field (Matin & Li, 1994a). The deviation of VPEL from baseline following 20 min of dark adaptation reaches its full value less than 1 min after the onset of illumination of the pitched visual field and decays exponentially in darkness following 5 min of exposure to visual pitch, either 30° topbackward or 20° topforward. The magnitude of the VPEL deviation measured with the dark-adapted right eye following left-eye exposure to pitch was 85% of the deviation that followed pitch exposure of the right eye itself. Time constants for VPEL decay to the dark baseline were the same for same-eye and cross-adaptation conditions and averaged about 4 min. The time constants for decay during dark adaptation were somewhat smaller, and the change during dark adaptation extended over a 16% smaller range following the viewing of the dim two-line pitched-from-vertical stimulus than following the viewing of the complex field. The temporal course of light and dark adaptation of VPEL is virtually identical to the course of light and dark adaptation of the scotopic luminance threshold following exposure to the same luminance. We suggest that, following rod stimulation along particular retinal orientations by portions of the pitched visual field, the storage of the adaptation process resides in the retinogeniculate system and is manifested in the focal system as a change in luminance threshold and in the ambient system as a change in VPEL. The linear model previously developed to account for VPEL, which was based on the interaction of influences from the pitched visual field and extraretinal influences from the body-referenced mechanism, was employed to incorporate the effects of adaptation. Connections between VPEL adaptation and other cases of perceptual adaptation of visual direction are described.     

The Use of Contextual Information Related to General World Knowledge by Right Brain-Damaged Individuals in Pronoun Resolution

This study investigated the ability of right brain-damaged individuals (RBD) to use contextual information to resolve ambiguous pronouns. Subjects were presented with sentence pairs and required to resolve the ambiguous pronoun in the second sentence. Contrary to the prevailing view that RBD patients have difficulty using contextual information to integrate language, the RBD group demonstrated a normal pattern of response, demonstrating a sensitivity to the pragmatic information contained in the leading sentence. They responded more quickly to sentences with a pragmatically constrained preferred referent than to those sentences for which there was no preferred referent. As well, they chose the preferred referent significantly more often than the non-preferred referent. These results suggest that RBD patients can use contextual information at the level of a minimal discourse (i.e., two sentences).     

Buffalo Creek Survivors in the Second Decade: Comparison with Unexposed and Nonlitigant Groups1

This study investigated the second-decade effects of the Buffalo Creek dam collapse and flood that occurred in West Virginia in 1972. One hundred twenty-one survivors who had participated in an earlier lawsuit against the coal company that built the collapsed dam were compared to 78 nonlitigant survivors on self-reported symptoms, clinical ratings, and diagnoses. A nonexposed sample from a geographically and culturally similar neighborhood was investigated as well. Findings showed no differences between the litigant and nonlitigant survivor groups. The survivor groups together showed higher rates of anxiety, depression, and hostility symptoms and diagnoses than the nonexposed sample. The findings were discussed in the context of the nature of the traumatic event, social and cultural influences on recovery, and the constellation of symptoms which differentiated the groups.     

The influence of introversion-extraversion on activity choice and satisfaction among the elderly

The present study investigated the optimum theory of aging. This theory predicts that individuals with different personality types will react differentially to the aging process. In the present study, 60 nursing-home residents were administered the Eysenck Personality Inventory and then randomly assigned to one of two experimental manipulations. Elderly subjects classified as extraverts showed a high level of satisfaction to an experimental manipulation which was of a high activity, interpersonal type; those classified as introverts evidenced more satisfaction with a low activity, non-interpersonal type manipulation. Inspection of records documenting actual participation in programs within the nursing home indicated that introverts were more often involved in low activity, non-interpersonal events whereas extraverts participated more often in high activity, interpersonal events. Implications of these results are discussed in relation to the optimum theory of aging.     

Self-concept and attraction for similar and dissimilar others.

The present study investigated the role of self-concept as a moderator of the similarity-attraction relationship described by Byrne. Subjects conducted face-to-face interviews with confederates who played roles as job applicants. Similarity-dissimilarity was manipulated by the confederate roles as well as by the information given the subjects in accordance with the procedures described by Byrne. The hypothesis was tested and confirmed that persons with favorable self-concepts would be more attracted to others with similar attitudes than to others with dissimilar attitudes. Persons with negative self-concepts did not show a preference for similar others. It was suggested that earlier studies in this area suffered from methodological flaws and did not constitute an adequate test of the hypothesis. Suggestions for future work in the area were given.     

Partial reinforcement effects in classical aversive conditioning in rabbits and human beings.

The partial reinforcement extinction effect (the PREE) in classical aversive conditioning was investigated in 2 experiments. In the first, the nictitating membrane responses of 120 rabbits were conditioned at a 250-msec. interstimulus interval (ISI) under continuous reinforcement, partial reinforcement with the unconditioned stimulus (US) omitted (Group PO), or partial reinforcement with the US delayed to 1,500 msec. (Group PD). These 3 groups were factorially extinguished under US-Omitted, US-Unpaired, or US-Delayed extinction regimens. A significant PREE was obtained, but only for PO training and US-Omitted extinction. The second experiment, employing human subjects in a masked eye blink conditioning task, produced parallel results. A general discrimination view of the classical PREE seems applicable, but one in which neither cognitive factors nor intertrial conditioning of reinforcement aftereffects play a significant role.     

On differentiating syntactic and semantic features in emerging grammars: Evidence from empty form usage

Recent emphasis on underlying semantic relations in the child's acquisition of grammar has left ignored those cases where syntactic operations can be observed relatively independent of semantic relations. Such operations may reveal optional processes in the child's transition from single-word utterances to grammatical usage that may be related to specific linguistic rather than general cognitive abilities.     

The Effect of the Physical Attractiveness and Role of the Helper on Help Seeking

The effects of a helper's physical attractiveness and role on help-seeking behavior were investigated here. Eighty randomly selected Smith College students were the subjects; the helpers were two confederates selected on the basis of a separately conducted photograph evaluation. The confederate was designated either as an experimenter (Role condition) or as a fellow subject (Nonrole condition). Subjects were reluctant to ask the attractive confederate for help when she was in the Nonrole condition; rather, most in this condition asked for information instead of assistance. When the confederate was unattractive, more subjects asked for help when she was in role than when she was not. Although there was a significant main effect, most of this effect appears to be accounted for by the low rate of seeking help in the Attractive, nonrole condition. Subjects took longer to communicate with the attractive confederate than with the unattractive one; further, they reported feeling more uncomfortable in the presence of the attractive helper regardless of role.