Hindsight bias: An interaction of automatic and motivational factors?

If subjects are asked to recollect a former response after having been informed about the correct response, their recollection tends to approach the correct response. This effect has been termedhindsight bias. We studied hindsight bias in an experiment requiring numerical responses to almanac-type questions for physical quantities. We varied (1) the time at which the correct information was provided, (2) the encoding of the original responses by asking/not asking subjects to give a reason for the respective response, and (3) the motivation to recall correctly. We found that hindsight is less biased if reasons are given and if the correct information is provided at an earlier time. Motivation had only interactive effects: (1) With high motivation to recall correctly, the time the correct information was provided had no influence. (2) With reasons given, the variation of motivation showed no effect. These results rule out purely motivational and purely automatic explanations.     

The discrimination of human odour by the dog

In reply to a suggestion made by Galton in 1875, the ability of dogs to discriminate between the odour of human twins was investigated. In a matching-to-sample simultaneous discrimination task, dogs were tested on their ability to discriminate odours from twins differing only in genetic relatedness or only in environmental factors, particularly diet, or from twins identical in both genetic relatedness and environmental factors. Dogs could discriminate between the odours from twins who differed only in environmental factors and between the odours of twins who differed only in genetic relatedness. However, they were unable to discriminate between odours produced by infant twins identical in both genetic relatedness and environmental factors. Thus twins may be discriminated by dogs as long as they differ in genetic relatedness or environmental factors. The possible source of discriminable odours is discussed and how the effects of genes and environment are mediated considered.     

Visual stimulation affects the perception of voluntary leg movements during walking

When a limb is used for locomotion, patterns of afferent and efferent activity related to its own motion are present as well as visual, vestibular, and other proprioceptive information about motion of the whole body. A study is reported in which it was asked whether visual stimulation present during whole-body motion can influence the perception of the leg movements propelling the body. Subjects were tested in conditions in which the stepping movements they made were identical but the amount of body displacement relative to inertial space and to the visual surround varied. These test conditions were created by getting the subjects to walk on a rotatable platform centered inside a large, independently rotatable, optokinetic drum. In each test condition, subjects, without looking at their legs, compared, against a standard condition in which the floor and drum were both stationary, their speed of body motion, their stride length and stepping rate, the direction of their steps, and the perceived force they exerted during stepping. When visual surround motion was incompatible with the motion normally associated with the stepping movements being made, changes in apparent body motion and in the awareness of the frequency, extent, and direction of the voluntary stepping movements resulted.     

Two forms of persistence in visual information processing

Iconic memory, which was initially regarded as a unitary phenomenon, has since been subdivided into several components. In the present work we examined the joint effects of two such components (visible persistence and the visual analog representation) on performance in a partial report task. The display consisted of 15 alphabetic characters arranged around the perimeter of an imaginary circle on the face of an oscilloscope. The observer named the character singled out by a bar-probe. Two factors were varied: exposure duration of the array (10, 50, 100, 150, 200, 300, 400 or 500 ms) and duration of blank period (interstimulus interval, ISI) between the termination of the array and the onset of the probe (0, 50, 100, 150, or 200 ms). Performance was progressively impaired as both exposure duration and ISI were increased. The results were explained in terms of a probabilistic combinatorial model in which the timecourses of visible persistence and of the visual analog representation are regarded as time-locked to the onset and to the end of stimulation, respectively. The impairing effect of exposure duration was attributed to the relatively high spatial demands of the task that could be met optimally by information in visible persistence (which declines as a function of exposure duration), but less adequately by information in the visual analog representation. A second experiment, employing a task with lesser spatial demands, confirmed this interpretation.     

Serotonergic and opiate interactions in the modulation of drug- and environmental-induced analgesia in the neonatal rat pup

Serotonergic and opiate interactions in the modulation of drug- and environmental-induced analgesia were assessed in 6-day-old Sprague-Dawley-derived rat pups using tail-flick testing procedures. In these experiments the serotonergic antagonist metergoline was observed to attenuate both the analgesia induced by the opiate agonist morphine and the analgesia induced by isolation from siblings and the dam, an environmental manipulation which has previously been shown to be associated with increases in opiate activity. In contrast, the opiate antagonist naloxone was observed to be ineffective in blocking not only analgesia induced by the serotonergic agonist quipazine, but also analgesia induced by long-term deprivation from the dam and food, a manipulation that has been previously reported to induce increases in serotonergic utilization. These results suggest that in the neonate, as in the adult, the serotonergic modulation of nociception appears to occur "downstream" from the opiate systems serving to regulate nociception following both drug- and environmental-induced alterations in pain sensitivity. Analgesia induced by long-term deprivation from food and the dam appears to be strongly related to increases in serotonergic activity and relatively unaffected by opiate antagonism, whereas analgesia induced by isolation from siblings and the dam may be related to increases in opiate activity, but modulated by serotonergic systems serving to regulate pain responsivity. Thus alterations in the environment, mediated at least in part by alterations in opiate and serotonergic activity, appear to play an important role in influencing the sensitivity of the neonate to pain stimuli.     

Dissociation of data-based and expectancy-based memory following hippocampal lesions in rats

Sham-operated and nonoperated animals or animals with hippocampal lesions were presented with sets of trials to test both expectancy-based and data-based memory within the same task. During the study phase of each trial the animals were presented with a constant sequence of five arms on an eight-arm radial maze followed by a test phase in which a recognition test requiring a win-stay rule was used. Expectancy-based memory was measured during the study phase of the trials as a pattern of correct or incorrect orienting responses in anticipation of the ensuing doors in the constant sequence. Both groups of animals acquired correct orienting responses at the same rate, emitted the same pattern of correct orienting responses, and made the same number and pattern of intralist and extralist intrusion errors. Data-based memory was measured during the test phase of the trial as correct recognition test performance. During the test phase the animals with hippocampal lesions were impaired relative to controls on both immediate and 24-h recognition tests. These results suggest that the hippocampus might mediate only data-based, but not expectancy-based, memory and imply a possible dissociation between expectancy-based and data-based memory systems.     

Strength of scopolamine-induced amnesia as a function of time between training and testing

Variations in the strength of scopolamine-induced amnesia as a function of age of the habit were studied in Swiss Webster mice. Animals were trained in an active avoidance task to a criterion of 9/10 avoidances and immediately following training injected with scopolamine hydrochloride (1.0 mg/kg) or saline. Retention of the avoidance learning was evaluated by testing different groups of animals 1, 3, 7, 10, 14, and 28 days following training. The retention test consisted of five trials in which the CS but not the UCS was presented. Results indicated that saline-treated mice exhibited near-perfect retention up to 14 days post-training with forgetting beginning to be apparent at 28 days. Scopolamine treatment produced strong amnesia in animals tested 1 and 3 days post-training but normal retention in animals tested 7 and 10 days after learning. The amnesia abruptly reappeared at 14 days after which time it remained stable. The marked similarity of the scopolamine retention curve to changes in the strength of memory of discrimination learning in undertrained rats reported by Deutsch suggested that scopolamine resulted in the storage of a weak memory of the avoidance response. To explore this idea further we trained mice to a criterion (4/5) which would result in a weak avoidance response and tested different groups 1, 3, 10, 14, and 28 days following learning. Results showed that strength of the memory of avoidance learning increased up to 10 days and then decreased abruptly at 14 days thus replicating the general shape of the retention curve produced by injecting scopolamine following strong training. These data suggest that scopolamine disrupts processes essential for the formation of durable memories.     

Type A behavior and emotional responses to uncertainty: A test of the self-appraisal model

The self-appraisal model of Type A behavior holds that Type A's desire an accurate appraisal of abilities, and respond to uncertainty about abilities with exaggerated attempts to generate diagnostic information. The model also predicts that the major emotional response to uncertainty for Type A's is anxiety. In this study, Type A's and B's were induced to succeed or fail on a task where they were either very certain or very uncertain of their subsequent ability levels. Task failure produced greater depression, anger, and frustration for all subjects. Consistent with the self-appraisal model's prediction, uncertainty (regardless of success or failure) led to greater anxiety for Type A's than for Type B's. In fact, greater uncertainty produced lower anxiety for Type B's, indicating that Type A's and B's differ dramatically in their emotional responses to uncertainty about abilities.     

Subject knowledge of the Experimenter''s interest in handedness and familial sinistrality variables and laterality test outcomes

We investigated the possible influence of common "demand characteristics" on the results on behavioral language laterality tasks. The demand characteristics were (1) whether Ss were or were not recruited for study according to their handedness, and (2) whether a detailed familial sinistrality inquiry was conducted before or after the tasks. Tasks were the Dichotic Consonant Vowel Task (DCVT) and the Bilateral Object Naming Latency Task (BONLT). Results showed no effect of demand characteristics on the BONLT. On the DCVT, however, prior inquiry regarding familial sinistrality was associated with significantly reduced right ear advantages (REAs). Interactions showed that the greatest reduction in REAs occurred in Ss with left-handedness in their families, who were asked about familial sinistrality prior to the tasks, who took the DCVT after the BONLT, and who were also recruited by handedness. Results, though generally reassuring regarding the robustness of the tasks against these sources of bias, raise some cautions for the DCVT.