Subjective contours in stereoscopic space

Stereoscopic depth and subjective contour clarity were manipulated by varying the type of monocular configuration as well as magnitude and direction of disparity. The clarity of the subjective contours was influenced significantly by both magnitude and direction of disparity and by the type of monocular configuration. Subjective contours were always less clear when the objective monocular contour was discontinuous regardless of disparity. Stereoscopic depth estimates varied directly with magnitude and direction of disparity; however, depth magnitude reports were truncated when the disparity was carried by discontinuously defined patterns.     

Alcohol-induced changes in contrast sensitivity following high-intensity light exposure

Relatively low doses of alcohol produced large, significant, dose-related increases in the time required to recover foveal contrast sensitivity following bright light exposure. Nine subjects participated in a double-blind experiment involving three dose levels of alcohol (including placebo). The luminance parameters of the test were comparable to those encountered in practical situations such as driving. The alcohol-induced delay in glare recovery is probably retinal and lasts for several hours after drinking.     

Simultaneous and backward fear conditioning as a function of number of CS-UCS pairings.

Four experiments examined the possibility that the outcome of simultaneous and backward fear conditioning procedures might depend upon the number of CS-UCS pairings. A punishment procedure will rats as subjects and shock as the UCS was used; the amount of suppression produced by response-contingent CS presentations indexed the strength of acquired fear. Experiments 1, 3, and 4 examined the suppressive tendencies of simultaneous-and backward-trained CSs after 0, 10, 20, 40, 80, and 160 pairings. The pattern of data suggested that initial pairings have the effect of increasing suppressive tendencies of the CS, while subsequent pairings decrease them. In addition, evidence of fear inhibition was found after 160 pairings in the case of the backward paradigm. Experiment 2 examined several nonassociative accounts based upon differential shock exposure. Groups given 10 pairings or 80 pairings were compared to ggroups given 10 pairings plus 70 shock-alone presentations. The results indicated that number of pairings, rather than number of UCS occurrences, is the important factor in decreasing the initial suppression. The evidence for eventual inhibition in the backward paradigm suggests that this occurs through the acquisition of inhibitory tendencies which are antagonistic to the previously conditioned excitation.     

The cheating and intention of a partner as determinants of evaluative decisions among juvenile offenders

Male juvenile offenders were asked to evaluate the work of an experimental partner (confederate) who completed a work task four times. The work partner cheated on two trials and did not cheat on two trials while working for a charity (one cheat and one noncheat trial) or for selfish gain (one cheat and one noncheat trial). It was found that subjects rated the work done on cheating trials lower than work done on noncheating trials. In addition, subjects shared less reward money on cheating trials relative to noncheating trials. However, the intentions of the confederate, defined as the reward recipient, failed to affect subjects' judgments. These results were described as supporting previous studies which have indicated that delinquents fail to take account of others' intentions when making moral judgments.     

Computer generation of textures

A method for displaying fixed or time-varying textured patterns under computer control is described. The luminance profiles of these patterns is fixed in one dimension (Y axis), but can be arbitrarily complex in the other dimension (X axis) since they are synthesized by software. An example of the use of the method in texture matching experiments is given.     

Effects of D- and L-amphetamine on the predatory behavior of Southern grasshopper mice,onychomys torridus

Adult male and female southern grasshopper mice (Onychomys torridus) were tested for predatory aggression toward cricket prey 1 hr after single injections of d-amphetamine (1 or 10 mg/kg) or 1-amphetamine (1 or 10 mg/kg). At the lower dose, d-amphetamine decreased feeding behaviors, while I-amphetamine altered attack-related behaviors. At the higher dose, both stereoisomers appeared to be equipotent in significantly decreasing 5 measures of predatory aggression. These results suggest that brain dopamine and norepinephrine play important roles in the regulation of predatory aggression of Onychomys torridus.     

Violent behavior patterns on psychiatric wards

A study of 379 violent incidents between pairs of psychiatric inpatients during an eight-month period indicates a substantial number of patterned associations between assaulting patients and those struck. In addition, regularities are observed in these incidents between frequency of occurrence and spatiotemporal and other contextual factors. Taken in the aggregate, these relationships support enlargement of most current conceptualizations of the violent act in psychiatric settings, which focus almost exclusively upon physiologic and psychologic state changes within the identified initiator of violent acts.     

Medicine as Enlightenment cure: Benedetto Frizzi, physician to eighteenth-century Italian Jewish society

This article examines modern Jewish doctors and the Enlightenment in action through its analysis of Dr. Benedetto Frizzi (1756–1844) as an Enlightenment Jewish physician and public intellectual in Habsburg northern Italy. Frizzi sought to spread the new Enlightenment gospel of polizia medica—public health policy or social medicine—that he learned from its pioneering exponent, Dr. Johann Peter Frank, his teacher at the University of Pavia. Frizzi dispensed Enlightenment medicine for the benefit of the state and society in general, as well as Jewish society and culture in particular, for he saw himself as both public health crusader and doctor-priest ministering to his own people. His commitments to Enlightenment science and rationalism led him to criticize Jewish social practices harshly even as he creatively reinterpreted classic Jewish texts; accordingly, Frizzi was regarded in some quarters as subversive, while in others as an apologetic defender of Jews and Judaism. Situating Frizzi within the traditions of Jewish as well as European Enlightenment physicians, this article raises broader questions about religion and secularism in the modern discourse of medicalized Judaism.