The effect of attending to feeling on memory for internally generated stimuli

The present experiments examined the effects of self-focus, as produced by focusing on feelings, on memory. In an initial experiment subjects did complex mental arithmetic significantly faster after self-focus. Because complex mental addition involves internally generated stimuli, the remaining experiments compared the effects, on memory, of self-focus on internally generated stimuli to the effect of self-focus on stimuli supplied by the experimenter. In a second experiment, self-focus facilitated memory for digits recalled in reverse order but not for digits when recalled in the given order. In a third experiment, self-focus facilitated the memory for the classification of digits but not for the digits themselves. In a fourth and fifth experiment, self-focus aided memory for classification of objects into categories such as small, medium, or large but did not aid memory for the objects themselves. In general, improved performance due to feeling focus was attributed to the role that self-focus may play in increasing attention to internally generated stimuli.     

An investigation of planned helping behavior

It is argued that stable, individual differences in helping behavior have not generally been observed in previous research because of the type of helping studied. This paper advocates the study of planned helping behavior as opposed to spontaneous helping behavior. The results of three studies are reported. In Study 1, an instrument designed to measure level of involvement in planned helping activities was developed. Scores on this instrument were found to be stable over a 7-month period. Further analysis revealed two major types of planned helping: (a) formal, organizational helping and (b) informal helping between friends and family. Study 2 examined a variety of intrapsychic and demographic correlates of formal and informal planned helping. Study 3 found support for the hypothesis that people in helping professions have higher levels of involvement in everyday planned helping than do people in nonhelping occupations. It is concluded that the study of planned helping, although posing methodological difficulties, is a necessary adjunct to experimental research.     

Subcortical aphasia with deep dyslexia: A case study of a Japanese patient

The reading performance of a Japanese Broca-type aphasic patient on a single-word reading test was investigated. The result indicated that the subject fits the symptom complex of deep dyslexia in more than one aspect. Unique characteristics of this subject included (1) the isolated subcortical site of the lesion, which apparently produced deep dyslexia, and (2) double dissociations between kanji and kana processing and between oral reading and reading comprehension. The performance of this subject was compared with that of another Japanese deep dyslexic subject in S. Sasanuma (1980, In M. Coltheart, K. Patterson, & J. C. Marshall (Eds.), Deep dyslexia, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul). A theoretical implication was attempted based on a dual coding process scheme by S. Sasanuma and O. Fujimura (1978, Cortex, 7, 1-18).     

Levels of selection and capacity limits

Subjects performed a visual target-detection task in eight experiments. We examined the effects of word relevancy (word in relevant or irrelevant location) and display load (1-4 words) on physical, semantic, and controlled processing of nontargets. Interwoven with the detection task was a test-word identification task that was used to measure priming potency of nontargets. Physical and semantic levels of processing were measured in terms of identity and semantic priming, respectively. Nontarget primes were repeated as test words in identity priming. Nontarget primes were semantic associates of test words in semantic priming. Controlled processing of nontargets was measured in terms of recognition memory on a subsequent test. All measures increased with word relevancy and decreased with display load. The priming effects remained intact even when word presentation was speeded up and controlled processing was sharply curtailed. The data indicate that all levels of processing are selective and capacity limited.     

A computational analysis of mental image generation: evidence from functional dissociations in split-brain patients

Recent efforts to build computer simulation models of mental imagery have suggested that imagery is not a unitary phenomenon. Rather, such efforts have led to a modular analysis of the image-generation process, with separate modules that can activate visual memories, inspect parts of imaged patterns, and arrange separate parts into a composite image. This idea was supported by the finding of functional dissociations between the kinds of imagery tasks that could be performed in the left and right cerebral hemispheres of two patients who had previously undergone surgical transection of their corpus callosa. The left hemisphere in both subjects could inspect imaged patterns and could generate single and multipart images. In contrast, although the right hemisphere could inspect imaged patterns and could generate images of overall shape, it had difficulty in generating multipart images. The results suggest a deficit in the module that arranges parts into a composite. The observed pattern of deficits and abilities implied that this module is not used in language, visual perception, or drawing. Furthermore, the results suggest that the basis for this deficit is not a difficulty in simply remembering visual details or engaging in sequential processing.     

Effect of classical conditioning on an internal clock

Six experiments with rats used a psychophysical choice procedure to study the internal clock used to discriminate duration. They investigated if the clock is sensitive to the signal value (associative strength) of a stimulus. The experiments involved two types of trials. On choice trials, a stimulus lasted a short (e.g., 3 s) or long (e.g., 12 s) duration; then the rats chose between two levers. The rewarded choice depended on the duration of the stimulus. On conditioning trials, the stimulus used on choice trials was presented, but it ended without food (extinction trials) or with food (pairing trials) regardless of what the rat did. The main stimulus minus accuracy with the long stimulus. Experiment 1 showed that extinction trials increased short bias relative to training without conditioning trials or to training with pairing trials. The rest of the experiments tested explanations of these results. The same results were found when extinction trials were the same duration as the short stimulus (Experiment 2), when extinction trials were a random duration (Experiment 5), and when the signal value of the conditioned stimulus was changed in another way (Experiment 6). The effect of conditioning trials was modality specific (Experiments 3 and 4). Of the explanations considered, the best one--the only one not contradicted at least once--is that changing the signal value of a stimulus changes how the clock times the stimulus. Reducing signal value reduces the measured duration.     

Reflex modification in the rat: the inhibitory effects of intensity and frequency changes in steady tones

In laboratory rats (as in humans) a low-intensity tone that precedes a high-intensity burst of noise by approximately 100 ms can reduce the amplitude of the startle reaction elicited by the burst of noise. A series of four experiments with rats investigated the relation between the inhibitory effects of tonal frequency change and the length of the silent period (gap) preceding it. The major findings were the following: (a) A gap in an otherwise continuous pure tone inhibited startle when the gap occurred approximately 100 ms prior to the noise burst. (b) Although an increase in gap duration increased the inhibition afforded by the gap, the maximum inhibition was yielded by gaps of 100 ms and greater; this maximum was equivalent to the inhibition yielded by the presentation of a postgap tone alone. (c) A shift in tonal frequency across a 10-ms gap yielded more inhibition than did the same gap with no frequency shift; again the shift yielded equivalent inhibition to the presentation of the postgap tone alone. (d) An increase in the frequency shift increased inhibition when the shift occurred across a 10-ms gap, but not when the shift occurred across a 100-ms gap.     

The word-superiority effect under conditions that approximate reading

Observers detected a briefly flashed target letter embedded in word, pronounceable nonword, and unpronounceable nonword contexts. The word context facilitated perception under both holistic and analytical processing strategies; the facilitative effect was enhanced when processing was analytical.