Pupillometry system for use in social psychology

It is now relatively easy to implement pupillometry in social psychological research. We describe a system in which a Macintosh computer presents visual and auditory stimuli to subjects while monitoring an infrared pupillometer. The computer records information on subject, task, and pupil diameter into a data file for input into standard statistical analysis programs. Pupil diameter is measured continuously while subjects respond to stimuli that last for several seconds or minutes. A demonstration experiment verifies the usefulness of the system. The ability of the Macintosh computer to easily handle visual and auditory stimuli and to record responses lasting a considerable length of time makes the system well suited for studying pupil responses to complex social stimuli. This system is also well suited for the researcher initiating a research program using pupillometry. Ease of operation makes using a large number of subjects feasible.     

An injection olfactometer for humans and a new method for the measurement of the shape of the olfactory pulse

An injection olfactometer for human psychophysical experiments is described. The olfactometer is capable of presenting, either mono- or birhinally, single odorants and binary mixtures. The pulse form of the olfactory stimulus at the exit of the olfactometer approaches a rectangular form, which makes the olfactometer well suited for olfactory reaction time measurements. Since stimulation periods are independent of the subject’s inhalation, time-intensity measurements over prolonged periods of time are possible as well. In the second part of this paper, a new technique is described for the measurement of the stimulus pulse form at the exit of the olfactometer.     

An optical encoder and XY oscilloscope interface for the IBM PC

This paper outlines a prototype dual-purpose interface card for the IBM PC for use in research on motor learning and control. The card enables automatic interfacing for up to four angular optical encoders and presents high-speed visual data on an XY oscilloscope. In addition, it uses two single-chip microcontrollers with minimal external hardware, providing a more powerful instrument than is available in discrete hardware. Two microcontrollers operate independently of the experimental computer (IBM PC), using a common interface allowing the exchange of data. This interface card frees the experimental computer from the workload associated with optical encoders and high-speed XY displays, resulting in less complex experimental setups and data collection programs.     

结果预期与结果反应对儿童意图认知和道德判断的影响

考察了结果预期与结果反应对儿童意图认知和道德判断的影响。结果表明,结果预期影响幼儿园和小学儿童的意图认知,结果反应仅影响幼儿园儿童的意图认知;结果预期和结果反应显著地影响幼儿园和小学儿童的道德判断,但结果预期对小学儿童道德判断的影响要比结果反应大。     

Monogeusia for fructose,glucose, sucrose,and maltose

We investigated the ability of subjects to discriminate sugars with a whole-mouth forced-choice paradigm, in which a standard solution was compared with a test solution of varied concentration. Discrimination probabilities were U-shaped functions of test concentration: for 6 subjects and pairwise combinations of fructose, glucose, and sucrose, discriminability always declined to chance over a narrow range of test concentrations. At concentrations ≦ 100 mM, maltose was indiscriminable from fructose but discriminable at higher concentrations for 4 subjects. By analogy with themonochromacy of night vision, whereby any two lights are indiscriminable when their relative intensities are suitably adjusted, we call the gustatory indiscriminability of these sugarsmonogeusia. The simplest account of monogeusia is that all information about the indiscriminable sugars is represented by a single neural signal that varies only in magnitude. The discriminability of maltose from the other sugars at higher concentrations is consistent with the hypothesis that maltose also activates a second gustatory code.     

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.     

侧脑室注射东莨菪碱对条件反射及对海马神经元自发放电的影响

本工作采用食物性运动,条件反射方法和慢性微电极记录技术。条件反射实验在9只兔上进行,海马自发放电的实验在22只兔上进行。在9次实验中,30μg的东莨菪碱注入一侧脑室后,条件反射均受到抑制,而吃食则不受影响。注射剂量为45μg时,注射后3—5分,条件反射完全消失,而吃食行为在了次实验中不受影响,在2次实验中稍有减弱,注射后20分钟左右条件反射开始恢复;侧脑室注射40μg的东莨菪碱后,海马神经元的自发活动无明显改变。文中并对抗胆碱药作用于海马抑制条件反射的可能方式进行了讨论。     

20岁至90岁成人的某些记忆活动的变化

本工作是我们过去关于记忆年老化研究的继续。记忆材料为自行设计并与全国若干单位协作编制的“试用临床记忆量表”。受试为健康成人210名.分为7个年龄组,各组性别、文化匹配。每组有20名并作韦氏成人智力量表检查。结果:1.成年至老年记忆变化总的趋势是,50岁组开始有明显减退,70岁后又有更显著的减退。2.在智力匹配条件下记忆年老化趋势相同(20、40、50、60、70岁年龄组)。3.无意义图形再认和有关联想学习年龄差异最小,无关联想学习和人像的姓氏,爱好特点回忆年龄差异最大,表明老年人建立无关的全新的联系困难。据此,作者指出老年记忆障碍可能是编码储存和提取困难相互作用的结果。