Smoking and pain--a method of limits and sensory decision theory analysis

The effects of tobacco smoking on responses to electrical stimulation were studied according to a Method of Limits (ML) threshold analysis and a Sensory Decision Theory (SDT) analysis. For the ML procedure, Detection Threshold (DT), Pain Threshold (PT) and Tolerance Level (TL) measures were obtained. For the SDT procedure, nonparametric estimates of capacity to discriminate between stimulus intensities (P(A)) and response criterion (B) were calculated. There was no main effect of tobacco smoking on responses to electrical stimulation. Males had consistently higher ML thresholds than females in both the NS and S condition. Males also tended to increase in DT and PT after smoking. From a comparison between the effects of smoking on ML and SDT measures it was suggested that PT is related mainly to sensory factors and TL to response factors.     

The St. Pauls' riot: An explanation of the limits of crowd action in terms of a social identity model

The paper contains a detailed study of the St. Pauls' riots of April 1980. Particular attention is paid to the limits of participation in the event and the limits of crowd action. It is argued that these limits show clear social form and cannot be explained in terms of the individualistic theories that dominate crowd psychology. Instead a model of crowd behaviour based on the social identity model is advanced to account for the observations. It is concluded that crowd behaviour is more sophisticated and creative than hitherto allowed and that the neglect of this field should be remedied.     

Evidence for an addition to the reading scan hypothesis

Letters were tachistoscopically presented in pairs to the left or right of fixation for 40 msec. The pair consisted of a target letter (B, D, P, or T) and a noise letter (all other letters of the alphabet except I), with the noise letter appearing either to the inside or the outside of the stimulus letter. S’s task was to report verbally the target letter as fast as possible. Reaction times and number of errors indicated that there was more interference when the noise letter occurred further from the fixation point than the target letter for both the left and right visual field. Since a reading scan cannot account for the results in the right visual field, an outside-toward-fixation scan is proposed. An analysis of the different kinds of errors indicated that the outside to fixation scan is more primitive than the reading scan in that it produces less detailed information about the letters than does the reading scan.     

Schedule control of the vocal behavior of Cebus monkeys

The vocal behavior of three Cebus monkeys was maintained by fixed-ratio schedules of response dependent reinforcement at values between fixed-ratio 1 and fixed-ratio 15. In one monkey that was exposed to variable-interval, fixed-interval, and conjunctive fixed-ratio fixed-interval schedules of reinforcement, vocal responding occurred at a low rate, but schedule-appropriate patterns were maintained. The rates and patterns of responding engendered indicated that the vocal operant can be brought under schedule control in the monkey by the use of response-dependent reinforcement.