Averaged occipital responses to stimulation of sites in the upper and lower halves of the retina

Averaged responses of the occipital lobes to flashes imposed along the midline of the upper part of the retina are larger and of shorter latency than responses to flashes imposed on the lower retina. Since reaction times also are shorter when the upper retina is stimulated, this study provides further evidence for the generalization that reaction time varies inversely with amplitude and directly with latency of the evoked response.     

Intermanual transfer of practice decrements with a haptic illusion

Sixteen subjects were given 8 pre-practice, 80 practice, and 8 post-practice trials with the inverted T illusion figure. Judgements were made haptically with one hand being used on pre- and post-practice trials and the other hand on practice trials. Mean illusion diminshed in magnitude over the practice trials. Inter-manual transfer of the practice decrement was found, but it was partial rather than complete. The illusion after practice was less than before practice, but it was greater than the error found on the last block of practice trials. The bearing of these results on the different theories of illusions is considered.     

Gallbladder distention and the effects of several drugs on heart rate,respiratory movements and cortical potentials in cats with hypothalamic lesions

The effects of chronic hypothalamic lesions and various drugs on the viscero-visceral reflexes of cats have been investigated, utilizing measurement of the bioelectrical activity of the cerebral cortex. After coagulation of the posterolateral hypothalamus the heart rate decreased by 40–60 beats per minute, but eventually it regained its initial value. The viscero-visceral reflexes from the gallbladder to the heart were preserved after the operative procedure. Chlorpromazine and atropine blocked both arousal and the cardiorespiratory response to stimulation of the gallbladder. Similar effects were produced by novocaine and pantocaine.     

The development of object-permanence: Some studies of existence constancy

Object permanence or existence constancy was one of the phenomena which greatly exercised the philosophical fathers of experimental psychology. The topic has been little studied since. Michotte has described the psychophysics of existence constancy, while Piaget has studied its development. Michotte’s work was restricted to adults while Piaget’s notably lacked careful psychophysical control. The aim of the present study was to bridge the gap between the two, to study the psychophysics of existence constancy in infants. Results showed that there is remarkably little difference between infant and adult as far as psychophysical control is concerned. The major difference seems to be a rate of processing difference. However, changes in processing rate will not account for the development of the concept of object permanence. What seems to be learned is a rule which can override perceptual constancy and nonconstancy in some situations.     

On the refractoriness of somesthetic temporal acuity

Preconditioning, with a burst of electrical pulse stimuli elevates the threshold for temporal acuity as measured with a technique requiring the S to detect a short gap in an otherwise regular burst of similar stimuli. Only a small amount of backward inhibition can be observed. The temporal duration of the inhibitory effect (up to 700 msec.) suggests that repetitive after-discharges of second-order afferents in Ike spinal cord may underlie this behavioral measure by actually filling in the intervals which are used by the S to make the judgment. The phenomenon is thus thought to be a disruption of a true temporal judgment rather than one indirectly mediated by an amplitude judgment, and as such it represents a significant datum on the temporal resolving power of time dimensions of neural coding.     

Psychophysical parameters of the perception of orally-retained liquid bulk

Bulk of liquid held in the mouth may be judged on its subjective volume. Over the range I ml-31 ml, scaling by the constant method and by ratio estimation yielded a Weber fraction which was not constant and decreased with stimulus magnitudes and a psychophysical power function with an exponent of 0.96. A “negative threshold” effect is reported.     

A computer program to find the best-fitting orthogonal factors for a given hypothesis

A modification of the quartimax computation for factor rotation is described in which a hypothesized factor pattern is given to the machine along with the data. The machine uses the pattern to select the subset of variables to which it will attend when rotating in a given plane, in order to find an orthogonal solution which closely fits the hypothesis. The program also provides a measure of the goodness of this fit. The program can utilize pattern matrices that reflect only partial hypotheses as to the nature of the factors, as well as those that specify highly determined simple structure.