Sensorimotor synchronization: Motor responses to regular auditory patterns

Subjects (N = 32) were asked to synchronize a motor response with tones in auditory patterns. These patterns were created from six tones and six intertone intervals of equal duration. The pitch of the first tone differed from the others. It was found that subjects used three types of timing in their motor response: (1) the first intertone interval was prolonged and the second interval was shortened, (2) the second intertone interval was prolonged and the first interval was shortened, and/or (3) the first interval and the second interval were of approximately the same length. The prolongation of the fifth interval was observed during all three types of timing. The results are explained using the concept of suprasegmental control of timing, which explains a prolongation of intervals at critical control point of the patterns. The occurrence of three different strategies of timing is discussed in connection with similar principles in musical performance.     

The fear potentiated startle effect

A differential conditioning study examined whether an acoustic startle probe, presented during extinction of an aversively conditioned visual stimulus, potentiated the reflex eyeblink response in humans and whether this potentiation varied with the change in affective valence of the conditioned stimulus. Sixty college students were randomly assigned to view a series of two slides, depicting either unpleasant/highly arousing, unpleasant/moderate arousing, neutral/calm, pleasant/moderate arousing or pleasant/highly arousing scenes and objects (duration: 8 sec). During preconditioning (8 trials) and extinction (24 trials) acoustic startle probes (white noise bursts [50 ms; 95 dBA] were administered during and between slide presentation). During acquisition (16 trials) CS+ was reinforced by an electric shock. Startle response magnitudes significantly increased from preconditioning to extinction and were substantially larger to CS+. Conditioned startle reflex augmentation linearly increased with the pleasantness of the slides. Furthermore, subjects showed a greater post-conditioning increase of judged aversiveness to slides that they had previously reported to be more pleasant, exactly paralleling the startle reflex results.

     

Serial learning in the pigeon.

Three pigeons learned to peck four colors in a particular sequence, regardless of how these colors were positioned on four response keys and without feedback following each response. This demonstrates that serial learning is possible in subprimate animals.     

"EVERYMAN'S ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT": A DISSIDENT VERSION

We must agree, I think, with Frank Ebersole that there is something preposterous in supposing that the God of religious belief, the God who handed down tablets to Moses on Mt. Sinai, etc., should be proven to exist by the ontological argument. Indeed, when we place the one, the ontological argument, by the side of the other, the God of religious belief, there seems hardly to be any connection between them. But if we agree to this perception of things, what sense can we make of the ontological argument, for example, the “pull” that it sometimes exerts on us?     

The use of teachers as behavioral observers

The effect of using teachers as behavioral observers on both student and teacher behavior was examined with eight teachers and 32 elementary school children. The frequency of prompts (but not praise or criticism) to those students observed by the teacher increased significantly from nonobserver to teacher observed experimental phases. In addition, students observed by the teacher showed more change in appropriate behavior than students who were not observed. The significance of these findings for research and therapy is discussed.     

Male and Female Preferences in Selected Career Factors

This study investigated seven factors relating to personal preferences in choosing a career. Differences between male and female preferences were also studied. While males and females express similarities relating to the seven factors, they also reveal differences that should be considered by counselors helping individuals explore career choices.     

Guidance and counselling in Irish schools

The development of guidance services in Irish schools since the sixties is described and discussed. Provision for the full-time training of guidance teachers began in 1967, and after a brief attempt to use short courses as a substitute, this has now been accepted as the standard form of basic training. Since 1972 approximately 90 guidance teachers have qualified each year, and by 1974 they were present in about 24% of post-primary schools. Data is reported from a survey of early graduates from the one-year course at University College Dublin, and also from a survey of the attitudes to guidance of the heads of schools with guidance teachers. Some comments are also provided on the current status of guidance in Ireland.     

Influence of temporal masking on click-pair discriminability

When temporal auditory acuity is estimated using time-reversed click pairs, the asymmetry of temporal masking may influence the results. To investigate this hypothesis, we first established normal-hearing listeners’ psychometric functions for the discrimination of time-reversed click pairs. An attempt to relate listeners’ performances in click-pair discrimination to their performances in forward and backward masking tasks was unsuccessful, probably due to the presence of spectral artifact in the temporal masking paradigms. We then investigated listeners’ abilities to discriminate time-reversed click pairs in which the intensity of the lower level click in one pair was altered. This alteration was introduced at random in order to minimize the influence of spectral artifact. Our results suggest that the course of temporal masking influenced the discriminability of the modified click pairs. Thus, the discrimination of time-reversed click pairs may yield a biased estimate of auditory temporal acuity.