Book reviews

Rosenbaum, D.A. (1991). Human motor control. New york: Academic Press. Pp. 411. ISBN 0-12-597300-4. $35.95.

Altmann, G.T.M. (Ed.) (1989). Parsing and interpretation. hove, Sussex: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd. Pp. 376. ISBN 0-86377-143-2. £19.95.

Johnson-Laird, P.N. & Byrne, R.M.J. (1991). Deduction. Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd. Pp. 256. ISBN 0-86377-148-3. £14.95.

Singer, M. (1990). Psychology of language: An introduction to sentence and discourse processing. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Pp xi + 308. ISBN 0-8058-0005-0. £21.50.     

Lateralization of very-short-duration tone pulses of low and high frequencies

The position and image-width of the simultaneous images produced by very short tone pulses were measured as a function of interaural time difference (ITD) at both low- (250 and 800 Hz) and high- (2500 and 8000 Hz) frequencies using a direct-estimation technique.

Primary images are lateralized towards the ear receiving the leading stimulus. At low frequencies image position is proportional to interaural phase-difference (IPD) below 90° and remains at the lead-ear for larger values. At high frequencies image position is proportional to ITD up to 500-1000 μsec. Secondary images are reported on the opposite side of the head for IPDs greater than 180° at low frequencies, and at ITDs greater than 500 μsec at high frequencies. Image width is approximately constant for all ITDs and both images at a given frequency, but becomes more compact as frequency increases.

The data are discussed in terms of onset cues and stimulus fine-structure cues. The best explanation is in terms of an onset mechanism, but one that is calibrated in terms of IPD at low frequencies. The existence of double images is explained in terms of a breakdown in the mechanism determining fusion.     

Higher-order conditioning and sensory preconditioning of a taste aversion with an exteroceptive CS1

An exteroceptive stimulus compound (context) was employed as CS₁ in higherorder conditioning (H-OC, Experiments I and II), and sensory preconditioning (SPC, Experiment III) of a saccharin (CS₂) aversion in rats. The results indicated that aversions were established with the H-OC as well as with the SPC procedures. Stimulus generalization and first-order conditioning explanations were ruled out by appropriate controls. A CS₁-extinction period, performed prior to testing, did not affect the H-OC aversion, whereas it reduced the SPC aversion at least partially. These findings imply that interoceptive (taste, nausea) and exteroceptive stimuli (context) are readily associable in rats. Implications of the resemblance between the SPC procedure and long-delay taste-aversion learning are discussed.