A comparison of deaf, normal, and brain damaged adults on a tachistoscopic task

Printed words and letters, pictures of signed words, and pictures of finger-spelled letters were presented tachistoscopically to deaf, normal, and brain-damaged adults. The findings suggest that (1) the deaf show no cerebral asymmetry for any of the material but found identification of the stimuli very difficult unless a forced-choice recognition procedure was used or the exposure time was very long; (2) both the normal and the brain-damaged groups show left hemisphere superiority for printed material but no cerebral specialization for signed material; (3) the left-right hemisphere difference is more marked in the brain-damaged group regardless of which hemisphere showed most damage. This may be explained, at least in some cases, by impaired transfer across the corpus callosum.     

Central auditory processing : II. Effects of anterior temporal lobectomy

Ear dominance for the pitch of dichotically presented tonal stimuli was measured in nine patients before and after a unilateral anterior temporal lobectomy. Four subjects had a left and five had a right lobectomy. Every patient exhibited a change of ear dominance consistent with the hypothesis that a unilateral lobectomy decreases the perceptual salience of the tone presented to the ear contralateral to the lesion. Depending on the direction and magnitude of the subject's preoperative ear dominance and the side of the lobectomy, the postoperative results either increased or decreased the strength of ear dominance in a predictable fashion. The results support the idea that within each temporal lobe lie physiological mechanisms which can enhance the perceptual salience of the acoustic signal emitted by one sound source when other, concurrent, spatially separated sound sources are present. It is also argued that the same mechanism operates on speech, melodic, and tonal signals.     

Deliberate self-harm,clinical history and extreme scoring on the EPQ

Two hundred consecutive admissions to an inpatient psychiatric unit were assessed on the EPQ following recovery from the disturbance for which they were hospitalized. Case-history data was also checked for these patients and extended by using a clinical-history structured interview, also administered within 1 week of discharge. Results showed that for males, high P and high N was associated with a history of deliberate self-harm (DSH) by mutilation. High N was also associated with parental violence. In females, both low E and high N were associated with a history of self-mutilation. High N scores were also more likely to have appeared in court, and high P females were more likely to have a history of bedwetting and of parental violence.None of the associations between extreme scoring on the EPQ and self-mutilation were found for DSH by overdose.     

Obese-normal differences in the self-monitoring of expressive behavior

Several recent studies have found that while the behavior of normal weight individuals is primarily determined by internal cues, the behavior of the obese is chiefly controlled by external or environmental cues. The present study sought to generalize this finding to the self-monitoring of expressive behavior. Specifically, it was predicted that obese persons would tend to be high in the self-monitoring of their expressive behavior while individuals of normal weight would tend to monitor their expressive behavior to a lesser extent. This hypothesis was strongly supported. The findings are discussed both in terms of further extending the Schachterian model and in terms of the obese as a deviant population.     

Treatment of dental fears by imaginal flooding and rehearsal of coping behaviour

All combinations of high versus low arousal imaginal flooding, and coping versus no-coping imaginal rehearsal, were compared in the modification of dental fear. About one half of all subjects seen successfully completed dental treatment, although significant differences were found between groups in anxiety reduction before and during dental examination, which favoured the low arousal flooding groups. Coping rehearsal did not influence anxiety, but interacted with arousal level of flooding to determine subsequent dental attendance. The results suggest that flooding without coping rehearsal had little effect at high levels of arousal, but good results at low levels. Flooding with coping rehearsal on the other hand, had mixed results. At high arousal levels avoidance was reduced but not anxiety, while at low levels anxiety was reduced but not avoidance. The implications for further research on coping rehearsal are discussed.     

Spectral versus temporal features in dichotic listening

Ear advantage for the processing of dichotic speech sounds can be separated into two components. One of these components is an ear advantage for those phonetic features that are based on spectral acoustic cues. This ear advantage follows the direction of a given individual's ear dominance for the processing of spectral information in dichotic sounds, whether speech or nonspeech. The other factor represents a right-ear advantage for the processing of temporal information in dichotic sounds, whether speech or nonspeech. The present experiments were successful in dissociating these two factors. Since the results clearly show that ear advantage for speech is influenced by ear dominance for spectral information, a full understanding of the asymmetry in the perceptual salience of speech sounds in any individual will not be possible without knowing his ear dominance.     

Effects on weight reduction of strong monetary contracts for calorie restriction or weight loss

Thirty-one severely obese adults participated in behavioral weight control groups. In three groups utilizing powerful monetary contracts, subjects deposited substantial sums of money which were returned contingent on either attendance, calorie restriction, or weight loss. Subjects in a fourth no-contract control condition made no monetary deposits. Weight and calorie contract groups lost an average of nearly 20 lb in 10 weeks. They did not differ from each other, but both produced significantly more weight loss than the attendance contract group. High dropout rates in the no-contract condition precluded statistical evaluation of this group. Results are discussed in terms of the potential clinical value of contracting procedures.     

Evoked potential correlates of visual selective attention

Two experiments are reported in which the relationship is explored between the N1 and P2 components of the visual evoked potential and visual selective attention. In both experiments, channels were defined in terms of stimulus attributes (experiment 1 — intensity; experiment 2 — shape) with all stimuli being presented at a common spatial locus in order to preclude fixation shifts. Under these circumstances, P2 was found in both experiments to correlate with visual selective attention whereas N1 did not. It is concluded from the null result for N1 that a precortical gating mechanism for visual inputs within a single spatial channel is not a component of the visual system. The P2 correlate of visual selective attention, because of its long latency, is attributed to the differential post-perceptual processing inevitably received by task-relevant and task-irrelevant inputs.