中央重新定向对听觉返回抑制的影响

采用线索一靶子范式考察听觉中央重新定向对听觉返回抑制的影响。结果表明：1）听觉中央重新定向的有无不是听觉返回抑制产生的关键因素,但它的存在能够较好地引导听觉选择性注意进行快速转移,提高听觉选择性注意的搜索效率;2）听觉中央重新定向对听觉返回抑制量的大小没有显著影响。     

外在暗示线索对学习者在多媒体学习中自我调节学习过程的影响

考察139名五、七年级学生在逐次阅读10组图文材料的过程中对阅读测试与媒体信息的关系的自我监察并据此对阅读时间分配模式的自我调节过程,结果发现：（1）二年级被试能够监察阅读测试和图文之间的相倚关系,并据此对图文阅读时间分配模式进行自我调节,分配更多时间在与测试相关的材料上;（2）五、七年级被试的图文时间分配均呈现逐步调节的模式。（3）七年级被试比五年级被试对阅读测试与图文的关系的监察更为准确、时间分配模式调节出现的时机更早,时间分配调节策略的使用更合理,测试成绩更高。     

'Reverberation time', dreaming and the capacity to dream

In this paper the author suggests that understanding the roots of the subjective sense of time can throw light on the disturbances in psychic time which are found in particular in the more severe pathologies. She introduces the argument that the roots of the development of the sense of time rest on a primitive sense of time she calls 'reverberation time'. By this notion she refers to the particular quality of the earliest 'back and forth' internalized exchange with the mother in which the auditory dimension plays a significant part. Referring to a wide range of literature and clinical examples, the author thus suggests that the subjective sense of time is created by the reverberation between mother and infant. Disturbances in this area will be reflected in the pathological 'arresting' of time which is observed in the different pathologies and, in particular, around the negotiation of the depressive position and the oedipal situation. Extending this argument, the author goes on to suggest that it is the internalization of this experience of 'reverberation' which lies at the heart of the experience of dreaming; she considers that dreaming understood as an internal dialogue points both to its roots in the relationship to the maternal object and to its fundamental role in psychic life. The author concludes that 'reverberation time' is also the building block of a psychoanalysis, leading to 'unfreezing' psychic time and enabling the reconnection of 'here and now' with 'there and then' in a flexible way which promotes open possibilities, and that this takes place via the analyst's reverie, or time of reverberation.     

Evidence of blocking with geometric cues in a virtual watermaze

Three computer based experiments, testing human participants in a non-immersive virtual watermaze task, used a blocking design to assess whether two sets of geometric cues would compete in a manner described by associative models of learning. In stage 1, participants were required to discriminate between visually distinct platforms. In stage 2, additional spatial information was provided by the shape or the color of the walls of the pool. In a test trial, the platforms were removed and the spatial knowledge acquired regarding the position of the platform was assessed. Experimental groups were compared against control groups which did not receive stage 1 training. The unique color of the correct platform, in Experiments 1 and 3, disrupted learning about the colored walls but not the geometry of the pool. In Experiment 2, the correct platform was identifiable from its position within the three platform array. Learning the relative position of the correct platform within the array disrupted learning about its position relative to the geometry of the pool, but not to the colored walls. The results suggest that learning the position of a goal in relation to the geometry of the environment can be blocked but only by an alternative geometric cue.     

The stimulating and inhibiting effects of weapons on Aggressive behavior

Evidence is presented suggesting that firearms violence is an important social problem. Research strongly suggests that the effectiveness of firearms as a cause of death and injury may be due to their widespread availability, their lethality, and the impulsivity of their use. The investigation of a possible causal link between firearms and impulsive aggression led to Berkowitz and LePage's (1967) weapons effect experiment. The results suggested that weapons can increase the instigation to aggression in aroused an uninhibited individuals. The researchers reasoned that weapons might stimulate aggression by classical conditioning processes resulting from learned associations between aggressive acts and weapons. Although a few studies have failed to reproduce an aggression-enhancing effect of weapons, the original finding has been replicated in several countries with diverse subject groups both in field and laboratory settings. However, these studies also indicate that many individuals may react with anxiety or fear in the presence of weapons and inhibit aggressive reactions. Manipulations of evaluation apprehension, subject suspiciousness, and/or hypothesis awareness about the purpose of the weapons in the experiments all seem to lead to reduced levels of aggressive response in the presence of weapons. These findings offer a possible explanation for the few failures to replicate the original weapons effect; if researchers used apprehensive subjects or subjects who were aware of possible experimental deceptions, they were more likely to observe an inhibitory reaction rather than an aggression-enhancing effect of weapons.     

听觉警报失聪的认知因素

无意失聪是指当人们集中精神做事时,会忽略非预期的听觉刺激。这种现象在现实生活中普遍存在,它对航空和交通安全构成巨大威胁。研究者们发现高知觉和高认知负荷条件下个体会因认知资源有限导致无意失聪,且随着负荷增加,被忽略的听觉刺激诱发的早期（N100）和晚期（P300）神经活动有所减弱。这表明非预期听觉刺激可以进入晚期加工阶段,但其能否被感知可能取决于与工作记忆相关的额顶网络的抑制控制程度。而工作记忆容量及其负荷与无意失聪关系的现有研究结果之间还存在不一致性。未来研究可以将其范式和理论拓展到其他安全生产领域,并运用认知训练等方式规避无意失聪,从而减少人因失误。     

Effects of cocaine on simple reaction times and sensory thresholds in baboons.

The effects of chronic, daily administration of cocaine on auditory and visual reaction times and thresholds were studied in baboons. Single intramuscular injections of cocaine hydrochloride (0.1 to 5.6 mg/kg) were given once daily for periods of 10 to 25 days, and were followed immediately by psychophysical tests designed to assess cocaine's effects on simple reaction times as on auditory and visual threshold functions. Consistent reductions in reaction times were frequently observed over the cocaine dose range of 0.32 to 1.0 mg/kg; at higher doses, either decreases or increases in reaction times were observed, depending upon the animal. Lowered reaction times generally occurred immediately following the 1st day's cocaine injection, and continued through all subsequent days during the dose administration period, suggesting little development of tolerance or sensitivity to these reaction-time effects. Reaction-time decreases showed a U-shaped dose-effect function. The greatest decreases in reaction times occurred from 0.32 to 1.0 mg/kg, and produced an average reaction-time decrease of 10 to 12%. Concurrently measured auditory and visual thresholds showed no systematic changes as a function of cocaine dose. Pausing was observed during performance of the psychophysical tasks, with the length of total session pause times being directly related to cocaine dose.     

Immediate reinforcement in delayed reward learning in pigeons

Pigeons were trained on simultaneous red-green discrimination procedures with delayed reward and sequences of stimuli during the delay. In Experiment 1, three stimuli appeared during the 60-second intervals between the correct responses and reward, and the incorrect responses and nonreward. The stimulus that immediately followed a correct response also preceded nonreward, and the stimulus that followed an incorrect response preceded reward. These stimuli were 10 or .33 second in duration for different groups. Stimuli during the remainder of the delay interval differed following correct and incorrect responses. Group 10 initially persisted in the nonrewarded choice, but shifted to a preponderance of rewarded responses after further training. Group .33 rapidly acquired the correct response. Similar results were obtained in Experiment 2 where delay intervals consisted of opposite sequences of two stimuli of equal duration and total delays were 6, 20, or 60 seconds. Early in training, generalization of differential conditioned-reinforcing properties from the conditions preceding reward and nonreward to postchoice conditions had a greater effect relative to backchaining than it did later. It was concluded that delayed-reward learning is best analyzed in terms of the conditioned-reinforcing value of the patterns of cues that follow immediately after rewarded and nonrewarded responses.     

Pigeons' spatial memory: III. Effect of distractors on delayed matching of key location.

The effect of distractors on pigeons' delayed matching of key location was investigated. Baseline trials began with a "ready" stimulus (brief operation of the grain feeder). Then one (randomly chosen) key from a three-by-three matrix was lit briefly as the sample. After a short delay (retention interval) the sample key was lit again along with one of the other eight keys. A peck at the key that had served as the sample (correct comparison) produced grain reinforcement, whereas a peck to the other key (incorrect comparison) produced only the intertrial interval. In Experiment 1, a houselight distractor, presented during either the sample, retention interval, or choice phases of the trial, had little if any effect on accuracy of matching key location. In Experiment 2, one of three types of spatial stimuli was interpolated during the retention interval, or the interval was blank as during baseline trials. The three stimuli were: the sample (correct comparison) location for that trial, the incorrect comparison location for that trial, or one of the seven unused locations for that trial. Relative to blank trials, accuracy improved slightly on sample-interpolated trials, decreased slightly on unused location-interpolated trials, and decreased considerably on incorrect comparison-interpolated trials. In Experiment 3, retention intervals were blank or had one of six types of interpolation: the sample, the incorrect comparison, two presentations of the sample, two presentations of the incorrect comparison, the sample followed by the incorrect comparison, or the incorrect comparison followed by the sample.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Auditorily elicited EEG desynchronization and synchronization: A review of Christina M. Krause's doctoral thesis

The present paper reviews the doctoral dissertation of Christina M. Krause, in which auditorily elicited EEG desynchronization (ERD) and synchronization (ERS) was studied in five experiments. These experiments which were conducted by Krause and co-workers are the first in which the ERD-method was systematically applied to the analysis of the perception and processing of complex auditory stimuli. The main conclusion is that listening to sounds elicits ERS, whereas cognitive and/or memory processes elicit ERD.