Resetting the pitch-analysis system: 1. Effects of rise times of tones in noise backgrounds or of harmonics in a complex tone

The question of whether sudden increases in the amplitude of pure-tone components would perceptually isolate them from a more complex spectrum was investigated in two experiments. In Experiment 1, a 3.5-sec noise was played as a masker. During the noise, two pure-tone components of different frequencies appeared in succession. Subjects were asked to judge whether the pitch sequence went up or down. The rise time of these components had only a small and inconsistent effect on discrimination. In Experiment 2, the 3.5-sec background signal was a complex tone. The amplitudes of two of its components were incremented in succession. Again, subjects judged whether the pitch pattern went up or down. This time there was a sizable, monotonic effect of the rise time of the increments, with more rapid increments leading to better discrimination. The difference between the two results is interpreted in terms of the auditory system’s response to changing and unchanging signals and the role of its “sudden-change” responses in attracting perceptual processing to certain spectral regions.     

Is a common grouping mechanism involved in the phenomena of illusory continuity and stream segregation?

Two auditory phenomena--stream segregation and illusory continuity through a wide-band noise interruption--were studied to determine whether the same principles of perceptual organization applied to both. A cycle was formed of a repeating alternation of two short bursts of narrow-band noise (NBN), one centered at a high frequency (H) and the other at a low frequency (L), with shorter bursts of wide-band noise (WBN) inserted between successive NBNs (H WBN L WBN H WBN...). In some conditions, listeners could hear a single NBN moving up and down behind the WBN bursts, although there was no NBN present with the WBN. Listeners rated the strength of this illusory continuity. Center frequency separation, rate of onsets, and bandwidth of the NBNs were varied. Increases in values of all three variables decreased illusory continuity. Other listeners rated the stream segregation of the H and L bands when successive NBNs were separated either by WBN bursts (as above) or by silences. The same three acoustic variables were manipulated. Increases in all three variables decreased the perception of a single stream. The similar disruptive effects on illusory continuity and on the one-stream percept in the stream segregation task support the idea that both phenomena depend on a common preliminary process of linking together the parts of a sequence that have similar frequencies.     

Constructive thinking inventory: evidence of validity among Iranian managers

This study examined the validity and incremental validity of the Constructive Thinking Inventory in a sample of Iranian managers. These 159 men were 39.9 yr. old (SD=2.5) and volunteered to participate in a project in which they responded to the Constructive Thinking Inventory, the Big Five Factors, the Costello and Comrey Depression and Anxiety Scales, and the Perceived Stress Scale. Numerous findings confirmed the validity of the Constructive Thinking Inventory, and the Global Constructive Thinking subscale displayed incremental validity. These data supported the validity of the Constructive Thinking Inventory and its associated theoretical assumptions in a sample of Iranian managers.     

Effectiveness of antidepressants: an evidence myth constructed from a thousand randomized trials?

Antidepressants, in particular newer agents, are among the most widely prescribed medications worldwide with annual sales of billions of dollars. The introduction of these agents in the market has passed through seemingly strict regulatory control. Over a thousand randomized trials have been conducted with antidepressants. Statistically significant benefits have been repeatedly demonstrated and the medical literature is flooded with several hundreds of "positive" trials (both pre-approval and post-approval). However, two recent meta-analyses question this picture. The first meta-analysis used data that were submitted to FDA for the approval of 12 antidepressant drugs. While only half of these trials had formally significant effectiveness, published reports almost ubiquitously claimed significant results. "Negative" trials were either left unpublished or were distorted to present "positive" results. The average benefit of these drugs based on the FDA data was of small magnitude, while the published literature suggested larger benefits. A second meta-analysis using also FDA-submitted data examined the relationship between treatment effect and baseline severity of depression. Drug-placebo differences increased with increasing baseline severity and the difference became large enough to be clinically important only in the very small minority of patient populations with severe major depression. In severe major depression, antidepressants did not become more effective, simply placebo lost effectiveness. These data suggest that antidepressants may be less effective than their wide marketing suggests. Short-term benefits are small and long-term balance of benefits and harms is understudied. I discuss how the use of many small randomized trials with clinically non-relevant outcomes, improper interpretation of statistical significance, manipulated study design, biased selection of study populations, short follow-up, and selective and distorted reporting of results has built and nourished a seemingly evidence-based myth on antidepressant effectiveness and how higher evidence standards, with very large long-term trials and careful prospective meta-analyses of individual-level data may reach closer to the truth and clinically useful evidence.     

The 9th annual INDUS-EM 2013 Emergency Medicine Summit, “Principles,Practices, and Patients,” a level one international meeting,Kerala University of Health Sciences and Jubilee Mission Medical College and Research Institute,Thrissur, Kerala,India, October 23–27, 2013

INDUS-EM is India’s only level one conference imparting and exchanging quality knowledge in acute care. Specifically, in general and specialized emergency care and training in trauma, burns, cardiac, stroke, environmental and disaster medicine. It provides a series of exchanges regarding academic development and implementation of training tools related to developing future academic faculty and residents in Emergency Medicine in India. The INDUS-EM leadership and board of directors invited scholars from multiple institutions to participate in this advanced educational symposium that was held in Thrissur, Kerala in October 2013.     

Philosophy, self-knowledge, and personality in Iranian teachers and students of philosophy

Like psychology, philosophy apparently operates from a commitment to the belief that self-knowledge should be a goal of disciplinary and personal development. Iranian teachers and students of philosophy responded to a Philosophical Orientations Scale created for this study that assessed the possible content of a high school philosophy course, along with instruments measuring self-knowledge, need for cognition, the five-factor model, anxiety, depression, and perceived stress. As the authors hypothesized, self-knowledge predicted higher levels of a philosophical orientation, even after controlling for the variance explained by need for cognition and openness to experience. Philosophical orientations and self-knowledge were also correlated with psychological adjustment, and teachers scored higher than students on these two sets of constructs. These data supported the hypothesis that personal and disciplinary interests in an adaptive self-knowledge converge in philosophy.     

Effects of time intervals and tone durations on auditory stream segregation

Adult listeners rated the difficulty of hearing a single coherent stream in a sequence of high (H) and low (L) tones that alternated in a repetitive galloping pattern (HLH-HLH-HLH...). They could hear the gallop when the sequence was perceived as a single stream, but when it segregated into two substreams, they heard H-H- ... in one stream and L-L- ... in the other. The onset-to-onset time of the tones, their duration, the interstimulus interval (ISI) between tones of the same frequency, and the frequency separation between H and L tones were varied. Subjects' ratings on a 7-point scale showed that the well-known effect of speed's increasing stream segregation is primarily due to its effect on the ISI between tones in the same frequency region. This has implications for several theories of streaming.     

Dimensions of the Mysticism Scale: Confirming the Three-Factor Structure in the United States and Iran

In a mostly Christian American sample (N = 1,379), confirmatory factor analysis of Hood's (1975) Mysticism Scale verified the existence of Stace's (1960) introvertive and extrovertive dimensions of mystical phenomenology along with a separate interpretation factor. A second study confirmed the presence of these three factors in not only another group of Americans (N = 188), but also in a sample of Iranian Muslims (N = 185). Relationships of the introvertive and extrovertive factors with the interpretation factor were essentially identical across these two cultures, but the Americans displayed a stronger association between the two phenomenology factors. In both samples, the interpretation factor correlated positively with an intrinsic and negatively with an extrinsic religious orientation, and the introvertive factor predicted psychological dysfunction. Associations of the interpretation factor with relative mental health appeared only in the Iranians. These data offered general support for Stace's phenomenology of mysticism, although the ineffability he linked with interpretation proved to be as much or even more a feature of the introvertive experience, as hypothesized by Hood.     

Bridging the Gap Between Ethical Theory and Practice in Medicine: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Study

Science and Engineering Ethics - Physicians try hard to alleviate mental and physical ailments of their patients. Thus, they are heavily burdened by observing ethics and staying well-informed while...     

Stream segregation of narrow-band noise bursts

Normally hearing adults heard rapid alternations of a pair of band-limited noise bursts that had flat spectra (in terms of equal-loudness weighting of components) and sharp band edges. The bursts differed in center frequency (CF), but were matched on overall intensity, on bandwidth (BW) on a logfrequency scale, and (roughly) on pitch strength. Listeners judged the ease with which the sequence could be held together perceptually in a single auditory stream (vs. forming separate high and low streams). Involuntary segregation was examined as a function of the following measures of frequency separation of the alternating noise bands: (1) the closest band edges, (2) the most remote band edges, (3) the CFs of the bands on a logarithmic scale, and (4) the BWs. Segregation was best predicted from the separation of the two CFs on a log-frequency scale (very strong effect). Increasing the BWs of the two alternating bursts (the same size, in log frequency, for both bands) also led to greater segregation (very weak effect).