A novel automatic procedure for measuring ocular counterrolling: A computeranalytical method to determine the eye’s roll angle while subjects work on perceptual tasks

In investigations of the perception of space, the consideration of ocular counterrolling-the movement of the eye around its visual axis in response to body movement-is crucially important. The angle of this movement must be known in order for one to determine the precise retinal coordinates of a distal object. Following transformation, this stimulus serves as a reliable cue for visual direction. The otolith organs provide information about body tilt and are responsible for ocular counterrolling. A novel, noninvasive method to measure ocular counterrolling, based on the cross-correlation of digitized video pictures of the eyes, is presented. The resolution attained was ≤ 0.1°. The computer analysis is fully automatic and fast, and it can be performed while subjects work on perceptual tasks. No direct access to the eyeballs is required. Data from 4 subjects showing the counterrolling profile in various body positions are presented.     

Family planning of Portuguese immigrants and integration in Belgium

A substantial immigration of Portuguese and other foreign nationals to Belgium due to a favorable immigration policy guides this investigation to focus on this group in order to study the influence of the acculturation experience on birth-control practices. Choosing a sample of 100 married women within a group of 998 Portuguese immigrants in an urban municipality in Brussels, the study sets out specifically to investigate whether these immigrants adopt attitude patterns of the receiving social group or if they preserve the customs of their original community. The hypothesis held by the study was that the better the woman's integration into Belgian society, the larger her knowledge and acceptance of contraceptives would be. The study found that the majority of interviewed immigrants remained poorly integrated into the Belgian society, and that the transition from a traditional to an industrial society had not included great changes in attitudinal behavior which would facilitate social and cultural integration into the new society. In terms of attitudes toward contraception, negative behavior was observed to be linked not to levels of acculturation, but rather to lack of information. Though the majority of respondents expressed desires for controlled fecundity even when still in Portugal, those who came to Belgium with no previous knowledge or desires admitted to having felt the need for contraceptive practice. The crucial factor in acceptance of modern contraceptive practices is singled out as one of communication. Access to information about contraception is readily available in the Belgian society. The information actually obtained by the women, however, depended on their access to informational channels, the circumstances through which they got in touch with such sources, and their problems with a language barrier when relying on the media through which contraceptive knowledge was made available.     

IDENTIFYING THE EDUCATIVE AND SUPPRESSIVE EFFECTS OF POSITIVE PRACTICE AND RESTITUTIONAL OVERCORRECTION

Two major features of the overcorrection procedure, restitution and positive practice, were analyzed for their educative and suppressive properties in the treatment of profoundly retarded adults. Positive practice techniques that were topographically similar and dissimilar to the target behavior were studied. Eating behavior and puzzle performance were observed. Restitutional overcorrection and both forms of positive practice were effective for suppressing inappropriate behaviors. Even when appropriate behaviors had been acquired by positive practice, restitution and dissimilar positive practice were generally ineffective for increasing their rate of occurrence. However, topographically similar positive practice was successful as a means of teaching new appropriate behaviors.     

Acquiring conjunctive concepts: When and why does feature frequency affect feature identification?

According to frequency theories of concept attainment, acquisition of rule-governed concepts depends on discriminating relevant from irrelevant stimulus features on the basis of their respective frequencies of occurrence. Depending on the theorist, the critical frequency counts may be based on occurrence in all stimuli or on occurrence in positive instances only. Experiment 1 held frequency in positive instances constant and varied the frequency of irrelevant features in the negative category. High frequency was associated with impaired performance, but only when concept problems started with a negative instance. Experiment 2 demonstrated that some previous findings in the literature that were thought to support frequency theory also depended on problems starting with a negative instance. These findings are not easily reconciled with existing frequency theories. We attribute our results to high intercategory similarity, which is a correlate of high frequency of irrelevant features. In the context of a hypothesis-testing theory, we propose that a negative start stimulus proactively interferes with memory for information in the initial positive instance and that the extent of the interference depends on how similar negative instances are to positive instances.     

Effects of differential reinforcement and task difficulty on preschoolers' compliance with teacher instructions

Preschool children in day schools were given instructions to complete certain tasks. Four tasks were given of two types and two levels of difficulty. In each condition compliance with at most one instruction (one task) was reinforced. In two similar experiments, with six children, general results were: compliance with easy tasks was maintained without reinforcement when any task compliance was reinforced; compliance for hard tasks remained high only when that specific task was reinforced. Thus, generalization of compliance with instructions varied with task difficulty. The setting and procedure for both studies were designed to reduce possible coercive features of laboratory studies of generalized performance. Results show generalized performance can occur under naturalistic conditions. The effect of effort, as a response characteristic affecting generalized performance, is discussed.     

Superego transformations through the analyst's capacity for reverie

The author discusses the application of certain Kleinian and Bionian principles to psychoanalytic work with patients who suffer from symptoms arising out of pathological superego functioning. Clinical vignettes are presented to demonstrate how the analyst's willingness to employ reverie, and to move from conviction-based interpretations to more open and tentative ones, can help such patients to change maladaptive behavioral patterns that may have stemmed from early interactions with an unavailable or nonreceptive Other.     

Is the unilateral lesion of the left substantia nigra pars compacta sufficient to induce working memory impairment in rats?

Adult male Wistar rats with a substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) lesion induced by intranigral administration of 1 micromol 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) were used as a model of early phase Parkinson's disease (PD). This lesion caused a partial depletion of striatal dopamine (DA). The animals were submitted to a spatial working memory version of the water maze task in which they had to find a hidden (submersed) platform using online-maintained information that the platform remains in the same place during four consecutive trials, but that it is moved to another place every training day. Left, but not right SNc-lesioned rats were impaired in finding the platform in the second trial. This result suggests that the left SNc plays a key role in spatial working memory. Control experiments ruled out the possibility that motor impairment, sensory neglect, and/or impairment in the mental representation of the contralateral spatial environment had affected performance of the SNc-lesioned rats.     

SOME IMPLICATIONS OF BION'S THOUGHT

Following up Bion's idea that dreaming is a continuous process that takes place in waking life as well as in sleep, the author develops its theoretical and technical implications. He describes the narrative derivatives of waking dream thought as the means, or interface, whereby access may be had, albeit indirectly, to the constantly forming sequences of alpha-elements. Examples of the formation of these sequences out of childhood memories, present-day experiences and sexual feelings are given. Reference is also made to the notion of the analytic field. The author goes on to demonstrate the clinical value of these concepts both for studying the session's microtransformations and as a means of in-depth examination of the analyst's own mental functioning, including its lapses, in a session. Abundant clinical material is presented to help analysts who normally apply different models of the mind share these ideas. Finally, it is suggested that night dreams result from a further elaboration of the elements formed during waking life.