Anxiety

The analysis is a study of the nature of anxiety in human experience. The author reviews the work of theologian Paul Tillich and psychologist Rollo May and clarifies the role of anxiety in life. The article reflects the need for a basic religious affirmation as one faces the anxiety of life which comes from the many threats to human existence.     

Changes in the general activation level in psychophysiologic studies--II. Values of auditory evoked potentials in relation to impression and perception and heart rate

In psychophysiology all procedures used are accompanied with changes of general activation level (GAL) of the subjects. In our study these changes are characterized by self-assessment of the internal state and by the mean heart rate (HR) of each period. On the basis of these data group mean auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) were computed. The influence of the GAL on the N 110- and P 190-amplitudes of the AEPs was analysed. There was no effect on the P 190-amplitude whereas the N 110-amplitude shows distinct responses on changes in GAL. These amplitudes diminished when the subjects reported a change of internal state. The diminishing of N 110-amplitudes took place as well at an increase as at a decrease of the internal state factors. Comparing the HR and the N 110 of the AEPs we found an inverse U-shaped dependence. These results are discussed in comparison to the literature. Furthermore a model which could elucidate the observed findings is presented for a critical discussion.     

Self-organizing maps for internal representations

Summary One of the biological mechanisms that has so far been poorly understood is the ability of the brain to form representations of primary sensory experiences at increasingly higher levels of abstraction. At many lower perceptual levels, sensory information first becomes represented in topographically ordered sensory maps. In these maps neurons become tuned in a regular manner to simple stimulus features, such as amplitude, frequency, or direction of sound. In this paper it is shown that a model, originally devised by Kohonen for the understanding of the self-organized formation of such lower-level maps, can also explain the formation of more abstract maps, such as adaptive maps for use in motor control, or maps in which, during a learning stage, the neurons become tuned in an orderly fashion to aspects of the semantic meaning of words. The actual presence of such maps in the brain is speculative at present, but many maps of simpler type have been found. It is argued that the process of the adaptive formation of maps may offer a way to a more unified understanding of many aspects of information processing in the brain.On leave to the University of Bielefeld, Department of Computer Science, D-4800 Bielefeld, Federal Republic of Germany.     

Carryover effects of a summer therapeutic daycamp program on children''s classroom behavior: A one-year follow-up

The study investigated the impact of a Summer Therapeutic Daycamp on the subsequent classroom behavior of behaviorally disordered children. Pre-post assessment of the maladaptive behavior of children participating in the program and of a control group one year subsequent to the program demonstrated the differential impact of the program, consistent with the notion of intensive, time-limited intervention as an effective alternative to extended treatment.     

The formation of reference systems in visual motion perception

Summary In visual perception complex movements are usually split up into components — e.g., in such a way that a moving reference system is applied, to which partial movements can be related. In the following experiment a perceptual vector analysis of this kind was investigated. It was shown that 1) a radial translatory movement (relative component) can be isolated perceptually from a rotatory movement (global component) and that 2) the precision of this decomposition of the complex movement is dependent on the strength at which the rotating reference system is anchored perceptually.The authors wish to thank M. Rauterberg for collecting the experimental data