Effects of intermittent illumination on perceptual-motor performance.

The experiment was designed to determine whether under conditions of intermittent illumination there is a significant impairment in performance as measured by perceptual-motor tasks. Performance on 5 such tasks under 5 conditions of flickering light was compared with performance under steady light. Time and error scores were considered. No gross detrimental effects of intermittent illumination were detected. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of camera arrangement on perceptual-motor performance in minimally invasive surgery.

Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is performed for a growing number of treatments. Whereas open surgery requires large incisions, MIS relies on small incisions through which instruments are inserted and tissues are visualized with a camera. MIS results in benefits for patients compared with open surgery, but degrades the surgeon's perceptual-motor performance. We used a laparoscopic simulator to measure effects of type (top, front, side) and number (1, 3) of camera views on manual manipulation and manual aiming tasks. These experimental manipulations had implications for perceptual and cognitive processing including frame of reference, movement compatibility, compression, task-information specificity, information integration, attentional demands, and information extraction. Camera views generally degraded performance compared with direct viewing, but learning occurred. Generally, a top view resulted in the best performance, followed by front and side views. Benefits of multiple views depended on practice and the direction of grasper movement. Mappings between movement direction and camera view, the consistency of those mappings, and task difficulty affected performance. The benefits and costs for perceptual and cognitive processing that were introduced by a given camera view were not necessarily weighted equally. Costs and benefits must be considered specifically for each task and for each combination of camera view and movement direction. Surgeons may consider using a top view, using side views only when necessary, and using a consistent view when performing repetitive movements. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of altering task components on perceptual-motor task learning.

In training operators of man-machine systems, how will altering the task influence learning progress at various stages in this sequence? After trying it out in a pilot study, the main experiment involved 108 male soldiers. "The apparatus consisted of an electronic compensatory tracking device which required S to maintain a target indicator in the center of a 5-in. oscilloscope… . Time on target was the primary measure of performance." A temporary decrement in performance was produced from altering task components later in learning. Greater effect followed from changes taking place earlier. 16 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Microgenetic analysis of word associations in schizophrenic and brain-damaged patients.

Associations to the Kent-Rosanoff list of words were categorized as being "mature" or "immature" following the schema outlined by previous research (see 33: 8338). In that research, some support was found for the hypothesis that schizophrenics respond in a more "immature" manner than normals. The present study repeats the former one, adding a second group for comparison (a group of organics) in addition to the control group of normals. The results did not support the former study. Organics were found to be perseverative in "meaningful" responses to the word stimuli, but not to repeat irrelevant ones. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4JQ64M. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multivariate analysis of the conceptual behavior of schizophrenic and brain-damaged patients.

A cross-validation of the findings of previous research by the authors and Grassi (see 33: 3260) with regard to the conceptual behavior of schizophrenics and brain-damaged Ss. The multivariate analysis involves the conceptualization of a given response along coordinate axes of 2 continua: open-closed, public-private. The previous findings are reproduced, discussed, and compared and related to the Grassi findings. 15 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparison of reproduction errors made by brain-damaged and control patients on a memory-for-designs test.

"The performances of brain damaged and control groups on the Benton Visual Retention Test were compared in terms of total number of correct reproductions, total number of errors, and relative frequency of occurrence of ten different types of errors. The mean total number of correct reproductions of the control Ss was found to be significantly higher and their mean number of errors significantly lower than the corresponding means of the brain damaged Ss. No significant difference, however, between the 2 groups in the overall patterns of the 10 different types of errors could be demonstrated." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conditioning and personality: A study of normal and neurotic subjects.

"Pavlov's concepts of excitation and inhibition were related to the dimension of introversion-extraversion in normal and neurotic subjects. Normal and neurotic subjects were conditioned, using the eyeblink and PGR reflexes. It was found that (a) anxiety states conditioned much better than hysterics, and (b) conditionability is related to introversion-extraversion and not to neuroticism." 37 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Level versus pattern of neuropsychological performance among schizophrenic and diffusely brain-damaged patients.

Differences in both mean level and pattern of neuropsychological test performance were examined among groups of carefully screened schizophrenic and acute and chronic diffusely brain-damaged patients (24 Ss in each group). This was done separately for the WAIS subtests and the 12 average impairment rating (AIR) variables derived from the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery. The schizophrenics performed at a significantly higher level than brain-damaged Ss on both test batteries. Subsequent deficit pattern analyses and coefficients of profile pattern similarity revealed very little difference among the 3 groups in their patterns of performance on the WAIS and AIR batteries. Discriminant function analyses were employed to estimate the diagnostic utility of level vs pattern of performance on the WAIS and AIR in discriminating schizophrenics from brain-damaged Ss. Results suggest that mean level of performance can be used to discriminate clearly defined schizophrenic and diffusely brain-damaged groups, but that pattern analysis offers little additional information. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The rotation of drawings by brain-damaged patients.

2 hypotheses were tested with the Block Design subtest of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale and the Drawing Version of the Block Design Rotation Test: (1) Brain-damaged patients rotate significantly more than non-brain-damaged patients, and (2) The factors influencing rotation in the blocks test would be the same in the drawing version. Ss consisted of 20 brain-damaged patients, 25 non-brain-damaged psychiatric patients, and a control group of 25 normal persons. It was found that rotation effects in a drawing version of a task requiring the copying of designs discriminated between brain-damaged and non-brain-damaged Ss. The relative influence of the factors affecting the appearance of the rotation effect in all Ss was shown to be different in the drawing version than in the blocks version. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A semantic analysis of a normal and a neurotic therapy group.

"The purpose of the research… was to see if S's entering therapy can be differentiated from persons that have never been in therapy by meanings they associate with certain selected concepts and to test for areas where semantic changes followed therapy, especially as they may relate to parental identification… . The findings indicate that control S's can be differentiated from therapy S's prior to therapy by the meaning they attribute to the concepts of the self and of parents… therapy affects the self-estimate and not the judgment of parents… ." The research is related to the findings of Rogers and Dymond (1954), Greenspoon (see 30: 4488), and Verplanck (see 31: 2940) on verbal reinforcement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intradimensional reversal shift performance in brain-damaged and chronic alcoholic patients.

Examined impaired set-shifting behavior frequently reported in brain-damaged Ss. Using a simple E-paced, 2-choice, visual, intradimensional reversal shift task, samples of brain-damaged (n = 24), alcoholic (n = 28), and control (n = 24) male patients were compared on errors, reaction time, and behavioral impulsivity (finger lift before signal). Alcoholic Ss were not significantly different from controls on any of the measures. As expected, brain-damaged Ss had significantly more total errors, longer reaction times, and higher impulsivity scores than controls. Differences in errors appeared to be due to difficulty in maintaining the perceptual and motor set rather than in set shifting. The importance of investigating disruptions in set maintenance in the performance of brain-damaged Ss is emphasized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coding of far and near space during walking in neglect patients.

Previous studies have shown that far space can be remapped as near when reached by a stick that artificially prolongs the participants' personal space. In the present study, the authors asked whether a similar remapping occurs when far space is reached not by using a toot but by locomotion. Neglect patients showed more severe neglect in far than in near space in bisection tasks executed from different distances either by pointing to a target line with a projection light pen or by walking across the line. A kinematic study of the walking performance of one of those neglect patients showed that, contrary to the prediction of remapping during locomotion, the walking trajectories were rectilinear. The authors interpreted these results as evidence that in their patients-at least for short, linear trajectories-no remapping of space took place during locomotion. The location of far objects was coded at the beginning of the movement, and the error in the bisection computation was generated within the 1st representation that was activated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Manifest" anxiety, neurotic anxiety, and the rate of conditioning.

"The validity of the Taylor Scale of Manifest Anxiety was examined with a view to reconciling the contradictory results of the studies of the relation between anxiety and the rate of conditioning… . The results indicated that different scores on the scale do not represent different degrees of manifest anxiety, though the scores within a limited range (19 to 33) are more likely to be associated with a clinical diagnosis of "anxious" than are scores above and below this range." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Practice effects in reaction-time tasks in brain-injured patients.

"A study of performance trends in simple and choice reaction time tasks in nonpsychotic, brain-injured patients and a matched group of control patients indicated that, within the limits investigated (30 trials in each task), there were no significant practice effects with respect to mean reaction time for either group in either task. The performances of those brain-injured patients whose initial reaction times were within normal limits also failed to reflect significant practice effects… . The brain-injured patients showed a significant increase in intra-individual variability in simple reaction time with continued practice. However, this difference in trends was not found in the choice reaction task." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differences in test performance between brain-damaged, schizophrenic, and medical patients.

Gave 18 white male hospitalized patients from each of 3 diagnostic categories (brain-damaged, schizophrenic, and medical) a battery of 9 psychological tests, including 5 from the Halstead Impairment Index, the Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test, the Trail Making Test (R. Reitan), and 2 tests from the WAIS. 16 measures were obtained, and the 3 groups of Ss were compared on each. The performance of the brain-damaged was significantly inferior to the medical patients on 14 of the 16 measures, and to the schizophrenics on 9 of the 16. There were no significant differences between the schizophrenics and the medical group on any of the 16 measures. When the scores on the 4 different tests were combined into Z scores, 78% of the brain-damaged, 67% of the schizophrenics, and 78% of the medical Ss were correctly diagnosed for presence or absence of brain damage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of organizational citizenship behaviors on selection decisions in employment interviews.

This article reports on an experiment examining the effects of job candidates' propensity to exhibit organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) on selection decisions made in the context of a job interview. We developed videos that manipulated candidate responses to interview questions tapping task performance and citizenship behavior content in 2 administrative positions. Results obtained from 480 undergraduates provided support for our hypotheses that job candidates who exhibited higher levels of helping, voice, and loyalty behaviors were generally rated as more competent, received higher overall evaluations, and received higher salary recommendations than job candidates who exhibited lower levels of these behaviors. These effects held even after taking into account candidate responses regarding task performance. We also found that candidate responses to OCB-related questions tended to have a greater effect on selection decisions for the higher level position (supervisor of administrative personnel) than for the lower level one (administrative assistant). Finally, content analyses of open-ended responses indicated that participants' selection decisions were particularly sensitive to candidates who exhibited low levels of voice and helping behaviors. Implications and future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multivariate structure of associations between verbal and nonverbal intelligence among brain-damaged, schizophrenic, neurotic, and alcoholic patients.

The scores of 380 male Ss—brain-damaged, process schizophrenic, reactive schizophrenic, neurotic, and alcoholic patients—on the Verbal and Performance subtests of the WAIS were subjected to canonical correlational and multiple discriminant analyses. Substantial associations between verbal and nonverbal abilities were found for all groups, although these correlations were sufficiently imperfect that each set of subtests contributed independently to group discrimination when combined with the other set. Results support C. Spearman's (1927) view that measures of intelligence contain both general and specific components of variance and not the high degree of differentiation that is sometimes postulated. It is concluded that major forms of psychopathology are characterized more by differences in intellectual profile patterns than by changes in the basic organization of abilities. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of elaborative and perceptual integrative processes in perceptual-motor performance.

Three experiments address the dependence of both explicit and implicit memory performance on elaborative processes for a perceptual-motor task, pursuit rotor. Explicit memory performance was reflected by recognition of previously encountered pursuit rotor stimuli. Implicit memory performance (priming) was identified in Exp 1 as an advantage in pursuit rotor performance for old stimuli that Ss failed to explicitly recognize. In Exps 2 and 3, the types of strategies that Ss engaged in during training and test phases were manipulated. Results indicated that explicit memory performance depended on elaborative processes that emphasized which specific stimuli were encountered, whereas reliable implicit memory performance appeared only under a control no-instruction condition. Discussion focuses on attention to perceptual-integrative processes for priming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of noise on human performance.

"… three experiments relating performance changes to noise levels are reported. Noise levels used were about 80 db representing 'quiet' and 110 db representing 'noise."' Ss in these 3 experiments were paid volunteer male undergraduates. In Experiment I, 9 Ss were exposed to successive half hours of experimental and control sessions "to check Broadbent's previously reported results that performance on a prolonged vigilance task was poorer in noise than in quiet." In Experiment II, 14 Ss were exposed to successive periods of experimental and control sessions "as a result of a suggestion by Miles that Ss working in high energy noise fields could not keep an accurate count on how far they had gone in a repetitive task." In Experiment III, 14 Ss were exposed to successive periods of experimental and control sessions to compare judgments in quiet and in noise. "It is clear that noise produces readily measurable changes in human performance." The effects of psychological stress may have been more important than noise in determining the results. 16 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interrelations among three criteria of improvement in group therapy: Comfort, effectiveness, and self-awareness.

7 measures (3 of comfort, 2 of effectiveness, 2 of self-awareness) were obtained from 15 neurotic patients at the beginning and end of 20 weeks of group therapy. "Significant change was found on three measures… . Of the 21 intercorrelations between change scores, only one was significant at the .05 level." The "assumption that changes on different measures and criteria go together and that improvement can be considered a unitary process" is not supported. 16 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)