Developmental trends in auditory-visual cross-modal matching of spatio-temporal patterns.

Compared 10 Ss, boys and girls aged 5, 8, and 11 yrs, in within- and cross-modal matching of auditory and visual spatio-temporal patterns. Separate analyses of hit and false alarm rates showed no effects that could be attributed to a differential development of within- and cross-modal tasks. Contrary to the findings of H. G. Birch and L. Belmont, therefore, the present study provides evidence against the notion that intersensory integration increases with age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acoustic-optical correspondences and auditory-visual coordination in infancy.

Research on auditory-visual coordination is reviewed, and the following hypothesis is elaborated: The roots of perceptual development are biologically determined perceptual functions that serve information gathering and information processing. Early in infancy, these functions are influenced both by spatial and temporal factors and by formal correspondences between optical and acoustic information; more specifically, spatiotemporal properties constrain information gathering, and optical-acoustic correspondences facilitate exploration and processing. As a result, the infant learns the association between particular acoustic and optical aspects of objects and events. A formal presentation of spatial and temporal properties is outlined. (French abstract) (55 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal labelling, auditory-visual integration, and reading ability.

Classified 32 male 2nd graders into good and poor readers on the basis of whether their scores on the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test were at or above vs below the level predicted from their IQ scores on the Otis Quick-Scoring Mental Ability Test. Ss were given verbal labeling and auditory-visual integration tasks. In general, good readers performed better than poor readers on the verbal labeling task. There was, however, no difference between the good and poor readers in performance on auditory-visual integration. Results are interpreted as lending support to the data that poor readers may have a general lack of ability in linking symbols with objects or actions. (French summary) (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some observations of the effects of intertrial interval and delay on delayed matching to sample in pigeons.

Accuracy of delayed matching to sample was studied in 12 Silver King pigeons at different combinations of length of intertrial interval (ITI) and length of delay. When ITI and delay were varied between sessions in Exps I and II, accuracy increased monotonically with ITI and decreased monotonically with delay. Evidence was found for constancy of performance at equivalent ratios of ITI to delay, and percentage of correct choices was linearly related to the log of this ratio. In Exps III and IV, ITI was manipulated as a within-sessions variable. In contrast to the effect of this variable when manipulated between sessions, accuracy improved only from the shortest interval to the next shortest interval and remained constant at all longer intervals. In Exp IV, it was found that performance improved as a direct function of the mean ITI for sessions and that this relation was not affected by the degree of ITI variability within sessions. Findings resemble the effects of temporal variables on autoshaping, and the possibility that some common processes are involved in delayed matching and autoshaping is discussed. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A simple method for matching electron beams in radiotherapy

Many solutions have been proposed to solve the problem of 'hot' and 'cold' spots in the junction between abutting electron fields. Although some of these methods have proved satisfactory, the designs of the modifications to the applicators are generally applicator dependent and involve measuring data for individual fields. An idea which was originally proposed as a solution to a different problem is resurrected here because it happens to solve the beam-matching problem and because it is very simple to apply. The idea is to cover the end of the electron applicator completely with a slab of plastic, called a 'spoiler'. Formulae are proposed and tested for estimating the penumbra broadening and the extent of over- or underdosing at field junctions. The technique is applicator independent, and no extra beam-data measurements need be made for computer treatment planning of matching fields. The price paid for such simplicity is that consideration needs to be given to leading-off the other borders of the treatment fields because of the increased penumbra widths.     

Career development patterns of college women.

Ss were 306 women who had been college students in the mid-thirties and who had been studied 25 yrs later and reported on by D. P. Campbell (1965). They were assigned to 5 vocational pattern groups on the basis of their work histories. Of 29 characteristics that were analyzed statistically, 15 significantly discriminated among the 5 groups. A woman's career pattern could not be predicted from data available at the time she entered college but was predictable from other data known 5 yrs later. The most significant data were related to marital situation and education. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pigeons' spatial memory: IV. Effects of intertrial interval manipulations on delayed matching of key location.

In Exp I, the effect of intertrial interval (ITI) duration on 3 Silver King pigeons' delayed matching of key location was investigated. Trials began with a ready stimulus (brief operation of the grain feeder); then one randomly chosen key from a 3?×?3 matrix was lit briefly as the sample. After a delay (retention interval) of 1, 4 or 8 sec, the sample key was lit again, along with another key. A peck at the key that had served as the sample (correct comparison) produced food reinforcement, whereas an incorrect peck led directly to the ITI. The ITI was 2.5 or 25 sec. Matching accuracy was lower at the shorter ITI and was linearly related to the log of the ratio of the ITI to the delay interval. In Exp II, noncontingent food reinforcement presented during the 25-sec ITI lowered matching accuracy of 5 Ss. In Exp III, reinforcement was given for pecking a key (correct, incorrect, or irrelevant) presented during the ITI. Reinforcement for pecking any key had a facilitative effect on matching accuracy. Results are discussed in relation to models of spatial memory, the apparent parallels between processes in delayed matching and classical conditioning, and the notion that expectancy of reinforcement during the matching trial facilitates accurate choice of the correct key. (French abstract) (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perception of auditory-visual distance relations by 5-month-old infants.

This study investigated whether, and on what basis, 5-mo-old infants perceive auditory–visual distance relations. A 2-screen visual preference procedure was used in which infants viewed side by side videotaped toy trains (in 4 visual conditions) along with increasing or decreasing amplitude lawnmower engine sounds from a central speaker designed to match one of the videos. Results suggest that 5-mo-olds were sensitive to auditory–visual distance relations and that changing size was an important visual depth cue. Infants did not show evidence of matching in other conditions in which the soundtracks were paired with videos depicting shifts in the train's luminance or showing the train moving vertically with no change in size. The infants' matching performance suggested that 5-mo-olds respond to invariant auditory–visual relations specifying meaningful spatial properties. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of orientation on the identification of simple visual patterns.

Two experiments, with 16 university students, revealed that errors of identification for alphanumeric characters increased approximately linearly with increased angular deviation from the standard upright orientation. Thus, pattern recognition does not seem to proceed via the extraction of "orientation-invariant features." It is argued that prior failures to discover systematic effects of orientation on the identification of simple patterns may have resulted from the use of RT as a dependent measure. Based on the data from Exp II, it was estimated that as little as 15 msec of processing time may have been sufficient to compensate fully for a 180° rotation of a simple pattern in the present experimental situation. Thus, RT experiments seeking effects of orientation must be designated to detect effects of smaller magnitude than may have been previously anticipated. (French abstract) (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of dose and interdose interval on conditioned heart rate tolerance to smoking.

The effects of an environmental cue and smoking administration on heart rate (HR) responses to smoking were investigated in 2 studies. The 1st study was performed without smoking, to rule out the possibility that the cue manipulations alone could produce HR habituation. Thirty-six male nonsmokers were exposed to 6 trials of a changing or repeating cue (segments of a story on audiotape), followed by a paced-breathing period. HR habituation was not found. In the 2nd study, 40 male smokers smoked 4 puffs every 10 min (small-dose/long-interdose interval [IDI]) or 6 puffs every 5 min (large-dose/short-IDI) in 6 trials. The same repeating or changing cue preceded smoking. Only the repeating-cue, small-dose/long-IDI group developed HR tolerance. Modifying the cue on Trial 6 did not reverse tolerance. The results indicated that (a) tolerance to smoking appears to be subject to conditioning, (b) this effect depends on the dose and IDI, and (c) the observed tolerance is not likely to be a result of the effects of the cue alone. Nonassociative tolerance to smoking a high-dose/short-IDI did not occur in this study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sensory dominance in infants: II. Ten-month-old infants' response to auditory-visual compounds.

A series of studies was conducted with 10-month-old infants in which their response to temporally modulated auditory-visual compounds was examined. The general procedure consisted of first habituating the infants to a compound stimulus (consisting of a flashing checkerboard and a pulsing sound) and then testing their response to it by presenting a series of trials where either one or two temporal attributes of the visual, the auditory, or of both components were changed. When the auditory and visual components were temporally identical, during the habituation phase, the infants only encoded the temporal attributes of the auditory component. When the two components were temporally distinct, or when they were identical but when multiple discriminative cues were available, the infants encoded the temporal aspects of both the auditory and the visual components. When the information context was made more complex, the infants' performance deteriorated, but when the salience of the visual component was increased the infants' performance improved. In sum, although the auditory modality can dominate the visual modality at 10 months of age, the visual modality can process temporal information when the temporal relationship of the information in the two modalities is distinct. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Auditory and auditory-visual perception of clear and conversational speech

Research has shown that speaking in a deliberately clear manner can improve the accuracy of auditory speech recognition. Allowing listeners access to visual speech cues also enhances speech understanding. Whether the nature of information provided by speaking clearly and by using visual speech cues is redundant has not been determined. This study examined how speaking mode (clear vs. conversational) and presentation mode (auditory vs. auditory-visual) influenced the perception of words within nonsense sentences. In Experiment 1, 30 young listeners with normal hearing responded to videotaped stimuli presented audiovisually in the presence of background noise at one of three signal-to-noise ratios. In Experiment 2, 9 participants returned for an additional assessment using auditory-only presentation. Results of these experiments showed significant effects of speaking mode (clear speech was easier to understand than was conversational speech) and presentation mode (auditory-visual presentation led to better performance than did auditory-only presentation). The benefit of clear speech was greater for words occurring in the middle of sentences than for words at either the beginning or end of sentences for both auditory-only and auditory-visual presentation, whereas the greatest benefit from supplying visual cues was for words at the end of sentences spoken both clearly and conversationally. The total benefit from speaking clearly and supplying visual cues was equal to the sum of each of these effects. Overall, the results suggest that speaking clearly and providing visual speech information provide complementary (rather than redundant) information.     

Sensory dominance in infants: I. Six-month-old infants' response to auditory-visual compounds.

To investigate sensory dominance in early development, a series of studies was conducted to examine 6-month-old infants' processing of multisensory stimulus compounds. The infants were first habituated with a compound stimulus consisting of a flashing checkerboard and a pulsing sound. To assess attention to aspects of the compound stimulus, the infants received separate test trials where compounds differed in the rate and/or duration at which the visual, the auditory, or both components were presented. One consistent finding was that the infants discriminated changes in the temporal characteristics of the auditory component but not in the visual component. Their responsiveness to the auditory information depended on the number of discriminative cues available during either the habituation or the test phases and on the temporal distinctiveness of the auditory and visual components during the habituation phase. This consistent failure to respond to changes in the visual component led to the conclusion that auditory dominance was operating. This conclusion was reinforced by the finding that the infants failed to discriminate a change in the rate of the visual component even when the intensity of the visual component was increased relative to that of the auditory component, and by the finding that the infants could discriminate temporal changes in the visual component following habituation with just the visual component. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experience and auditory-visual equivalence in pattern classification: Native speakers of Cantonese versus native speakers of English.

Assessed the role of experience in auditory pattern classification by replicating with native speakers of Cantonese T. M. Williams and L. S. Aiken's (1977) study of auditory–visual equivalence that was conducted with native English speakers. In Cantonese, both the pitch and content of word carry meaning. 72 2nd and 6th graders and 36 adult Ss had to state whether pairs of auditory and visual patterns came from the same prototype class. As hypothesized, Cantonese-speaking Ss were more accurate than English-speaking Ss at classifying auditory patterns, but not differentially accurate at classifying visual patterns. The finding that even the Cantonese Ss were more accurate at classifying visual than auditory patterns lends weight to the theory that vision is the most adept modality for dealing with spatial information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of pulse duration and size of interelectrode interval on electric-spark spraying. I. Effect of pulse duration and size of interelectrode interval on rate of electric-spark transfer

The influence exerted by electric-spark spraying on the kinetics of mass transfer and the physicomechanical properties of coatings is investigated. It is shown that electric-spark spraying is determined by the dynamic properties of the cathode jets, which depend on the electrical parameters of the spark discharge, the size of the interelectrode interval, and the physical properties of the coatings, which vary during spraying.     

Analysis of blink rate patterns in normal subjects

The present study measured the normal blink rate (BR) variations in relation to behavioral tasks in 150 healthy volunteers (70 males and 80 females; aged 35.9 +/- 17.9 years, range 5-87 years). The subjects were videotaped in a standard setting while performing three different tasks: resting quietly, reading a short passage, talking freely. The mean BR was computed during each task; the data were compared by means of analysis of variance and Student's t tests. Mean BR at rest was 17 blinks/min, during conversation it increased to 26, and it was as low as 4.5 while reading. As compared with rest, BR decreased by -55.08% while reading (p < 1 x 10(-15)) and increased by 99.70% during conversation (p < 1 x 10(-9)). As compared with reading, BR increased during conversation by 577.8% (p < 1 x 10(-17). The distribution curves were highly reproducible in each task. The best curve fit was represented by a log-normal distribution, with the upper tail of each curve having a normal distribution. Eye color and eyeglass wearing did not influence BR. Women had higher BR than men just while reading. No age-related differences were found. The most common BR pattern was conversation > rest > reading, which occurred in 101 subjects (67.3%); 34 subjects (22.7%) had the pattern rest > conversation > reading; 12 (8.0%) had the pattern conversation > reading > rest. This study identified three normal behavioral BR patterns and showed that BR is more influenced by cognitive processes than by age, eye color, or local factors. The present findings provide a normal reference for the analysis of BR in movement disorders such as dystonia or tics.     

Effects of retention interval on pupillary responses during a simple discrimination

Responses from 6 subjects show that pupillary changes observed during short-term information processing with retention intervals of 0, 5, and 10 sec. delay occur during recognition memory for tones as well as recall of 7-digit numbers.     

Nucleus accumbens dopamine modulates response rate but not response timing in an interval timing task.

While previous work has demonstrated that systemic dopamine manipulations can modulate temporal perception by altering the speed of internal clock processes, the neural site of this modulation remains unclear. Based on recent research suggesting that changes in incentive salience can alter the perception of time, as well as work showing that nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell dopamine (DA) levels modulate the incentive salience of discriminative stimuli that predict instrumental outcomes, we assessed whether microinjections of DA agents into the NAc shell would impact temporal perception. Rats were trained on either a 10-s or 30-s temporal production procedure and received intra-NAc shell microinfusions of sulpiride, amphetamine, and saline. Results showed that NAc DA modulations had no effect on response timing, but intra-NAc shell sulpiride microinfusions significantly decreased response rates relative to saline and amphetamine. Our findings therefore suggest that neither NAc shell DA levels, nor the resultant changes in incentive salience signaled by this structure, impact temporal control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)