Bishop, Eysenck, Block, and psychoticism.

J. Block (see record 1978-28560-001) questioned evidence for the validity of the Eysenck Psychoticism (P) scale based on the psychophysiological findings of G. S. Claridge and H. J. Chappa (see record 1974-02520-001) that Ss high in psychoticism showed an unusual and counterintuitive relationship between 2-flash threshold and skin conductance. The present authors argue that Block's criticism that the result may be ephemeral is incorrect for 3 reasons. First, the cut-off point used to define the low skin conductance range over which the relationship was most evident was not as arbitrary as Block suggests. Second, replication data demonstrated the same result. And third, the unusual psychophysiology found in high P Ss has also been observed in normal Ss under LSD-25 and in acute schizophrenics. However, the present authors also point out that all their work on psychoticism was based on an earlier version of the Eysenck Personality Inventory (the Psychoticism-Extraversion-Neuroticism Inventory), whose items may have more face validity than the published version. Finally, D. V. M. Bishop's (see record 1978-30744-001) interpretation of the present authors' dimensional concept of psychoticism is corrected. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A prospective 4- to 5-year study of DSM-III-R hypochondriasis

BACKGROUND: Although hypochondriasis is generally thought to be a chronic and stable condition with a relatively low remission rate, this disorder remains understudied. METHODS: This is a 4- to 5-year prospective case-control study of DSM-III-R hypochondriasis. Medical outpatients meeting DSM diagnostic criteria for hypochondriasis completed an extensive research battery assessing hypochondriacal symptoms, medical and psychiatric comorbidity, functional status and role impairment, and medical care. A comparison group of nonhypochondriacal patients from the same setting underwent the same battery. Four to 5 years later, both cohorts were re-interviewed. RESULTS: One hundred twenty hypochondriacal and 133 nonhypochondriacal comparison patients were originally studied. Follow-up was obtained on 73.5% (n = 186) of all patients. At follow-up, the hypochondriacal sample was significantly (P<.001) less hypochondriacal and had less somatization (P<.001) and disability than at inception, but 63.5% (n = 54) still met DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria. When compared with the comparison group using repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance, these changes remained statistically significant (P<.0001). Changes in medical and psychiatric comorbidity did not differ between the 2 groups. When hypochondriacal patients who did and did not meet diagnostic criteria at follow-up were compared, the latter had significantly less disease conviction (P<.05) and somatization (P<.01) at inception, and their incidence of major medical illness during the follow-up period was significantly (P<.05) greater. CONCLUSIONS: Hypochondriacal patients show a considerable decline in symptoms and improvement in role functioning over 4 to 5 years but two thirds of them still meet diagnostic criteria. Hypochondriasis, therefore, carries a very substantial, long-term burden of morbidity, functional impairment, and personal distress.     

Effect of auditory deprivation on visual resolving power.

Conducted 2 experiments in which changes in the critical flicker fusion (CFF) were determined during and after auditory deprivation (silence). In Exp I, 36 male undergraduates were exposed to 1 wk of auditory deprivation, measurements of the CFF being taken at daily intervals and at Days 1, 2, 3, and 7 after the termination of the experimental condition. Results show that the experimental group exhibited a significant progressive improvement in visual resolving power as a function of auditory deprivation and, following its termination, a gradual decline towards the pre-experimental baseline. On the other hand, 2 control conditions, a group of confined Ss, and a non-confined group showed no systematic changes in the CFF. In Exp II with 6 new Ss, the period of auditory deprivation was extended to 14 days. Results again reveal a progressive improvement on the CFF during the 1st wk of silence followed by an asymptotic performance during the 2nd wk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in learning: Visual versus auditory presentation.

Investigated the possible interaction of individual differences in learning with mode of presentation. Ss were college students; data analyses were replicated by conducting separate analyses for 2 groups of 77 and 83 Ss, respectively. Each S learned 4 test lists of 20 words each, 2 under auditory and 2 under visual presentation. The main analyses indicated that individual differences in learning were reliable and that individual differences were just as predictable across as within modalities. A complementary analysis showed that Ss could not be reliably classified in terms of auditory–visual preference scores. The findings give no support to the contention that Ss can be classified as auditory learners or visual learners. (22 ref) (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)     

Discrepant social communications.

Observed 32 children (13–42 mo old) individually in the presence of their mothers. Eight messages systematically varied between the visual and auditory channels were given by the experimenter. Some messages asked S to approach; other messages asked S to stay away. Some were congruent and others discrepant across channels. Order of presentation was counterbalanced across Ss. All Ss approached the experimenter when he unambiguously invited them with a smiling face, affirmative head nods, manual beckoning, and a pleasant tone of voice, saying, "Come here." When the experimenter's request to approach or to stay away was on one channel only, that is, was either visual or auditory, about three-fourths of the Ss conformed to it, approaching or staying away as requested. When requests were discrepant across channels, behavior was more variable, but more Ss conformed to the auditory than to the visual message. The messages constitute a Guttman scale, a unidimensional and cumulative hierarchy based on the individual patterns of responses to them. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of differential rearing on cortical evoked potentials of the albino rat.

3 groups of Sprague-Dawley albino rats were reared in different environments from weaning to the age of 95 days. One group was in a visually enriched environment (n = 8), a 2nd group was in an auditorily enriched environment (n = 8) and a 3rd group, controls, received no enrichment (n = 16). Photic and auditory evoked potentials were recorded in unanesthetized Ss from chronically implanted epidural electrodes over the visual and auditory cortex. Ss whose enrichment included visual stimulation yielded significantly shorter latencies in their photic evoked responses recorded over the visual cortex than latencies recorded from controls or from Ss whose enrichment excluded visual stimulation. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A 166-item written short form of the group MMPI: The FAM.

Describes the 166-item Faschingbauer Abbreviated Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (FAM) which was developed using cluster analysis and compared to the MMPI and other short forms. Median reliabilities of .88 for 146 Ss (1 day apart) and .77 for 50 Ss (1 wk apart) as well as median validities of .91 for 399 Ss (in context) and .76 for 119 Ss (1 day apart) were found. All Ss were either normal undergraduates or psychiatric inpatients. On code-type correspondence, configural classifications, profile validities, and scale elevations, the FAM compared favorably to a retest MMPI. Differences in context, obvious, and true items were minimal. The FAM retains the usual 13 scales and 47% of the critical items and showed itself superior to the other short forms in most respects. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Immediate and long-term recognition and generalization of advertised products as a function of age and presentation mode.

Examined 30 preschoolers' (aged 3–5 yrs), 30 kindergartners', and 30 2nd graders' immediate and long-term recognition memory for advertised products following an audio, video, or audiovisual presentation of commercials. A 3?×?3 factorial design was employed, with presentation mode (visual only, auditory only, and combined auditory and visual) and age of S as the factors. Ss recognized advertised products more often following exposure to visual or audiovisual commercial presentations than to auditory presentations. Age differences were detected for immediate and long-term product recognition. An errors analysis revealed that Ss of all 3 ages reported being exposed to nonadvertised foods that were members of the same class as the advertised products more frequently than would have been expected by chance. Findings are discussed in terms of the generalized effects of children's TV advertising. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Need for stimulation as a source of stress response to perceptual isolation.

The study was undertaken to see if Ss who had shown a greater stress reaction to perceptual isolation could be shown to have a greater "need" for stimulation than those who were not so stressed by isolation. Ss selected on the basis of their high or low reactions to the prior isolation experiment were tested in a second 3-hr perceptual isolation situation, only this time they were given the opportunity to make an operant response which would produce random visual or auditory stimulation depending on their choice. Those previously stressed by isolation made significantly more responses for visual and auditory reinforcement than the low-stress group. All Ss responded more for visual than for auditory reinforcement. (29 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Auditory localization skills in mentally retarded children.

Measured the gross auditory and visual localization skills of 24 6–18 yr old mentally retarded Ss. Half of the Ss were selected randomly from a group of residents who had demonstrated visual discrimination skills and auditory speech discrimination skills. The other Ss were selected randomly from a group of residents who demonstrated visual discrimination skills but not auditory speech discrimination. Findings indicate that all Ss who previously demonstrated auditory speech discrimination passed the auditory localization task, and all Ss who previously failed to demonstrate auditory speech discrimination failed the auditory localization task. It is suggested that auditory localization skills may be used as an approximation to the development of auditory speech discrimination skills. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Decoding discrepant nonverbal cues.

Developed a videotaped test of accuracy in decoding discrepant auditory and visual nonverbal cues (the Nonverbal Discrepancy Test). In three-quarters of the test items, the affect communicated in the audio modality is incongruent with the affect communicated in the video modality. In Study 1, with 41 college students, some Ss saw only the video portion of the test, some heard only the audio portion, and others judged both the audio and the video cues. Intergroup comparisons showed that Ss were more influenced by video cues than by audio cues (video primacy effect). In Study 2, 73 junior high school Ss, 150 high school Ss, and 95 college Ss took the full discrepancy test. In all 3 samples, Ss' judgments of the affects communicated in the discrepancy test were again more influenced by video cues than by audio cues. There was more video primacy for females than for males, for discrepancies involving the face than for discrepancies involving the body, and for discrepancies concerning degree of positivity than for discrepancies concerning degree of dominance. In decoding very discrepant messages, as compared to slightly discrepant ones, Ss adopted a strategy characteristic of judges of deception: They attended relatively more to the audio cues than to the video cues. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recency and suffix effects in serial recall of musical stimuli.

Previous research indicates that auditory presentation of verbal items leads to larger recency effects in recall than visual presentation. This enhanced recency can be eliminated if a stimulus suffix (an irrelevant sound) follows the last item. Four experiments, with 126 university students as Ss, tested the hypothesis that recency and suffix effects in serial recall result from a speech-specific process. It was demonstrated that serial recall of musical notes played on a piano exhibited substantial recency effects. These recency effects were reduced when the list items were followed by either a piano chord or the word start. However, a white-noise suffix had no effect on recency. It is concluded that this pattern of data is consistent with current work on auditory perception and places constraints on theories of recency and suffix effects. (55 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retrieving for rehearsal: An analysis of active rehearsal in children's memory.

Two experiments with 96 2nd graders and 24 6th graders explored the operation of retrieval processes in Ss' active rehearsal strategies. Both experiments used free-recall tasks, in which Ss were given instructions in active rehearsal as well as supports that might facilitate the retrieval operation and thus enhance both rehearsal and recall performance. In Exp I, 2nd and 6th graders were given visual or auditory access to an 18-item stimulus-word list. Results show that, by providing 2nd graders with an opportunity to view previously presented words, rehearsal activity and recall increased substantially, whereas the performance of the 6th graders was not affected. In Exp II, presentation time and visual access to a similar 18-word list were manipulated for 2nd graders. Results show that the provision of extra time for an item enabled Ss to execute a more active rehearsal strategy. Extra time had only minimal effects on recall, except when it was combined with visual access to the items. Findings suggest that retrieval per se is not necessary for the beneficial effects of active rehearsal, if other procedures can be followed to permit the juxtaposition of several items in rehearsal. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reduced range of sensory sensitivity in chronic nonparanoid schizophrenics.

Used a forced-choice auditory signal-detection method to test the hypothesis that, compared to acute paranoid schizophrenics, chronic nonparanoid schizophrenics would show a restricted range of sensitivity to environmental cues. 40 male chronic nonparanoid and paranoid schizophrenics served as Ss. Ability to detect the presence of an auditory cue, while concurrently tracking a visual stimulus, was measured under 2 conditions, auditory monitoring being given primary or secondary importance. In this task, a narrowed range of sensitivity implies a greater deficit in ability to detect the auditory cue when the primary focus is placed elsewhere. This deficit was significantly greater in the chronics in both initial and replication experiments. The function of restricted sensitivity in limiting the range of both relevant and distracting stimuli that are responded to by chronic nonparanoid schizophrenics is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Within- and between-modality associations in probed recall: A test of the separate-streams hypothesis.

Tested the separate-streams hypothesis that short-term processing of verbal information is functionally separated according to presentation modality. Lists of 10 digits were presented to 32 university students such that presentation modality (auditory or visual) changed after every 2nd digit. One digit was repeated at the end of each list as a recall probe. In 1 condition (next-item), Ss were instructed to recall the item that had immediately followed the probe in the original list regardless of presentation modality. In the 2nd condition (next item in the same modality), Ss were instructed to recall the item after the probe and in the same modality. The combination of instructions and positions of the probe and target within the list created 3 main conditions: (1) The probe immediately preceded the target item and was in the same presentation modality (same-mode probe). (2) The probe immediately preceded the target but was in a different presentation modality (different-mode probe). (3) The probe was in the same modality as the target but was separated from it by 2 items in the other modality (temporally distant probe). For both auditory and visual targets, highest recall was obtained with same-mode probes, next highest with temporally distant probes, and lowest with different-mode probes. The results support the hypothesis that auditory and visual information is processed separately in short-term verbal memory. (French abstract) (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spatial and temporal congruity and auditory–visual integration in infants.

The influence of the spatial and temporal relation of auditory and visual stimuli on 6-mo-old infants' perception of these stimuli as attributes of a common object was explored in 4 studies. In Exp I, after familiarization with an object that moved in synchrony with a periodic sound coming from it, the 89 Ss associated the object and sound; they looked more at the familiar than a novel object in the presence of the familiar sound, but not in the presence of a novel sound. Exp II with 22 Ss showed evidence for association following experience in which an object and sound were spatially congruent but exhibited a form of temporal incongruity (continuous movement and periodic sound). In contrast, no evidence of auditory–visual association was shown after familiarization in which the object and sound were temporally congruent but spatially incongruent (Exp III; 21 Ss) or in which object and sound were spatially congruent but exhibited a different form of temporal incongruity (periodic movement and continuous sound; Exp IV with 23 Ss). (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hippocampus, time, and memory.

Five experiments determined the effects of hippocampal damage on timing and the memory for temporal events. Norway rats (N?=?20) were trained to discriminate between auditory signals that differed in both duration (2 or 8 sec) and rate (2 or 16 cycles/sec). After Ss acquired the discrimination, signals with intermediate durations and rates were presented. Ss then received either fimbria-fornix lesions or control operations. Postoperatively, the accuracy of duration and rate discriminations as measured by the difference limen (DL) was unaffected by the lesion, but the point of subjective equality was shifted to a shorter duration and a slower rate by the lesion. Both Ss with lesions and Ss with control operations showed cross-modal transfer of duration and rate from the auditory signals used in training to visual signals. When a 5-sec delay was imposed between the end of a signal and the opportunity to respond, lesioned Ss were selectively impaired by the addition of the delay as measured by an increase in the DL. When a peak procedure was employed, the maximum response rate of controls was approximately at the time of scheduled reinforcement (20 sec), but the maximum response rate of lesioned Ss was earlier than the time of reinforcement. When a 5-sec gap was imposed in the signal, controls summed the signal durations before and after the gap, whereas lesioned Ss showed no retention of the signal duration prior to the gap. Lesions impaired spatial working memory in an 8-arm radial maze. (51 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hypnotic susceptibility and the sensory evoked response.

Studied relationships between hypnotic susceptibility and the vertex late component of the sensory evoked response (SER) in 30 undergraduates. Ss were classified as high or low susceptibles according to scores on the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility. The visual and auditory evoked responses were recorded under conditions of selective visual and auditory attention. When they were instructed to selectively attend to stimuli, Ss high in hypnotic susceptibility produced larger SERs than Ss low in hypnotic susceptibility, who showed an opposite pattern, with the largest evoked responses occurring to stimuli they were instructed to ignore. Results are discussed in terms of possible attentional mechanisms in hypnosis and a possible explanation for conflicting results in the literature dealing with the effects of attention upon the SER. (31 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Enhancing lineup identification accuracy: Two codes are better than one.

Ways of improving identification accuracy were explored by comparing the conventional visual lineup with an auditory/visual lineup, one that paired color photographs with voice recordings. This bimodal lineup necessitated sequential presentation of lineup members; Experiment 1 showed that performance in sequential lineups was better than performance in traditional simultaneous lineups. In Experiments 2A and 2B unimodal and bimodal lineups were compared by using a multiple-lineup paradigm: Ss viewed 3 videotaped episodes depicting standard police procedures and were tested in 4 sequential lineups. Bimodal lineups were more diagnostic than either visual or auditory lineups alone. The bimodal lineup led to a 126% improvement in number of correct identifications over the conventional visual lineup, with no concomitant increase in number of false identifications. These results imply strongly that bimodal procedures should be adopted in real-world lineups. The nature of memorial processes underlying this bimodal advantage is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)