Interactive effects of age and familiarization in paired-associate learning.

Prior to learning a list of paired associates consisting of pictures of common objects, 40 preschool and 40 2nd graders were given 1 of 4 familiarization conditions: stimulus pretraining, response pretraining, irrelevant pretraining, and no pretraining. Results show that the 2nd graders exhibited positive transfer from familiarization to paired-associate learning due to nonspecific factors such as "warm-up." The preschoolers, however, displayed positive transfer due to more specific factors inherent in response and stimulus pretraining. These results suggest that the pretraining experience facilitated rehearsal by making available verbal labels. Results are consistent with (a) developmental hypotheses that emphasize growth in discriminative capacity and/or verbal mediation and (b) phase theories of paired-associate learning that emphasize stimulus and response learning stages. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sentence perception and distractibility in schizophrenic, manic, and depressed patients.

Previous research with schizophrenics suggested that distraction may have its primary effect on controlled information processing. To explore this hypothesis, 8 schizophrenics, 8 manics, 8 depressives, and 8 normal Ss (all Ss were aged 18–45 yrs) were asked to shadow short stories in both the presence and absence of a competing message and to answer questions afterward about the content of the shadowed message. The shadowing performance of all 3 patient groups was equivalent to that of normal Ss and was not affected by distraction. Shadowing errors of commission indicated that schizophrenics did use semantic and syntactic information to anticipate words in the relevant message, but the schizophrenics also inserted more semantically irrelevant words than any of the other 3 groups. Distraction did interfere with the schizophrenics' ability to recall the content of relevant passages, but not with the performance of the other 3 groups. Data indicate that distraction may have a specific rather than general influence on controlled information processing or that distraction may reduce schizophrenics' overall capacity to handle information in short-term memory. The analysis of shadowing errors suggested that performance on such laboratory tasks may be closely related to the verbal communication problems encountered by many schizophrenic patients, but also that these symptoms may not be a simple function of selective attention difficulties. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of chronotropic and inotropic stimulation on the coronary pressure-flow relation in left ventricular hypertrophy

Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) secondary to chronic pressure overload is associated with increased susceptibility to myocardial hypoperfusion and ischemia during increased cardiac work. The present study was performed to study the effects of chronotropic and inotropic stimulation on the coronary pressure-flow relation of the hypertrophied left ventricle of dogs and to determine the individual contributions of increases in heart rate and contractility to the exaggerated exercise-induced increases in effective back pressure (pressure at zero flow; Pzf). Ascending aortic banding in seven dogs increased the LV to body weight ratio to 7.7 +/- 0.3 g/kg compared to 4.8 +/- 0.2 g/kg in 10 normal dogs (p < or = 0.01). Maximum coronary vasodilation was produced by intracoronary infusion of adenosine. During resting conditions maximum coronary blood flow in the pressure overloaded hypertrophied left ventricle was impaired by both an increase in Pzf (25.1 +/- 2.6 vs 13.8 +/- 1.2 mmHg in hypertrophied vs normal ventricles, respectively, p < or = 0.01) and a decrease in maximum coronary conductance (slope of the linear part of the pressure-flow relation, slopep > or = linear) (8.6 +/- 1.1 vs 12.7 +/- 0.9 ml/min/mmHg, p < or = 0.01). Right atrial pacing at 200 and 250 beats/min resulted in similar rightward shifts of the pressure-flow relation in hypertrophied and normal hearts with 3.1 +/- 0.8 and 4.7 +/- 0.8 mmHg increases in Pzf in LVH and normal dogs, respectively; stepwise multivariate regression analysis indicated that the exaggerated decrease in filling pressure (10 +/- 2 vs 6 +/-2 mmHg) and decrease in left ventricular systolic pressure (45 +/- 5 vs 3 +/- 3 mmHg, p < or = 0.01) may have blunted a greater rightward shift of the pressure-flow relation produced by atrial pacing in the hypertrophied hearts. Inotropic stimulation with dobutamine (10-20 micrograms/kg/min, i.v.) resulted in minimal flow changes in normal hearts but produced a 4.4 +/- 1.5 mmHg (p < or = 0.05) rightward shift of the pressure-flow relation in hypertrophied hearts. which correlated with a greater increase in left ventricular systolic pressure (83 +/- 16 vs 18 +/- 4 mmHg. p < or = 0.05). Exercise resulted in a rightward shift in both normal and hypertrophied left ventricles, but the increase in Pzf was significantly greater in the hypertrophied hearts (15.2 +/- 0.9 vs 10.3 +/- 0.9 mmHg. p < or = 0.05). Stepwise multivariate regression analysis indicated that not only increases in left ventricular filling pressure, but also increases in heart rate and LV systolic pressure contributed to the abnormally great increase in effective coronary back pressure which results in limitation of myocardial perfusion during exercise in the pressure overloaded hypertrophied left ventricle.     

Wanting to and having to help: Separate motivations for positive mood and guilt-induced helping.

In the 1st of 2 field experiments, 90 adults received a positive mood induction or no stimulus followed by a guilt induction, a distraction control, or no stimulus. Both positive mood and guilt inductions were found to produce increases in helping; the distraction control had no effect. Presentation of positive mood prior to guilt produced no increase in helping. The latter result suggests that positive mood and guilt may entail mutually inhibitory motivations. To separate the 2 motivations, a 2nd experiment with 200 Ss was conducted using 2 types of charity requests. In this experiment, the positive mood manipulation produced increases in helping only to a request stressing the desirability of helping, while the guilt manipulation produced increases only to a request stressing an obligation to help. The interaction of the positive mood and guilt indications produced no increase in helping to either type of request. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are Arabic and verbal numbers processed in different ways?

Four experiments were conducted in order to examine effects of notation--Arabic and verbal numbers--on relevant and irrelevant numerical processing. In Experiment 1, notation interacted with the numerical distance effect, and irrelevant physical size affected numerical processing (i.e., size congruity effect) for both notations but to a lesser degree for verbal numbers. In contrast, size congruity had no effect when verbal numbers were the irrelevant dimension. In Experiments 2 and 3, different parameters that could possibly affect the results, such as discriminability and variability (Experiment 2) and the block design (Experiment 3), were controlled. The results replicated the effects obtained in Experiment 1. In Experiment 4, in which physical size was made more difficult to process, size congruity for irrelevant verbal numbers was observed. The present results imply that notation affects numerical processing and that Arabic and verbal numbers are represented separately, and thus it is suggested that current models of numerical processing should have separate comparison mechanisms for verbal and Arabic numbers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nonverbal indicants of comprehension and noncomprehension in children.

Examined nonverbal indicants of comprehension and noncomprehension in young listeners in the context of referential communication. Relationships between Ss' verbal and nonverbal behavior were also examined. 90 Ss at 4, 6, 8, and 10 yrs of age served as listeners. An adult speaker produced messages of varying informational adequacy. Analyses of videotape records revealed that Ss at each of the 4 ages exhibited markedly different nonverbal behavior in response to informative as compared to uninformative messages. In the absence of verbal responding, Ss at all ages showed more hand movement and longer reaction times when messages were uninformative. Preschoolers made more eye contact with the speaker when the message was uninformative, but their amount of body movement was unaffected; the reverse was true for kindergartners and 2nd graders. The data also reveal that when verbal responding was initiated, it was simply added onto the already established patterns of nonverbal behavior; no evidence was found for the hypothesis that verbal responding replaces or substitutes for nonverbal responses. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selective attention in schizophrenic and manic psychoses: The effect of distraction on information processing.

Attempted to identify the general level of cognitive processing that is especially vulnerable to distraction in schizophrenia. The extent and nature of distraction were compared in 12 schizophrenic patients (mean age, 27.8 yrs), 12 manic patients (mean age, 28.2 yrs), and 12 controls (mean age, 26.7 yrs) using neutral and distractor word-span tests. Also, all patients were evaluated by the Nurse's Observation Scale for Inpatient Evaluation, and 10, 11, and 12 controls, schizophrenics, and manics, respectively, completed the MMPI. On one set of tests, serial position curves indicated that in the presence of distraction the overall deterioration in schizophrenics' performance reflected their tendency to forget early, and not late, items in the lists. On a 2nd set of tests, both schizophrenics and manics were abnormally distracted, regardless of the speed of presentation. Although the controls were also somewhat distracted by irrelevant words, their impairment was significantly diminished at slower rates of presentation. With distraction, schizophrenics and manics were less able to use the extra time in slow presentations for active mental operations such as rehearsal. Both groups made more intrusive errors than normal Ss. Results indicate that distraction interferes with schizophrenics' and manics' information processing at some level beyond the comparatively passive stages of recognition and sensory storage. Problems in selective attention seem to be more closely related to thought disorder than to diagnostic categories. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hand to mouth: Automatic imitation across effector systems.

The effector dependence of automatic imitation was investigated using a stimulus–response compatibility (SRC) procedure during which participants were required to make an open or closed response with their hand or their mouth. The correct response for each trial was indicated by a pair of letters in Experiments 1 and 2 and by a colored square in Experiment 3. Each of these imperative stimuli was accompanied by task-irrelevant action images depicting a hand or mouth opening or closing. In relation to the response, the irrelevant stimulus was movement compatible or movement incompatible, and effector compatible or effector incompatible. A movement compatibility effect was observed for both hand and mouth responses. These movement compatibility effects were present when the irrelevant stimulus was effector compatible and when it was effector incompatible, but were smaller when the irrelevant stimulus and response effectors were incompatible. Consistent with the associative sequence learning (ASL) model of imitation, these findings indicate that automatic imitation is partially effector dependent and therefore that the effector dependence of intentional imitation reflects, at least in part, the nature of the mechanisms that mediate visuomotor translation for imitation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of sensory modality in age-related distraction: A critical review and a renewed view.

Selective attention requires the ability to focus on relevant information and to ignore irrelevant information. The ability to inhibit irrelevant information has been proposed to be the main source of age-related cognitive change (e.g., Hasher & Zacks, 1988). Although age-related distraction by irrelevant information has been extensively demonstrated in the visual modality, studies involving auditory and cross-modal paradigms have revealed a mixed pattern of results. A comparative evaluation of these paradigms according to sensory modality suggests a twofold trend: Age-related distraction is more likely (a) in unimodal than in cross-modal paradigms and (b) when irrelevant information is presented in the visual modality, rather than in the auditory modality. This distinct pattern of age-related changes in selective attention may be linked to the reliance of the visual and auditory modalities on different filtering mechanisms. Distractors presented through the auditory modality can be filtered at both central and peripheral neurocognitive levels. In contrast, distractors presented through the visual modality are primarily suppressed at more central levels of processing, which may be more vulnerable to aging. We propose the hypothesis that age-related distractibility is modality dependent, a notion that might need to be incorporated in current theories of cognitive aging. Ultimately, this might lead to a more accurate account for the mixed pattern of impaired and preserved selective attention found in advancing age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Explanations for visual cue primacy in judgments of honesty and deceit.

Examined the validity of the distraction hypothesis (Maier & Thurber, 1968). Ss were undergraduate students who watched a videotaped interview and rated the veracity of an actress who played the role of a college student. Study 1 disconfirmed the distraction hypothesis. Ss relied on nonverbal cues to make judgments of veracity, but the presence of nonverbal cues did not distract Ss from processing verbal content. Study 2 tested an alternate explanation, the situational familiarity hypothesis. Study 2 found that judgments in familiar situations were influenced primarily by verbal content cues, whereas those in unfamiliar situations were influenced by both verbal and nonverbal cues. Findings indicate that situational factors influence information processing and affect the relative importance of verbal and nonverbal cues in judgments of veracity. Generalizability of prior deception research is questioned. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organizational factors in selective attention: The interplay of acoustic distinctiveness and auditory streaming in the irrelevant sound effect.

A series of studies further explored the way in which irrelevant sound disrupts the serial recall of visually presented verbal sequences. The hypothesis that distinctiveness (stimulus mismatch) within auditory irrelevant sequences is a critical determinant of disruption of serial recall was tested. Experiment 1 showed that the degree of disruption was related to the degree of mismatch between successive stimuli. However, in Experiment 2, changes in 2 attributes of a stimulus produced less disruption than when only 1 was changed, suggesting mismatch alone was not the key factor. These results were reconciled with the changing-state hypothesis in Experiment 3 in which change and disruption were monotonically related up to the point at which mismatch created 2 streams. Object-based theories are able to explain this pattern of results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Left hemisphere dysfunction and left hemisphere overactivation in schizophrenia.

Reports 2 experiments relating schizophrenia to functional brain asymmetry. In Exp I, 24 schizophrenics (mean age, 30.8 yrs) were compared to 24 matched controls (mean age, 37.3 yrs) on 2 tachistoscopic tasks (Syllable Test and Dot Location Test) designed to measure verbal and spatial information processing in the 2 hemispheres. Unlike the controls, the schizophrenics showed a right hemisphere superiority both on the verbal and on the spatial tests, indicating left hemisphere dysfunction in the initial processing of verbal information. In Exp II, lateral eye movements, as an index of contralateral hemispheric activation, were measured in a group of 24 paranoid schizophrenics (mean age, 28.9 yrs), 24 nonparanoid schizophrenics (mean age, 32.7 yrs), and 24 matched controls (mean age, 31.2 yrs). The eye movements were elicited by presenting the Ss with verbal neutral, verbal emotional, spatial neutral, and spatial emotional questions. The schizophrenics had significantly more rightward eye movement, compared to controls, regardless of question type, indicating left hemisphere overactivation. Results suggest that schizophrenia is associated with a pattern consisting of both left hemisphere dysfunction and overactivation. (63 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Short-term memory for the timing of auditory and visual signals.

Short-term memory for the timing of irregular sequences of signals has been said to be more accurate when the signals are auditory than when they are visual. No support for this contention was obtained when the signals were beeps vs flashes (Exps 1 and 3) nor when they were sets of spoken vs typewritten digits (Exps 4 and 5). On the other hand, support was obtained both for beeps vs flashes (Exps 2 and 5) and for repetitions of a single spoken digit vs repetitions of a single typewritten digit (Exp 6) when the Ss silently mouthed a nominally irrelevant item during sequence presentation. Also, the timing of sequences of auditory signals, whether verbal (Exp 7) or nonverbal (Exps 8 and 9), was more accurately remembered when the signals within each sequence were identical. The findings are considered from a functional perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attention, distraction, and cold-pressor pain.

Compared the effects of distracting oneself from, vs attending to, the sensations produced by cold-pressor stimulation. Exp I (35 undergraduates) revealed that distraction was a better coping strategy than attention to sensations when Ss were asked to report pain threshold and tolerance. Exps II and III (75 Ss) examined the hypothesis that distraction is effective because persons hold a commonsense belief in the benefits of distraction as a coping device. Neither experiment supported the commonsense hypothesis as an explanation for Exp I's results. In Exp IV, 39 male Ss were assigned to either distraction, attention, or no-instruction conditions and asked to report their distress during a 4-min cold-pressor trial. Distraction reduced distress early in the trial, but attention to sensations was a superior strategy for the last 2 min. It is proposed that distraction and attention to sensations may be differentially effective depending on the duration of the painful stimulus. Possible mediating processes underlying the 2 strategies are discussed. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns of GFAP-immunoreactivity parallel the tonotopic axis in the developing dorsal cochlear nucleus

The gain of the H reflex attenuates during passive stepping and pedalling movements of the leg. We hypothesized that the kinematics of the movement indirectly reflect the receptor origin of this attenuation. In the first experiment, H reflexes were evoked in soleus at 26 points in the cycle of slow, passive pedalling movement of the leg and at 13 points with the leg static (the ankle was always immobilized). Maximum inhibition occurred as the leg moved through its most flexed position (P < 0.05). Inhibition observed in the static leg was also strongest at this position (P < 0.05). The increase in inhibition was gradual during flexion movement, with rapid reversal of this increase during extension. In the second experiment, the length of stretch of the vasti muscles was modelled. Variable pedal crank lengths and revolutions per minute (rpm) altered leg joint displacements and angular velocities. Equivalent rates of stretch of the vasti, achieved through different combinations of joint displacements and velocities, elicited equivalent attenuations of mean reflex magnitudes in the flexed leg. Reflex gain exponentially related to rate of stretch (R2 = 0.98 P < 0.01). The results imply that gain attenuation of this spinal sensorimotor path arises from spindle discharge in heteronymous extensor muscles of knee and/or hip, concomitant with movement.     

A longitudinal analysis of logical reasoning relationships: Conservation and transitive inference.

102 children originally assessed in 1973 were retested 1 yr later on a series of conservation and transitive inference tasks (length and weight content areas). An additional sample of matched cohort/grade Ss (1st- and 4th-grade levels) were assessed in the 2nd yr only to permit evaluation of repeated measurement biases for the longitudinal sample. Results indicate that there were no effects of presentation order, selective survival, repeated measurement, sex, or content area; these variables did not interact with each other. Analyses of the longitudinal Ss' conservation task performances over the annual interval indicated significant grade-level distinctions, Yr 1 vs Yr 2 differences, and type of conservation distinctions (identity vs equivalence). Identity conservation scores were consistently superior to equivalence conservation scores, a superiority most notable for the youngest Ss. Transitive inference tasks were significantly less difficult than equivalence conservation tasks. Most importantly, evidence for a developmental mastery sequence (transitivity-conservation) was demonstrated. Identity-equivalence conservation task distinctions were most apparent for the without verbal justification response criterion. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Active and passive distraction using a head-mounted display helmet: Effects on cold pressor pain in children.

Objective: The current study tested the effectiveness of interactive versus passive distraction that was delivered via a virtual reality type head-mounted display helmet for children experiencing cold pressor pain. Design: Forty children, aged 5 to 13 years, underwent 1 or 2 baseline cold pressor trials followed by interactive distraction and passive distraction trials in counterbalanced order. Main Outcome Measures: Pain threshold and pain tolerance. Results: Children who experienced either passive or interactive distraction demonstrated significant improvements in both pain tolerance and pain threshold relative to their baseline scores. In contrast, children who underwent a second cold pressor trial without distraction showed no significant improvements in pain tolerance or threshold. Conclusion: Although both distraction conditions were effective, the interactive distraction condition was significantly more effective. Implications for the treatment of children's distress during painful medical procedures are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Irrelevant Sound Phenomenon Revisited: What Role for Working Memory Capacity?

High-span individuals (as measured by the operation span [OSPAN] technique) are less likely than low-span individuals to notice their own names in an unattended auditory stream (A. R. A. Conway, N. Cowan, & M. F. Bunting, 2001). The possibility that OSPAN accounts for individual differences in auditory distraction on an immediate recall test was examined. There was no evidence that high-OSPAN participants were more resistant to the disruption caused by irrelevant speech in serial or in free recall. Low-OSPAN participants did, however, make more semantically related intrusion errors from the irrelevant sound stream in a free recall test (Experiment 4). Results suggest that OSPAN mediates semantic components of auditory distraction dissociable from other aspects of the irrelevant sound effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive load of navigating without vision when guided by virtual sound versus spatial language.

A vibrotactile N-back task was used to generate cognitive load while participants were guided along virtual paths without vision. As participants stepped in place, they moved along a virtual path of linear segments. Information was provided en route about the direction of the next turning point, by spatial language ("left," "right," or "straight") or virtual sound (i.e., the perceived azimuth of the sound indicated the target direction). The authors hypothesized that virtual sound, being processed at direct perceptual levels, would have lower load than even simple language commands, which require cognitive mediation. As predicted, whereas the guidance modes did not differ significantly in the no-load condition, participants showed shorter distance traveled and less time to complete a path when performing the N-back task while navigating with virtual sound as guidance. Virtual sound also produced better N-back performance than spatial language. By indicating the superiority of virtual sound for guidance when cognitive load is present, as is characteristic of everyday navigation, these results have implications for guidance systems for the visually impaired and others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive factors in hypnotic susceptibility.

Conducted 3 pilot studies with a total of 50 undergraduates to test 3 hypotheses derived from M. Gill and M. Brenman's (see pa, vol. 34:5325) study of hypnosis: (a) strong automatizers are less susceptible to hypnosis, (b) highly hypnotizable ss are more prone to distraction, and (c) highly hypnotizable ss produce more amorphous figure drawings. Performances on the stanford hypnotic susceptibility scale, the stroop color-word test, and the draw-a-person test support only the 2nd and 3rd hypotheses. Further testing using 4 verbal and 6 visual-motor measures on 40 male and 33 female undergraduates support the 2nd and 3rd hypotheses only for females. Analysis of pilot study data indicate that sex differences may have been present there also. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)