Men, machines, and models.

"Models are analogies." Among the values of models are: they describe and help us to understand complex systems or events, they help us learn complex skills, they provide the framework within which experiments are done, they help us see new relationships, they help us predict when experiments are impossible, and they assist in engineering design. Some dangers in the use of models include: they invite overgeneralization, they entice us into committing a logical fallacy, the relationships between the variables may be incorrect, the constants used in the model may be incorrect, models are too often not validated, and model building diverts useful energy into nonproductive activity. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2LJ13C. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology and the design of machines.

Because of "human errors," psychologists were asked to help engineers produce machines which required less of the man and which, at the same time, exploited his special abilities. Psychologists, with the help of anatomists, physiologists and engineers "started a new inter-discipline aimed at better machine design and called variously human engineering, biomechanics, psychotechnology, or engineering psychology." The engineering psychologist: (1) studies the psychology of the human as a system component; (2) assists the engineer in experimentally evaluating prototype man-machine systems; and (3) cooperates actively with engineers in the design of machines. Some day "psychology, biology, and physics will… all employ the same physicomathematical metalanguage when describing the behavior of those particular system components which fall within their purview." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Methodology of gain studies in man-machine systems.

There are considerable difficulties in communicating data concerning the output/input amplitude relations of man-machine systems, and many arise from a lack of agreement on terminology and methods of measurement. The many different terms in use are compared for their clarity and convenience. The uniform use of the term "gain" is recommended; and the terms control gain, display gain, and system gain are defined and distinguished. Linear measures are generally used in studies of gain, but radial measures are superior for describing optimal limb movements for controlling machines. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accuracy and generalizability of an automated MMPI interpretation system: Erratum.

Reports an error in the article entitled "Accuracy and Generalizability of an Automated MMPI Interpretation System," by David Lachar (Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology. Vol. 42(2) Apr 1974, 267-273). Three references to tables on p. 270 appeared incorrectly. The sentences should read as follows: In column 1, the last sentence should read: A distribution of the frequency of the 51 code paragraphs is presented in Table 3. The second sentence under the paragraph heading Narrative Accuracy should read: The distribution of these 1,410 ratings appears in Table 4. The first sentence in Paragraph 2 should read: Table 1 presents the levels of the six variables included in the linear regression analysis of variance of overall narrative ratings. (The following abstract originally appeared in record 1974-27670-001). Evaluated narrative paragraph types and total reports of a new MMPI clinical interpretation simulation program. Complete documentation of this system and notation of accuracy and frequency of individual statements are provided elsewhere. MMPI interpretations of 1,410 patients who received psychiatric evaluations were judged by the clinicians who saw these patients. 107 paragraphs appeared 7,555 times and were rated inaccurate less than 10% of the time. 91% of these reports received overall favorable ratings. A linear regression analysis of variance of overall narrative ratings with 2 narrative and 4 patient variables suggested that this system has considerable generalizability. Narrative Type * Patient Source and Patient Age * Patient Source interactions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teaching machines and programmed instruction: Areas of application.

One of the principal enterprises of publishers and equipment producers is the manufacture and sale of programs and teaching machines. Applications of these educational and training techniques are prevalent in education, special education, industry, and the military. Conflicting results have been obtained both within and among these areas. It is concluded that this lack of concordance is due both to the situation in which the technique is used and various programming technicalities. More control in future research concerning criterion tests, structuring of this situation, control groups, specification of objectives, motivational factors, and theoretical variables is recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud and the image of man.

Discusses Freud's contributions to the modern image of man. Two figures stand out massively as the architects of our present-day conception of man: Darwin and Freud. Freud's was the more daring, the more revolutionary, and in a deep sense, the more poetic insight. Freud presented the image of man as the unfinished product of nature: struggling against unreason, impelled by driving inner vicissitudes and urges that had to be contained if man were to live in society, host alike to seeds of madness and majesty, never fully free from an infancy anything but innocent. What Freud was proposing was that man at best and man at worst is subject to a common set of explanations: good and evil grow from a common process. It is our heritage from Freud that the all-or-none distinction between mental illness and mental health has been replaced by a more humane conception of the continuity of these states. Freud's sense of the continuity of human conditions, of the likeness of the human plight, has made possible a deeper sense of the brotherhood of man. It has in any case tempered the spirit of punitiveness toward what once we took as evil and what we now see as sick. We have not yet resolved the dilemma posed by these two ways of viewing. Its resolution is one of the great moral challenges of our age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transfer of training between quickened and unquickened tracking systems.

Positive transfer of training was found to occur in switching from unquickened (knowledge of results delayed due to a loose display-control relationship) tracking system to a quickened (knowledge of results is instantaneous) tracking system, or in switching from a quickened to an unquickened system. Different amounts of training provided no difference in the extent of transfer, however, and transfer between the two systems was not complete. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neurocognitive functions and everyday functions change together in old age.

Objective: Although neurocognitive functions are known to decline normatively with adult age, there is a common belief that everyday functions (e.g., paying bills, following medication instructions, making change, looking up telephone numbers in a phone book) are unaffected by these changes. Method: This hypothesis was examined by applying longitudinal growth models to data from a community-based sample of 698 adults (ages 65 to 94 years and living independently at baseline) who were repeatedly measured over five years on neurocognitive tests of executive reasoning, episodic memory, and perceptual speed, and on a number of tasks that adults should be reasonably expected to be able to perform in their day-to-day lives. Results: Individual differences in changes in neurocognitive performance were strongly correlated with individual differences in changes in performance on the everyday tasks. Alternatively, changes in self-reports of everyday functions were only weakly correlated with changes in performance on the neurocognitive tests and the everyday tasks. Conclusions: These results together suggest that normative neurocognitive aging has substantial consequences for the daily lives of older adults and that both researchers and clinicians should be cautious when interpreting self-reports of everyday functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of fatigue and anxiety on certain psychomotor and visual functions.

The comparative value of five measures of behavior decrement (steadiness, body sway, body sway time score, tapping rate, and critical flicker frequency) under conditions of fatigue or anxiety was studied in the collegiate competitive boxing situation. Measurements were made of 24 boxers under 4 conditions: at rest, after heavy exercise, before fighting, and after fighting. The data were subjected to analysis of variance. Measures of steadiness (hand steadiness and body sway) best satisfied the criteria for indicators of behavior decrement. "The remaining variables… may be made into more useful measures… if trial-to-trial variation and the very wide individual differences exhibited are diminished. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attentional Allocation During the Perception of Scenes.

Semantic influences on attention during the 1st fixation on a scene were explored in 3 experiments. Subjects viewed briefly presented scenes; following scene presentation, a spatial probe was presented at the location of an object whose identity was consistent or inconsistent with the scene category. Responses to the probe served as an index of attention. The results of Experiment 1 suggest that within approximately 150 ms of scene onset, subjects attend preferentially to inconsistent objects. The results of Experiment 2, in which additional scene durations were used, confirm the presence of an inconsistent-object advantage that emerges within approximately 150 ms. Finally, the results of Experiment 3 demonstrate that the inconsistent-object advantage does not reflect strategic allocation of attention to likely probe locations. Implications of the results for scene perception and exploration are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Language functions and brain organization.

Reviews the book, Language functions and brain organization edited by Sidney J. Segalowitz (1983). This volume attempts an up-to-date summary of our knowledge of brain/language relationships by 24 distinguished researchers in the field (six of them Canadian). The four parts deal with "the general concept of language as a mental organ or a mental complex," "the brain base for language," developmental aspects, and hemispheric lateralization. For each part, the editor has written a brief introduction, which is followed by three or four chapters. The book as a whole presents a delightful though somewhat idiosyncratic selection of topics, loosely focused on the general theme of brain and language. Systematic coverage is not attempted, nor is it likely to be gained from an edited book with its inevitable problems of unevenness in style, differences in approach, and overlap in content. The editor seems to have given at least some of his authors free rein to write about their topic of specialization, and they do it well. It is fun to pick and choose chapters of interest, but I would not recommend front-to-back reading in the expectation of a textbook introduction to the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Decisions and the evolution of memory: Multiple systems, multiple functions.

Memory evolved to supply useful, timely information to the organism's decision-making systems. Therefore, decision rules, multiple memory systems, and the search engines that link them should have coevolved to mesh in a coadapted, functionally interlocking way. This adaptationist perspective suggested the scope hypothesis: When a generalization is retrieved from semantic memory, episodic memories that are inconsistent with it should be retrieved in tandem to place boundary conditions on the scope of the generalization. Using a priming paradigm and a decision task involving person memory, the authors tested and confirmed this hypothesis. The results support the view that priming is an evolved adaptation. They further show that dissociations between memory systems are not--and should not be--absolute: Independence exists for some tasks but not others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rats, man, and the welfare state.

The possible relationship between social securities and the incidence of various noncurable diseases is discussed. Paralleling the development of the welfare state there is a great incidence in the occurrence of a variety of physical and mental diseases. Sometime between 1840 and 1850 albino forms of the Norway rat were introduced into the research laboratory; it thus was subject to domestication. Comparisons between the domesticated and the wild Norway rat are summarized; typically the differences favor the wild rat. In the domesticated animals adrenal glands are smaller and less effective, the thyroid less active, the brain smaller and perhaps less effective as indicated by evidence of greater susceptibility to audiogenic seizure. In the protected environment it is the tamer, more gentle, that survive; "'natural selection' does not always operate to eliminate weaker individuals." In the domesticated state "a greater variety of abnormal strains may appear and propagate themselves." Parallels in man are cited: as a consequence of legislation, increased energy resources and medical advances, less strong and less vigorous individuals are aided to survive and perpetuate their special defects in increasing numbers of individuals. It is possible that "the process of evolution can be influenced, that man has reached the state at which he can do something about his destiny." 60 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of general anesthetics on memory functions in man.

H. Jackson's concepts of nervous functions, implying that anesthetics first obliterate more recently developed functions, were applied to interpreting the effects of low concentrations of anesthetics on mnemonic functions in 4 experiments with 27 young adult males. It was proposed that there should be concentrations at which anesthetics affect verbal memory, sparing nonverbal visual memory, and Ss should show more acoustic than semantic confusions in long-term memory. These hypotheses were confirmed in Ss inhaling very low anesthetic concentrations and in Ss recovering from inhalation of high anesthetic concentrations. Nonverbal acoustic memory was also impaired, but not as much as verbal memory. At relatively higher concentrations, long-term registration of verbal material was abolished, leaving only short-term capacities. The data also provide independent evidence for separation of verbal and nonverbal memory and for acoustic processing of visually presented verbal material. (25 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Laterality of subcortical involvement and psychological functions.

Differences in psychological effects between lateralized cortical and subcortical brain lesions were assessed within a neuropsychological framework. The relative predominance of specific and nonspecific systems in the elaboration of incoming data at these cerebral levels and their participation in cognition and perceptual events was described. It was concluded that bilateral primacy of subcortical diffuse systems in contradistinction to unilateral primacy of cortical specific systems may account for observed differences between lateralized cortical and subcortical brain lesions. (3 p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

时滞切换系统稳定性分析:一种积分等式方法

将一种研究时滞系统的积分等式方法推广到时变时滞切换系统情形,提出了一种分析时变时滞切换系统稳定性的方法.该方法给出线性时滞切换系统稳定的充分条件和切换律的设计,并根据自由项选取规则,引入了自由权矩阵,由其构建了积分等式.此方法没有引入额外的保守性,可得到保守性更低的稳定性条件.数值算例结果说明了方法的有效性.     

"Rats, man, and the welfare state": Comment.

Comments on the article by C.P. Richter (see record 1960-02810-001) and asserts that Richter's careful study of the effects of domestication on the Norway rat and from some casual reports of the effects of civilization on man, Richter draws some unwarranted conclusions about what is happening genetically to civilized (welfare slate) man. Eson acknowledges that while it may be true that seemingly similar physical and physiological deteriorations occur in the domesticated Norway rat and the welfare state man, we cannot assume that the causes are the same and he offers a different set of recommendations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and implementation of encoding strategies in the generation of rhymes: The role of executive functions.

This experiment examines whether the age-related decrease in the generation effect of rhymes is mediated by executive functioning. Young and elderly adults read and generated pairs of rhyming words for subsequent recall. Participants were also administered neuropsychological tests (executive and mnemonic functions). Results showed that elderly adults performed less well on the neuropsychological tests and benefited less than the younger participants from the generation effect. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the executive functions composite score was correlated with the generation effect and that it accounted for a large proportion of the age-related variance of the size of this measure. This finding supports the view that the age-related decrement in strategic encoding implementation is due to a decrease of executive functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Defining the perceived functions of purchasing personnel.

To identify the functions performed by a purchasing division as perceived by company employees using the purchasing service, a 42-item mail-out questionnaire was constructed from intensive interviews. Questionnaire responses were factor analyzed by the centroid method and rotated to approximated simple structure. 8 factors were obtained, namely: buying supplies, equipment and services; protecting company's capital and assets; "customer" requisitioner activities; optimizing inventory; controlling risks in dealing with vendors; assuring the purchase of standard, high quality commodities; enforcing government regulations; and assuring vendor performance. Factor scores assumed to reflect importance as perceived by respondents showed low correlations with requisition frequency and average dollar value of the requisitions they submit. Factor scores averaged by company departments reflected considerable variation in assumed importance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The adaptive functions of wit and humor.

In a study of 332 Ss, 2 hypotheses—(a) wit and humor are appreciated more under stress than nonstress conditions and (b) the well adjusted appreciate nonsense wit more than the poorly adjusted—were not confirmed. It did appear that men appreciate hostile wit while women prefer nonsense wit. When not under stress, hostile wit is more appreciated by the maladjusted than the well adjusted men; under stress the reverse is true. The well adjusted person has a greater appreciation for humor than the maladjusted. "It is concluded that the Freudian distinction between wit and humor is a valid one, with wit possibly operating to reduce tension under differing circumstances depending upon the interaction of adjustment, stress, and sex factors." (22 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)