Hypnotic involuntariness: A social cognitive analysis.

The experience of involuntariness is a hallmark of hypnosis. A framework for understanding involuntary experiences that draws from social psychological and cognitive perspectives on hypnotic responding is presented. There are at least 5 reasons to reject the hypothesis that hypnotic responding is automatic and involuntary: (a) Hypnotic responses have all of the properties of behavior that are typically defined as voluntary. That is, they are purposeful, directed toward goals, regulated in terms of subjects' intentions, and can be progressively changed to better achieve subjects' goals. (b) Hypnotizable subjects can resist suggestions when resistance is defined as consistent with the role of a good hypnotized subject. (c) Hypnotic behaviors are neither reflexes nor manifestations of innate stimulus–response connections. (d) Hypnotic performances consume attentional resources in a manner comparable with nonhypnotic performances. (e) Hypnotic subjects' cognitive activities clearly demonstrate their active attempts to fulfill the requirements of hypnotic suggestions, which include experiencing suggestion-related effects as involuntary. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Brain blood flow alterations induced by therapeutic vagus nerve stimulation in partial epilepsy: I. Acute effects at high and low levels of stimulation

PURPOSE: Left cervical vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) decreases complex partial seizures (CPS) by unknown mechanisms of action. We hypothesized that therapeutic VNS alters synaptic activities at vagal afferent terminations and in sites that receive polysynaptic projections from these medullary nuclei. METHODS: Ten patients with partial epilepsy underwent positron emission tomographic (PET) measurements of cerebral blood flow (BF) three times before and three times during VNS. Parameters for VNS were at high levels for 5 patients and at low levels for 5. Resting BF measurements were subtracted from measurements during VNS in each subject. Subtraction data were averaged in each of 2 groups of 5 patients. t Tests were applied to BF changes in brain regions that receive vagal afferents and projections (significant at p < 0.05, corrected for repeated measures). RESULTS: In both the low- and high-stimulation groups during VNS, brain BF was (a) increased in the rostral, dorsal-central medulla; (b) increased in the right postcentral gyrus, (c) increased bilaterally in the hypothalami, thalami, and insular cortices, and in cerebellar hemispheres inferiorly; and (d) decreased bilaterally in hippocampus, amygdala, and posterior cingulate gyri. The high-stimulation group had greater volumes of activation and deactivation sites. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that left cervical VNS acutely increases synaptic activity in structures directly innervated by central vagal structures and areas that process left-sided somatosensory information, but VNS also acutely alters synaptic activity in multiple limbic system structures bilaterally. These findings may reflect sites of therapeutic actions of VNS.     

On criteria for module interfaces

While the benefits of modular software development are widely acknowledged, there is little agreement as to what constitutes a good module interface. Computational complexity techniques allow evaluation of algorithm time and space costs but offer no guidance in the design of the interface to an implementation. Yet, interface design decisions often have a critical effect on the development and maintenance costs of large software systems. Criteria that have led to simple, elegant interfaces are presented in detail. These criteria have been developed and refined through repeated practical application. The use of the criteria is illustrated with concrete examples     

Effects of stimulus and environmental familiarity on visual imprinting in newly hatched ducklings.

Reports 2 experiments with 18 Khaki Campbell ducklings 17 hrs old which attempted to determine whether the development of familiarity with a particular source of visual stimulation was a sufficient condition for Ss to restrict their emission of filial behavior to that source only and begin to react fearfully to others. The reaction of Ss to familiar and novel imprinting stimuli in familiar and unfamiliar environments were assessed. Results indicate that familiarity alone is not sufficient for the emergence of fear. It is suggested that consideration of maturational as well as experiential factors is necessary for a full understanding of the Ss' reactions during imprinting. (28 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analytic determination of overwrite capability in magnetic recording systems

Analytic design criteria are provided to determine if a digital magnetic recording system can overwrite under worst-case conditions. The worst-case condition is taken to be a bubble of reversed magnetization in an otherwise saturated medium, written by applying current to a stationary recording head. A leading and a trailing transition are formed, creating a large demagnetizing field opposing the head field. Although the leading transition is commonly thought to be unimportant in saturation writing, its demagnetizing field can significantly hamper the writing of the trailing transition. First, self-consistent numerical calculation shows the characteristics of the bubble and its associated fields. Then the bubble is approximated analytically by a biquadratic form, and the demagnetizing field at the bubble center is compared with the field necessary to saturate the medium. A rapid loss of overwrite ability with decreasing gap-length is demonstrated. The importance of including image fields for thin-film heads is discussed. Graphical representations are given for the minimum gap-length necessary for overwrite. A relation between media parameters, bit density, and magnetic energy/bit in commercial disk drives is discussed.     

Using a Human Figure Drawing to Elicit Information From Alleged Victims of Child Sexual Abuse.

Ninety 4- to 13-year-old alleged victims of sexual abuse were interviewed by police officers using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) investigative interview protocol, following which they were shown a human figure drawing and asked a series of questions. The drawing and associated questions elicited an average of 86 new forensically relevant details. They were especially productive with 4- to 7-year-olds, who provided an average of 95 additional details (27% of their total) after the drawing was introduced despite having previously "exhausted" their memories. Information elicited using the drawing may be less accurate, however, because recognition memory prompts predominated, so such drawings should only be introduced late in investigative interviews. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infinite elements with 1/rn type decay

This paper presents a method of developing a family of 1/rⁿ type infinite elements for the analysis of problems definite in unbounded media. The proposed method is a direct extension of the conventional finite element method. The resulting improper integrals are integrated exactly over the infinite element domains. Two numerical examples in elastic half-space static problems are investigated to illustrate the applicability and accuracy of the method. The use of the proposed infinite elements yields excellent results and preserves all the advantages of the finite element method.