The frontal eye field and attention.

Mammalian sensory systems must continuously select the events to be noticed from the ongoing stream of information, filtering out or habituating to the insignificant. This selective noticing is the province of central mechanisms of orientation and attention that are represented in structures along the neuraxis from brain stem to neocortex. One of the structures is the frontal eye field, long known to be implicated in visual attention through its involvement in horizontal movements of the eyes. The author reviews the relevant neuroanatomy and behavioral and electrophysiological research that decisively show that this small but complex region does more than regulate eye movements. Theories of frontal eye field function are considered, concluding with 2 contemporary views of attention, one based on arousal and the other on the processes of representation of stimulus input, that offer special promise for understanding the role of frontal cortex in the direction of attention. (5 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of instructional set and need for social approval on commonality of word association responses.

This study investigated the effect of various instructional sets (speed, relaxed time instructions, and "set popular" instructions) on commonality of word associations. Findings were generally supportive of the hypotheses: significantly more common associations were given under speed as compared to relaxed instructions, Ss were able to significantly increase their commonality scores under a set to give popular responses, and need for social approval was differentially related to commonality under relaxed but not under speed instructions. Contrary to a suggestion of Jenkins, social sensitivity (as reflected in the need for approval measure) was not related to the ability to increase one's commonality score under "set popular" instructions. (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The conditioning of verbal behavior as a function of the need for social approval.

The hypothesis tested herein is that need for approval will facilitate learning. Need for approval was measured by the M-C Social Desirability Scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960); the learning task employed the model of verbal conditioning as used by Greenspoon (1955); the Ss were undergraduate psychology students. The results supported the hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interocular transfer in the split-brain rat.

After the 1991 development of a method to transect the optic chiasm in the rat, the authors investigated interocular transfer in split-chiasm rats with corpus callosum section and callosum intact. 17 male rats were monocularly trained on an orientation discrimination, reversed with the other eye, and retrained with the 1st eye on the 2nd-eye problem or reversal. In split-chiasm rats, the 2nd-eye S+ (correct stimulus) showed strong transfer (55% savings) to the 1st eye. S– (incorrect stimulus) did not; reversal and transfer groups differed significantly. Split-brain rats retrained with the 1st eye on the 2nd eye S+ required no more trials than original learning, as if they had not experienced this problem. Split-brain rats retested with the original S+ showed modest (19%) savings. The findings establish interhemispheric communication via the callosum and suggest, as in findings of cat and monkey studies, the disruption of transfer by callosal section. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)