| Abstract: | The effects of perceptual deficit in infancy on the dog are considered insofar as they bear on motivational and emotional problems. "The animal reared in isolation is a permanent screwball at maturity: motivationally, socially, intellectually abnormal." Dog-rearing experiments indicate that "dogs reared in isolation showed none of the physical debility and susceptibility to infection that Spitz reported." Dogs whose patterns of exteroceptive stimulation were restricted were markedly atypical in a number of performances. A finding based on "brainwashing" by Chinese communists in the Korean War is that: "Without physical pain, without drugs, the personality can be badly deformed simply by modifying the perceptual environment." In an experiment with sensory isolation for the human there were hallucinations, disturbances in the selfpercept, impairment of intelligence test performance, changes in EEG, and marked visual disturbances on first emerging from isolation. "With the possible exception of the effects of propaganda, the changes were reversible, disappearing in a day or so." Making isolation more drastic produces motivational and emotional disturbances much more quickly. "Clearly man's motivation is a function of his exteroceptive stimulation." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
