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Biomedical subjects

M W Eysenck

Publications and source records attributed to M W Eysenck.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Bias in interpretation of ambiguous sentences related to threat in anxiety.

In the 1st of 2 experiments, currently clinically anxious, recovered clinically anxious, and normal control subjects were presented with a mixture of unambiguous and ambiguous sentences; both threatening and nonthreatening interpretations were possible for the latter. A subsequent recognition-memory test indicated that the currently anxious subjects were more likely than normal control and recovered anxious subjects to interpret the ambiguous sentences in a threatening fashion rather than in a nonthreatening fashion. This suggests that the biased interpretation of ambiguity found in currently anxious subjects reflected their anxious mood state. A 2nd experiment established that the difference in interpretative processes between currently anxious and control subjects was not due to response bias and that the interpretative bias was a reasonably general one.

Anxiety Disorders↗
PubMed1988

Models of memory: information processing.

A complete understanding of human memory will necessarily involve consideration of the active processes involved at the time of learning and of the organization and nature of representation of information in long-term memory. In addition to process and structure, it is important for theory to indicate the ways in which stimulus-driven and conceptually driven processes interact with each other in the learning situation. Not surprisingly, no existent theory provides a detailed specification of all of these factors. However, there are a number of more specific theories which are successful in illuminating some of the component structures and processes. The working memory model proposed by Baddeley and Hitch (1974) and modified subsequently has shown how the earlier theoretical construct of the short-term store should be replaced with the notion of working memory. In essence, working memory is a system which is used both to process information and to permit the transient storage of information. It comprises a number of conceptually distinct, but functionally interdependent components. So far as long-term memory is concerned, there is evidence of a number of different kinds of representation. Of particular importance is the distinction between declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge, a distinction which has received support from the study of amnesic patients. Kosslyn has argued for a distinction between literal representation and propositional representation, whereas Tulving has distinguished between episodic and semantic memories. While Tulving's distinction is perhaps the best known, there is increasing evidence that episodic and semantic memory differ primarily in content rather than in process, and so the distinction may be of less theoretical value than was originally believed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Humans↗
PubMed1980

Personality, time of day, and caffeine: some theoretical and conceptual problems in Revelle et al.

Revelle et al. have provided convincing evidence of interesting and replicable empirical relationships between the factors of time of day, caffeine administration, and impulsivity. Furthermore, their data suggest that differences between introverts and extraverts in time of day effects are due more to the impulsivity component of extraversion than to the sociability component. However, their preferred interpretation of the data in terms of a unidimensional arousal model is seriously deficient and should be replaced by a more complex conceptualization that emphasizes the existence of a number of qualitatively distinct activation states and that focuses on the effects of each of these activation states on the componential functions of information processing.

Arousal↗
PubMed1976

Extraversion, activation and the recall of prose.

Subjects were divided into four groups on the basis of their scores on the extraversion scale of the Eysenck Personality Inventory and the general activation scale of Thayer's Activation-Deactivation Adjective Check List. A prose passage was presented to subjects who then attempted to recall it under strict instructions to avoid errors. There were significant interactions between activation and extraversion for the error data, and the phrase-correct data, with moderate levels of arousal (high activation extraverts and low activation introverts) being associated with the fewest errors and the most phrases correctly recalled. It was concluded that the study showed the importance of arousal to recall performance, possibly due to the effects of arousal on retrieval processes.

Arousal↗
PubMed1975

Retrieval from semantic memory as a function of age.

Twenty-four subjects, 12 of whom were in the age range 18-30 years and 12 of whom were between 55-65 years, performed two semantic memory tasks. One task involved the recall of an instance from a designated category starting with a specified letter, and the second task required subjects to indicate whether a given work was or was not a member of a designated category (the recognition task). There was a differential effect of age on recall and recognition, the older subjects responding more slowly on the recognition task, but not on the recall task. The response times of the older subjects were less affected by the dominance of the to-be-retrieved information than were the younger subjects. These results suggested that subjects in the older age group may have retrieved information faster than the young subjects, but that they required longer to decide upon response.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Extraversion, arousal, and speed of retrieval from secondary storage.

Fifty-two subjects were assigned to one of four groups on the basis of scores on the Extraversion scale of the Eysenck Personality Inventory and on the General Activation scale of the Activation-Deactivation Adjective Check List. The subjects learned two lists composed of categorically related groups of words, with the number of categories and the number of words per category varied. Memory was probed by simultaneously presenting the subject with a category name and an item-position cue, and recording the recall latency. The major finding was that activation and extraversion interactively determined the recall latency for both category and item recall. The results were considered in light of arousal theory.

Arousal↗
PubMed1975

Arousal and speed of recall.

Subjects were divided into four groups based upon the possible combinations of high or low Extraversion and high or low General Activation. They learned two lists of paired associates in an A-B, A-Br paradigm, with a record being kept of the number of errors and the latency of correct responses. The groups were found to differ considerably more in terms of response latency than in terms of the probability of responding correctly. A number of the analyses indicated an interactive effect of Extraversion and General Activation on retrieval performance, in which high General Activation led to reduced response latencies for extraverts, but to slower latencies for introverts. This finding was interpreted with reference to arousal theory. Additional findings suggested that the poor performance of high arousal subjects was partially due to their tendency to take in information from dominant sources, a hypothesis suggested by Broadbent (1971).

Arousal↗
PubMed1975

Effects of noise, activation level, and response dominance on retrieval from semantic memory.

Subjects low or high in activation, as measured by Thayer's Activation-Deactivation Adjective Check List, participated in two semantic memory tasks, one involving speed of recall and the other speed of recognition. White noise at 80 db. re 20 muN/m-2 was presented on half the trials. There was an interaction between noise and activation under the recall condition only. High activation facilitated recall performance with high dominance items, but had a detrimental effect with low dominance items. The differential effect of arousal on recall and recognition was interpreted as indicating that arousal affected the retrieval component of recall. The findings with the dominance variable were interpreted in light of D.E. Broadbent's hypothesis that high arousal enhances the probability of sampling information from dominant sources.

Arousal↗