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Biomedical subjects

P Perruchet

Publications and source records attributed to P Perruchet.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

Assessing attentional control of breathing by reaction time.

The reaction time (RT) to an auditory stimulus was measured in 27 subjects during spontaneous breathing and during controlled breathing, which consisted of maintaining a set inspiratory duration. During spontaneous breathing, reaction times were unrelated to the time the stimulus was delivered during the breathing cycle. During controlled breathing, reaction times were longer than during spontaneous breathing. Peak reaction times were observed at the transition from inspiration to expiration. After the end of controlled breathing, reaction times gradually became shorter until they reached their initial level. The findings are discussed in terms of varying allocation of attentional resources to breathing. It is argued that probe RT methodology provides a suitable means for investigating attentional control of breathing.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Classical conditioning of ventilatory responses in humans.

A classical conditioning experiment, in which an auditory stimulus was paired with a hypoxic stimulus, was carried out on 34 normal subjects assigned to two groups (experimental and control). Each subject took part in one session divided into two phases, acquisition and test. In the acquisition phase, eight hypoxic and eight auditory stimuli were paired in the experimental group and unpaired in the control group. In the test phase, which was identical for the two groups, the hypoxic stimuli were suppressed and three purely auditory stimuli were presented. Significant differences between the two groups in ventilatory response to these auditory stimuli provided evidence for conditioning. In the control group, no significant changes were elicited by the auditory stimuli, whereas a conditioned increase in total cycle duration was observed in the experimental group. The conditioned response closely resembled the first component of the hypoxic response. Analysis of the pattern of the conditioned response, along with postexperimental interviews, strongly suggests that this response was not mediated by volitional factors.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1989

Correlational analyses of explicit and implicit memory performance.

Sixty-four subjects were administered two tests of explicit memory (selective recall and recognition) and four tests of implicit memory (identification in a perceptual clarification procedure, word-fragment completion, tachistoscopic identification, and anagram solution). Each test drew on a different subset of a long list of previously displayed words. Although the four implicit memory tests showed sizable priming effects, correlational and factor analyses showed striking dissociations. On the one hand, performance on the perceptual clarification procedure and word-completion tests were related to one another, as well as to recall and recognition. On the other hand, performance on tachistoscopic identification and anagram solution were related to one another, but not to the measures for the other tasks. A framework is proposed to reconcile these new results with current knowledge on the explicit/implicit memory distinction, based in particular on studies of amnesic subjects. It is argued that a small number of tasks, especially tachistoscopic identification, may serve as relatively uncontaminated and ubiquitous indicators of implicit memory. However, explicit remembering could affect performance in so-called implicit memory tasks that allow for a strategy of controlled selection of candidate responses from accumulating cues, in experimental conditions that make the explicit remembering of relevant events possible.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A pitfall for the expectancy theory of human eyelid conditioning.

Two simple eyeblink conditioning experiments with random intermittent reinforcement schedules were performed. In Experiment 1, subjects had to rate their expectancy for an unconditioned stimulus (US) on a seven-level scale prior to each trial. As anticipated, expectancy for US increased with a successive conditioned stimulus (CS) alone, and decreased with successive CS-US pairings. However, Experiments 1 and 2 showed that the frequency of eyeblink conditioned responses (CRs) evolved in a direction opposite to that of expectancy changes: CRs increased, whereas expectancy for US decreased, and vice versa. The possible effect of sensitization on eyeblink response was ruled out by the lack of a run effect in an unpaired control group in Experiment 2. These results tend to disconfirm the expectancy theory of conditioning. Although they were explicitly predicted by the conventional "strength" theory of conditioning, an alternative interpretation is proposed within a cognitive framework.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Implicit learning in children is not related to age: evidence from drawing behavior.

Three experiments are reported on implicit learning in 432 children between the ages of 4 and 10 years, using a new paradigm ("the neutral parameter procedure") based on drawing behavior. The first two experiments demonstrated that children modified their drawing behavior following specially devised practice in such a way that these modifications could not be viewed as the result of deliberate adaptive strategies. The third experiment showed that these behavioral modifications lasted for at least 1 hr after the training phase. No age-related differences appeared in the experiments. A comparison of children's data with similar adults' data also failed to reveal any age differences. These results provide compelling evidence that implicit learning processes are age independent. Some implications of these results for developmental issues are discussed, notably the hypothesis of the formation of implicit knowledge in the course of learning.

Aging↗