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Biomedical subjects

D W Corcoran

Publications and source records attributed to D W Corcoran.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

Flexibility in the choice of distinctive features in visual search with blocked and random designs.

An experiment is reported which demonstrates that the features used to detect a character in arrays of similar forms are a function of the stimulus context in which the target is embedded. With the use of blocked and randomised design it was shown that prior knowledge of the background aided search when the feature which was relevant for one backgroind was irrelevant for another, but no significant effect of prior knowledge was obtained when the same feature was useful for the backgrounds.

Discrimination Learning

The phenomena of the disembodied eye or is it a matter of personal geography?

When a bilaterally asymmetrical figure is drawn on the skin at various bodily positions, the observer often reports that the figure he "sees" is reversed. On the head and neck, for example, figures drawn to the front of an imaginary line through the centre of the head, approximately in line with the ear canal are seen as reversed, and those to the rear of this line as correctly orientated. Different bodily locations such as the palm were tried and the orientation was found to depend in most instances upon the direction in which the surface faced. Several possible theories were tested against the data.

Humans

Is the lemon test an index of arousal level?

On the basis of numerous studies, it was predicted that salivary output to lemon juice would increase in a noisy relative to a quiet environment. Following the accepted procedure (Corcoran, 1964) salivary output to lemon juice was measured under quiet conditions; then experimental subjects selected a level of noise 'just too loud for comfort' and the salivary index was reassessed. Controls were treated identically except that both measures were conducted in the quiet. It was found that salivation increased in noise, and the weight of saliva produced correlated with the level of noise chosen.

Acoustic Stimulation