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Biomedical subjects

R A Hicks

Publications and source records attributed to R A Hicks.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1979

Multiple birth risk factors and the distribution of handedness.

In this study, we attempted to maximize the likelihood of replicating Bakan's (1971, 1977a) observations that left-handedness was more probable in college students who were the progeny of "high-risk" births. To do this, the relationships between handedness and a combination of factors known to be associated with birth risk were computed. The observed relationships proved to be trivial and thus the validity of Bakan's hypothesis was questionned.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Handedness and sleep duration.

The differences in habitual sleep duration and absolute deviations in habitual sleep duration from the normative mean between 60 left-, 36 mixed- and 125 right-handed college students were tested. It was found that mixed-handers tend to sleep less and as a group show significantly greater deviations in habitual sleep durations than either left- or right-handers. The heuristic value of this relationship for future research was discussed briefly.

Functional Laterality↗
PubMed1979

Pupillary attributions of college students to happy and angry faces.

As evidence for an hypothesis that pupil size plays an important role in nonverbal communication, Hess (1975) has reported that adults draw in appropriately sized pupils on his happy and angry faces task. However, he did not report a statistical test of his data. In this study, we replicated Hess' research and found congruent with his hypothesis that college students (n = 223) draw in significantly larger pupils on the happy face.

Cues↗
PubMed1979

Pain thresholds in rats during recovery from REM sleep deprivation.

Using 30 Sprague-Dawley female rats, threshold to pain was measured over the course of recovery from REM sleep deprivation. Relative to the untreated controls and to their own pretreatment thresholds, the REM-deprived animals showed significantly reduced pain thresholds which were still evident 96 hours after the termination of the REM deprivation. Possible implications of these data for research with analgesic drugs were noted.

Animals↗
PubMed1978

Handedness and anxiety.

The anxiety scores of 23 left-handed, 12 mixed-handed and 35 right-handed college students were compared with the result that right-handers were significantly less anxious then both the left and the mixed-handed groups (which did not differ statistically). Since these data appear to be unique, generalizations from them was thought to be premature.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Handedness and intelligence.

The scores of 37 right and 30 left-handed subjects on tests of fluid and crystallized intelligence were compared. Consistent with the hypothesis, it was found that the left-handers were inferior to the right-handers on the Gf task. These data are consistent with those from three earlier studies and serve to question the assertion that there are no handedness related differences in ability.

Functional Laterality↗
PubMed1978

Effects of simulated approval-seeking and avoiding on self-disclosure, self-presentation, and interpersonal attraction.

Forty-eight undergraduate women assigned an approval-seeking or approval-avoiding role disclosed significantly more to a male listener (C) than did control Ss given no particular set, with no difference found between seeking and avoiding conditions in intimacy of disclosure. But content analyses indicated that approval-seeking Ss presented themselves significantly more positively, and approval-avoiding Ss significantly more negatively than did controls. These data supported the hypothesis that disclosure may serve as an instrumental affiliative act associated with both interpersonal approach and avoidance motives. The hypothesis that simulated attraction facilitates actual attraction was supported more clearly in analyses of Ss' liking ratings of C than in Ss' ratings of C's attractiveness or desirability as a dating partner. The latter findings are discussed in terms of intimacy implications of the attraction measures used.

Attitude↗
PubMed1978

Correlation between handedness and birth order: compilation of five studies.

Bakan has suggested that left-handedness is the result of left hemishperic pyramidal motor dysfunction following perinatal hypoxia. To a degree support for the validity of this hypothesis rests on Bakan's (1971, 1977a) findings that left-handed college students were more likely the progeny of birth orders designated as "high-risk" than right-handed students. Attempts by others to replicate Bakan's data have been unsuccessful. To achieve a more powerful test of this relationship than has been provided by any single study, the data from the five studies which have considered it were pooled and tested. The resulting correlation between birth order and handedness was near zero.

Birth Order↗
PubMed1978

Handedness and locus of control.

Groups of 15 left-, 15 mixed-, and 39 right-handers were tested with Rotter's Locus of Control Scale. Contrary to prediction, it was found that both left- and right-handers scored significantly higher, i.e., were more externally controlled, than mixed-handers. Primarily these data suggest a complex relationship between handedness and personality and they serve to reinforce the need to include mixed-handers in research on handedness.

Functional Laterality↗
PubMed1978

Self-reported consistency of normal habitual sleep durations of college students.

A relationship between hours of sleep/night and the consistency of this normal daily sleep duration was observed for 763 college students who had rated themselves as good sleepers with stable and fairly well established patterns of sleep. Congruent with a limited literature, these data suggest that shorter sleep durations are likely, for college students, to be relatively recently acquired patterns of sleep.

Circadian Rhythm↗
PubMed1978

REM sleep deprivation and pain thresholds in rats.

The relationship between REM sleep deprivation and pain threshold was measured using 36 Sprague-Dawley female rats. Relative to that of the controls, a significant lowering of threshold to painful electrical stimulation was observed during each of the post-treatment tests, i.e., immediate, and after 3- and 24-hr. recovery periods, for the animals which had been REM deprived.

Animals↗
PubMed1978

Locus of control in short and long sleepers.

As a test of the hypothesis that consistent short sleepers tend to be less reflective and more conformist in their thinking than long sleepers, the I-E scale scores of 15 short and 15 long sleepers were compared. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found that to a significant degree, short sleepers view themselves as more externally regulated than long sleepers.

Humans↗