Aiko Satow

Four Properties Common among Perceptions Confirmed by a Large Sample of Subjects: An Ecological Approach to Mechanisms of Individual Differences in Perception: II

The four properties which correspond to mechanisms determining individual differences in perception were proposed hypothetically and confirmed by responses to a 60-item check list for 214 women and also for 530 men and women. Properties were intense sensitivity, temporal sensitivity, possible range of total stimuli (the total stimulation in a perception is given a product of intensity and duration of the stimulus for the perception), and sensory-motor reactivity. These were the same as those for 316 men subjects in prior work. The three properties, intense sensitivity, temporal sensitivity, and possible range of stimulation, were obtained from two groups of items which related culture-free and culture-bound behavior. So the mechanisms determining individual differences regulate the two kinds of perceptual behaviors. All correlation coefficients of factor-score estimates between the two properties were near zero. The properties were independent of each other within subjects. This independence among the properties supported Satows model of four types of individuals, explaining the individual differences on the grounds of the relations among the properties. Analysis suggested no sex difference in the mechanisms determining individual differences in perceptions. Another property, preference for weak stimuli, related to values of lower limits of the possible range of total stimulation.

PILOT STUDY FOR OBJECTIVE MEASUREMENT OF PAIN: METHOD AND ANALYSES OF BASIC FACTORS FOR NORMATIVE DATA

A plate-pushing task was devised to measure endogenous pain objectively. As normative data, performance of no-pain subjects sustaining a certain level of pressure by a hand over 5 min. was analyzed for sex, dominance of hands, transference to the opposite hand, and effect of repetition. Analysis indicated that order of dominance of hands was efficient and improvement along repetition of five times within three weeks was observed regarding the SD of 201 digits of pressure level. Also, analyses based on histograms of percents of deviation from a standard level and transitional profiles of pressure level were constructed. They were considered to be other useful aspects. Lastly, the case of a subject who had pain was studied. The task seems a promising means of objective measurement of pain to contrast performance accompanied by pain with one without pain.

AN ECOLOGICAL APPROACH TO MECHANISMS DETERMINING INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN PERCEPTION

In 1982 Satow proposed four hypothetical properties determining mechanisms of individual differences in perceptions; these were supported by results of a factor analysis of responses to a 58-item check list. Present work confirmed the four properties (intense sensitivity, temporal sensitivity, sensory-motor reactivity, and possible range of total stimuli), and obtained a property, preference for intense and prolonged stimuli, from a principal component analysis of data from a 60-item list given to 316 subjects. The 60-item list is a revised version of the 58-item list which asked subjects about their subjective sensitiveness and preferences for environmental sensory stimuli (visual, auditory, olfactory, and tactile). Within subjects relationships among these properties are interindependent, since for individuals correlations of factor-score estimates between pairs of these properties were near zero. This interindependence supported a model of four hypothetical types of individuals, explaining the individual differences on the grounds of the relations among the properties.

Acquisition and Retention of Skill on a Sensory-Motor Task and Sensory Tolerance to Distracting Stimuli by Skilled Workers

A model which explained the process of acquisition of skill and explained the relationship between two patterns of response distribution was proposed. The patterns were distributions of deteriorated responses evoked by distracting stimuli and the other were nondeteriorated responses. Based on this model, a method measuring skill and sensory tolerance to distracting stimuli was devised and examined in four experiments. In Exp. 1, two unskilled young women were trained for 6 days on choice reaction task. After training, the pattern of distribution of their reaction times (RT) to light targets was like that of skilled workers as predicted. In Exp. 2, 3 mo. after the training, the skill of each subject was verified. Skilled patterns of distribution of RTs were retained. In Exp. 3, sensory tolerance to intermittent sounds was measured. In rooms with these sounds distracted subjects showed a distribution pattern also predicted from the model. Their response patterns obtained in a quiet room were the same as those in Exp. 1, so their skills were retained. In Exp. 4, tolerance to flickering lights was measured. The results supported the pattern of distribution of deteriorated responses in the model, and the results obtained in a room with no flicker were the same as those in Exp. 1 also. The difference in the levels of tolerance to intermittent sounds and to flickering lights was smaller than difference in patterns of distribution of responses for individuals.

OBJECTIVE MEASUREMENT OF PAIN IN THE WRIST: ANALYSES OF BASIC FACTORS FOR NORMATIVE DATA AND A CASE STUDY '

A plate-pushing task was used to measure endogenous pain in the wrist from different loci. Practical application in rehabilitation seems reasonable.

The objective measurement of pain using a motor-performance task

An objective method for measuring endogenous pain in the wrist which originates in cervicobrachial disorders was improved. The method employed the plate-pushing task, which was reported previously (Taniguchi and Satow 1988a, b). The first improvement was achieved by introducing a load to be placed on the wrist while subjects were pushing the plate. In this way, it became easier to induce pain caused by disorders in the wrist. Another improvement was a new procedure by which a subject was told to change her pressure against a balance as instructed. This made it possible to identify the degree of pressure exerted which produce pain. Effects of dominance of hands, and of ordering the trials so as to begin with the dominant hand and switch to non-dominant, or vice versa in the tests were also examined, but were found to be not significant. Finally, the new method proved to be highly useful as an objective method for measuring pain of this sort because the method could produce very similar conditions to those associated with ordinary pain causing motion.

Japanese version of the MPQ and pentagon profile illustrated perceptual characteristics of pain

We are pleased to inform you that a Japanese version of the McGill Pain Questionnaire (JMPQ) has been published [l]. In this study [l] (in Research II, pp. 139-143), the majority of subjects, non-medical and medical, chose 35 out of the 78 words in JMPQ to describe the perceptual characteristics of their pains. The subjects were pain-free during the period of the research, but reported on pain they had previously experienced. They estimated 5 perceptual characteristics of pain described in the words by 5 S-point scales: duration, frequency, depth, area in a body, and intensity. The words were arranged in order of ‘intolerability’ based on the estimated values of the scales (Table 6, p. 140) and illustrated in ‘pentagon profiles’ (Figs. 2 and 3, p. 141). Using

Acquisition and Retention by Middle-Aged Men of Sensory-Motor Skill on Simple Reaction Task

In previous paper (Satow, 1985), a model and a method for measuring sensory-motor skill and sensory tolerance were presented and supported by four experiments using a choice reaction task. This report presents results, obtained from middle-aged men who were older than subjects in usual experiments, supporting the acquisition of skill in the model depending on four days training. A red LED target (15.7 nit), subtending a visual angle of 27′30″ exposed for a duration of 1.5 sec., was presented at four interstimulus intervals (1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 sec.) in random order while the subject sat in a room with illumination of 7.6 nit on the average on the surface of the walls of the room. Single reactions on 120 trials, with a 3-min. rest between two groups of 60 trials were performed by each subject on each day of four days training. Two men, inexperienced in such work and aged 37 and 43 yr., volunteered as unpaid subjects.