Harold L. Williams

Transition from East to West: Vietnamese Adolescents and Their Parents

A 28-item questionnaire assessing family values was completed by 191 Vietnamese and 639 Caucasian adolescents in Oklahoma City Public Schools and by about half their parents. Vietnamese refugee parents, regardless of time in the United States, strongly endorsed traditional family values. Vietnamese adolescents tended to reject traditional values. This generation gap increased with time in the United States and was greater for girls than for boys. Despite wholehearted endorsement of traditional family values, Vietnamese parents tended to approve certain adolescent privileges. The results suggest that Vietnamese adolescents may receive conflicting messages from their parents. On the one hand, parents endorsed such traditional values as absolute obedience to parental authority but on the other, they registered relative approval of adolescent freedom of choice regarding dating, marriage, and career. Such ambivalence suggests that Vietnamese refugee families may experience considerable strain while adjusting to American values.

Alcohol and sleep in young adults

In two separate experiments, sleep patterns of 17 young male adults were examined following single and repeated doses (0.9 g/kg body weight) of alcohol. A third study of 10 additional Ss measured the rate of elimination of alcohol from blood during sleep and waking. With a single dose of alcohol, onset of sleep was brisk, the latency of SW sleep (stages 3+4) was reduced and the first episode of stage REM was shortened. These transient alterations were accompanied by loss of high-frequency beta rhythms in the EEG and a gain in abundance and synchrony of activity in the alpha-rhythm range.Experiment 3 found no significant difference between sleep and waking for rate of elimination of alcohol from blood. Starting with peak blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) of about 75 mg percent, average BACs after 4 h of bedtime had decreased to about 30 mg percent. The effects noted above, associated with higher BACs, were confined to the first half of the night. Thus, these results are consistent with conclusions of previous investigators that the depressant effects on EEG sleep patterns of a moderate dose of alcohol are due to its direct action on the brain.There are, however, longer range compensation and adaptation effects associated with single and repeated doses of alcohol which cannot be directly related to its presence in the brain. For example, in the single-dose study reported here, and in most previous studies, rebound of stage REM occurred during the second half of the alcohol night. Further, in the repeated-dose study, most of the effects of alcohol on sleep stages and EEG frequencies observed during the first dose session, disappeared on the second and third alcohol sessions. Finally, heart and respiration rates increased whereas eye movements during stage REM, sigma spindles in stage 2 and non-specific GSR responses in SW sleep tended to be suppressed throughout the night in each alcohol session. Several mechanisms are discussed which might account for these more persistent alterations.

Alcoholism and family history of alcoholism: effects on visual and auditory event-related potentials.

In a dual-modality paradigm, visual and auditory event-related potentials were elicited in 40 alcoholic men and 30 controls, equated with the alcoholics on age and education. Half of each group had first-degree relatives who were alcoholic (family history positive). The amplitude of the visual N1 component was reduced among the alcoholics, but their auditory N1 amplitudes were normal. Average N1 amplitudes were also smaller in the family history positive subjects but this effect was significant only for auditory stimuli. Alcoholics showed reduced average P3 amplitudes to both visual and auditory signals, particularly in the family history positive group. Clearly, stratification by family history is useful for ascertainment of ERP variation among alcoholics. There were no effects on P3 latency. Among several possible explanations of P3 deficits in alcoholics, two are particularly interesting: (1) alcoholics cannot mobilize sufficient processing resources in the service of effortful cognitive functions; (2) alcoholics, being poorly motivated, apply insufficient effort to cognitive tasks. An experiment designed to test these hypotheses is described.

Alcohol and information processing

Three experiments are reported which investigate the effects of acute alcohol intoxication (average blood alcohol concentration 100 mg-%) on some aspects of human information processing. The results are interpreted within the framework of a general information processing model (Smith, 1968), using the Sternberg (1969b) additive-factor method of analysis. Alcohol consistently impaired information outputting operations (i.e., response selection-organization), rather than information inputting operations (i.e., stimulus preprocessing and encoding).

Chronic Alcoholism, Alcohol and Sleep

Since the demonstration of Dement and Kleitman (1957) that the periodic occurrence of rapid eye movements (REMs) in the presence of electroencephalographic (EEG) desynchrony during sleep was associated with visual dreams, and the immediate confirmation by Dement (1958) of similar bioelectric patterns in the cat, a wealth of information has accumulated concerning many behavioral and biological aspects of sleep. Recently, increasing efforts have been made to relate the significance of this variety of data to clinical areas, including the problems of chronic alcoholism and other drug abuse.

Alcohol and Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff

Performance on two auditory choice reaction time (RT) tasks was studied in a group of 12 subjects under the influence of graded doses of ethyl alcohol ranging from placebo to 1 g/kg body weight. Deadline procedures were employed in a side discrimination and a pitch discrimination task to permit the calculation of speed-accuracy tradeoff functions (accuracy versus RT). Accuracy declined as a function of dose, but alcohol did not significantly influence RT. Conversely, accuracy was not affected by task; but the pitch discrimination task required an average of 88 ms more time than the side task. Alcohol dose and task produced independent effects on the speed-accuracy tradeoff function. As dose increased, the slope of the tradeoff function declined; but slopes were equivalent for the two tasks. On the other hand, the x-intercept (where accuracy equals chance levels) was 90 ms greater for the pitch task than for the side task.

Sleep in alcoholic patients: longitudinal findings.

Alterations of sleep associated with both acute and chronic ingestion of alcohol have received a good deal of attention in the past few years. The picture that has emerged from this work suggests an initial sedative effect of alcohol with brisk sleep onset, decreased stage REM, and enhanced slow-wave sleep (Rundell, Lester, Griffiths, and Williams, 1972; Yules, Freedman, and Chandler, 1966; Gross, Goodenough, Nagarajan, and Hastey, 1973; Lester, Rundell, Cowden, and Williams, 1976). As blood levels decline following a moderate dose of alcohol, the sedative effects disappear, and the second half of the night’s sleep usually shows enhanced stage REM and increased sleep disturbance (Yules et al., 1966; Knowles, Laverty, and Kuechler, 1968; Rundell et al., 1972). If drinking continues, the sedative effects lessen after a few nights, and increased doses are required to obtain sedation (Gross, et al., 1972; Lester, et al., 1976; Rundell, et al., 1972).

The Relationship Between Neuropsychological and Late Component Evoked Potential Measures in Chronic Alcoholics

The relationships between event-related potential (ERP) measures and neuropsychological measures were investigated in a group of 39 male alcoholics and 22 age-matched male controls. Late component ERP measures such as N1, Nd, and P3 components and neuropsychological measures of perceptual-motor function, semantic and figural memory and verbal abstracting functions were included in a correlational analysis. No significant correlations between N1 amplitude or latency and neuropsychological tests were obtained. However, visual Nd amplitude correlated significantly with perceptual-motor tests and figural memory scores in the alcoholics. Significant correlations were found in alcoholics for visual P3 amplitude at PZ and delayed figural memory scores and two of the perceptual-motor tests. No significant correlations were obtained among the controls. These data indicate that significant relationships exist between some neuropsychological and ERP measures but that these relationships are restricted to measures of perceptual-motor functioning and to delayed figural memory.

Secobarbital and information processing.

The Sternberg fixed-set memory-search paradigm was used to assess the relative vulnerability of hypothetical stages of information processing to an oral dose of secobarbital (2.9 mg/kg). D-amphetamine (15 mg, oral dose) was intended to serve as an active placebo. However, since the amphetamine produced a slight, non-significant reduction in choice reaction time (RT), the principal analysis of secobarbital effects was conducted between drug and baseline conditions. Secobarbital slowed choice RT by 60 msec. and did not increase errors significantly. The results, as interpreted within Sternbergs model, suggest that input processes, e.g., stimulus preprocessing-encoding, are particularly sensitive to the effects of the barbiturate. There was no evidence of a drug effect on cognitive processes associated with serial comparison, binary decision, or translation-response organization (response selection). In contrast, earlier studies have indicated that another CNS depressant, alcohol, interferes with both speed and accuracy of output processes, viz., the response selection stage.

Dose effects of methaqualone on stimulus encoding in a memory scanning task

Three task variables, stimulus quality, memory set size and response type, were used in a Sternberg binary classification task to define stimulus encoding, short-term memory scanning, and response selection stages within a serial stage reaction process. Mean reaction times, and the slopes and intercepts of the function relating reaction time to memory set size, were used to test the hypothesis that performance deficits seen at two doses of methaqualone (2.9 mg/kg and 5.9 mg/kg), in the range formerly in common clinical use, were specific to the stimulus encoding stage of the reaction process. Mean reaction times were increased significantly by the methaqualone at both doses, but the effects of the two doses did not differ from one another. The intercept of reaction time as a function of set size showed significant main effects of methaqualone, stimulus quality, and response type, and a significant hyperadditive interaction of methaqualone with stimulus quality. At 2.9 mg/kg, the intercept was increased by methaqualone but only with degraded stimuli. At 5.9 mg/kg, the intercept was increased by methaqualone for both high and low quality stimuli. These results suggested a dose-dependent selective effect of methaqualone on the stimulus encoding stage of the reaction process.