Studies in Sensory Deprivation

Pollard, John C.

doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1963.01720110011003

Cited by 35 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Furthermore, the fact that testing occurred in a service traditionally associated with treatment of psychological problems might have primed the subjects to "inhibit" content that could be perceived as a sign of mental illness. 44 However, the fact that we do find a high prevalence of self-face illusions in the current adolescent sample, in association with schizotypal traits in day-to-day settings is consistent with both early and recent findings in adult samples suggesting that illusions during lowered sensory stimulation 42,43 are more frequent in individuals reporting schizotypal traits.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Indeed, a number of studies on sensory deprivation suggest that volunteering for such studies as well as prior knowledge on sensory deprivation effects can influence the phenomena experienced in such experimental settings. 42,43 Our adolescent sample did not have information concerning the MGT prior to participation, which may have partly contributed to the decreased prevalence of illusions in comparison to the young adult sample. Furthermore, the fact that testing occurred in a service traditionally associated with treatment of psychological problems might have primed the subjects to "inhibit" content that could be perceived as a sign of mental illness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Strange-Face-in-the-Mirror Illusion and Schizotypy During Adolescence

Fonseca‐Pedrero

Badoud

Antico

et al. 2015

Schizophrenia Bulletin

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Patients with schizophrenia can sometimes report strange face illusions when staring at themselves in the mirror; such experiences have been conceptualized as anomalous self-experiences that can be experienced with a varying degree of depersonalization. During adolescence, anomalous self-experiences can also be indicative of increased risk to develop schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. To date however, the Mirror-Gazing test (MGT), an experimentally validated experiment to evaluate the propensity of strange face illusions in nonclinical and clinical adults, has yet to be investigated in an adolescent sample. The first goal of the present study was to examine experimentally induced self-face illusions in a nonclinical sample of adolescents, using the MGT. The second goal was to investigate whether dimensions of adolescent trait schizotypy were differentially related to phenomena arising during the MGT. One hundred and ten community adolescents (59 male) aged from 12 to 19 years (mean age = 16.31, SD age = 1.77) completed the MGT and Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire. The results yielded 4 types of strange face illusions; 2 types of illusions (slight change of light/color [20%] and own face deformation [45.5%]) lacked depersonalization-like phenomena (no identity change), while 2 other types (vision of other identity [27.3%], and vision of non-human identity [7.3%]) contained clear depersonalization-like phenomena. Furthermore, the disorganization dimension of schizotypy associated negatively with time of first illusion (first press), and positively with frequency of illusions during the MGT. Statistically significant differences on positive and disorganized schizotypy were found when comparing groups on the basis of degree of depersonalization-like phenomena (from slight color changes to non-human visions). Similarly to experimentally induced self-face illusions in patients with schizophrenia, such illusions in a group of nonclinical adolescents present significant associations to schizotypy dimensions.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Strange-Face-in-the-Mirror Illusion and Schizotypy During Adolescence

Fonseca‐Pedrero

Badoud

Antico

et al. 2015

Schizophrenia Bulletin

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The literature on this topic has been controversial. The early literature provided no indication that participants' performance on tactile tasks improved as a consequence of multisensory deprivation spanning two [29], [30], four [31], or eight hours [32], or with eight hours of visual deprivation [33] (see Table 1). However, in some of these early studies the participants were not fully light deprived, but were instead deprived only of patterned vision [31], [32]; furthermore, these early studies used now-outdated assessments, such as two-point discrimination, that have come under serious criticism as invalid measures of tactile spatial acuity [34].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-Term Visual Deprivation Does Not Enhance Passive Tactile Spatial Acuity

et al. 2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

An important unresolved question in sensory neuroscience is whether, and if so with what time course, tactile perception is enhanced by visual deprivation. In three experiments involving 158 normally sighted human participants, we assessed whether tactile spatial acuity improves with short-term visual deprivation over periods ranging from under 10 to over 110 minutes. We used an automated, precisely controlled two-interval forced-choice grating orientation task to assess each participant's ability to discern the orientation of square-wave gratings pressed against the stationary index finger pad of the dominant hand. A two-down one-up staircase (Experiment 1) or a Bayesian adaptive procedure (Experiments 2 and 3) was used to determine the groove width of the grating whose orientation each participant could reliably discriminate. The experiments consistently showed that tactile grating orientation discrimination does not improve with short-term visual deprivation. In fact, we found that tactile performance degraded slightly but significantly upon a brief period of visual deprivation (Experiment 1) and did not improve over periods of up to 110 minutes of deprivation (Experiments 2 and 3). The results additionally showed that grating orientation discrimination tends to improve upon repeated testing, and confirmed that women significantly outperform men on the grating orientation task. We conclude that, contrary to two recent reports but consistent with an earlier literature, passive tactile spatial acuity is not enhanced by short-term visual deprivation. Our findings have important theoretical and practical implications. On the theoretical side, the findings set limits on the time course over which neural mechanisms such as crossmodal plasticity may operate to drive sensory changes; on the practical side, the findings suggest that researchers who compare tactile acuity of blind and sighted participants should not blindfold the sighted participants.

show abstract

“…Early research on the effects of restricted sensory stimulation on human subjects revealed a host of negative reactions, including lapses of attention, deterioration in logical thought, and hallucinations (Bexton, Heron, & Scott, 1954;Heron, Bexton, & Hebb, 1953). Later studies suggest that these negative reactions could be understood primarily in terms of negative experimental set (Pollard, Uhr, & Jackson, 1963), duration of isolation (Zuckerman, 1969), and demand characteristics (Orne & Sheibe, 1964). Recent studies eliminating negative expectancies, providing comfortable settings, and employing shorter exposure durations have yielded much more benign reactions (Lilly, 1977).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of short term Flotation REST on relaxation: A controlled study.

Jacobs¹,

Heilbronner²,

Stanley³

1984

Health Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of restricted environmental stimulation using a flotation tank (Flotation REST) to the effects of a normal sensory environment on relaxation. All of the subjects were first introduced to a simple relaxation program to be used during the experimental sessions. The program consisted of guided point-to-point relaxation, breathing techniques, and visual imagery techniques. Subjects were then pre-tested on measurements of electromyogram (EMG), galvanic skin response (GSR), peripheral skin temperature, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The experimental group experienced ten 45-minute sessions practicing the relaxation program in a Flotation REST environment. The control subjects practiced the same relaxation program in a similar body position for 45 minutes in a normal sensory environment. All subjects answered a five-question Subjective Relaxation Questionnaire on trials five through ten and were then posttested on EMG, GSR, skin temperature, and blood pressure. The results indicated significant differences between groups from pre-test to post-test on systolic and diastolic blood pressure; the experimental group showed greater reductions. Significant differences also were observed on three of five questions on the Subjective Relaxation Questionnaire; the experimental group reported greater subjective relaxation and trends in a similar direction on the remaining two questions. The results of this study indicate that flotation REST enhances point-to-point relaxation, breathing techniques, and visual Requests for reprints should be sent to

show abstract

Studies in Sensory Deprivation

Cited by 35 publications

References 17 publications

Strange-Face-in-the-Mirror Illusion and Schizotypy During Adolescence

Strange-Face-in-the-Mirror Illusion and Schizotypy During Adolescence

Short-Term Visual Deprivation Does Not Enhance Passive Tactile Spatial Acuity

The effects of short term Flotation REST on relaxation: A controlled study.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About