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TWO EXPERIMENTAL TESTS OF A HYPOTHESIS CONCERNING THE DETERMINANTS OF FUNCTION FLUCTUATION
Author(s) -
ANDERSON C. C.,
ZINGLE H. W.
Publication year - 1961
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1961.tb00802.x
Subject(s) - psychology , cognition , amphetamine , cognitive test , audiology , developmental psychology , stimulant , test (biology) , statistics , psychiatry , mathematics , neuroscience , medicine , paleontology , dopamine , biology
The hypothesis tested was that one correlate of cognitive function fluctuation in children was differential fatigue. Two samples of children at the grade eight level (14 years of age), each divided into experimental and control groups, were given parallel cognitive tests on a series of testing occasions. In the study with the first sample of children the experimental group was allowed 45 min. for each test, the control group 22 1/2 min. In the study with the second sample, the experimental group took 5 mg. of amphetamine sulphate 1 hr. before each double testing, the control group taking placebos. The hypothesis was validated in two ways; first, by demonstrating that performance on long tests fluctuates more than performance on short tests, and, secondly, by demonstrating that a stimulant, amphetamine sulphate, markedly reduced the amount of cognitive function fluctuation. The validity of the first demonstration rests on the assumption that a longer test will activate more fatigue in subjects; that of the second on the assumption that the independent variable differentiating between the experimental and control groups is really relative amount of fatigue, and not relative amount of task‐motivation induced by the drug.