To our readers

Mallard duckling distress calls consist of a series of stereotyped notes and are usually given in calling bouts. When two or more ducklings are separated from their brood and begin to distress call, they alternate their calls, with each bird inhibiting its own vocalizations during those of another bird. In two playback experiments we reduced the acoustic variability found in distress calls and examined the effect this had on the alternation response of ducklings. In Exp. 1, one treatment involved an unedited tape-recording of a natural bout of 8 distress calls. Three other treatments involved edited tapes in which (a) the original 8 calls were presented, but at a constant intercall period, or (b) a single call was repeated 8 times at the natural (variable) intercall periods, or (c) a single call was repeated 8 times at a constant intercall period. The two tapes on which the same call was repeated 8 times elicited significantly weaker alternation responses from ducklings than the two tapes on which the original 8 calls were presented; the manipulation of the intercall period had no significant effect on the alternation response. In Exp. 2, analogous manipulations were performed to remove the variability between the notes within a single distress call or between the internote periods within that call. Ducklings alternated significantly better with the unedited distress call than with the distress calls in which variability had been removed. These results suggest that the variability found within many “Fixed Action Patterns” may serve an important antihabituation function.     

Creating our future

The evolving health-care system in the United States increasingly rewards successful efforts to keep people healthier and more productive. This is exactly what applied psychophysiology and biofeedback have to offer. However, if we wait to be included in the system, we will wait forever. Inclusion can only come as a result of our efforts to educate decision-makers about the value of our research and services. That education won't take place unless we have an instructional plan and materials. Detailing that plan and producing those materials is the immediate challenge to this Association.This paper was presented as a presidential address at the annual meeting of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback in Cincinnati, Ohio, March 10, 1995.     

Changing our package

Starting with Volume 7, Lethaia will use its pages better by introducing a two-column type area. The amount of text published without charges will remain the same as in preceding volumes, but any optional publication charges received or profit attained will be invested in more pages. To our- authors the new arrangement implies one simple but important change, namely adjustment of published figure size to the page width (140 mm) or column width (67.5 mm) whenever possible. New elements for bibliographic identification ( biblid ) are added to the cover, article-heads, and individual pages.