The results support the validity of the coping styles concept and suggest their natural separation into three distinct strategies. Abnormal coping is discussed as a potential contributing factor to affective symptoms, including symptoms of bipolar disorder.

The tau effect, which designated the effect of temporal variables on spatial perception, was investigated in the auditory modality. Subjects listened to repeated presentations of a three-tone sequence. The first and third tones were fixed in frequency at 1 and 3 kHz, respectively, and the subject adjusted the frequency of the second tone until it seemed intermediate in pitch between the other two. The two temporal intervals delimited by the three tones were manipulated. As the second tone moves from being closer to the first tone to being closer to the third tone in time. subjects' average adjustment of the second tone decreases. While in accordance with previous results, the present data provide new information on subjects' behavior in pitch bisection judgments. An explanation for the auditory tau effect is offered in terms of memory for pitch in which the dynamic role of time is taken into account.The tau effect (Helson & King, 1930) and the kappa effect (Cohen, Hansel, & Sylvester, 1954;Geldreich, 1934) are usually cited as evidence that the processing of temporal and spatial information is related, at least within some limited set of values of the two stimulus dimensions concerned.The tau effect refers to situations in which a temporal independent variable influences judgments of a spatial dependent variable. In the terms of Helson's classic demonstration, if three points on a line are marked on the skin of the forearm (delineating two equal distances, d\ and d 2 ) and these points are successively stimulated (thereby creating two interstimulus intervals, t\ and h), then d\ will appear to the subject to be equal to d 2 only if t, equals t 2 • If t\ > h, d\ appears greater than d2, and vice versa.The kappa effect occurs when a spatial independent variable is used, and time becomes the dependent measure. Cohen et al, (1954) used three lights to delineate two distances, d\ and d2 , on a straight line. These lights were made to flash briefly, in succession, giving rise to two interstimulus intervals, t\ and h, as before. The subject's task in this case was to adjust the timing of the occurrence of the second light so that it appeared halfway, in time, between the first and third lights. The data from this experiment were analogous to those of Helson. If d\ = d2 , then, when the subject has made his adjustments, t\ is found (more or less) to equal h. However, if, say, d\ > d 2 , then, when the subject has adjusted t\ and h to subjective equality, we find that, in fact, h > t.. These basic findings have proved to be quite robust, and both the tau and the kappa effects have been shown to occur in the visual, auditory, and tactile modalities with a variety of different stimulus displays and display parameters; Ono (1976) has provided a review of the published data in these and related areas.It seems not unlikely that some common underlying central mechanism is responsible for these two phenomena, and if that is so we should not be surprised to find other examples of sensory judgments which, in the same manner, are n...

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Subjects listened to a 400-Hz signal and a 200-Hz signal presented simultaneously and dichotically. In the reference condition these signals were in phase; in the stimulus condition they were out of phase by an amount varying from 12° to 60°. The pattern of an experimental trial followed that used by Nixon et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Amer. 48, 554–556 (1970)]: a presentation of the reference condition (600 msec) was followed, after a short break, by the observation interval (300 msec) containing either the reference condition or the stimulus condition. After another break the reference condition was presented again for 600 msec. Subjects reported whether the contents of the observation interval were the same as, or different from, the two reference presentations. As Nixon intimated, the first reference condition is essential in providing information for the comparison. This information clearly degrades rapidly over time; the results of this study showed that for a given phase angle, performance deteriorated as the interstimulus interval increased from 40 to 320 msec. With constant interstimulus interval, performance improves rapidly as the phase angle increases, being around chance at 12° and almost 100% at 60°. Two possible models for this process are discussed.

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