Pharmacological stimulation of arithmetic performance and graphomotor expansion.

Abstract

The objective of these experiments was to test the effects of stimulating pharmacological agents on performance while at the same time studying the empirical validity of a simple graphomoror indicator. The entire series consisted of two tests per week for 9 wk., subdivided into a pre-drag period, a main period, and a post-drug period. Eight Ss, all seniors in high school, participated. During the main period half of the Ss received a daily dose of 0.65 gm. of pure lecithin and 2 mgm. of aneurinhydrochloride (vitamin BI), while during both the pre-drug and the post-drug period a placebo was administered. The other half of the Ss served as controls and received placebo during the entire series. A 40-min. session consisting of several hundred mental arithmetic tasks was held on each testing day immediately after the end of the normal school period, following the procedure introduced by H. Dueker (1949). Solutions were written down inco a prepared booklet, and the times required for solution were automatically recorded for each unit by special multi-channel equipment designed and adapted by H. W . Wendt and one of the authors. Twenty solution-time values each were sampled from Min. 29, 30, 39, and 40 of all testing periods. The means per S and day were defined in terms of per cent of intra-individual means of the predrug period and served as indices of performance. The height of the numeral 5 was used as an index of graphomotor expansion. Measurements here were taken from the lasc 10 wricten entries in the arithmetic work booklet, the angle of slant being taken into account. Again, the individual means were converted inco per cent of the intra-individual means of the pre-drug period. Fig. 1 shows the differentiation obtained between the lecithin + vitamin B1 group and the controls. Despite the limited number of Ss, the drug effects are clearly seen as an improvement in performance and an increased motor expansion. Although both effects are due to the drug, the mental and motor effects are essentially different. Thus, the effect on arithmetic performance is evident even on the first day of the main period but is significant for this period only ( t test of mean differences between experimental group and controls yielded a p < 0.001). On the other hand, the motor effect develops only gradually, beginning with the second day of the main period, and is then