Effect of LSD on Pace of Performing a Variety of Tasks
Donald M. Krus, Seymour Wapner · Perceptual and Motor Skills · 1962
During the past few years, as part of a program of research evaluating the behavioral effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25), a number of studies have been reported which involved a formal analysis of changes in the spacial properties of objects. These changes were considered relatively independent of their occurrence in the course of time (Liebert, et al., 1957, 195s; Krus & Wapner, 1959; Wapner & G u s , 1959). While convenient for purposes of analysis, this focus does not fully describe the behavioral operations of the organism in its transactions with environmental objects; rather, a more comprehensive analysis must, of necessity, consider spatio-temporal aspects of the organism's activity. A step in rhis direction is taken in the present paper which considers temporal aspects of behavior, in rhis case, the pace of carrying out n variety of tasks. The tasks selected to assess LSD-induced changes in pace were drawn from some situacions utilized in a larger unpublished study whose purpose was co inquire into the interrelationships becween the races of activity manifested in operations representative of various levels of organization, e.g., physiological, sensori-motor, perceptual, and concepn~al. The principal criterion for selecting situations from the larger battery was that the task be reliable. The six tasks so chosen had uncorrected test-retest reliabilities ranging from + .91 to + .96, and sampled the routine activities of rapping, psychomotor line-drawing, card sorting, handwriting, and addition.