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Two experiments are reported in which the effects of correct and incorrect feedback on ability to count rapidly-produced auditory stimuli were studied. "Error in counting was found to be directly related to the number of stimuli to be counted. Correct knowledge of results contributed to better performance; misinformation contributed to disruption of counting ability; and both effects were evident over time in the absence of all feedback.

Decline can be defined as the disruption of an established order, and if so defined, does not exclude the possibility of the simultaneous rise of new order. The "Decline of the West," Spengler's term, is substantiated in the history of Western civilization, though not according to Spengler's theory, in the successive disruption of the community of belief, Christendom, through the Protestant revolution of the sixteenth century, of the community of reason, or the Concert of Europe, as it was afterwards named, through the French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century, and of the community of fear, the balance of power, through the totalitarian revolutions of the twentieth century. A revolution, in every instance, is the overthrow of an established order. Whether the new order, if any, was better than the established order does not matter in deciding whether or not there has been a decline. Whether, for example, during the decline of the West there has been the rise of a scientific and technological community that has spread from the West to the world, giving substance to the slogan "One World," does not alter the fact that there has been a gradual disintegration of the established order in the West itself.

International organization — European Coal and Steel Community — Decisions of High Authority — Whether letter can constitute a decision — Criteria — Scope of Treaty establishing Community — Type of enterprise and substance covered — Definition of "steel" — Meaning of "production" in field of coal or steel — Whether pig-iron used in manufacture of product outside Treaty is covered by Treaty — Levy on scrap imposed by High Authority — Whether discriminatory — Meaning of discrimination — Violation of Treaty, Article 5 — Whether imposition of levy disruptive of conditions of competition — Evidence required to prove charge of disruption — Whether levy a special charge prohibited by Treaty.

There is evidence of a large increase in the number of American women who drink, but there is little evidence that the incidence of alcoholism among women has increased dramatically in the last several decades. Ideas pre sented by various investigators about the alcoholic woman are summarized. A recent study by the writer indicates that women alcoholics vary greatly in degree of social integration. Two groups of women alcoholics—those attend ing a voluntary outpatient clinic and those committed to a penal institution— proved to be different in several measures of socioeconomic background and so cial class, some aspects of marital disruption, and some aspects of drinking pattern.

As soon as the ICRC had set up a delegation in Leopoldville (July 1960), it was seen that a Tracing Service similar to the Central Agency in Geneva was urgently required. The disturbances had led to an abrupt exodus, and it was impossible to keep check of whole families leaving to seek asylum in the former French Congo, Angola, Northern Rhodesia, Tanganyika or the newly formed Central African Republic. These unexpected events, for which the host countries were not prepared (especially as far as a systematic registration of the refugees was concerned), and the disruption or complete break-down of means of communication, transport and postal services, had resulted in great and in many cases justifiable anxiety on the part of those obliged to leave, and their relatives.

Although there is a voluminous literature on the organization and procedure of state legislatures, material on their politics is relatively sparse. The classic work of A. Lawrence Lowell, now more than a half-century old, still appears to be the chief reliance of scholars in the field. Lowell's thesis was that parties were relatively insignificant in state legislatures; virtually the whole of the subsequent literature agrees with this. In the case of the Connecticut legislature, it would seem that parties, far from being relatively insignificant, play a dominating role.The study of party influence in a legislature necessitates a two-level approach: analysis of the role of the party leadership and of the voting behavior of the party membership. Several questions must be answered with regard to the party leadership. Are the party leaders an identifiable and cohesive group? Do they develop a definite program for legislative consideration? Is their authority shared with factional leaders capable of frequent disruption of the party program? Are committee chairmen or party leaders in the stronger position for actually forming legislative policy? Do pressure group leaders work through the formal party leaders or do they attempt to build ad hoc legislative majorities for their bills through independent action?

Provision for national security requires planning in many fields—military, technological, political, and economic. Planning in the economic field is of special importance. The sustained striking power of our armed forces would depend to a large extent on our economic preparedness and on the speed and effectiveness with which the economy could be converted to war production.Economic mobilization involves the marshaling and coördination of the nation's resources as an integral part of a total war effort. It means the conversion of thousands of factories from the production of civilian goods to the production of essential war items. Machine tools and other industrial equipment must be reconditioned and new machinery made and installed for the production of airplanes, ships, tanks, and guns. Facilities for the production of essential war-supporting products and services must be expanded, and the output of non-essential products must be curtailed. Allocations, priorities, rationing, and conservation measures must be imposed to assure the effective utilization of manpower, materials, production facilities, fuels, power, and communication and transportation services. These and other wartime measures must be accomplished with a minimum disruption of the civilian economy, lest they destroy the sources upon which the effectiveness of economic mobilization in a democratic nation depends.

Although there are many issues about which China and the Soviet Union could quarrel and although there is strong evidence of some disagreements, the two regimes have an overwhelming common motive for maintaining soli darity against the outside world so long as both remain com mitted to Communist orthodoxy. Many of the predictions of future Sino-Soviet conflict erroneously assume that the Communist leaders, no matter what they say, play the tradi tional game of power politics. In fact, considerations of boundary, population, and so on are less important to the Communists than differences over the strategy which they should follow in their struggle against the non-Communist world. The Chinese position might be described as Marxist fundamentalism. There are two basic issues in the disagree ment : the actual balance of power between Communist and non-Communist sections of the world, and the ability of non- Communist leaders, especially in the United States, to act in terms of rational self-interest. Since the controversy is en tirely over strategy and timing, it does not necessarily involve any disruption of basic Communist solidarity. It may well become less heated if Chinese leaders come to realize that the balance of power in their favor is less decisive than they have claimed and if Soviet policy toward non-Communist powers becomes somewhat more intransigent to meet Chinese criticism. Soviet leadership by Khrushchev or in his spirit makes other developments less likely.—Ed.

ItIs one of the ironies of English literary history that World War I, the first great modern war, coincided with what C. Day Lewis calls 'a period of very low vitality' for poetry. There were no Edwardian or Georgian figures to match the stature of Tennyson or Browning; the main tendencies of the age were visible not in the genius of one or two master spokesmen but in the talents of a host of minor poets. These poets, reacting to the disintegration of nineteenth-century values and conventions, turned from the contemporary reality to the peace and certainty afforded by the mellow beauties of the English countryside. In the words of their most gifted representative, Rupert Brooke, the Georgians sought 'to forget/The lies, the truths, and pain …'; poetry became a shelter, an escape, an anodyne, a nostalgic daydream. The first Georgian Poetry anthology (1912), as Vivian de Sola Pinto remarks, 'is a strange collection to represent English poetry at the moment when Europe was preparing for the First World War and England's stability was being rocked by the constitutional crisis and the impending disruption of the Protestant ascendancy in Ireland.' The characteristic qualities of Georgian poetry — its blandness, its decorum, its homogeneity, its simplicity of attitude — all reflect the decline of a once powerful imaginative vision. Lyric poetry had become a mere exercise of sensibility related neither to the modern reality nor to any intellectual or imaginative vision capable of assimilating it.

The United Nations is in a period of peril. Soviet disruptions threaten to destroy its effectiveness. The West and its friends are not united in their support of it or in their advocacy of policies. Many newly admitted members have yet to demonstrate international political responsibility. The fiscal basis upon which the organization operates is not sound. The United States potentially can help strengthen the United Nations and, at the same time, strengthen her position in it. More seasoned representatives, an enhanced representa tion fund, more adequate housing facilities, and a surer wel come for delegates from newly emerged countries, regardless of race, are basic improvements the United States should stress. The United States can lead in creating a greater spirit of unity and teamwork among the free nations. A China solu tion should be sought while the United States can still act with some grace on that issue. More economic aid might be chan neled to the United Nations, where representatives of the underdeveloped countries can discuss their problems with other representatives as equals. Where principle and alliance con flict, the United States should forewarn her colonialist allies that she will not arouse Asian-African animosity where to do so would also be to violate American principles. Pressures could be exerted in the Middle East to bring a solution to the problem of Palestine refugees. And a general effort, in the General Assembly, with the International Law Commission, through the Secretariat, and elsewhere, should be made to bring closer the rule of law in the world.—Ed.

It is a paradox of British politics that, while party discipline is such that no government has to depend on Opposition support in order to pursue the foreign policy of its choice, this very fact has been one reason for the normal consensus on questions of foreign policy between the two front benches. The greater the prospects of Opposition leaders forming the next government the greater the discipline they tend to exert over their ranks, and the more international realities are imposed upon the kind of fantasy-thinking to which a party denied power for many years is especially prone. These tendencies have been notable in British politics since the war; they are likely to continue, given that the Labour Party can control the forces of disruption unleashed by its recent defeat. In the five general elections since the wartime Coalition Government foreign policy issues have not merely occupied a minor role; they have been regarded by party leaders, though not always by the rank and file, as though they were primarily questions of personal qualifications for conducting policies the main outlines of which were not in dispute. At the general election in the autumn of 1959, although disagreements between Government and Opposition had undoubtedly grown since the quiet accords of 1955, the campaign turned, if on international issues at all, on the eligibility of Right or Left to represent the country in negotiations in which the likely British position was largely agreed on both sides. The Leader of the Opposition recognised that this was so, although his explanation for it was that Ministers had been forced to accept Labour's policy recommendations.