Field experiments were conducted in 1983 and 1984 to measure the interference of wild oat (Avena fatua L. # AVEFA) removed at various stages of development (two to three leaves, two to three tillers, two nodes, and heading), plus treatments with wild oat not removed, and wild oat-free stands on the growth and yield of spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L. ‘Advance’). The final plant density of barley and wild oat was 160 and 170 plants/m2, respectively. Based on aboveground barley biomass and yield, the critical duration of wild oat interference began about the two-node stage and continued until maturity of the barley. Wild oat interference reduced barley biomass, the number of tiller heads/plant, tiller heads/unit area, and tiller grain yield, but not the number or grain yield of the main-stem heads. Wild oat did not affect the soil matric potential or the barley total plant and soil nitrogen contents. However, wild oat did reduce total water and turgor potential in barley at the boot stage of growth, which may have affected tiller head formation.

A new tool that may measure certain absolute temporal properties of information processing in intact organisms is suggested by. investigations of temporal summation in single nerve cells. Two findings have led to this suggestion: One, the form of the temporal summation function (relating the intensity and duration required to evoke a criterion neural signal) depends on the analysis used by the investigator. Corresponding form variations occur in behavioral studies when the observer's task is varied. Two, the critical durations of fixed neural signals depend on the latency of the feature of the signal chosen as criterion; early features yield short critical durations and vice versa. The critical duration also varies in behavioral studies if one varies the observer's task, keeping the stimulus ensemble fixed.

These data lead to two inferences: One, the form of a behavioral temporal-summation function expresses the kind of hidden mental analysis mediating that behavior. Two, a behavioral critical duration is an indicator of the absolute timing of the hidden mental analysis mediating that behavior.