“P300” and memory: Individual differences in the von Restorff effect

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were elicited by words in a free recall paradigm that included a novel item. The P300 component of the ERP is elicited by novel, task-relevant events, and we tested the hypothesis that P300 is a manifestation of the cognitive processing invoked during “context updating.” If the degree to which current representations in working memory need revision is related to P300 amplitude, then the P300 elicited by a given item should be related to the ability to recall that item on a subsequent test. Forty lists were presented to 12 subjects in each of two sessions. The lists were 15 words long, and 1 word, in position 6 through 10, was “isolated” by changing its size. Most subjects recalled these isolated words more often than other words in the same positions (von Restorff effect), and these words also elicited larger P300s than other words. Analysis of variance on the component scores from a principal components analysis revealed that words recalled had a larger amplitude P300 (on initial presentation) than words not recalled. Striking individual differences emerged, and there were strong relationships between the von Restorff effect, overall recall performance, mnemonic strategies, and the association between components of the ERP and recall performance. The overall recall performance of subjects who reported simple (rote) mnemonic strategies was low, but they showed a high von Restorff effect. For these subjects the amplitude of the P300 elicited by words during initial presentation predicted later recall. In contrast, subjects who reported complex mnemonic strategies remembered a high percentage of words and did not show a von Restorff effect. For these subjects P300 did not predict later recall, although a later “slow wave” component of the ERP did. The initial response to isolated items was the same for all subjects (a large P300), and all subjects recognized the isolates faster than other words in a recognition test given at the end of each session. The subjects in whom P300 did not predict recall reported mnemonic strategies that involved organizing the material. These strategies continue long after the time period reflected by P300 (600 msec). Because they were so effective they may have overshadowed the relationship between P300 and recall, which is based on the initial encoding of an event. Our interpretations were further confirmed and clarified from data obtained in a final grand recall and in the recognition test.     

MNEMONIC TEXT‐PROCESSING STRATEGIES: A TEACHING SCIENCE FOR SCIENCE TEACHING

This article reports on the development and evaluation of a two‐component mnemonic strategy for teaching botany concepts. One component, a pictorial “mnemonomy”, was targeted at learning a hierarchically organized plant‐classification system; and the second component, based on the mnemonic “keyword” method, was targeted at learning the specific defining characteristics of the various plant groups. It was hypothesized that this dual mnemonic approach would be more useful than the usual figural‐taxonomy approach in allowing college students to acquire both higher‐order structural and lower‐order detail information‐‐the “forest” andthe “trees”, as it were. The research results strongly support the hypothesis. Especially important to this conclusion was the finding that relative to traditional instruction, mnemonic instruction facilitated: (1) the acquisition of both classification and characteristic information; and (2) inferential thinking on a transfer (problem‐solving) task that required novel manipulations of the learned concepts. Performance gains associated with the mnemonic condition were long‐term, still being manifested on delayed‐test measures. A number of theoretical and educational implications of the research are considered     

Gender Stereotypes and the Coordination of Mnemonic Work within Heterosexual Couples: Romantic Partners Manage their Daily To-Dos

Couples appear to help each other remember outstanding tasks (“to-dos”) by issuing reminders. We examine if women and men differ in the frequency with which they offer this form of mnemonic assistance. Five studies measure how heterosexual couples coordinate mnemonic work in romantic relationships. The first two studies demonstrate that men are assumed to do less of this form of mnemonic work (Study 1) and experience less societal pressure to do so than women do (Study 2). The next three studies suggest that men tend to do less of this mnemonic work than women do and that, when men do mnemonically help their partners, the help tends to involve errands for which they are stakeholders. This notion was evidenced in the greater accessibility of examples of women’s reminding acts than men’s reminding acts for both partners (Study 3) and in the less helpful reminders that men provided, compared to those women provided, as rated by both partners (Study 4a) and independent coders (Study 4b). These results converge on the possibility that men, relative to women, are less inclined to be concerned with keeping track of their partners” outstanding needs, perhaps because doing so is a behavior that is less strongly prescribed for men than for women. Implications for helping behavior and the possible consequences associated with performing disproportionate mnemonic work in relationships are discussed.     

Directed remembering: Subliminal cues alter nonconscious memory strategies

Much research on memory function has focused on changes in recognition performance brought about by differences in the processes engaged during encoding. In most of this work, participants either receive explicit instructions to remember particular items or they perform orienting (i.e., encoding) tasks that support different levels of memory performance. In daily life, however, the retention or dismissal of information often occurs without conscious intent, thereby suggesting an alternative, nonconscious route through which purposive remembering and forgetting can occur. Based on this line of reasoning, we speculated that recognition performance in a standard item-based forgetting paradigm may be moderated by subliminal cues that trigger the automatic activation of different mnemonic strategies. We report the results of two experiments that supported this prediction. In each experiment, the basic item-based forgetting effect was replicated, but via the subliminal presentation of “remember” and “forget” cues. In addition, cue-dependent differences in memory performance were traced to the operation of a covert rehearsal mechanism during encoding. We consider the implications of these findings for the non-conscious operation of memory processes in everyday life.     

Eyewitness Performance in Cognitive and Structured Interviews

This paper addresses two methodological and theoretical questions relating to the Cognitive Interview (CI), which previous research has found to increase witness recall in interviews. (1) W hat are the effects of the CI mnemonic techniques when communication techniques are held constant? (2) How do trained interviewers compare with untrained interviewers? In this study, witnesses (college students) viewed a short film clip of a shooting and were questioned by interviewers (research assistants) trained in conducting the CI or a Structured Interview (SI)—similar to the CI except for the “cognitive” components—or by untrained interviewers (UI). The CI and SI groups recalled significantly more correct information compared to the UI group. However they also reported more errors and confabulated details. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed in terms of precisely identifying the CI facilitatory effects and consequent good practice in the forensic setting.     

Coping strategies used by middle-aged males with noise-induced hearing loss,with and without tinnitus

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between general coping strategies and specific communication strategies, adopted by males with noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) in order to deal with stressful events and demanding auditory situations. The sample included 72 males with NIHL; 22 without tinnitus, 26 with mild tinnitus, and 24 with severe tinnitus. The following variables were measured: “active coping” “escape coping” and “passive acceptance” (general coping strategies), and “maladaptive behaviours”, “verbal strategies” and “nonverbal strategies” (specific communication strategies). The results showed that males without tinnitus or with mild tinnitus combined “active coping” and “passive acceptance”, whereas males with severe tinnitus supplemented these strategies with “escape coping”. The relationship between general coping and specific communication strategies was weak, although giving a significant correlation between “escape coping” and “maladaptive behaviours”. The results indicate that the hypothesis that a person's general pattern of coping has influence on his/her ability to cope effectively with a hearing impairment can not be supported. Further research should concentrate on the contribution of personality factors as well as environmental factors to the variance in coping with NIHL and tinnitus.     

Individual differences in cognitive control on self-referenced and other-referenced memory

Self-referenced information is better recalled than other-referenced information – a mnemonic advantage known as the “self-reference effect” (SRE). By using a modified version of the “think/no-think” (TNT) paradigm (Anderson & Green, 2001), this study examined the effects of cognitive control on the SRE after the encoding stage. The results indicate that individual differences in personality traits and affective states strongly modulated the SRE after the TNT phase. For individuals high in negative cognitive style, an ironic enhancement of negative self-referenced memory produced a “maladaptive” SRE: better memory for negative self-referenced information than for negative other-referenced information, when trying to suppress that information. Before the TNT phase, instead, the SRE was characterized by the opposite bias. These results indicate that (1) the SRE is strongly affected by cognitive control after encoding, and (2) also in the non-clinical population, dysfunctional cognitive control can transform the SRE into a “maladaptive” memory bias.     

Self-pacing study of faces of different races: metacognitive control over study does not eliminate the cross-race recognition effect

People often recognize same-race faces better than other-race faces. This cross-race effect (CRE) has been proposed to arise in part because learners devote fewer cognitive resources to encode faces of social out-groups. In three experiments, we evaluated whether learners’ other-race mnemonic deficits are due to “cognitive disregard” during study and whether this disregard is under metacognitive control. Learners studied each face either for as long as they wanted (the self-paced condition) or for the average time taken by a self-paced learner (the fixed-rate condition). Self-paced learners allocated equal amounts of study time to same-race and other-race faces, and having control over study time did not change the size of the CRE. In the second and third experiments, both self-paced and fixed-rate learners were given instructions to “individuate” other-race faces. Individuation instructions caused self-paced learners to allocate more study time to other-race faces, but this did not significantly reduce the size of the CRE, even for learners who reported extensive contact with other races. We propose that the differential processing that people apply to faces of different races and the subsequent other-race mnemonic deficit are not due to learners’ strategic cognitive disregard of other-race faces.     

Strategies actually employed during response-focused emotion regulation research: Affective and physiological consequences

Addressing internal validity concerns in emotion regulation research, the present experiment was primarily designed to determine whether research participants are compliant when asked to use a response-focused strategy during emotional film viewing or whether these individuals incorporate the use of antecedent strategies. The influence of antecedent vs. response-focused strategy use on self-reported affect, physiological, and behavioural data were additionally investigated. A total of 82 healthy undergraduate participants were asked to use one of two response-focused emotion regulation techniques—suppression or exaggeration—while watching a 2 minute positive or negative movie. Following the movie, participants self-reported their affective response to the film, described how they tried to suppress or exaggerate their reaction (i.e., strategies used to regulate their response), and estimated the percentage of time they used each strategy. Representing “antecedent” and “response-focused” techniques, the strategies reported by participants were coded as “cognitive” or “muscular” in nature. Relative to exaggerators, participants in the suppression condition were significantly more likely to self-report using an antecedent (cognitive) strategy for at least some portion of the film (65% vs. 38%). During the suppression condition, greater use of antecedent strategies did not influence sympathetic reactivity to either movie but did result in significantly less self-reported negative affect to the negative movie.     

Visuo-spatial processing in working memory

This paper reports four experiments designed to develop a simple technique for the study of visuo-spatial processing within the working memory framework (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974). Experiment 1 involved the matching of successively presented random matrix patterns, as a secondary visual suppression task. This was coupled with rote rehearsal or a visual imagery mnemonic for learning lists of concrete words presented auditorily. Although memory performance with matching dropped overall, the visual mnemonic was differentially affected. Experiment 2 removed the matching decision, with visual presentation of unattended patterns. There was no overall effect of the unattended material, but use of the visual mnemonic was significantly affected. Experiment 3 replicated this result with simpler plain coloured squares as the unattended material.

In Experiment 4, for one group, the unattended material consisted of line drawings of common objects. For a second group, the lists of words for recall were presented visually, with or without unattended speech. The results suggested that unattended pictures disrupt use of a visual mnemonic, while unattended speech disrupts rote rehearsal.

These results suggest that unattended visual material has privileged access to the mechanism(s) involved in short-term visuo-spatial processing and storage. They also suggest that use of a concurrent visual matching task or of unattended visual material may provide tractable techniques for investigating this aspect of cognitive function within the context of working memory.     

Preserving the Respondent’s Standpoint in a Research Interview: Different Strategies of ‘Doing’ the Interviewer

Much has been written on the respondent’s perspective but fewer studies have recognized that “perspectives other than those drawn from the discipline come into play for the interviewer” (Warren in Handbook of interview research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2002: 84). In the article we show that the interviewer uses different strategies of identity management and different standpoints as resources to accomplish and account for one of the main interviewer’s duties, namely to achieve an “understanding of the world from the subjects’ points of view” (Kvale in Interviews: An introduction to qualitative research interviewing, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1996: 1). We examine instances in which the interviewer displays a “neutral” posture, showing adherence to her institutional identity, and instances in which she positions herself as an “embodied subject,” disclosing her personal involvement, stepping out of the role and displaying an identity and a standpoint in common with that of the interviewee. We show how such strategies of identity management (1) prompt either identification or divergence of viewpoints between the interviewer and the interviewees; (2) affect the degree of intimacy among participants and spontaneity in conversation. By means of these two strategies, we discuss, the interviewer accomplishes and accounts for her professional ability to understand the interviewees’ standpoints. In particular such strategies are two ways of accounting for an ethical relationship with the interviewees, which, respectively, emphasize either the impartiality or the reciprocity in understanding. Our purpose is not to suggest that one strategy is to be preferred on the other, but, rather, to illustrate how both the “neutral” and the “embodied” posture are situated practices through which the interviewer attempts to preserve the respondents’ viewpoint on the narrated events.     

An Acceptance-Based Behavioral Therapy for Individuals With Generalized Anxiety Disorder

In response to clinical observations and research findings that individuals with generalized anxiety disorder are reactive to their internal experiences, avoid and suppress painful emotions, thoughts, and sensations, and limit their involvement in meaningful activities, an Acceptance Based Behavioral Therapy (ABBT) was developed to specifically target these responses. ABBT incorporates acceptance and mindfulness strategies with more traditional behavior therapy techniques. Specifically, ABBT uses mindfulness and acceptance approaches as an alternate response to the rigid, avoidant responses characteristic of GAD. Likewise, therapy focuses on identifying and enacting behaviors that are congruent with what is personally meaningful to the client rather than engaging in actions that are motivated by avoidance of anxiety. This article provides a case conceptualization from an ABBT perspective for “William,” the composite client presented in Robichaud (2013a--this issue). The article goes on to demonstrate how an ABBT approach to treatment may unfold session-by-session for “William.”     

Fluctuating confidence: the dynamic consequences of true/false affirmatives and denials on how a listener appraises their personal past

The present study examined the mnemonic consequences of true/false denials and affirmatives on how a listener appraises their personal past. To this end, participants (listeners) rated the extent to which they were confident certain events occurred during their childhood. They rated these events both before and after a confederate (speaker) denied or affirmed the occurrence of four different childhood events each, for a total of eight “rehearsed” events. For each set (denials and affirmatives) of events, half were true and half were false. In turn, this created four types of events (two each): true denials, true affirmatives, false denials, and false affirmatives. Additionally, half of the participants were told that the speaker was provided independent information about the veracity of the event’s occurrence (“expert” condition). Overall, listeners were less confident in the occurrence of false denial events, but more so when they believed the speaker to be more knowledgeable of the listeners memories, more confident in false affirmative events and, counter intuitively, more confident in the occurrence of true denial events. These results underscore the importance of a nuanced approach to the mnemonic consequences of true and false denials and affirmations in the course of social interactions.     

Can Multimodal and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy be Reconciled?

The purpose of this article is to determine whether two distinct modes of cognitive-behaviour therapy—Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) and Multimodal Therapy (MMT)—can be reconciled. This quest in the spirit of integrationism is pursued along three lines of inquiry: Do we talk about schools, approaches, or techniques? A reconciliation between MMT and REBT as systems seems not to be feasible, just because of the simple fact that MMT is not a new school with an idiosyncratic theory, whereas REBT is. However, REBT is also a congenial approach consisting of various eclectic techniques, as is MMT. It is explained how the A-B-C format and firing orders of the BASICI.D. modalities stem from an S-O-R model. Furthermore, the circular character of the various modalities (thinking, feeling, and behaving) is recognised both in MMT and in REBT. The techniques used in REBT and MMT overlap for 65–80%, according to a comparative perusal of Ellis's and Lazarus's presentations of preferred techniques. This means that MMT and REBT, as an approach with distinct techniques, “must” be very similar in practice. The conclusion is that philosophically Ellis and Lazarus see eye-to-eye and that MMT and REBT overlap a great deal. But a fusion is not yet at hand. At best the two can be described as two sides of one coin. “When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what's the first thing you say to yourself?” “What's for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?” “I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It's the same thing,” he said. “What's that?” the Unbeliever asked. “Wisdom from a Western Taoist,” I said. “It sounds like something from Winnie-the Pooh,” he said. “It is,” I said. From The Tao of Pooh Benjamin Hoff (1982)     

Remembering and knowing: Two means of access to the personal past

The nature of recollective experience was examined in a recognition memory task. Subjects gave “remember” judgments to recognized items that were accompanied by conscious recollection and “know” judgments to items that were recognized on some other basis. Although a levels-of-processing effect (Experiment 1) and a picture-superiority effect (Experiment 2) were obtained for overall recognition, these effects occurred only for “remember” judgments, and were reversed for “know” judgments. In Experiment 3, targets and lures were either preceded by a masked repetition of their own presentation (thought to increase perceptual fluency) or of an unrelated word. The effect of perceptual fluency was obtained for overall recogrntion and “know” judgments but not for “remember” judgments. The data obtained for confidencejudgments using the same design (Experiment4) indicated that “remember”/”know” judgments are not made solely on the basis of confidence. These data support the two-factor theories of recognition memory by dissociating two forms of recognition, and shed light on the nature of conscious recollection.     

Development of Teaching Skills and Relations to Theory of Mind in Preschoolers

The aims of this research were to examine the development of teaching skills in preschool children and to explore the relation between teaching and theory of mind (ToM). After learning a new board game, 3.5-, 4.5-, and 5.5-year-old children (N = 46) were asked to teach a confederate who “doesn't know how to play the game.” They also received two ToM tasks. Children's teaching skills increased significantly with age: older children taught longer, explained more rules, used more strategies when teaching, and were more likely to recognize and attempt to correct “errors” committed by the confederate. After being controlled for age, individual differences in ToM were significantly correlated with the number of strategies used when teaching. This research suggests that a dynamic teaching task is sensitive to developmental changes and that aspects of children's teaching may serve as a window into their developing understanding of mental states.     

Leave Her out of It: Person‐Presentation of Strategies is Harmful for Transfer

A common practice in textbooks is to introduce concepts or strategies in association with specific people. This practice aligns with research suggesting that using “real‐world” contexts in textbooks increases students’ motivation and engagement. However, other research suggests this practice may interfere with transfer by distracting students or leading them to tie new knowledge too closely to the original learning context. The current study investigates the effects on learning and transfer of connecting mathematics strategies to specific people. A total of 180 college students were presented with an example of a problem‐solving strategy that was either linked with a specific person (e.g., “Juan's strategy”) or presented without a person. Students who saw the example without a person were more likely to correctly transfer the novel strategy to new problems than students who saw the example presented with a person. These findings are the first evidence that using people to present new strategies is harmful for learning and transfer.     

Divergent thinking in the grasslands: thinking about object function in the context of a grassland survival scenario elicits more alternate uses than control scenarios

The survival processing effect is a recall advantage for information processed in the context of a grassland survival scenario. The current studies build upon previous research suggesting the effect is due to elaborative encoding and functional thinking. In two experiments, participants completed the “alternate uses test” under five conditions: baseline, grassland survival, Ebola survival, moving to a new home and planning a bank heist. Experiment 1 stimuli were everyday objects. Experiment 2 stimuli were functionally ambiguous “mystery” objects. Number of generated uses was highest in the baseline, but the grassland scenario was consistently highest of the schematic conditions. Recall data lend support to the mnemonic superiority of the grassland condition. Results suggest that grassland scenarios place fewer attenuating constraints on divergent thinking. It is suggested that the survival processing effect might be usefully conceptualised as an effect of creatively thinking about object function in response to broadly defined problems.     

Cost Effectiveness of Strategies for Recruiting Low-Income Families for Behavioral Parent Training

The goal of this study was to assess cost, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of recruitment strategies used to engage low-income families of young children with disruptive behavior disorder to participate in a Behavioral Parent Training (BPT) program. For this analysis, we used data on labor and non-labor resources associated with 13 recruitment strategies implemented in February 2014 through February 2016. We assessed the effectiveness of each strategy as the number of families that enrolled into the study. Cost-effectiveness of each recruitment strategy was expressed as cost per family enrolled; analysis was conducted in 2016. We calculated the cost of total recruitment effort for 13 strategies during the 2-year period to be $11,496 with an average cost of $885 per recruitment strategy or $255 per enrolled family. Across strategies, total costs ranged from $25 to $2540. “University mass e-mail” and “school flyers” resulted in the most phone screens (34 each); however, only 10% of these families enrolled in the study (three and four families, respectively). “Craigslist” was the most effective strategy with 30 families screened and 11 of them enrolling. Three strategies did not yield any participants. The four strategies with the lowest cost per family enrolled were “Facebook page,” “Craigslist,” “university mass e-mail,” and “organization/agency” (<$90). In conclusion, we found that some recruitment strategies were more successful at engaging low-income families to participate in a BPT program than others. Our results indicate that using a combination of recruitment strategies may be the optimal approach for recruiting low-income families.     

Assessing decision strategies using HyperCard

The use of “process-tracing” techniques for examining individuals’ decision strategies has been criticized widely for yielding results that are uninformative and often confounded. The present paper describes a new technique based on a “structural” approach that allows efficient assessment of finely discriminated decision strategies via a HyperCard program called DECOUT. The program presents individuals with an information matrix (e.g., describing five alternative pesticides on three attributes). Individuals are asked to choose the best or the worst alternative in the matrix for 12 problems. Information in the matrix is constructed so that choice of an alternative by an individual is uniquely associated with use of one particular decision strategy. The strategies include information integration, maximin, maximax, pessimism-optimism, and minimax-regret processes. An experiment using the program is described, and possible directions for future research and development are discussed.