The role of colour in implicit and explicit memory performance

We present two experiments that examine the effects of colour transformation between study and test (from black and white to colour and vice versa, or from incorrectly coloured to correctly coloured and vice versa) on implicit and explicit measures of memory for diagnostically coloured natural objects (e.g., yellow banana). For naming and coloured-object decision (i.e., deciding whether an object is correctly coloured), there were shorter response times to correctly coloured-objects than to black-and-white and incorrectly coloured-objects. Repetition priming was equivalent for the different stimulus types. Colour transformation did not influence priming of picture naming, but for coloured-object decision priming was evident only for objects remaining the same from study to test. This was the case for both naming and coloured-object decision as study tasks. When participants were asked to consciously recognize objects that they had named or made coloured-object decisions to previously, whilst ignoring their colour, colour transformation reduced recognition efficiency. We discuss these results in terms of the flexibility of object representations that mediate priming and recognition.     

The role of working memory in motor learning and performance

Three experiments explore the role of working memory in motor skill acquisition and performance. Traditional theories postulate that skill acquisition proceeds through stages of knowing, which are initially declarative but later procedural. The reported experiments challenge that view and support an independent, parallel processing model, which predicts that procedural and declarative knowledge can be acquired separately and that the former does not depend on the availability of working memory, whereas, the latter does. The behaviour of these two processes was manipulated by providing or withholding visual (and auditory) appraisal of outcome feedback. Withholding feedback was predicted to inhibit the use of working memory to appraise success and, thus, prevent the formation of declarative knowledge without affecting the accumulation of procedural knowledge. While the first experiment failed to support these predictions, the second and third experiments demonstrated that procedural and declarative knowledge can be acquired independently. It is suggested that the availability of working memory is crucial to motor performance only when the learner has come to rely on its use.     

The role of personality and socio-economic status in the stress–illness relation: A longitudinal study

Although a wide variety of factors have been found to be related to health in some way, researchers on the subject of health generally fail to integrate findings of other research disciplines within their own line of research. This study has attempted to bring together two research disciplines: (a) research on personality and health, and (b) research on socio-economical differences in health. Personality factors as well as social class have been found to mediate the stress-illness relation. Based on empirical and theoretical considerations, we proposed a simple model for the occurrence and course of disease. The personality factors studied were neuroticism, locus of control, and self-esteem. Socio-economic status (SES) was represented by education level, occupation status, and income. Health was operationalized as the number of somatic diseases. The research questions were investigated (using t-tests andpath analysis) in a longitudinal set of data that were collected between 1970 and 1984 among 245 subjects in the normal population. Neuroticism appeared to be an important mediator of the stress-illness relation. Of the SES variables, occupation and education served as mediators; education was especially infuential on the course of disease. The role of neuroticism is discussed.     

The effects of task instructor status on prospective memory performance in preschoolers

The present study applied a 2 × 2 experimental design to assess prospective memory (PM) development across preschool age and to examine the effect of task instructor status (researcher vs. significant other) on PM performance in 80 preschool children. Participants were required to name pictures (ongoing task [OT]), and to remember to refrain from naming but instead give a different response to certain target cues (PM task). Although the OT was of comparable difficulty for both age groups (as indicated by no performance differences), results still indicated significantly higher PM performance in 5-year-olds than in 3-year-olds, confirming the age-related increase of PM capacities between 3 and 5 years. Furthermore, results showed a performance-enhancing effect of significant others as task instructors on both age-groups. Post-hoc analysis revealed that 3-year-olds instructed by a significant other still performed marginally worse than 5-year-olds instructed by a researcher, underlining the finding that substantial changes of PM capacities take place during early childhood.     

The role of encoding strategies in the verbal memory performance in patients with schizophrenia

Background. Verbal learning and memory is often compromised in patients with schizophrenia who prefer encoding words in order of their presentation (serial clustering) rather than using semantic categories (semantic clustering). Method. One hundred and four in‐patients with schizophrenia were assessed twice with the California Verbal Learning Test. Results. Patients showed significantly less semantic than serial clustering at both assessment times. Usage of encoding strategies were not stable over time. An increase in semantic clustering improved recall and recognition performance. Conclusions. Patients with schizophrenia should be taught to use the more effective encoding strategy of semantic clustering in order to improve their memory performance.     

The role of habituation and attentional orienting in the disruption of short-term memory performance

A series of experiments explored habituation and dishabituation to repeated auditory distractors. Participants memorised lists of visually presented items in silence or while ignoring continuously presented auditory distractors. No habituation could be observed, in that the size of the auditory distractor effect did not decrease during the experiment. However, there was evidence for attentional orienting when novel auditory material was presented after a long period of repetitive stimulation, in that a change of distractors was associated with a temporary decrease in recall performance. The results are most consistent with theoretical accounts that claim that the auditory distractor effect is caused primarily by automatic interference, but that still allow attention to play a limited role in the short-term maintenance of information.     

Further consideration of size illusions in random dot stereograms.

It has been suggested that many geometric illusions are caused by the application of depth or size constancy rules to an image which does not have sufficient cues to establish that the elements lie in a flat plane. Thus, converging lines are taken as depth cues, and the attributed depth provides the basis for adjusting the perceived size of stimulus elements. It this is the case, one should not see a distortion of relative size if the disparity cues provide for strong statification, i.e., localization in depth of the linear perspective cues. This expectation is challenged by demonstrations that show distortions of relative size using random-dot stereograms. In 1971 Julesz provided such examples but did not comment on the implications for theories of depth. Here we redemonstrate these distortion of length and size in autostereograms which contain the Ponzo and Corridor configurations. The illusory distortions can be seen in the cyclopean view even though the linear perspective elements are well stratified. We suggest that the processing of binocular disparity cues, as required for judgments of absolute distance, may involve the dorsal stream of vision, i.e., activity passing into and including the parietal lobe. Pictorial cues, on the other hand, are likely passed through the ventral stream into the temporal lobe. The analysis of depth by this system provides for size constancy and, possibly, the calibration of relative motion.     

Further evidence of the intricacy of memory span

Memory span was measured for lists of verbal items constructed such that the items in the first half of the list were of one category and those of the second half were of another. In Experiment 1, the lists consisted of digits and words (e.g., 2, 8, 7, horse, cow, sheep or horse, cow, sheep, 2, 8, 7); in Experiment 2, they consisted of words from the same semantic domain and words from different semantic domains; in Experiments 3 and 4, they consisted of words that rhymed and words that did not rhyme. A category-order effect occurred in each experiment: Span was larger when the digits, same-domain words, or rhyming words occurred in the first half of the list than when they occurred in the second half. These findings suggest that memory span is more complex than is generally assumed.     

Further exploration memory bias in compulsive washers

The aim of the present study was to replicate Radomsky and Rachman's findings on memory bias in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), using the same procedure but an increased sample size, more specific control groups, and a full analysis of contamination attribution data. Sixteen OCD-washers, 16 OCD-checkers, 16 social phobic patients and 16 non-anxious controls were presented with 50 'clean' or 'dirty' objects. After this incidental encoding phase, participants were asked to freely recall the objects, to rate their anxiety when almost touching each object, and, finally, to attribute each object to one of the two contamination conditions ('clean' or 'dirty'). Verbal episodic memory was also assessed with the California Verbal Learning Test. The results indicate that, contrary to Radomsky and Rachman's findings, OCD-washers did not differ from the other participants in their memory for 'clean' and 'dirty' objects. However, the OCD-washers recalled more accurately the 'dirty' source of contamination than the 'clean' source. This result was specific to the OCD-washers, and suggests a memory bias for contextually threatening information. The differences between our findings and those published by Radomsky and Rachman's are discussed.     

Modification of coronary-prone behaviors in coronary patients of low socio-economic status

The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of a group cognitive-behavioral treatment to modify coronary-prone behaviors in patients from a fairly low social and educational level. Participants were 98 male coronary patients randomly allocated to one experimental and two control groups. All groups received standard medical treatment. The experimental group received an additional psychological treatment and one of the two control groups received a health education treatment. Results showed that only the psychological treatment group significantly reduced Pressured Drive and Speed-Impatience after treatment, and at 1- and 2-year follow-ups. Depression was also significantly reduced only in this group at 2-year follow-up. The results are considered a reliable first step in the process of validating this program designed to improve coronary heart disease patients' quality of life.     

A consideration of the normative status of skill in the purposive sports

It is popularly believed within sport's practice communities that a contest fails if the competitor who performs most skilfully in it does not win. The belief is rarely acknowledged explicitly, and therefore deserves to be considered ideological in a sense. In this paper I challenge that belief. For conceptual reasons, I confine the discussion to the purposive sports, e.g. football and tennis.

The concept of skill is approached by articulation of a set of platitudes about skill in the purposive sports. The first is the conceptual wedge between skill and success. The second is the distinction between skill and other performance-relevant qualities such as courage, strength and luck. The third is the fact that skill deficits can be compensated by sufficient amounts of the other performance relevant qualities. The fourth is the dispositional and dynamic character of skill. The relation between skill and final objectives in the purposive sports means that (i) qualities such as nerve and courage can trump the more skilful performance; and (ii) poor execution of a narrow range of skills can result in the competitive failure of the more skilful performance.

There is no viable ideal of sport that would ground regret about the realisation of the immediately preceding possibilities. The inclination towards such regret might be partly motivated by the wish to take a gratifying view of ourselves. An end to this response, and a more inclusive, less hierarchical conception of sport skills, is worth recommending.     

Solo status and women's spatial test performance: the role of individuation tendencies

The impact of anticipated solo status on women's spatial performance was investigated in an experimental study. The study was designed to test whether the underperformance of women entering testing situations who find themselves to be the only woman present is related to a tendency to individuate the self. Women performed a test of spatial ability under conditions of anticipated solo or non‐solo status and responded to a measure of self‐construal. In line with previous research, we found a disrupting solo status effect on women's performance on the spatial ability test. Most importantly, the negative effect of solo status on performance was partially mediated by individuation tendencies as reflected in a decreased predominance of the interdependent (as compared to the independent) level of the self under solo status conditions. These findings indicate that individuation tendencies play a crucial role in the process triggered in test takers under threatening performance situations. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Information relevance, working memory, and the consideration of alternatives

People routinely focus on one hypothesis and avoid consideration of alternative hypotheses on problems requiring decisions between possible states of the world--for example, on the “pseudodiagnosticity” task (Doherty, Mynatt, Tweney, & Schiavo, 1979). In order to account for behaviour on such “inference” problems, it is proposed that people can hold in working memory, and operate upon, but one alternative at a time, and that they have a bias to test the hypothesis they think true. In addition to being an ex post facto explanation of data selection in inference tasks, this conceptualization predicts that there are situations in which people will consider alternatives. These are:

1. “action” problems, where the alternatives are possible courses of action;

2. “inference” problems, in which evidence favours an alternative hypothesis.

Experiment 1 tested the first prediction. Subjects were given action or inference problems, each with two alternatives and two items of data relevant to each alternative. They received probabilistic information about the relation between one datum and one alternative and picked one value from among the other three possible pairs of such relations. Two findings emerged; (1) a strong tendency to select information about only one alternative with inferences; and (2) a strong tendency, compared to inferences, to select information about both alternatives with actions.

Experiment 2 tested the second prediction. It was predicted that data suggesting that one alternative was incorrect would lead many subjects to consider, and select information about, the other alternative. For actions, it was predicted that this manipulation would have no effect. Again the data were as predicted.     

On the status of implicit memory bias in anxiety

The present study evaluated the status of mood congruent memory bias in implicit memory tasks for threat related information. A literature review complemented by three experiments on high and low trait anxiety participants found no implicit memory bias for threat-related information in anxious individuals on either word fragment completion or tachistoscopic word identification tasks. The theoretical implications of these results are discussed.     

The role of the verb in sentence memory

Investigators have frequently found that nouns are more important than verbs in the memory representation of sentences. This pattern of results is incompatible with recent theories of sentence memory that have emphasized the verb and with the results of sentence comprehension studies that have demonstrated the importance of the verb. The four experiments reported here were designed to reexamine the role of the verb in sentence memory. Linguistic variables other than sentence function were held constant in three studies. Verbs were recalled as well and were as effective retrieval cues as nouns in these experiments. The to-be-remembered sentences were presented in the context of paragraphs in the fourth experiment. This reduced the difference in level of recall between subjects, verbs, and objects. The conclusion was drawn that the verb is no less important than sentence nouns in the memory representation.     

School socio-economic status and student socio-academic achievement goals in upper secondary contexts

In recent years motivational researchers have spent considerable time examining race/ethnicity and gender differences in academic and social achievement goals, but little time examining the influence of socioeconomic status (SES). This lack of attention is surprising given that both student motivation and SES have been shown to predict academic attainment. This study surveyed the academic and social achievement goal orientations of 16–17 year old students (n = 130) attending two schools with markedly different socioeconomic profiles. Analyses showed significant differences between the schools on the academic achievement goal scales, with students at the low SES school less likely to endorse adaptive combinations of mastery and performance goals than their high SES counterparts. Students who did not expect to finish senior high school also endorsed social goals that may manifest as disruptive behaviours in the classroom. The findings suggest that SES may influence the adoption of academic achievement goals but not necessarily social achievement goals. Implications for theory and research are discussed.     

The role of working memory and updating in Coloured Raven Matrices performance in typically developing children

A large body of evidence indicates that working memory correlates with performance on fluid intelligence tasks such as Raven's tests. However, light still needs to be shed on which particular aspects of working memory might be most critically related to fluid intelligence, and whether working memory updating—which appears crucial to intellectual functioning—has a prominent role. To address these issues more closely, our study presented participants (aged 5–11 years) with the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices, an updating task, and a battery of working memory tasks. Our findings confirm that working memory indeed plays an important part in explaining fluid intelligence, in particular that updating information in working memory is critical to fluid intelligence in the context of development.