Very long term memory for tacit knowledge

Very long term memory for abstract materials was examined by recalling subjects who had served in a synthetic grammar learning experiment two years earlier. In that study (Reber & Allen, 1978) we differentiated among several cognitive modes of acquisition, their resultant memorial representations, and their associated decision processes. Two years later and without any opportunity for rehearsal or relearning, subjects still retain knowledge of these grammars to a remarkable degree. Although some differences have become blurred with the passage of time, the form and structure of that knowledge and the manner in which it is put to use remain strikingly similar to the original. That is, differences traceable to acquisition mode and conditions of initial training can still be observed. As in the original study, these results are discussed within the general context of a functionalist approach to complex cognitive processes.     

Detection of acoustic repetition for very long stochastic patterns

Guttman and Julesz (1963) employed recycling frozen noise segments (RFNs) as model stimuli in their classic study of the lower limits for periodicity detection and short-term auditory memory. They reported that listeners can hear iteration of these stochastic signals effortlessly as "motorboating" for repetition periods ranging from 50 to 250 msec and as "whooshing" from 250 msec to 1 sec. Both motorboating and whooshing RFNs are global percepts encompassing the entire period, as are RFNs in the pitch range (repetition periods shorter than 50 msec). However, with continued listening to whooshing (but not motorboating) RFNs, individuals hear recurrent brief components such as clanks and thumps that are characteristic of the particular waveform. Experiment 1 of the present study describes a cross-modal cuing procedure that enables listeners to store and then recognize the recurrence of portions of frozen noise waveforms that are repeated after intervals of 10 sec or more. Experiment 2 compares the relative saliencies of different spectral regions in enabling listeners to detect repetition of these long-period patterns. Special difficulty was encountered with the 6-kHz band of RFNs, possibly due to the lack of fine-structure phase locking at this frequency range. In addition, a similarity is noted between the organizational principles operating over particular durational ranges of stochastic patterns and the characteristics of traditional hierarchical units of speech having corresponding durations.     

Behavioral training for myopia: long term maintenance of improved acuity

Two female myopic students participated in a behavioral training program designed to improve uncorrected visual acuity. Following a 3-day baseline, each subject underwent 12 days of training involving stimulus fading and feedback. Acuity measures were taken daily during baseline and training phases and weekly for more than 2 months following the termination of training. Both subjects showed improved acuity as a function of the training program and this improvement was maintained throughout the follow-up period. The results are discussed with respect to the growing body of research evaluating behavioral training for myopia.     

Brief wakeful resting boosts new memories over the long term

A brief wakeful rest after new verbal learning enhances memory for several minutes. In the research reported here, we explored the possibility of extending this rest-induced memory enhancement over much longer periods. Participants were presented with two stories; one story was followed by a 10-min period of wakeful resting, and the other was followed by a 10-min period during which participants played a spot-the-difference game. In Experiment 1, wakeful resting led to significant enhancement of memory after a 15- to 30-min period and also after 7 days. In Experiment 2, this striking enhancement of memory 7 days after learning was demonstrated even when no retrievals were imposed in the interim. The degree to which people can remember prose after 7 days is significantly affected by the cognitive activity that they engage in shortly after new learning takes place. We propose that wakeful resting after new learning allows new memory traces to be consolidated better and hence to be retained for much longer.     

Memorization and recall of very long lists accounted for within the Long-Term Working Memory framework

In a recent paper, Hu, Ericsson, Yang, and Lu (2009) found that an ability to memorize very long lists of digits is not mediated by the same mechanisms as exceptional memory for rapidly presented lists, which has been the traditional focus of laboratory research. Chao Lu is the holder of the Guinness World Record for reciting the most decimal positions of pi, yet he lacks an exceptional memory span for digits. In the first part of this paper we analyzed the reliability and structure of his reported encodings for lists of 300 digits and his application of the story mnemonic. Next, his study and recall times for lists of digits were analyzed to test hypotheses about his detailed encoding processes, and cued-recall performance was used to assess the structure of his encodings. Three experiments were then designed to interfere with the uniqueness of Chao Lu's story encodings, and evidence was found for his remarkable ability to adapt his encoding processes to reduce the interference. Finally, we show how his skills for encoding and recalling long lists can be accounted for within the theoretical framework of Ericsson and Kintsch's (1995) Long-Term Working Memory.     

Child sexual abuse coping and long term psychological adjustment

The aim of the study was to analyze the consequences of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) on the psychological adjustment of university students, as well as the way in which several avoidance and approach coping strategies affect that adjustment. The sample comprised 1162 students from the University of Granada. Data about CSA was obtained from a questionnaire developed with this aim. We used the How I Deal with Things Scale of Burt and Katz to evaluate coping strategies, whereas depression and self-esteem were assessed with the Beck Depression Inventory and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, respectively. Subjects who were victims of CSA showed significantly higher scores on depression and lower scores on self-esteem. An analysis of coping strategies revealed that only the use of avoidance strategies was related to psychological adjustment. Subjects who used these strategies obtained higher scores on depression and lower scores on self-esteem. These results confirm the idea of CSA as a risk experience that can affect victims' psychological adjustment, to a greater or lesser extent, according to the coping strategy employed.     

The Tichborne Claimant: Person identification following very long intervals

An account is given of the nineteenth-century case of the Tichborne Claimant, in which someone purporting to be Sir Roger Tichborne, a missing heir, arrived in England from Australia 13 years after Sir Roger had been assumed drowned at sea. Many people, including Lady Tichborne, Sir Roger's mother, positively identified him. Others insisted that he was an impostor. A civil court and a criminal trial each found against The Claimant for various reasons, but the question of The Claimant's true identity remains open to this day. The case of the Tichborne Claimant is used to illustrate issues in identification that are of contemporary interest. The particular matter of how faces change over time is briefly discussed.     

A 25-year follow-up: Some reflections on personality development over the long term

Highlights of our work over the last 30 years are reviewed; we begin with the infants whom we studied in the mid-1950s and conclude with impressions from a follow-up of their development 30 years later. The review begins with our first effort to propose a constructionist view of behavioral organization over the first 3 years of life, in terms of the negotiation by infant and caregiver of a sequence of adaptations in their interaction. This review includes a brief consideration of living systems and some of the principles that constrain the organization of behavior of the participants. Illustration of the way that these principles set up the “event-structure” of a system is given. In its recurrence, this event-structure sets the stage for psychic organization. The application of this early formulation to the study of 25- to 30-year outcome in these same infants studies the hypothesis that the configuration of adaptive strategies that the subject constructs by 2 years of age will be recognizable in the strategies which that individual employs in self-recognition and in the later construction of his ecologic niche at age 25. The logic or rules for this construction are set up over the first 2 years, as the infant's adaptation to the event-structure of the system is achieved and regulates later constructions. The bias set depends on the red thread of the subject's early inner experience of state and emotion (or affect) in relation to the infant's competence as agent in regulating states. A basis for inference as to this red thread of inner experience has been summarized in five propositions of construction. These highlight the patterning of competence in self-regulation within the individual's unique system. The role of infant state and of positive affects in this long-term influence is critical, as is the patterning of competence in enabling the infant to reconstruct desired states as goals in the unique configuration of adaptive solutions achieved for that system.     

Stimulus aspects of aversive controls: long term effects of suppression procedures

Five years ago, pigeons trained to peck a key for food were periodically presented with a 1000 cps tone which ended with electrical shock. They were then tested for the stimulus generalization of conditioned suppression. After an interruption of 2.5 yr, another series of generalization tests showed no loss of suppression. The present study was conducted 1.5 yr later to retest the effect of an extended interruption on retention of suppression. It was found, again, that suppression did not decline over time. The present paper, which summarizes the earlier data and reports the most recent findings, provides an overview of the extended behavioral consequences of the original aversive procedures administered five years ago.     

Trichotomous preferences for gambles

Let G_X be the set of all gambles on a set X of decision outcomes. Trichotomous preferences divide G_X into three disjoint subsets, viz., the set P⁺ of preferable gambles, the set P⁰ of indifferent gambles, and the set P^- of unpreferable gambles. Those preference comparisons are made against the status quo, i.e., the do-nothing alternative. This paper presents and discusses dyadic representations of such trichotomous preferences and identifies necessary and sufficient axioms for the existence of those representations.     

Determining a long term ambulatory load profile of the shoulder joint: neural networks predicting input for a musculoskeletal model

To gain more insight in the development of joint damage, a long term load profile of the shoulder joint under daily living conditions is desirable. Standard musculoskeletal models estimate joint load using kinematics and exerted force. However, the latter cannot be measured continuously in ambulatory settings, hampering the use of these models. This paper describes a method for obtaining such a load profile, by training a Neural Network (NN), using kinematics and EMG. A small data set of specified movements with known exerted forces is used in two ways. First, the model calculates several variables of joint load, and a set of Generalized Forces and Net Moments (GFNM) around the model's degrees of freedom. Second, using kinematics and EMG, an NN is trained to predict these GFNM, which can concurrently be used as input for the model, resulting in full model output independent of exerted force. The method is validated with an independent trial. The NN could predict GFNM within 10% relative RMS, compared to output of the model. The NN-model combination estimated joint reaction forces with relative RMS values of 7 to 17%, enabling the estimation of a detailed load profile of the shoulder under daily conditions.     

The efficacy of massage on short and long term outcomes in preterm infants

Purpose

Premature infants lack the tactile stimulation they would have otherwise experienced in the womb. Infant massage is a developmentally supportive intervention that has been documented for several decades to have a positive effect on both full term and preterm infants. The purpose of this study was to assess the short and long term benefits of massage on stable preterm infants.

Methods

A quasi experimental design was used, 66 infants were recruited from two university hospitals with tertiary level NICUs; 32 infants received the massage therapy by their mothers. Data collection by a researcher blind to the infants’ group assignments included weight at discharge, pain responses on the PIPP scale at discharge, length of stay in hospital, neuro-developmental outcome (Bayley scores) and breastfeeding duration at 12 months corrected age.

Results

Infants who were massaged had significantly lower scores on the PIPP after a heel-stick compared to before the massage and had lower PIPP scores at discharge compared to the control group. Massaged infants had higher cognitive scores at 12 months corrected age. Weight gain, length of stay, breastfeeding duration and motor scores did not differ between groups.

Conclusion

Stable preterm infants benefit from massage therapy given by their mothers and may be a culturally acceptable form of intervention to improve the outcomes of preterm infants.     

Female preferences for male physiques

A pair comparison design was used to gather information concerning female preferences for male physiques. By independently varying the size of one of four body areas (the arms, upper trunk, lower trunk, or legs), 19 male silhouettes were constructed. Thurstone scale values indicating relative preferences among these silhouettes were generated for each of 64 female subjects. Correlations were calculated between subject variables, e.g., own physical appearance, personal habits, male and female sex-role attitudes, etc., and the underlying preference factors for male physiques. While the bulk of the significant correlations were low, accounting for approximately 5–10% of the variance, the general trend of the results suggest that women's preferences for male physiques can be summarized in terms of feminine and masculine sex-role stereotypes. Women who are traditionally feminine show a preference for traditionally masculine physiques, i.e., tapering V physiques, while less traditional women express more nonstereotyped preferences. It is also suggested that a female's preferences for male physiques may serve as an initial delimiter in narrowing the field of eligibles in heterosexual pairing.     

Just a minute meditation: Rapid voluntary conscious state shifts in long term meditators

Meditation induces a modified state of consciousness that remains under voluntary control. Can meditators rapidly and reversibly bring about mental state changes on demand? To check, we carried out 128 channel EEG recordings on Brahma Kumaris Rajayoga meditators (36 long term: median 14240 h meditation; 25 short term: 1095 h) and controls (25) while they tried to switch every minute between rest and meditation states in different conditions (eyes open and closed; before and after an engaging task). Long term meditators robustly shifted states with enhanced theta power (4–8 Hz) during meditation. Short term meditators had limited ability to shift between states and showed increased lower alpha power (8–10 Hz) during eyes closed meditation only when pre and post task data were combined. Controls could not shift states. Thus trained beginners can reliably meditate but it takes long term practice to exercise more refined control over meditative states.     

From brief gaps to very long pauses: temporal isolation does not benefit serial recall

Theoretical explanations of short-term memory for serial order can be classified on the basis of whether or not they invoke time as a causal variable. According to time-based accounts, such as temporal distinctiveness theories, there is an intimate link between time and memory. Event-based theories, by contrast, postulate processes such as interference or rehearsal to account for seemingly temporal phenomena in short-term memory. We report an experiment that examined whether extended temporal isolation benefits serial recall performance. Regardless of whether the participants were quiet or performed articulatory suppression during list presentation, temporal isolation did not benefit memory even if items were separated from their neighbors by up to 7 sec. These findings challenge time-based theories of short-term memory.     

Time preferences in long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) and humans (Homo sapiens)

Rosati et al. (Curr Biol 17(19):1663–1668, 2007) found in a self-control test in which choice was between a smaller, immediately delivered food and a larger, delayed food, that chimpanzees preferred the larger reward (self-control); humans, however, preferred the smaller reward (impulsivity). They attributed their results to a species difference in self-control. In Experiment 1, monkeys (long-tailed macaques) were exposed to a self-control task in two conditions: where the food was hidden under differently colored bowls and where it was visible. When these two conditions were compared, choice shifted from greater preference for the impulsive alternative in the hidden condition to greater preference for the self-control alternative in the visible condition. Additionally, in both conditions, preference shifted from self-control to impulsivity over sessions. These results were explained in terms of the reversed-contingency effect (a propensity to reach for more over less when rewards are visible) and not to a capacity for self-control. In Experiment 2, humans that demonstrated preference for more over less in choice preferred the impulsive alternative when choice to either alternative was followed by the same intertrial interval—a preference that accelerates trial rates relative to preference of the self-control alternative. When trial rates were equated so that neither choice accelerated session’s end, humans demonstrated self-control. These results suggest that Rosati et al.’s demonstration of impulsivity in humans was due to participants’ desire to minimize session time.