Language, thought, and real nouns

We test the claim that acquiring a mass-count language, like English, causes speakers to think differently about entities in the world, relative to speakers of classifier languages like Japanese. We use three tasks to assess this claim: object-substance rating, quantity judgment, and word extension. Using the first two tasks, we present evidence that learning mass-count syntax has little effect on the interpretation of familiar nouns between Japanese and English, and that speakers of these languages do not divide up referents differently along an individuation continuum, as claimed in some previous reports [Gentner, D., & Boroditsky, L. (2001). Individuation, relativity, and early word learning. In M. Bowerman, & S. Levinson (Eds.), Language acquisition and conceptual development (pp. 215-256). Cambridge University Press]. Instead, we argue that previous cross-linguistic differences [Imai, M., & Gentner, D. (1997). A cross-linguistic study of early word meaning: Universal ontology and linguistic influence. Cognition, 62, 169-200] are attributable to “lexical statistics” [Gleitman, L., & Papafragou, A. (2005). Language and thought. In K. Holyoak, & R. Morrison (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of thinking and reasoning (pp. 633-661). Cambridge University Press]. Speakers of English are more likely to think that a novel ambiguous expression like “the blicket” refers to a kind of object (relative to speakers of Japanese) because speakers of English are likely to assume that “blicket” is a count noun rather than a mass noun, based on the relative frequency of each kind of word in English. This is confirmed by testing Mandarin-English bilinguals with a word extension task. We find that bilinguals tested in English with mass-count ambiguous syntax extend novel words like English monolinguals (and assume that a word like “blicket” refers to a kind of object). In contrast, bilinguals tested in Mandarin are significantly more likely to extend novel words by material. Thus, online lexical statistics, rather than non-linguistic thought, mediate cross-linguistic differences in word extension. We suggest that speakers of Mandarin, English, and Japanese draw on a universal set of lexical meanings, and that mass-count syntax allows speakers of English to select among these meanings.     

Neuropsychological impairments in the recognition of faces, voices, and personal names

In order to determine the dissociability of face, voice, and personal name recognition, we studied the performance of 36 brain-lesioned patients and 20 control subjects. Participants performed familiarity decisions for portraits, voice samples, and written names of celebrities and unfamiliar people. In those patients who displayed significant impairments in any of these tests, the specificity of these impairments was tested using corresponding object recognition tests (with pictures of objects, environmental sounds, or written common words as stimuli). The results showed that 58% of the patients were significantly impaired in at least one test of person recognition. Moreover, 28% of the patients showed impairments that appeared to be specific for people (i.e., performance was preserved in the corresponding object recognition test). Three patients showed a deficit that appeared to be confined to the recognition of familiar voices, a pattern that was not described previously. Results were generally consistent with the assumption that impairments in face, voice, and name recognition are dissociable from one another. In contrast, there was no clear evidence for a dissociability between deficits in face and voice naming. The results further suggest that (a) impairments in person recognition after brain lesions may be more common than was thought previously and (b) the patterns of impairment that were observed can be interpreted using current cognitive models of person recognition (Bruce & Young, 1986; Burton, Bruce, & Johnston, 1990).     

Pharmacotherapy of posttraumatic cognitive impairments

Pharmacotherapy may contribute to the rehabilitation of persons with posttraumatic cognitive impairments. This article reviews first the neurobiological consequences of traumatic brain injury with a particular emphasis on acute and long-term posttraumatic neurochemical disturbances. Studies of pharmacotherapies for posttraumatic cognitive impairments are reviewed next, and are organized according to medication class and the neurotransmitter system they affect most. Based on the evidence provided by that review, augmentation of posttraumatic cerebral catecholaminergic and cholinergic function are suggested as potentially useful neurochemical targets for pharmacologic intervention in this population. More specifically, it is suggested that persons with posttraumatic impairments in arousal, speed of processing, and possibly attention may benefit most from treatment with an agent that augments cerebral catecholaminergic function, and that persons whose predominant posttraumatic impairment is in the domain of memory may benefit most from treatment with cholinesterase inhibitors. Practical considerations regarding the use of pharmacotherapies for posttraumatic cognitive impairments are offered, and the need for additional research in this area is highlighted.     

Developmental coordination impairments in adulthood

The aim of this study was to extend the understanding of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) into adulthood. We recruited 19 adults aged between 18 and 65 who had received diagnoses of DCD or dyspraxia or who self-reported as having motor impairments consistent with a history of DCD, together with age- and gender-matched controls. Participants were given tests of manual dexterity, handwriting, construction, obstacle avoidance, dynamic balance, static balance, dual task performance, ball skills, reaction time, movement time and sequencing. As a group, adults with DCD performed more poorly than controls across all tasks. Slowness and variability of movement was a pervasive feature of their performance and many individuals had considerable problems with sequencing and with dual task performance. A discriminant function analysis conducted using six performance measures correctly classified participants as car drivers or non-drivers. Adults do retain motor difficulties and these can exclude them from important activities of daily living.     

Spatial navigational impairments in hydrocephalus

Whilst much is known about the neuropathological consequences of hydrocephalus, there have been comparatively few studies of the cognitive impairments associated with it. Studies using standardised tests of cognitive function have identified a general pattern of impairments, with patients exhibiting particular difficulty on tests of spatial memory and executive function. A strong prediction is that these deficits are likely to affect daily wayfinding behaviour, and we report a study of spatial and navigational abilities in a group of patients with hydrocephalus but without spina bifida. Participants completed a range of experimental tasks assessing spatial cueing behaviour, landmark memory and route-learning, and idiothetic path integration. This patient group was compared to a control sample matched on verbal, spatial, and intelligence measures, and hydrocephalus was found to be associated with relative impairments in each of the tasks. Patients exhibited reduced sensitivity to spatial cueing, less accurate route-learning, poorer memory for landmark objects, and less accurate spatial updating (with particular impairments in the calculation of heading). Overall, these data represent the first empirical demonstration of navigational impairments in hydrocephalus, and we suggest some of the cognitive, neural, and individual differences factors that may contribute to the pattern of performance reported.     

Horney,Zen, and the Real Self

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Age-related impairments of new memories reflect failures of learning,not retention

Learning impairments and the instability of memory are defining characteristics of cognitive aging. However, it is unclear if deficits in the expression of new memories reflect an accelerated decay of the target memory or a consequence of inefficient learning. Here, aged mice (19–21-mo old) exhibited acquisition deficits (relative to 3–5-mo old mice) on three learning tasks, although these deficits were overcome with additional training. When tested after a 30-d retention interval, the performance of aged animals was impaired if initial learning had been incomplete. However, if trained to equivalent levels of competence, aged animals exhibited no retention deficits relative to their young counterparts. These results suggest that age-related “memory” impairments can be overcome through a more effective learning regimen.Aging is associated with broad deficits in the acquisition of new knowledge (Matzel et al. 2008; see, for review, Gallagher and Rapp 1997; Rosenzweig and Barnes 2003), as well as impairments in the retrieval of both old and newly acquired information. While it is clear that old memories (i.e., ones obtained prior to age-related cognitive declines) do in fact become less stable with age (Gallagher 1997), it is less clear whether newly attained memories are inherently less stable in aged animals, or whether age-related memory deficits reflect a secondary consequence of inefficient learning.The majority of published data regarding cognitive aging describes impairments of animals'' learning abilities (Gage and Dunnett 1984; Markowska et al. 1994; Meliska et al. 1997; Nalbantoglu et al. 1997; Vogel et al. 2002; Matzel et al. 2008), although a smaller percentage of these studies also report animals'' performances after long retention intervals. Of those studies that report retention deficits, in most of those studies the initial learning upon which the long-term memory was based was impaired relative to young animals (e.g., Barnes and McNaughton 1985; Kinney et al. 2001a,b; Gould and Feiro 2005). Interestingly, in those few studies in which initial learning was equated across young and old animals, including studies of spatial water maze performance and appetitive instrumental responding, no retention deficits were observed, even after retention intervals as long as 21 d (Soffie and Lejeune 1991; Martinez-Serrano et al. 1996; Port et al. 1996).Although suggestive, the above experiments were not systematically designed to assess the stability of memory in aged animals as a function of the level of initial learning. In the present study, young (3–5 mo) and old (19–21 mo) male Balb/C mice were trained in three learning tasks (a spatial water maze, an egocentric Lashley III maze, and a three-choice odor discrimination). When trained to pre-asymptotic levels, aged animals exhibited both learning and retention deficits (assessed 30 d after initial training). However, when aged animals were trained to levels of competence comparable to their young counterparts, both young and old animals exhibited statistically indistinguishable levels of retention.Sixty Balb/C mice arrived in our laboratory at 2.5 mo (n = 30) or 18.5 mo (n = 30) of age. Each age category was divided into two groups of 15, one of which would receive subasymptotic training on each of the three learning tasks, and one of which would receive extended training on those tasks. Two aged mice became ill during the course of testing and were excluded from all analyses. Young mice ranged from 19.8 to 29.1 g, and aged mice from 26.2 to 37.3 g. Maintenance, food deprivation, and training conditions were as previously described (Matzel et al. 2006, 2003). Behavioral testing of young and aged mice was concluded at ∼5 and 21 mo of age, respectively.All animals were tested in three independent learning tasks. Briefly, the spatial water maze encourages mice to integrate spatial information to efficiently escape from a pool of water. In odor discrimination, animals must use a target odor (from a group of three odors) to guide their search for food. In the Lashley III maze, animals learn an egocentric sequence of turns to obtain a food reinforcer. Training on each task required 2–10 d (depending on the task and the level of training), and animals received four days of rest between tasks. A retention test was administered 30 d after the last training trial of each task.A Lashley III maze was constructed from black Plexiglas. A 3-cm-diameter white disk was located in the center of the goal box, and a 45 mg Bio-Serv food pellet (dustless rodent grain) was placed at the center of the disk and served as the reinforcer. Food-deprived animals received a day of acclimation to the maze, followed by either one or two days of training (four trials/day). On the day prior to the acclimation, animals received three Bio-Serv pellets in their home cage (thus mitigating any neophobia to the food on subsequent exposures). On the acclimation day, each mouse was confined in each of the first three alleys of the maze for 4 min, and in the final alley (containing the goal box) for 6 min. On this acclimation day, three Bio-Serv pellets were placed in the goal box. On the subsequent training day(s), each animal was placed in the start box and allowed to freely navigate the maze, during which time the number of errors to reach the goal box were recorded. (An error was constituted by a turn in the wrong direction or a retracing of a previously completed path.) Upon consuming the food pellet, the animal was returned to its home cage for a 25-min intertrial interval (ITI). All animals completed four trials during the first training day. Half of those animals then received an additional four training trials on the following day. Twenty-nine days after the last training trial, all animals received three Bio-Serv pellets in their home cages, and on the subsequent day were again tested in the maze.For the water maze, a round pool (140 cm diameter, 56 cm deep) was filled to within 20 cm of the top with water that was clouded with a water soluble black paint. A hidden 14-cm-diameter black platform was located in a fixed position 1 cm below the surface of the water. The pool was enclosed by a ceiling high black curtain on which five different light patterns (which served as spatial cues) were fixed at various positions. These light cues provided the only illumination of the maze, which was 60 Lux at the water''s surface.On the day prior to training, each animal was confined for 360 sec to the platform by a clear Plexiglas cylinder that fits around the platform. For either one or two training days (six trials Day 1, five trials Day 2), the animals were started from one of three positions, such that no consecutive trials started from the same position. After locating the platform or swimming for 90 sec, the animals were left or placed on the platform for 10 sec, after which they were placed in a holding box (for 12 min) before the start of the next trial. After the sixth or 11th training trial, animals were returned to their home cages for 3 h, and were then administered a 30-sec “probe” test in which the escape platform was removed from the maze and the time spent searching in the target quadrant was recorded. One hour later each animal received an additional training trial (intended to re-establish the search strategy employed by the animal prior to the probe test). Animals were then returned to their home cages, where a 30-d retention interval began.In odor discrimination, mice navigate through a field using unique odors to guide them. The animals learn to choose the food cup that contains the target smell when given three choices. The food cup locations are rearranged on each trial, but the accessible food is always marked by the same target odor (in this case mint). The chamber consisted of a black Plexiglas 60-cm-square field with 30-cm-high walls, which was located in a dimly lit room with high ventilation. A food cup was located in three corners. The target cup had accessible food (30 mg of chocolate puffed rice), while the remaining cups contained food that could not be accessed. A cotton tipped swab (2-cm long) was loaded with 25 μL of lemon-, mint- (the target odor), or almond-flavored extract and extended vertically from the back corner of each cup.Each animal had one day of acclimation and one day of training (consisting of four training trials). (In this task, both young and old animals reached asymptotic levels of performance [near errorless] within four training trials.) On Day 1 (adaptation), each mouse was placed in the box for 20 min with no food cups present. On the subsequent training day, a food cup was placed in three corners of the field, but only the cup associated with the mint odor contained accessible food. Each animal received four trials in which they were placed in the corner of the training chamber that did not contain a food cup. A trial continued until the animal obtained the food from the target location, at which time the animal was returned to its home cage to begin a 20 min ITI. At the end of each trial the food cups were rearranged, but mint always remained as the target odor. For each trial, the number of errors (contact with or sniffing within 2 cm of an incorrect food cup) was recorded. After the fourth training trial, the animal was returned to its home cage for a 30-d retention interval. On the 29th retention day, all animals received three pieces of chocolate flavored rice in their home cages, and on the subsequent day were again tested as in original training.     

Ideational action impairments in Alzheimer's disease

We report data from a group of patients with mild Alzheimer's disease on a range of tasks requiring either stored semantic knowledge about objects (e.g., naming object use) or the execution of action to objects (e.g., miming and using objects). We found that the patients were impaired at miming in response to objects, even when they could describe the object's function. On the other hand, copying gestures was not impaired relative to naming gestures, indicating that an ideomotor deficit in action execution, per se, was unlikely to explain the impairments in object use. We suggest instead that the patients had an impairment in stored motor programmes for action, over and above their deficits in semantic knowledge. Despite this, the patients were better at using than at miming to objects, consistent with the view that proprioceptive input (when using objects) can directly constrain selection of the appropriate motor programme for action.     

John Macmurray,Spirituality, Community and Real Schools

This paper suggests that the work of the Scottish philosopher John Macmurray provides a valuable contribution to debates on spirituality, education, and schools as communities. In particular by recognizing the nature of the spiritual in everyday activities of people in communities, by focusing on the overall aims of schooling, and by rejecting dualism, idealism and materialism, Macmurray was able to describe how schools might properly be organized. The paper aims to investigate some of Macmurray's insights, to see how they might help transform one's vision of schooling.     

Decision-making impairments in patients with Parkinson's disease

A high percentage of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients show cognitive impairments in addition to the cardinal motor symptoms. These deficits primarily concern executive functions most probably linked to dysfunctions in prefrontal regions due to decreased dopaminergic transmission in fronto-striatal loops. To investigate possible associations between decision-making and executive functions in PD, we examined 20 non-demented PD patients and 20 healthy control subjects with a neuropsychological test battery and the Game of Dice Task. In this computerised decision-making task, the rules for gains and losses and the winning probabilities are obvious and stable. Thus, strategic components besides feedback processing might influence decision-making in this task. We found that PD patients were impaired in the Game of Dice task performance and that the frequency of disadvantageous choices correlated with both executive functions and feedback processing. We suggest that decision-making deficits of PD patients in explicit gambling situations might be associated with dysfunctions in two different fronto-striatal loops: the limbic-orbitofrontal-striatal loop, involved in feedback processing, and the dorsolateral prefrontal-striatal loop, involved in executive functions.     

Inferences about age impairments in inferential reasoning

Two experiments are reported in which specially constructed series completion tests were administered to samples of young and older adults to determine why increased age is associated with poorer performance on measures of inductive reasoning. The results indicated that young and older adults did not differ significantly in the effectiveness of processes concerned with determining simple relations, but that older adults were impaired when the relations are complex or when different problems involve alternative organizational patterns. We conclude that the poorer performance of older adults relative to young adults on tasks of this type may be due to inadequate (e.g., overly simplistic or temporally instable) relational structures for the integration of problem elements.     

Toward a functional classification of naming impairments

Three experiments involving confrontation naming and nonverbal classification tasks establish that impaired naming is relatively common in elderly cardiac patients, but that it can be distinguished functionally from aphasic dysnoia. The results suggest that while the aphasics' failures often reflected failure to retrieve the verbal labels of objects which were appropriately perceived, naming failures in cardiac patients were frequently precipitated by failure to éstablish the semantic identity of the target and were more sentitive to reductions in visual quality of the target picture.