Webcam testing: Validation of an innovative open-ended multimedia test

A modern test that takes advantage of the opportunities provided by advancements in computer technology is the multimedia test. The purpose of this study was to investigate the criterion-related validity of a specific open-ended multimedia test, namely a webcam test, by means of a concurrent validity study. In a webcam test a number of work-related situations are presented and participants have to respond as if these were real work situations. The responses are recorded with a webcam. The aim of the webcam test which we investigated is to measure the effectiveness of social work behaviour. This first field study on a webcam test was conducted in an employment agency in The Netherlands. The sample consisted of 188 consultants who participated in a certification process. For the webcam test, good interrater reliabilities and internal consistencies were found. The results showed the webcam test to be significantly correlated with job placement success. The webcam test scores were also found to be related to job knowledge. Hierarchical regression analysis demonstrated that the webcam test has incremental validity up to and beyond job knowledge in predicting job placement success. The webcam test, therefore, seems a promising type of instrument for personnel selection.     

The dark side of testing memory: repeated retrieval can enhance eyewitness suggestibility

Eyewitnesses typically recount their experiences many times before trial. Such repeated retrieval can enhance memory retention of the witnessed event. However, recent studies (e.g., Chan, Thomas, & Bulevich, 2009) have found that initial retrieval can exacerbate eyewitness suggestibility to later misleading information--a finding termed retrieval-enhanced suggestibility (RES). Here we examined the influence of multiple retrieval attempts on eyewitness suggestibility to subsequent misinformation. In four experiments, we systematically varied the number of initial tests taken (between zero and six), the delay between initial testing and misinformation exposure (~30 min or 1 week), and whether initial testing was manipulated between- or within-subjects. University undergraduate students were used as participants. Overall, we found that eyewitness suggestibility increased as the number of initial tests increased, but this RES effect was qualified by the delay and by whether initial testing occurred in a within- or between-subjects manner. Specifically, the within-subjects RES effect was smaller than the between-subjects RES effect, possibly because of the influence of retrieval-induced forgetting/facilitation (Chan, 2009) when initial testing was manipulated within subjects. Moreover, consistent with the testing effect literature (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006), the benefits of repeated testing on later memory were stronger after a 1-week delay than after a 30-min delay, thus reducing the negative impact of RES in long-term situations. These findings suggest that conditions that are likely to occur in criminal investigations can either increase (repeated testing) or reduce (delay) the influence of RES, thus further demonstrating the complex relationship between eyewitness memory and repeated retrieval.     

Hypermnesia: the role of repeated testing

The present study was designed to determine whether the increased recall of pictures across repeated tests (hypermnesia) is due to increasing strength of imaginal traces during the retention interval or to increased retrieval practice from prior tests. Subjects studied 60 pictures and then recalled them after various delays that were filled with instructions and, in two cases, reading a passage. Recall on a first test showed no change with retention interval. With retention interval held constant, however, the number of pictures recalled varied directly with the number of prior tests subjects had been given. This finding points up the critical nature of retrieval factors in producing hypermnesia.     

Avoidance as a predictor of the biological course of HIV infection over a 7-year period in gay men.

The present study prospectively investigated the relation between avoidance coping and active cognitive and behavioral coping and the progression of HIV infection over 7 years in 181 gay men. Findings revealed that for a number of medical and behavioral factors, (a) avoidance coping predicted a lower rate of decline in CD4 cells, (b) the proportional hazard (PH) attributable to avoidance of developing a syncytium-inducing HIV variant was 0.72 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.53 - 0.99, p < .05), and (c) the PH attributable to avoidance of dropping below 200 CD4 cells/microl was 0.66 (95% CI: 0.50 - 0.89, p < .01). Avoidance coping was not related to the development of AIDS-defining clinical symptoms. Active cognitive and behavioral coping was not related to the outcome measures.     

Causal conditional reasoning and semantic memory retrieval: a test of the semantic memory framework

This study tested and refined a framework that proposes a mechanism for retrieving alternative causes and disabling conditions (Cummins, 1995) during reasoning. Experiment 1 examined the relation between different factors affecting retrieval. The test revealed high correlations between the number of possible alternative causes or disabling conditions and their strength of association and plausibility. Experiment 2 explored the hypothesis that due to a more extended search process, conditional inferences would last longer when many alternative causes or disabling conditions were available. Affirmation of the consequent (AC) and modus ponens (MP) latencies showed the hypothesized pattern. Denial of the antecedent (DA) and modus tollens (MT) inferences did not show latency effects. The experiment also identified an effect of the number of disabling conditions on AC and DA acceptance. Experiment 3 measured efficiency of disabler retrieval by a limited time, disabler generation task. As predicted, better disabler retrieval was related to lower acceptance of the MP and MT inferences.     

Assessment of behavioural markers of autonoetic consciousness during episodic autobiographical memory retrieval: a preliminary analysis

There is ongoing theoretical debate regarding episodic memory and how it can be accurately measured, in particular if the focus should be content-based recall of episodic details or something more experiential involving the subjective capacity to mentally travel back in time and "re-live" aspects of the original event. The autonoetic subscale of the Episodic Autobiographical Memory Interview (EAMI) is presented here as a new test instrument that attempts to redress theoretical and methodological shortcomings in autobiographical memory assessment. The EAMI merges a phenomenological detail-based approach with an assessment of autonoetic consciousness, departing considerably from traditional Remember/Know paradigms used within this field. We present findings from an initial pilot study investigating the potential markers of autonoetic consciousness that may accompany episodic retrieval. Key behavioural indices of autonoetic consciousness, notably those of viewer perspective, visual imagery, and emotional re-experiencing, emerged as being inextricably bound with the level of phenomenological detail recalled and the overall re-living judgment. The autonoetic subscale of the EAMI permits conceptually refined assessment of episodic personal memories and the accompanying subjective experience of mental re-living, characteristic of episodic memory.     

Putting action memory to the test: testing affects subsequent restudy but not long-term forgetting of action events

Testing memory typically enhances subsequent re-encoding of information (“indirect” testing effect) and, as compared to restudy, it also benefits later long-term retention (“direct” testing effect). We investigated the effect of testing on subsequent restudy and 1-week retention of action events (e.g. “water the plant”). In addition, we investigated if the type of recall practice (noun-cued vs. verb-cued) moderates these testing benefits. The results showed an indirect testing effect that increased following noun-cued recall of verbs as compared to verb-cued recall of nouns. In contrast, a direct testing effect on the forgetting rate of performed actions was not reliably observed, neither for noun- nor verb-cued recall. Thus, to the extent that this study successfully dissociated direct and indirect testing-based enhancements, they seem to be differentially effective for performed actions, and may rely on partially different mechanisms.     

Correlates of memory decline: a 4-year longitudinal study of older adults with memory complaints.

Change in memory performance and its correspondence to change in speed of performance and self-reported memory functioning were investigated longitudinally in 30 older adults with memory complaints. Subjects were assessed by self-report questionnaires and cognitive tests 3 times, at near 2-year intervals. A significant decline in word-recall scores was found, which was accompanied at the group level by significant self-reported decline in everyday memory functioning and nonsignificant decline in Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Digit Symbol scores (alpha = .05). The oldest subjects showed the most substantial declines in memory performance. At the individual level, however, memory change did not significantly correlate with either change in self-reports or change in Digit Symbol scores. Although these results do not support a cognitive slowing model of decline at the intraindividual level, they do have implications for intervention of age-related memory decline.     

Reenactment of televised content by 2-year olds: toddlers use language learned from television to solve a difficult imitation problem

Parents commonly label objects on television and for some programs, verbal labels are also provided directly via voice-over. The present study investigated whether toddlers' imitation performance from television would be facilitated if verbal labels were presented on television via voice-over or if they were presented by parents who were co-viewing with their toddlers. Sixty-one 2-year olds were randomly assigned to one of four experimental groups (voice-over video, parent video, parent video no label, parent live) or to a baseline control condition. Toddlers were tested with novel objects after a 24h delay. Although, all experimental groups imitated significantly more target actions than the baseline control group, imitation was facilitated by novel labels regardless of whether those labels were provided by parents or by voice-over on television. These findings have important implications for toddler learning from television.     

Emotional arousal and memory: a test of the poststimulus processing hypothesis

Emotional arousal is believed to enhance memory for details central to an episode but impair memory for peripheral details. However, new research suggests that arousal induced thematically (i.e., through involvement with an unfolding event) produces only memory enhancements. This article examines whether consciously controlled elaborative processing in the aftermath of an arousing experience is responsible. A dual task manipulation was used to prevent participants from ruminating over a video that depicted an abduction and attack. Several indices of recall showed greater memory for emotional event details than for details from a neutral control video, which remained the case when the opportunity for post-stimulus elaboration was prevented. Thus, superior retention of the content of emotional experiences may arise from the way in which arousal is induced rather than through immediate postevent cognitions.     

Validation of the DynaPort MiniMod during sleep: a pilot study

To measure activity during sleep, polysomnography and actigraphy are often used. The DynaPort MiniMod measures movement intensity and body position day and night. The goal was to examine the validity of the DynaPort MiniMod in assessing physical activity and body posture during sleep. In Study A, 10 healthy participants slept with the DynaPort MiniMod and the Actiwatch for one night. In Study B, 8 participants suspected of having Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Syndrome slept for one night with the DynaPort MiniMod and underwent complete polysomnography as part of the typical care protocol. In Study A, there was a significant moderate correlation (r = .70) between the movement scores of the Actiwatch and the DynaPort MiniMod. In Study B, a high intraclass correlation (r = .84) between body posture scores of the DynaPort MiniMod and the polysomnography position sensor was observed. The DynaPort MiniMod is a valid measurement device for physical activity during sleep.     

Recognition hypermnesia: The growth of recognition memory (d&#x27;) over time with repeated testing

This study sought to determine whether recognition hypermnesia (unforgetting) might be obtained over time with repeated testing of recognition memory. Four types of stimuli were investigated: pictures or words (captions) from configured (funny) or non-configured (non-funny) cartoons. Three recognition tests, each comprising the same stimulus and distractor items, were successively administered after the presentation of a large set of captioned cartoons. Silent think intervals of 5 min were interpolated between recognition tests. Recognition hypermnesia, measured by increasing d' estimates of accessible recognition memory, was obtained with the pictures from configured (funny) cartoons but not with any of the other groups.     

Working memory period: the endurance of mental representations.

Working memory span assesses the maximum number of items that can be remembered in the face of concurrent processing. Models of working memory differ on several dimensions, yet many rely exclusively on this span procedure for their evidence. Three experiments consider an alternative paradigm that attempts to capture the endurance limits for remembering a fixed number of items during concurrent processing. Eight-year-old children performed two versions of this working memory period measure--operation period and reading period. Period scores show healthy test-retest reliability and external validity for scholastic attainment, comparing well with span scores in these respects. In addition, period is highly correlated with span and shows similar effects of varying the order in which stimuli are presented. We conclude that the durability of representations is an important factor in both span and period.     

Planting misinformation in the human mind: a 30-year investigation of the malleability of memory

The misinformation effect refers to the impairment in memory for the past that arises after exposure to misleading information. The phenomenon has been investigated for at least 30 years, as investigators have addressed a number of issues. These include the conditions under which people are especially susceptible to the negative impact of misinformation, and conversely when are they resistant. Warnings about the potential for misinformation sometimes work to inhibit its damaging effects, but only under limited circumstances. The misinformation effect has been observed in a variety of human and nonhuman species. And some groups of individuals are more susceptible than others. At a more theoretical level, investigators have explored the fate of the original memory traces after exposure to misinformation appears to have made them inaccessible. This review of the field ends with a brief discussion of the newer work involving misinformation that has explored the processes by which people come to believe falsely that they experienced rich complex events that never, in fact, occurred.     

Submerged electrodes in an aquarium: Validation of a technique for remote sensing of behavior

Necturus maculosus has been selected as representative of a class of neotenic amphibia whose behavior (including gill beat, heartbeat, and tail waving) can be sensed remotely by submerged electrodes in an aquarium. This communication presents a validation of the technique as a preface to reports on the electrophysiology of behavior in unrestrained surgically naive salamanders. Although the sources of the submarine signals are not known with certainty, they apparently depend on two factors: (1) aquarium water of appropriate ionic strength serves as a volume conductor for activity, and (2) animal movement displaces water or produces waves which are sensed as a change in potential at the water-electrode interface. This method provides a continuous comprehensive record of behavior simultaneously from several response systems in a freely behaving animal.     

The modality effect in long-term memory: a test of the echoic-consolidation hypothesis

Thirty-four subjects performed a task which combined the running memory and ‘throughlist’ distractor paradigms and was designed to permit an echoic consolidation effect across all serial positions , The predicted long-term difference between reading aloud and reading silently was clearly demonstrated and the results were used to argue in support of the ‘indirect-echoic’ hypothesis.     

Searching the same display twice: Properties of short-term memory in repeated search

Consecutive search for different targets in the same display is supported by a short-term memory mechanism: Distractors that have recently been inspected in the first search are found more quickly in the second search when they become the target (Exp. 1). Here, we investigated the properties of this memory process. We found that this recency advantage is robust to a delay between the two searches (Exp. 2) and that it is only slightly disrupted by an interference task between the two searches (Exp. 3). Introducing a concurrent secondary task (Exp. 4) showed that the memory representations formed in the first search are based on identity as well as location information. Together, these findings show that the short-term memory that supports repeated visual search stores a complex combination of item identity and location that is robust to disruption by either time or interference.