Activating attachment representations impact how we retrieve autobiographical memories

Although much research indicates that proximity to attachment figures confers many psychological benefits, there is little evidence pertaining to how attachment activation may impact autobiographical memory retrieval. Following a negative mood induction to elicit overgeneral autobiographical retrieval, participants (N?=?70) were administered an induction in which they imagined a person who is a strong attachment figure or an acquaintance. Participants then completed an autobiographical memory task to retrieve memories in response to neutral and negative cue words. Attachment priming resulted in less distress, increased retrieval of specific memories, and reduced retrieval of categoric memories. These findings indicate that activation of mental representations of attachment figures can impact on the specificity of autobiographical memory retrieval, and extends prevailing models of autobiographical memory by integrating them with attachment theory.     

Spatial versus tree representations of proximity data

In this paper we investigated two of the most common representations of proximities, two-dimensional euclidean planes and additive trees. Our purpose was to develop guidelines for comparing these representations, and to discover properties that could help diagnose which representation is more appropriate for a given set of data. In a simulation study, artificial data generated either by a plane or by a tree were scaled using procedures for fitting either a plane (KYST) or a tree (ADDTREE). As expected, the appropriate model fit the data better than the inappropriate model for all noise levels. Furthermore, the two models were roughly comparable: for all noise levels, KYST accounted for plane data about as well as ADDTREE accounted for tree data. Two properties of the data proved useful in distinguishing between the models: the skewness of the distribution of distances, and the proportion of elongated triangles, which measures departures from the ultrametric inequality, Applications of KYST and ADDTREE to some twenty sets of real data, collected by other investigators, showed that most of these data could be classified clearly as favoring either a tree or a two-dimensional representation.A portable PASCAL program implementing the Sattath and Tversky [1977] ADDTREE algorithm is available from J. Corter, Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305.     

Incorporating inferences in narrative representations: A study of how and why

Four experiments examined the conceptual organization of narrative passages and the extent to which these representations were explanatory in a variety of experimental tasks. The conceptual representation of a passage consisted of a graph of labeled nodes and labeled, directed arcs which were adopted from the Conceptual Dependency Theory. These representations included both explicitly stated information and inferences which had been empirically extracted by a question-answering procedure. Symbolic procedures for answering how- and why-questions were also delineated. The conceptual representations and the symbolic procedures that operate on these representations together accounted for 91% of the answers generated from question-answering protocols in Experiment 1, and also the rated quality of specific answers to specific questions in Experiment 2. Experiments 3 and 4 supported the hypothesis that structural properties of the representations can predict recall of explicitly stated nodes and verification ratings of inference nodes. The results provide encouraging support for the proposed graphic representations and also for the use of question-answering protocols in uncovering prose inferences.     

Comparing representations and computations in single neurons versus neural networks

Single-neuron-level explanations have been the gold standard in neuroscience for decades. Recently, however, neural-network-level explanations have become increasingly popular. This increase in popularity is driven by the fact that the analysis of neural networks can solve problems that cannot be addressed by analyzing neurons independently. In this opinion article, I argue that while both frameworks employ the same general logic to link physical and mental phenomena, in many cases the neural network framework provides better explanatory objects to understand representations and computations related to mental phenomena. I discuss what constitutes a mechanistic explanation in neural systems, provide examples, and conclude by highlighting a number of the challenges and considerations associated with the use of analyses of neural networks to study brain function.     

What We Deserve, and how We Reciprocate

Samuel Scheffler says, “none of the most prominent contemporary versions of philosophical liberalism assigns a significant role to desert at the level of fundamental principle.” To the extent that this is true, the most prominent contemporary versions of philosophical liberalism are mistaken. In particular, there is an aspect of what we do to make ourselves deserving that, although it has not been discussed in the literature, plays a central role in everyday moral life, and for good reason. As with desert, reciprocity inspires skepticism. What Allen Buchanan calls justice as reciprocity implies that duties of justice obtain only among those who can do each other favors. So characterized, justice as reciprocity is at best only a part of justice – a part that is silent on duties between people who have no favors to offer each other. Still, the more modest root idea of reciprocity – the idea that returning favors is at very least a good thing – remains compelling. What can we say on behalf of this root idea? This article is part of a larger work on the elements of justice. Both parts of it begin with and build on James Rachels’ seminal paper “What People Deserve.”     

Pictorial versus structural representations of ingroup and outgroup faces

Mental representations of unfamiliar faces may rely, to a greater or lesser extent, on pictorial cues that are closely linked to the specific image studied, and structural cues that allow for recognition across various transformations. Here, we test participants’ recognition of unfamiliar ingroup and outgroup faces, manipulating image transformation (pose) and exposure duration. The results showed that changes in pose reduced accuracy for outgroup faces but not for ingroup faces. Overall, accuracy increased as exposure duration increased. Accurate responses were made more rapidly than inaccurate responses for both ingroup and outgroup faces, showing that response latency is a useful postdictor of accuracy even for cross-ethnic identifications. The results are discussed in the framework of Bruce and Young's (1986) model of face recognition.     

Abstract versus modality-specific memory representations in processing auditory and visual speech

Serial recall of lip-read, auditory, and audiovisual memory lists with and without a verbal suffix was examined. Recency effects were the same in the three presentation modalities. The disrupting effect of a suffix was largest when it was presented in the same modality as the list items. The results suggest that abstract linguistic as well as modality-specific codes play a role in memory for auditory and visual speech.     

Working memory and number line representations in single-digit addition: Approximate versus exact,nonsymbolic versus symbolic

How do kindergarteners solve different single-digit addition problem formats? We administered problems that differed solely on the basis of two dimensions: response type (approximate or exact), and stimulus type (nonsymbolic, i.e., dots, or symbolic, i.e., Arabic numbers). We examined how performance differs across these dimensions, and which cognitive mechanism (mental model, transcoding, or phonological storage) underlies performance in each problem format with respect to working memory (WM) resources and mental number line representations. As expected, nonsymbolic problem formats were easier than symbolic ones. The visuospatial sketchpad was the primary predictor of nonsymbolic addition. Symbolic problem formats were harder because they either required the storage and manipulation of quantitative symbols phonologically or taxed more WM resources than their nonsymbolic counterparts. In symbolic addition, WM and mental number line results showed that when an approximate response was needed, children transcoded the information to the nonsymbolic code. When an exact response was needed, however, they phonologically stored numerical information in the symbolic code. Lastly, we found that more accurate symbolic mental number line representations were related to better performance in exact addition problem formats, not the approximate ones. This study extends our understanding of the cognitive processes underlying children's simple addition skills.     

Spatial knowledge during skilled action sequencing: Hierarchical versus nonhierarchical representations

Typists can type 4 to 5 keystrokes per second at around 95% accuracy, yet they appear to have poor declarative knowledge of key locations. Logan and Crump (2011, Psychology of Learning and Motivation, Vol. 54, pp. 1–27) accounted for this paradox by proposing that typing is hierarchically organized into two loops, with an outer loop that transforms sentences into words and passes each word, one at a time, to an inner loop that transforms each word into its constituent keystrokes; however, the nature of the inner loop’s spatial knowledge is not well understood. Key locations may be learned through the experiences of locating and traversing between keys. In daily life, people tend to type structured language, and, as a consequence, certain keys and key-to-key transitions are experienced more frequently than others. Here, we asked whether or not this knowledge is structured hierarchically. For example, knowledge of key locations may be nested within representations of words, or the inner loop may rely on knowledge that is independent from higher level structures. To test this, we had people type English, English-like, and random strings during normal, partially occluded, and occluded typing. In both partially occluded and occluded typing, error rates were higher while typing random strings compared to English and English-like strings, whereas there was no difference in error rates between English and English-like strings. This suggests that typists’ spatial knowledge of the keyboard is not driven by hierarchical word-level representations, but instead is likely driven by a collection of individual processes, such as knowledge of the sequential structure of language acquired by typing more frequently occurring letters.     

Development of multiple movement representations with practice: specificity versus flexibility

The question addressed in the present experiment was whether an individual who practices a task under different conditions of afferent information develops different movement representations, each of which is based on the most accurate source of afferent information for movement control. In Experiment 1, participants (N = 23) performed a manual aiming movement in a target-only condition for 520 trials before performing in a normal vision condition for an equivalent amount of practice. Control groups performed all practice trials in either a normal vision or a target-only condition. The results revealed that the movement representation developed in the initial (target-only) practice phase remained accessible for movement planning and control. The results of Experiment 2 indicated, however, that participants did not maintain such a representation when their initial practice in the target-only condition was reduced (40 or 160 trials) before they had extensive practice in normal vision. Those results indicate that extensive practice in a target-only and then in a normal vision condition enables an individual to plan and control his or her movement on the basis of the most efficient source of available afferent information. Because visual afferent information provides optimal information for ensuring movement accuracy, however, if initial practice in the target-only condition is only modest or moderate it is likely that that information source will progressively dominate all other sources of afferent information for movement planning and control.     

Computer viruses: What they are,how they work,how they might get you,and how to control them in academic institutions

A computer virus is a program that replicates itself and spreads to computers with the goal of disrupting or destroying normal computer use. In academic computing, viruses represent a serious problem that costs millions of dollars in losses annually and hinders the free exchange of information so critical to education. Viruses operate in incubation, infection, and destroy phases. The nature, mechanisms, and preventive measures for personal-computer viruses are reviewed. Different procedures are recommended to protect research laboratories, instructional laboratories, and software lending libraries. Tradeoffs between providing adequate protection and not having the security become too burdensome are considered.     

Automatic for the people: how representations of significant others implicitly affect goal pursuit

Five studies are presented that explore how representations of significant others may automatically affect goal pursuit. Specifically, evidence is presented that suggests goals may be primed by one's representation of a significant other and that this priming may be moderated by one's closeness to this other individual. It is also shown to be affected by the number of different goals associated with this person. The greater the number of goals associated with a significant other, the less likely this individual will invoke any 1 goal very strongly. Such goal priming is shown to have implications for the extent to which goals are pursued (as seen through task persistence and performance) as well as the extent to which they are inhibited or ignored (especially when an individual is associated with a goal unrelated to a current pursuit).     

Programmed instruction: What it is and how to do it

Five behaviorological features of programmed instruction are outlined: behavioral objectives, reinforcement, activity rate: high and relevant, successive approximation, and mastery progression. Each of these topics is explained, and examples are given to illustrate the differences between programmed instruction and the more common transmission model of teaching. A final section provides suggestions on specific techniques of successive approximation.     

The representations underlying infants' choice of more: object files versus analog magnitudes

A new choice task was used to explore infants' spontaneous representations of more and less. Ten- and 12-month-old infants saw crackers placed sequentially into two containers, then were allowed to crawl and obtain the crackers from the container they chose. Infants chose the larger quantity with comparisons of 1 versus 2 and 2 versus 3, but failed with comparisons of 3 versus 4, 2 versus 4, and 3 versus 6. Success with visible arrays ruled out a motivational explanation for failure in the occluded 3-versus-6 condition. Control tasks ruled out the possibility that presentation duration guided choice, and showed that presentation complexity was not responsible for the failure with larger numbers. When crackers were different sizes, total surface area or volume determined choice. The infants' pattern of success and failure supports the hypothesis that they relied on object-file representations, comparing mental models via total volume or surface area rather than via one-to-one correspondence between object files.     

Worker Well-Being: What it Is,and how it Should Be Measured

Applied Research in Quality of Life - Worker well-being is a hot topic in organizations, consultancy and academia. However, too often, the buzz about worker well-being, enthusiasm for new programs...     

Functional plasticity of sensorimotor representations following short-term immobilization of the dominant versus non-dominant hands

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the functional plasticity of sensorimotor representations for dominant versus non-dominant hands following short-term upper-limb sensorimotor deprivation. All participants were right-handed. A splint was placed either on the right hand or on the left hand of the participants during a brief period of 48 h and was used for the input/output signal restrictions. The participants were divided into 3 groups: right hand immobilization, left hand immobilization and control (without immobilization). The immobilized participants performed the hand laterality task before (pre-test) and immediately after (post-test) splint removal. The pre-/post-test procedure was similar for the control group. The main results showed a significant response time improvement when judging the laterality of hand stimuli in the control group. In contrast, the results showed a weaker response time improvement for the left-hand immobilization group and no significant improvement for the right-hand immobilization group. Overall, these results revealed that immobilization-induced effects were lower for the non-dominant hand and also suggested that 48 h of upper-limb immobilization led to an inter-limb transfer phenomenon regardless of the immobilized hand. The immobilization-induced effects were highlighted by the slowdown of the sensorimotor processes related to manual actions, probably due to an alteration in a general cognitive representation of hand movements.