Primacy and recency in nonword repetition

An increasing body of evidence suggests that nonword repetition is related to immediate serial memory (e.g., ; ). One possible account of this relationship is that a nonword is processed like a list when it is first encountered. If this is the case, it should be possible to detect serial position effects in repetition of single nonwords. Three experiments tested this prediction. Experiment 1 examined whether there would be syllable serial position primacy and recency effects in repetition of polysyllabic nonwords, and obtained both primacy and recency effects. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that these effects were not due to the controlled duration of the nonwords or the requirements of concurrent articulation or the procedure by which nonwords were created.     

A fixed point theorem for the Weak Kleene valuation scheme

Journal of Philosophical Logic -     

Corporate Social Responsibility,Employee–Company Identification,and Organizational Commitment: Mediation by Employee Engagement

Contrary to the theory and research on employee engagement in the western countries, less consideration has been given to the importance of employee engagement in Asian countries wherein its need is felt more. As more and more companies in Asia realize the importance of a productive workforce, this research examines the mediating role of employee engagement in the relationships of corporate social responsibility (CSR), employee–company identification (E–C) and organizational commitment (OC). Structural analysis of 290 online responses of employees working for various Indian and foreign information technology enabled services (ITES) companies in India, confirms the presence of partial mediation by employee engagement in between its antecedents (CSR and E–C) and its consequence (OC). The proposed model was found to be a good fit. The study provides empirical support to the argument that CSR and E–C are distant antecedents of OC. The results may encourage managers of ITES companies to consider CSR as an investment rather than an expense.     

Correlates of relationship, psychological, and sexual behavioral factors for HIV risk among Indian women

The rate of HIV/AIDS among women in India is expected to rise yet few studies have examined factors related to HIV risk among Indian women. The objective of this prospective, cross-sectional study was to characterize similarities and differences in the relationships, psychological well-being, and sexual behaviors among Indian women (N=459). Both HIV positive (N=216) and negative (N=243) women from urban and rural areas in India were included in this study. Chi-square, analysis of variance, and logistic regression analyses revealed that in both geographic groups, HIV-positive women were significantly more likely to report marital dissatisfaction, a history of forced sex, domestic violence, depressive symptoms and husband's extra marital sex when compared to the HIV-negative women. Findings also indicate that specific factors related to the quality of the marital relationship such as domestic violence, martial dysfunction, and depressive symptoms may be related to HIV-related risks for women. Implications for future research and culturally relevant interventions are discussed.     

Behavioral analysis of NR2C knockout mouse reveals deficit in acquisition of conditioned fear and working memory

N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors play an important role in excitatory neurotransmission and mediate synaptic plasticity associated with learning and memory. NMDA receptors are composed of two NR1 and two NR2 subunits and the identity of the NR2 subunit confers unique electrophysiologic and pharmacologic properties to the receptor. The precise role of NR2C-containing receptors in vivo is poorly understood. We have performed a battery of behavioral tests on NR2C knockout/nβ-galactosidase knock-in mice and found no difference in spontaneous activity, basal anxiety, forced-swim immobility, novel object recognition, pain sensitivity and reference memory in comparison to wildtype counterparts. However, NR2C knockout mice were found to exhibit deficits in fear acquisition and working memory compared to wildtype mice. Deficit in fear acquisition correlated with lack of fear conditioning-induced plasticity at the thalamo-amygdala synapse. These findings suggest a unique role of NR2C-containing receptors in associative and executive learning representing a novel therapeutic target for deficits in cognition.