Longitudinal attentional engagement rescues mice from age-related cognitive declines and cognitive inflexibility

Learning, attentional, and perseverative deficits are characteristic of cognitive aging. In this study, genetically diverse CD-1 mice underwent longitudinal training in a task asserted to tax working memory capacity and its dependence on selective attention. Beginning at 3 mo of age, animals were trained for 12 d to perform in a dual radial-arm maze task that required the mice to remember and operate on two sets of overlapping guidance (spatial) cues. As previously reported, this training resulted in an immediate (at 4 mo of age) improvement in the animals' aggregate performance across a battery of five learning tasks. Subsequently, these animals received an additional 3 d of working memory training at 3-wk intervals for 15 mo (totaling 66 training sessions), and at 18 mo of age were assessed on a selective attention task, a second set of learning tasks, and variations of those tasks that required the animals to modify the previously learned response. Both attentional and learning abilities (on passive avoidance, active avoidance, and reinforced alternation tasks) were impaired in aged animals that had not received working memory training. Likewise, these aged animals exhibited consistent deficits when required to modify a previously instantiated learned response (in reinforced alternation, active avoidance, and spatial water maze). In contrast, these attentional, learning, and perseverative deficits were attenuated in aged animals that had undergone lifelong working memory exercise. These results suggest that general impairments of learning, attention, and cognitive flexibility may be mitigated by a cognitive exercise regimen that requires chronic attentional engagement.     

The role of overt attention in emotion-modulated memory

The presence of emotional stimuli results in a central/peripheral tradeoff effect in memory: memory for central details is enhanced at the cost of peripheral items. It has been assumed that emotion-modulated differences in memory are the result of differences in attention, but this has not been tested directly. The present experiment used eye movement monitoring as an index of overt attention allocation and mediation analysis to determine whether differences in attention were related to subsequent memory. Participants viewed negative and neutral scenes surrounded by three neutral objects and were then given a recognition memory test. The results revealed evidence in support of a central/peripheral tradeoff in both attention and memory. However, contrary with previous assumptions, whereas attention partially mediated emotion-enhanced memory for central pictures, it did not explain the entire relationship. Further, although centrally presented emotional stimuli led to decreased number of eye fixations toward the periphery, these differences in viewing did not contribute to emotion-impaired memory for specific details pertaining to the periphery. These findings suggest that the differential influence of negative emotion on central versus peripheral memory may result from other cognitive influences in addition to overt visual attention or on postencoding processes.     

A comparison of blindpulling and blindwalking as measures of perceived absolute distance

Blindwalking has become a common measure of perceived absolute distance and location, but it requires a relatively large testing space and cannot be used with people for whom walking is difficult or impossible. In the present article, we describe an alternative response type that is closely matched to blindwalking in several important respects but is less resource intensive. In the blindpulling technique, participants view a target, then close their eyes and pull a length of tape or rope between the hands to indicate the remembered target distance. As with blindwalking, this response requires integration of cyclical, bilateral limb movements over time. Blind-pulling and blindwalking responses are tightly linked across a range of viewing conditions, and blind-pulling is accurate when prior exposure to visually guided pulling is provided. Thus, blindpulling shows promise as a measure of perceived distance that may be used in nonambulatory populations and when the space available for testing is limited.     

Humanizing Personhood

This paper explores the debate between personists, who argue that the concept of a person if of central importance for moral thought, and personists, who argue that the concept of a human being is of greater moral significance. On the one hand, it argues that normative naturalism, the most ambitious defense of the humanist position, fails to identify moral standards with standards of human behavior and thereby fails to undermine the moral significance of personhood. At the same time, it contends that a more focused attention on the morally relevant features of human life may indeed play a crucial role in enhancing our moral understanding.     

Cognitive-behavioral therapy of insomnia: A clinical case series study of patients with co-morbid disorders and using hypnotic medications

Cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTi) has demonstrated considerable efficacy within randomized clinical trials and case-series designs. This case-series study in a community sleep medicine clinic assessed the effectiveness of an eight-session CBTi protocol chronic insomnia patients who were allowed to continue their use of hypnotics (intent-to-treat n = 48), administered by a clinical psychology doctoral student receiving training and supervision in CBTi by a behavioral sleep medicine certified clinician. Outcome measures included daily sleep diaries, self-report measures on insomnia severity, dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep, daytime sleepiness, as well as medication usage. Patients showed significant improvements in sleep onset latency, wake time after sleep onset, sleep efficiency, insomnia severity, and dysfunctional sleep beliefs from pre- to post-treatment. No changes were seen in daytime sleepiness - patients were not excessively sleepy either before or after treatment. Use of sleep medication declined significantly from 87.5% pre-treatment to 54% post-treatment, despite no active efforts to encourage patients to withdraw. Results demonstrate that a CBTi conducted in a community sleep medicine clinic with patients not required to discontinue sleep-related medications can have similar effects as therapy delivered among those not on medication.     

Perception through a perspective-taking lens: Differential effects on judgment and behavior

In contrast to the view that social perception has symmetric effects on judgments and behavior, the current research explored whether perspective-taking leads stereotypes to differentially affect judgments and behavior. Across three studies, perspective-takers consistently used stereotypes more in their own behavior while simultaneously using them less in their judgments of others. After writing about an African-American, perspective-taking tendencies were positively correlated with aggressive behavior but negatively correlated with judging others as aggressive. Similarly, after writing about an elderly man, perspective-takers walked more slowly and became more conservative, but judged others as less dependent. These divergent effects of perspective-taking on judgment and behavior occurred regardless of whether perspective-taking was manipulated or measured, whether judgments were measured before or after behavior, the stereotype that was activated, and participants’ culture (American, Singaporean). These findings support theorizing that judgments and behavior can diverge when individuals’ social strategies are geared towards establishing and maintaining social bonds, as well as provide insight into how perspective-taking helps individuals manage diversity.     

Psychometric Properties of the Anticipatory Social Behaviours Questionnaire

Relative to other components of Clark and Wells’ (1995) model, anticipatory processing has been understudied, despite research that suggests that anticipatory processing may maintain social anxiety through mechanisms such as increased anxiety, negative memory biases, and other negative consequences. Anticipatory processing has only been examined as a unitary process, with no efforts examining the underlying structure of this process. The purpose of the current study was to examine the factor structure of the Anticipatory Social Behaviours Questionnaire (ASBQ, Hinrichsen and Clark Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 34, 205–218, 2003) and identify relationships between the measure’s factors and other constructs of social anxiety. Study 1 (N?=?861) used exploratory factor analysis and concluded that a two-factor model (Avoidance and Preparation) was the best conceptualization of anticipatory processing. Study 2 confirmed the two factor model in a separate sample (N?=?485) and demonstrated the superiority of the two-factor model over a unitary model. Results of Study 3 suggested that, with a sample of high-socially-anxious undergraduates (N?=?59), the Avoidance factor was more maladaptive than the Preparation factor. Results are discussed in the context of the anticipatory processing literature and future directions are proposed.     

The Conditions of Philosophy in Totalitarian and Post-Totalitarian Poland

This compound paper presents the views of two Polish philosophers on the strong international pressures influencing the development of Polish philosophy in recent times. The first part, by Leszek Koczanowicz, treats the philosophical situation and problems of totalitarian Poland under the influence of Soviet Marxism, while the second part, by Adam Chmielewski, focuses on the main trends and difficulties of post-totalitarian Poland, dominated by Western influence.     

Does response mode affect amount recalled or the magnitude of the testing effect?

The testing effect is the finding that retrieval practice can enhance recall on future tests. One unanswered question is whether first-test response mode (writing or speaking the answer) affects final-test performance (and whether final-test response mode itself matters). An additional unsettled issue is whether written and oral recall lead to differences in the amount recalled. In three experiments, we examined these issues: whether subjects can recall more via typing or speaking; whether typing or speaking answers on a first test can lead to better final-test performance (and whether an interaction occurs with final-test response mode) and whether any form of overt response leads to better final-test performance as compared to covert retrieval (thinking of the answer but not producing it). Subjects studied paired associates; took a first test by typing, speaking, or thinking about responses; and then took a second test in which the answers were either spoken or typed. The results revealed few differences between typing and speaking during recall, and no difference in the size of the testing effect on the second test. Furthermore, an initial covert retrieval yielded roughly the same benefit to future test performance as did overt retrieval. Thus, the testing effect was quite robust across these manipulations. The practical implication for learning is that covert retrieval provides as much benefit to later retention as does overt retrieval and that both can be effective study strategies.