Interidentity amnesia for neutral,episodic information in dissociative identity disorder

Interidentity amnesia is considered a hallmark of dissociative identity disorder (DID) in clinical practice. In this study, objective methods of testing episodic memory transfer between identities were used. Tests of both recall (interference paradigm) and recognition were used. A sample of 31 DID patients was included. Additionally, 50 control subjects participated, half functioning as normal controls and the other half simulating interidentity amnesia. Twenty-one patients subjectively reported complete one-way amnesia for the learning episode. However, objectively, neither recall nor recognition scores of patients were different from those of normal controls. It is suggested that clinical models of amnesia in DID may be specified to exclude episodic memory impairments for emotionally neutral material.     

Caution in interpreting confirmatory factor analysis of the group environment questionnaire: a response to Sullivan, Short, and Cramer (2002)

Reasons for cautious interpretation of the confirmatory factor analysis of the Group Environment Questionnaire by Sullivan, Short, and Cramer (2002) are specified.     

Effects of mixed versus blocked design on stimulus evaluation: combining underadditive effects

According to the asynchronous discrete coding model of Miller, two manipulations should display underadditive effects on reaction time if they slow down noncontingent stages associated with the processing of two separable dimensions of a stimulus. Underadditive effects are also predicted by a dual route model when a task variable is factorially varied with design type (mixed vs blocked). Interpretations of both underadditive effects and their combination were evaluated. Intact and degraded stimuli were presented to 18 young adults either in a single block (mixed) or in separate blocks (blocked). Spatial stimulus-response (S-R) compatibility was manipulated in all conditions. Stimulus degradation and S-R compatibility interacted underadditively, but only in blocked presentations. Both interpretations of underadditive effects were supported. Eye-movement registrations provided additional support for the alternative routes model.     

Phonology competes with syntax: experimental evidence for the interaction of word order and accent placement in the realization of Information Structure

In this paper, we investigate the interaction of phonological and syntactic constraints on the realization of Information Structure in Greek, a free word order language. We use magnitude estimation as our experimental paradigm, which allows us to quantify the influence of a given linguistic constraint on the acceptability of a sentence. We present results from two experiments. In the first experiment, we focus on the interaction of word order and context. In the second experiment, we investigate the additional effect of accent placement and clitic doubling. The results show that word order, in contrast to standard assumptions in the theoretical literature, plays only a secondary role in marking the Information Structure of a sentence. Order preferences are relatively weak and can be overridden by constraints on accent placement and clitic doubling. Our experiments also demonstrate that a null context shows the same preference pattern as an all focus context, indicating that 'default' word order and accent placement (in the absence of context) can be explained in terms of Information Structure. In the theoretical part of this paper, we formalize the interaction of syntactic and phonological constraints on Information Structure. We argue that this interaction is best captured using a notion of grammatical competition, such as the one developed by Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky, 1993, Optimality theory: constraint interaction in generative grammar (Technical Report No. 2). Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ; Science 275 (1997) 1604). In particular, we exploit the optimality theoretic concept of constraint ranking to account for the fact that some constraint violations are more serious than others. We extend standard Optimality Theory to obtain a grammar model that predicts not only the optimal (i.e. grammatical) realization of a given input, but also makes predictions about the relative grammaticality of suboptimal structures. This allows us to derive a constraint hierarchy that accounts for the interaction of phonological and syntactic constraints on Information Structure and models the acceptability patterns found in the experimental data.     

Escaping Homelessness: The Influences of Self-Efficacy and Time Perspective on Coping With Homelessness1

This study explored whether self-efficacy and time perspective of homeless adults (N= 82) living in a shelter affected their coping strategies related to obtaining housing and employment. Participants with high self-efficacy searched more for housing and employment and stayed at the shelter for a shorter duration, whereas participants with low self-efficacy were more likely to request an extension of their stay at the shelter. Those high on future orientation had shorter durations of homelessness and were more likely to enroll in school and to report gaining positive benefits from their predicament, whereas those with a high present orientation had more avoidant coping strategies. Despite the predictive power of self-efficacy and future orientation of proactive search behaviors, there were no predictors of obtaining stable housing, which is a scarce resource in the area. However, a high present orientation predicted obtaining temporary housing. A present temporal perspective may be adaptive in finding short-term solutions to an unstable situation, such as homelessness. The role of time perspective in crisis situations is discussed, as well as the severe environmental constraints on the exercise of personal control over reality dictated by social, economic, and political forces.     

Skill Acquisition and the LISP Tutor

An analysis of student learning with the LISP tutor indicates that while LISP is complex, learning it is simple. The key to factoring out the complexity of LISP is to monitor the learning of the 500 productions in the LISP tutor which describe the programming skill. The learning of these productions follows the power-law learning curve typical of skill acquisition. There is transfer from other programming experience to the extent that this programming experience involves the same productions. Subjects appear to differ only on the general dimensions of how well they acquire the productions and how well they retain the productions. Instructional manipulations such as remediation, content of feedback, and timing of feedback are effective to the extent they give students more practice programming, and explain to students why correct solutions work.