Modality of presentation and blocking in sentence recognition memory

In contrast to the findings of Bransford and Franks (1971) that no specific information is retained about acquisition sentences in their recognition memory paradigm, it was shown that subjects can consistently distinguish OLDs from NEWs when visual presentation is used, but not when auditory presentation is used. This is in agreement with the speculation of Katz and Gruenewald (1974) as to why such a split was observed in their study. This difference also has a bearing on the typical finding of no modality effects in long-term memory, as compared to the consistent superiority of auditory presentation in short-term memory. It was also found that blocking semantically related sentences during acquisition heightened the perceived "OLDness" of test sentences compared to nonblocked presentation.     

Infants' discrimination of internal and external pattern elements

Human infants' discrimination of changes in internal and external elements of compound visual patterns was investigated in four experiments employing a familiarization-novelty paradigm in which visual reinforcing patterns were presented contingent upon rate of high-amplitude nonnutritive sucking. In Experiment 1, 4-month infants discriminated changes in the shape of internal, external and both internal and external figures. One-month infants discriminated external changes in both internal and external figures, but failed to show reliable response recovery when only internal figures were changed. Experiments 2 and 3 failed to explain the 1-month results on the basis of poor resolution of internal figures by showing comparable discrimination of small and large singly-presented figures and by failing to find improved internal discrimination with large separation between internal and external figures. In Experiment 4, 1-month infants showed response recovery to figure additions made adjacent to the initial figure, but not to internal additions. The results are interpreted in terms of attentiveness by young infants to external pattern elements and may indicate early processing of figure-ground information. The developmental differences observed suggest an increased breadth of attention to pattern elements.     

Effects of containment and closure policies on controlling the COVID‐19 pandemic in East Asia

Growing efforts have been made to pool coronavirus data and control measures from countries and regions to compare the effectiveness of government policies. We examine whether these strategies can explain East Asia’s effective control of the COVID‐19 pandemic based on time‐series data with cross‐correlations between the Stringency Index and number of confirmed cases during the early period of outbreaks. We suggest that multidisciplinary empirical research in healthcare and social sciences, personality, and social psychology is needed for a clear understanding of how cultural values, social norms, and individual predispositions interact with policy to affect life‐saving behavioural changes in different societies.     

Reducing drug and alcohol use and improving well-being for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians using the Community Reinforcement Approach: A feasibility and acceptability study

There is a lack of evidence of effective and appropriate drug and alcohol treatment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This paper contributes to addressing the evidence gap by examining the feasibility and acceptability and conducting a pre/post-evaluation of the Aboriginal-adapted Community Reinforcement Approach (CRA) delivered in New South Wales, Australia. Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal clients (n = 55) received tailored CRA delivery between March and November 2013. Compared to the original US version, tailored CRA had reduced technical language, reduced number of treatment sessions, and the addition of group delivery option. An Australian training manual with local case studies was developed. Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Test (ASSIST), Kessler-5 (K-5) and the Growth Empowerment Measure were used. 58% of participants were followed-up at 3 months. Tailored CRA was feasible to deliver in a rural, community-based health setting, and rated by clients as highly effective and acceptable. CRA was associated with statistically significant reductions in the use of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, amphetamine and over the counter medication, and levels of psychological distress, and an increase in levels of empowerment for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal clients. This study provides evidence for the feasibility and acceptability of an Aboriginal-adapted psychological intervention addressing drug, alcohol and mental health outcomes.     

The neural pathways mediating quiet-biting attack behavior from the hypothalamus in the cat: A functional autoradiographic study

Electrical stimulation of the region of the lateral hypothalamus produced a consistent form of quiet-biting attack behavior in cats. In one series of experiments, cats, implanted with electrodes from which attack had been elicited, were anesthetized and then were injected with a bolus of ¹⁴C-2-deoxyglucose at the same time as electrical stimulation was delivered through the attack electrodes. Brains prepared for X-ray autoradiography revealed that lateral hypothalamic stimulation activated the classical medial forebrain bundle pathway supplying the septal region, diagonal band, lateral preoptic area, and ventral tegmental region. Stimulation of quiet-attack sites in perifornical hypothalamus resulted in the activation of a much more extensive projection system which included the central and lateral tegmental fields of the midbrain and pons, and central gray region, as well as the structures described above. In a second series of experiments, ³H-leucine was placed into the region of the electrode tip from which attack was elicited in order to identify more precisely the pathways arising from that site. In general, tritiated amino acid radioautography replicated the ¹⁴C-2-deoxyglucose findings. In addition, the amino acid radioautographic data revealed the presence of extensive projections from perifornical hypothalamus to such pontine structures as the nucleus locus coeruleus, motor nucleus of NV , and the lateral pontine tegmental field. The functional connections between the lateral hypothalamic “attack region” and lateral preoptic zone were also confirmed by electrophysiological methods.     

The arrogant physician--a Judaic perspective

Arrogance among physicians is all too common. This is in sharp contrast with medicine's sacred religious origins. The author presents a concise historical review of the Judaic perspective on the role of the physician, his position in the community, and the attitudes/values that should characterize his healing pursuit.     

Emotion and cognition: feeling and character identification in dreaming

This study investigated the relationship between dream emotion and dream character identification. Thirty-five subjects provided 320 dream reports and answers to questions on characters that appeared in their dreams. We found that emotions are almost always evoked by our dream characters and that they are often used as a basis for identifying them. We found that affection and joy were commonly associated with known characters and were used to identify them even when these emotional attributes were inconsistent with those of the waking state. These findings are consistent with the finding that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, associated with short-term memory, is less active in the dreaming compared to the wake brain, while the paleocortical and subcortical limbic areas are more active. The findings are also consistent with the suggestion that these limbic areas have minimal input from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in the dreaming brain.     

Elegiac Poetry: A Pastoral Resource with Complicated Grief

This essay argues that elegiac poetry, the poetry of mourning, may be a resource for pastoral care with complicated grief. It builds on Freuds distinction between mourning (normal grief) and melancholia (complicated grief), particularly as appropriated by French literary critic and psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva. It makes the case for elegy as a locus for externalizing a lost object which, in complicated grief, has been internalized as part of the bereaved persons self and which is not only grieved but also treated ambivalently if it is not hated. Drawing on the suffering God motif in Christian theologies of the cross, theological reflections supplement psychological arguments.     

Cognitive-behavioural interventions in a patient with an anxiety disorder related to diabetes

This study extends the data on the efficacy of cognitive interventions for patients with chronic medical problems and describes the case of a 37-year-old woman with an anxiety disorder related to diabetes. The effects on panic frequency, use of safety behaviour and related beliefs were investigated after the introduction of two main cognitive-behavioral interventions. The results are consistent with predictions from the cognitive model of panic. This case demonstrates the usefulness of directly challenging the 'meaning' of the feared situation in order to produce clinically significant improvements in the management of physical disease.