The Role of Recollection and Familiarity in Nondemented Parkinson's Patients

The aim of the current study was to examine if recollection and familiarity decline in nondemented Parkinson's patients. To do so we compared a sample of older people with Parkinson's disease (n = 32) to a control sample of healthy older people (n = 32) on an associative recognition task in which we manipulated the repetition of the pairs during the study phase (half of the pairs were presented once and half twice) to obtain corrected estimates of recollection, familiarity, and false recognition based on the logic of the process-dissociation procedure. The results clearly show that recollection is impaired but familiarity is preserved in nondemented Parkinson's patients. The results show that memory for pairs in Parkinson's patients relies largely on the familiarity of each item and not on a precise recollection of associative information, supporting the idea that recollection-based monitoring processes are impaired in these patients.     

Between Remembering and Forgetting the Years of Political Violence: Psychosocial Impact of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Peru

This article analyzes the association between knowledge of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), evaluation of TRC's achievements, experience of victimization, attitudes toward remembering and forgetting past political violence, perceptions of socioemotional climate (SEC), belief in forgiveness and attitudes toward violence in Peru based on a study conducted in three Peruvian cities with different rates of victimization due to political violence during 1980–2000 (n = 1200). Results showed that a positive attitude toward remembering the past of political violence was predominant and related to a positive evaluation of TRC's achievements. Attitude toward remembering also has an ambivalent collective effect increasing both positive and negative SECs, and it is less accepted by victims of political violence. On the other hand, attitude toward forgetting is less accepted by participants, and it also has an ambivalent effect by increasing positive and negative SECs. Attitude toward forgetting has more societal costs, since it is related to attitudes toward violence and decreased knowledge and a positive evaluation of TRC. In general, findings suggest that remembering traumatic events has an emotional cost, but also it is shown that remembering seems to be more beneficial for society in the long‐term than forgetting.     

Tactile “capture” of audition

Previous research has demonstrated that the localization of auditory or tactile stimuli can be biased by the simultaneous presentation of a visual stimulus from a different spatial position. We investigated whether auditory localization judgments could also be affected by the presentation of spatially displaced tactile stimuli, using a procedure designed to reveal perceptual interactions across modalities. Participants made left—right discrimination responses regarding the perceived location of sounds, which were presented either in isolation or together with tactile stimulation to the fingertips. The results demonstrate that the apparent location of a sound can be biased toward tactile stimulation when it is synchronous, but not when it is asynchronous, with the auditory event. Directing attention to the tactile modality did not increase the bias of sound localization toward synchronous tactile stimulation. These results provide the first demonstration of the tactilecapture of audition.     

Lack of effects of anabolic-androgenic steroids on locomotor activity in intact male mice

Anabolic-androgenic steroid abusers have reported hyperactivity, euphoria, and decreased fatigue, among other behavioral effects. It has been suggested that the effects of these substances on the central nervous system are similar to those of psychostimulants; however, the influence of steroids on general locomotor activity in laboratory animals is not well understood, especially how noncastrated male rodents are affected. In this study, spontaneous locomotor activity displayed by gonadally intact male mice submitted to several experimental conditions was analyzed. Different housing conditions (individual or cohabiting with a female), diverse steroids (testosterone propionate, nandrolone decanoate, and a mixture of both steroids) and single or repeated injections were employed. At 24 hours after the injection (after the three last injections in the case of chronic treatment) spontaneous locomotor activity was registered on an activity recorder for one 15-min. period. No effects due to the treatment were found in almost every experimental condition. These results contrast with the dramatic decreases in activity described for female mice after treatment with such steroids. It seems that in intact males the steroids' influence on spontaneous locomotor activity may be more subtle than expected. These effects seem very complex depending on duration of treatment and specific situations (spontaneous or forced activity) as well as the interaction with endogenous androgen levels.     

Effect of retention interval on the simultaneous cognate-noncognate and remember-know mirror effects

Recognition memory for Spanish-Catalan cognate and noncognate words was tested at retention intervals of 30 minutes, 3 days, and 7 days using a remember/know response procedure. We observed a clear mirror effect for the cognate-noncognate stimulus class and a remember-know response categorisation at the immediate retention interval. However, the cognate and noncognate mirror was still observed at 3 and 7 days, whereas the remember-know mirror disappeared at both retention intervals. Also, we ran a repeated testing condition to be able to carry out a sequential item analysis and observe the fate of the original remember and know responses 3 or 7 days later. The analysis supported the idea that there was a loss of contextual information that was at the root of the disappearance of the remember-know mirror effect. These results provide support to the idea that it is the imbalance between recollection and familiarity that is the most likely cause of the mirror effect.     

Assessing automaticity in the audiovisual integration of motion

This study examined the multisensory integration of visual and auditory motion information using a methodology designed to single out perceptual integration processes from post-perceptual influences. We assessed the threshold stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) at which the relative directions (same vs. different) of simultaneously presented visual and auditory apparent motion streams could no longer be discriminated (Experiment 1). This threshold was higher than the upper threshold for direction discrimination (left vs. right) of each individual modality when presented in isolation (Experiment 2). The poorer performance observed in bimodal displays was interpreted as a consequence of automatic multisensory integration of motion information. Experiment 3 supported this interpretation by ruling out task differences as the explanation for the higher threshold in Experiment 1. Together these data provide empirical support for the view that multisensory integration of motion signals can occur at a perceptual level.     

A voice-activated key for the Apple Macintosh computer

An interface circuit to connect a microphone to an Apple Macintosh computer is described. The Apple Macintosh mouse port is used as the input port, and the microphone activation simulates a mouse press.     

Steroid hormones and some evolutionary-relevant social interactions

The steroid hormones, testosterone and cortisol, have some common characteristics, but they are related to generally antagonic processes at both the physiological and psychological levels. In addition, they are the product of the activation of two axes, the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal (HPG) and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA), which are very sensitive to a wide range of stressors. Our review focuses on the role of testosterone and cortisol in some social situations, such as competition and others related to the challenge hypothesis, that are evolutionary-relevant and have a component of social stress. Research findings are presented on these points, especially emphasizing the relevance of how the individual interprets social stimuli and attributes of the other participant in the interaction, producing consequences in the response pattern to the social situation. This paper presents empirical support for the role of the interaction between the reproductive HPG and stress HPA axes in several social behaviors with important adaptive significance.     

Phonological false recognition produced by bottom-up automatic activation in young and older people

ABSTRACT

Two experiments explored a new procedure to implicitly induce phonological false memories in young and older people. On the study tasks, half of the words were formed from half of the letters in the alphabet, whereas the remaining words were formed from all the letters in the alphabet. On the recognition tests, there were three types of non-studied new words: critical lures formed from the same half of the letters as the studied words; distractors formed from the other half of the letters not used, and distractors formed from all the letters in the alphabet. In both experiments, the results showed that, in both young and older people, critical lures produced more false recognitions than distractors composed of all the letters in the alphabet, which, in turn, produced more false alarms than distractors composed of the letters not used during the study. These results support the predictions of the activation/monitoring models, which assume that false memories are partly due to activation spreading from items (semantically or phonologically) related to the critical words.     

Hidden meaning of an early loss. The common ground of attachment and social character assessments and their clinical applications

All contemporary psychoanalytical theorists are concerned with the common problem of how to account for the preeminent importance of relations. John Bowlby, the founder of attachment theory, suggests that “instinctive” behavioral systems underlie much of the emotional life of man and have developed because they were necessary for survival. The system with which he was almost exclusively concerned was the multitude of behaviors and experiences constituting the child's “attachment” to the mother. This “strikingly strong tie, evident particularly when disrupted”, has systematically been observed by attachment researchers, through the development of a series of instruments that gauge interpersonal communication. These interpersonal communications have on their part been found to “contain traces of developmental history”.

Bowlby's theory is based on clinical accounts of cases of important loss experiences. A transcendental role is given in Bowlby's theory to the experiences of loss. It stresses that the construction of mourning processes can be seen as a manifestation of search and as a general gradual mental reorientation. The paper introduces the methodological perspectives, which are observable derivations of Bowlby's psycho‐ethological ideas. We will argue that becoming acquainted with these attachment‐research tools and with socio‐psychoanalytic assessment can enhance the development of the clinicians' observational skills, their insight and their scientific research practices. A clinical vignette seen through the lenses of the attachment assessment of loss is presented. It points in addition to the socio‐cultural‐ethnical basis that serves as an underlying structure for the development of meaning.