Collaborative memory and part-set cueing impairments: The role of executive depletion in modulating retrieval disruption

When people are exposed to a subset of previously studied list items they recall fewer of the remaining items compared to a condition where none of the studied items is provided during recall. This occurs both when the subset of items is provided by the experimenter (i.e., the part-set cueing deficit in individual recall) and when they are provided during the course of a collaborative discussion (i.e., the collaborative inhibition effect in group recall). Previous research has identified retrieval disruption as a common mechanism underlying both effects; however, less is known about the factors that may make individuals susceptible to such retrieval disruption. In the current studies we tested one candidate factor: executive control. Using an executive depletion paradigm we directly manipulated an individual's level of executive control during retrieval. Results revealed no direct role of executive depletion in modulating retrieval disruption. In contrast, executive control abilities were indirectly related to retrieval disruption through their influence at encoding. Together these results suggest that executive control des not directly affect retrieval disruption at the retrieval stage, and that the role of this putative mechanism may be limited to the encoding stage.     

Neural substrates of linguistic prosody: evidence from syntactic disambiguation in the productions of brain-damaged patients

The present investigation focussed on the neural substrates underlying linguistic distinctions that are signalled by prosodic cues. A production experiment was conducted to examine the ability of left- (LHD) and right- (RHD) hemisphere-damaged patients and normal controls to use temporal and fundamental frequency cues to disambiguate sentences which include one or more Intonational Phrase level prosodic boundaries. Acoustic analyses of subjects' productions of three sentence types-parentheticals, appositives, and tags-showed that LHD speakers, compared to RHD and normal controls, exhibited impairments in the control of temporal parameters signalling phrase boundaries, including inconsistent patterns of pre-boundary lengthening and longer-than-normal pause durations in non-boundary positions. Somewhat surprisingly, a perception test presented to a group of normal native listeners showed listeners experienced greatest difficulty in identifying the presence or absence of boundaries in the productions of the RHD speakers. The findings support a cue lateralization hypothesis in which prosodic domain plays an important role.     

Memory for animal tracks: a possible cognitive artifact of human evolution

Although many human behaviors are held to have adaptive significance, specific examples of behaviors that represent direct holdovers from the ancient world have been few, particularly in the cognitive realm. In the present research, the authors tested the hypothesis that such cognitive examples might in fact exist and be experimentally verifiable. They suggested that human predispositions to learn basic aspects of hunting with relative ease might be "left over" from human evolution in the pre-agricultural past. This hypothesis was tested in 3 experiments with reference to the learning and recall of animal tracks, an activity of probable high adaptive significance within the area of visual memory. Undergraduate students selected at random learned and recalled animal tracks with significantly greater ease than they recalled other animate and inanimate items. A single exception lay in relatively unfamiliar kitchen implements, which were recalled with greater facility than were animal tracks, consistent with current theoretical considerations. Results indicate that direct behavioral holdovers from the ancient world may exist in the cognitive realm and that these may be accessed experimentally and predictably under appropriate conditions.     

Forgiveness and happiness. the differing contexts of forgiveness using the distinction between hedonic and eudaimonic happiness

The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between forgiveness and happiness using a two-dimensional model of happiness (hedonic and eudaimonic happiness). 224 United Kingdom students were administered the Enright Forgiveness Inventory, The Depression–Happiness Scale and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire – Short-form. The present findings suggest that forgiveness accounts for statistically significant variance, albeit quite low, in both hedonic and eudaimonic happiness and the relationships may vary depending on which aspect of happiness is being considered. In terms of shorter-term hedonic happiness, the present findings suggest it is important not to engage in negative cognitions about the transgression. In terms of maintaining eudaimonic happiness, engaging in positive behaviours and feelings may lead to, be the result of, or be very much part of longer-term happiness.     

Stimulus congruence and the Simon effect

Summary A standard experimental procedure was implemented with novel response requirements to assess the hypothesis that the Simon effect is attributable not to the irrelevant stimulus-response relationship, but to the congruence between stimulus attributes. The stimulus ensemble consisted of the words LEFT and RIGHT, one of which was presented on each trial to the left or right of a central fixation point. The distinctive feature of the task is that subjects were asked to respond, by laterally placed keys, whether or not the stimulus word was in accord (i. e., congruent) with its location on the display. Asking subjects to judge stimulus congruence directly enables the effect of congruence to be assessed, as well as independent estimates of the two irrelevant S-R relationships that apply in the task — that is, between the response location and (1) the stimulus location (the Simon effect) and (2) the stimulus word (the reverse Simon effect). Marked effects were obtained in all three cases. Stimulus congruence remains in contention as a factor in the explanation of the Simon effect, but the strong effects of irrelevant S-R factors suggest that a more comprehensive account of the Simon effect is needed. An explanation in terms of stimulus salience, based on an interactive activational model, is briefly discussed.     

Use of mental health services among severely emotionally disturbed children and adolescents in San Francisco

This study examined the mental health services available to severely emotionally disturbed children and adolescents in San Francisco. Social, familial, developmental, and clinical data—as well as service use histories—on 192 youths were collected. Results indicated high levels of family dysfunction, physical and sexual abuse, and neglect in the total study population. The study also identified case history and demographic factors that were associated with repeated psychiatric inpatient hospitalizationand high annual rates of change in residential placement. These factors included being male, older, non-English-speaking, and having a history of physical and sexual abuse. The impact of the service system on the lives and course of illness of these youth is discussed and future directions for research are suggested.     

An auditory Stroop effect with judgments of speaker gender

A series of “auditory Stroop” experiments is described. These demonstrate an effect of stimulus words presented on speed of judgments of speaker gender and, conversely, an influence of speaker gender on judgments of words presented. In an experiment in which responses to speaker gender were semantically related to, but not identical with, stimulus words, the auditory Stroop effect was attenuated but remained in evidence. Potential parallels between this auditory paradigm and the visual Stroop color/word effect are explored, and it is suggested that the Stroop effects in the two modalities operate along broadly similar lines. The search for a common causal mechanism would therefore be justified.     

Interference effects in an auditory Stroop task: congruence and correspondence

Two auditory Stroop experiments are reported in which subjects responded vocally to the gender of the speaker of stimulus words. The interference effects found were broadly similar to those of a manual-response auditory Stroop paradigm although response-set effects appeared to operate in the data. In all experimental conditions responses were slower to stimulus words which named potential responses than to those words which did not. Such effects have not been found in previous manual-response experiments and it is suggested that the relatively high degree of S-R and of ideomotor compatibility in the vocal response task, compared with the manual task, may be responsible for this difference between the paradigms.The second experiment enabled a comparison to be made between the effects of congruence between relevant and irrelevant elements of the Stroop stimulus and the effects of correspondence between the response and the irrelevant aspect of the stimulus. A predominant influence of congruence was found when the subject responded using words semantically related to speaker gender, but an effect of correspondence was obtained when an arbitrary pairing of response word and speaker gender was required.