Internet and the support of psychology education

The Computers in Teaching Initiative (CTI) Centre for Psychology has been promoting the use of computers in psychology education for the last 5 years. The advent of the Internet and ubiquitous access to the World-Wide Web has the potential to revolutionize the way the teaching and learning of psychology can be supported. This paper describes how we are using the Web to support psychology education through information dissemination, through the provision of teaching resources, and through facilities for communication.     

Implicit learning shapes new conscious percepts and representations

We present here the lineaments of a new account of implicit learning, an account that does not rely on the notion of “implicit knowledge.” In this account, improved performance depends on the action of unconscious mechanisms that structure the phenomenal, conscious experience of the world. This integrative view makes groundless the search for dissociations between conscious and unconscious influences that has been at the core of the research on implicit learning and memory. We contrast this view, on the one hand, to Dienes and Berry’s (1997) proposal, which defines implicit learning by analogy with subliminal perception, and, on the other, to Neal and Hesketh’s (1997) episodic account, in which subjective experience is a starting point for inquiry, rather than the phenomenon requiring explanation.     

A daytime nap containing solely non-REM sleep enhances declarative but not procedural memory

The specialized role that sleep-specific brain physiology plays in memory processing is being rapidly clarified with a greater understanding of the dynamic, complex, and exquisitely orchestrated brain state that emerges during sleep. Behaviorally, the facilitative role of non-REM (NREM) sleep (primarily slow wave sleep) for declarative but not procedural memory performance in humans has been demonstrated in a number of nocturnal sleep studies. However, subjects in these studies were tested after periods of sleep that contained REM sleep in addition to NREM sleep, and comparison wake groups were subjected to mild sleep deprivation. To add some clarity to the findings of these nocturnal studies, we assessed performance on declarative and procedural memory tasks following a daytime training-retest interval containing either a short nap that included NREM without REM sleep, or wakefulness. Consistent with previous findings we show that, after a comparatively brief sleep episode, subjects that take a nap improve more on a declarative memory task than subjects that stay awake, but that improvement on a procedural memory task is the same regardless of whether subjects take a nap or remain awake. Slow wave sleep was the only sleep parameter to correlate positively with declarative memory improvement. These findings are discussed with reference to the general benefits of napping and within the broader context of a growing literature suggesting a role for NREM-specific physiology for the processing of declarative memory.     

The interaction of word frequency and word class: a test of the GO model's account of the missing-letter effect

When asked to detect target letters while reading a text, participants miss more letters in frequent function words than in less frequent content words. In this phenomenon, known as the missing-letter effect, two factors covary: word frequency and word class. According to the GO model, there should be an interaction between word class and word frequency with more omissions for function than for content words only among high-frequency words. This pattern would be due to the fact that function words could only assume a structure-supporting role if they are identified rapidly, which is only possible for high-frequency words. These predictions were tested by assessing omission rate for frequent and rare function and content words. Results lend support to the GO model with more omissions for frequent than for rare words, and more omissions for the function than for the content word among high-frequency words, but not among low-frequency words. These results were observed both in English (Experiment 1) and in French (Experiment 2).     

SCRIPTKELL: A tool for measuring cognitive effort and time processing in writing and other complex cognitive activities

We present SCRIPTKELL, a computer-assisted experimental tool that makes it possible to measure the time and cognitive effort allocated to the subprocesses of writing and other cognitive activities. SCRIPTKELL was designed to easily use and modulate Kellogg’s (1986) triple-task procedure, which consists of a combination of three tasks: a writing task (or another task), a reaction time task (auditory signal detection), and a directed retrospection task (after each signal detection during writing). We demonstrate how this tool can be used to address several novel empirical and theoretical issues. In sum, SCRIPTKELL should facilitate the flexible realization of experimental designs and the investigation of critical issues concerning the functional characteristics of complex cognitive activities.     

Implicit motor learning through observational training in adults and children

Although evidence of implicit motor learning on the basis of observation alone has been reported, there is some data to suggest that the phenomenon could be contaminated by the intentional exploitation of explicit knowledge. In the present experiment, a special procedure was adapted to study observational learning in a situation involving the acquisition of a new drawing behavior. The participants consisted of adults and children 6-10 years of age. The results provide support for the view that overt motor practice is not strictly necessary for implicit motor learning. They demonstrate that children display capacities similar to those of adults in this form of learning. Some suggestions are made to account for the contradictory results present in this area of research.     

Are Newborns Morally Different from Older Children?

Policies and position statements regarding decision-making for extremely premature babies exist in many countries and are often directive, focusing on parental choice and expected outcomes. These recommendations often state survival and handicap as reasons for optional intervention. The fact that such outcome statistics would not justify such approaches in other populations suggests that some other powerful factors are at work. The value of neonatal intensive care has been scrutinized far more than intensive care for older patients and suggests that neonatal care is held to a higher standard of justification. The relative value placed on the life of newborns, in particular the preterm, is less than expected by any objective medical data or any prevailing moral frameworks about the value of individual lives. Why do we feel less obligated to treat the premature baby? Do we put newborns in a special and lesser moral category? We explore this question from a legal and ethical perspective and offer several hypotheses pertaining to personhood, reproductive choices, “precious children,” and probable evolutionary and anthropological factors.