Changing environmental context does not reliably affect memory

Most current theories of human memory propose that context, defined here as the time and place at which an event was experienced, forms an integral feature of the mnemonic representation of events. One way of investigating context is by manipulating the environmental context (which typically means the room in which the experiment takes place). The predominant result of this manipulation reported in the literature has been consistent with theory: Memory performance is better when the learning and testing environments are the same than when they differ. This article reports eight experiments that in aggregate challenge the reliability of this same-context advantage. Experiment 1 reported a failure to obtain a same-context advantage. Experiments 2–7 investigated various features of the design that might have reduced the effect. None of these experiments produced a reliable same-context advantage. Experiment 8 repeated the methodology of a published report of a same-context advantage with more than double the number of subjects, but failed to replicate the effect. An analysis of features of the experiments led to two suggestions for future investigations of the effects of changes in environmental context on memory.     

“Identify-to-reject”: A specific strategy to avoid false memories in the DRM paradigm

Previous research using the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm has shown that lists of associates in which the critical words were easily identified as the themes of the lists produce lower levels of false memories in adults. In an attempt to analyze whether this effect is due to the application of a specific memory-editing process (the identify-to-reject strategy), two experiments manipulated variables that are likely to disrupt this strategy either at encoding or at retrieval. In Experiment 1, lists were presented at a very fast presentation rate to reduce the possibility of identifying the missing critical word as the theme of the list, and in Experiment 2, participants were pressed to give yes/no recognition answers within a very short time. The results showed that both of these manipulations disrupted the identifiability effect, indicating that the identify-to-reject strategy and theme identifiability play a major role in the rejection of false memories in the DRM paradigm.     

Influence of the social context on use of surgical-lengthening and group-empowering coping strategies among people with dwarfism

Objective: To assess the role that social contextual factors exert on the way people with disproportionate short stature (dwarfism) cope with the negative consequences of discrimination. Method: Using multigroup structural equation modeling, we compare the coping process of people with dwarfism from Spain (N = 63) and the USA (N = 145), two countries that differ in the role played by organizations offering support to people with dwarfism. Results: In Spain, where organizational support is recent, a coping approach aimed at achieving integration with the majority group through limb-lengthening surgery prevails; in the USA, where the long-standing organization of people with dwarfism encourages pride in being a "little person" and positive intragroup contact, a coping strategy based on empowering the minority group dominates. Conclusions: Both strategies, each in its own context, are effective at protecting psychological well-being from the negative consequences of stigmatization; however, they exert their positive effects through different processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Quo Vadis,Dottore? Religious,Philosophical and Medical Perspectives on the Quest for Immortality

Journal of Religion and Health - In the daily practice of medicine, health care providers oftentimes confront the dilemma of offering ‘maximum care’ based on available technologies and...     

El lenguaje autista desde una perspectiva correlacional

Resumen

A pesar del interés reciente por las alteraciones del lenguaje en autismo infantil, es notable la carencia de investigaciones en que se analicen las correlaciones de las variables de lenguaje entre sí y con otra variables comportamentales. En este artículo se realiza tal análisis, correlacionando variables lingüísticas entre sí (L.M.E., complejidad estructural, comprensión, porcentaje de ecos y habla socializada, etc.) y con variables no lingüísticas (cociente global de desarrollo, niveles de imitación, percepción, motricidad, integración óculo-manual y cognitivo y cognitivo-verbal, P.P.O.D.). El análisis de los datos intragrupales permite identificar índices lingüísticos, de interés para guiar la evaluación clínica, porporciona una base para la valoración pronostica y permite situar las alteraciones de lenguaje en un contexto global de anomalías que afectan a la construcción de la conducta intencional, el desarrollo de los códigos simbólicos y las conductas de relación e interacción presimbólica.     

Procesos de aprendizaje y terapia de conducta en la adicción a la heroína

Resumen

Múltiples principios de condicionamiento clásico y operante interaccionan en la adición a la heroína. Destacan la presencia de RC Compensatorias en forma de Síndrome de Abstinencia Condicionado (SAC) y distintos programas de reforzamiento en el estilo de vida, argot y efectos de la heroína. En evaluación conductual se estudian los correlatos subjetivos y psicofisiológicos del SAC; la validez externa de los autorregistros se logra mediante análisis de orina. En terapia de conducta los programas de amplio espectro se combinan con la intervención comunitaria y apoyo médico. A nivel metodológico se resalta la necesidad de usar múltiples criterios de medición, introducción del análisis multivariado y uso de diseños estadísticos, realización de seguimientos a largo plazo.     

Children's Graffiti: Visual Communication from a Developmental Perspective

The graffiti of children, an unobtrusive measure collected in Puerto Rican natural settings, revealed the children's views about the world. Results show that these graffiti reflect a wide variety of content related to the child's immediate life experiences such as concerns with their self-identity, interpersonal relations, cultural understandings, sexuality, and religious and political beliefs.     

Aging and self-reported internal and external memory strategy uses: The role of executive functioning

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of advanced age on self-reported internal and external memory strategy uses, and whether this effect can be predicted by executive functioning. A sample of 194 participants aged 21 to 80 divided into three age groups (21-40, 41-60, 61-80) completed the two strategy scales of the Metamemory in Adulthood (MIA) questionnaire, differentiating between internal and external everyday memory strategy uses, and three tests of executive functioning. The results showed that: (1) the use of external memory strategies increased with age, whereas use of internal memory strategy decreased; (2) executive functioning appeared to be related only to internal strategies, the participants who reported the greatest use of internal strategies having the highest executive level; and (3) executive functioning accounted for a sizeable proportion of the age-related variance in internal strategy use. These findings suggest that older adults preferentially use external memory strategies to cope with everyday memory impairment due to aging. They also support the view that the age-related decrease in the implementation of internal memory strategies can be explained by the executive hypothesis of cognitive aging. This result parallels those observed using objective laboratory memory strategy measures and then supports the validity of self-reported memory strategy questionnaire.     

Age differences in the rejection of false memories: The effects of giving warning instructions and slowing the presentation rate

Two experiments were conducted to examine whether children of different ages differ in their ability to reject associative false memories with the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Two different types of manipulations that are thought to facilitate false memory rejection in adults—slowing the presentation rate and issuing explicit warnings—were analyzed in younger and older children. The results showed that older children were more able than younger children to reject associative false memories through warnings and by slowing the presentation rate. We conclude that although older children are, in general, more prone to produce false memories with the DRM paradigm, they are also more able to reject them when certain conditions facilitate the editing process.