Can survival processing enhance story memory? Testing the generalizability of the adaptive memory framework

Research from the adaptive memory framework shows that thinking about words in terms of their survival value in an incidental learning task enhances their free recall relative to other semantic encoding strategies and intentional learning (Nairne, Pandeirada, & Thompson, 2008). We found similar results. When participants used incidental survival encoding for a list of words (e.g., "Will this object enhance my survival if I were stranded in the grasslands of a foreign land?"), they produced better free recall on a surprise test than did participants who intentionally tried to remember those words (Experiment 1). We also found this survival processing advantage when the words were presented within the context of a survival or neutral story (Experiment 2). However, this advantage did not extent to memory for a story's factual content, regardless of whether the participants were tested by cued recall (Experiment 3) or free recall (Experiments 4-5). Listening to a story for understanding under intentional or incidental learning conditions was just as good as survival processing for remembering story content. The functionalist approach to thinking about memory as an evolutionary adaptation designed to solve reproductive fitness problems provides a different theoretical framework for research, but it is not yet clear if survival processing has general applicability or is effective only for processing discrete stimuli in terms of fitness-relevant scenarios from our past.     

The development of norm-based coding and race-specific face prototypes: An examination of 5- and 8-year-olds’ face space

The current research investigated the organization of children’s face space by examining whether 5- and 8-year-olds show race-contingent aftereffects. Participants read a storybook in which Caucasian and Chinese children’s faces were distorted in opposite directions. Before and after adaptation, participants judged the normality/attractiveness of expanded, compressed, and undistorted Caucasian and Chinese faces. The method was validated with adults and then refined to test 8- and 5-year-olds. The 5-year-olds were also tested in a simple aftereffects paradigm. The current research provides the first evidence for simple attractiveness aftereffects in 5-year-olds and for race-contingent aftereffects in both 5- and 8-year-olds. Evidence that adults and 5-year-olds may possess only a weak prototype for Chinese children’s faces suggests that Caucasian adults’ prototype for Chinese adult faces does not generalize to child faces and that children’s face space undergoes a period of increasing differentiation between 5 and 8 years of age.     

Memory for intergroup apologies and its relationship with forgiveness

This paper examines memory for collective apologies. Our interest was in determining whether people are aware of intergroup apologies and whether this contributes to forgiveness for offending groups. Surveys conducted in three nations affected by Japanese World War II aggression found that participants were more likely to believe (incorrectly) that Japan had not apologized for WWII than to believe (correctly) that they had (Study 1). In contrast, participants were eight times more likely to believe that a corporation had apologized for misconduct than to (correctly) recall that they had not (Study 1). Forgiveness levels were higher among those who believed the group had apologized than among apology deniers, although the effect was weak and inconsistent. However, in a follow‐up study that measured identification with the victim group it was found that high identifiers were significantly less likely to “remember” an apology (Study 2). Results suggest that memories for collective apologies are fluid and may not be causally related to intergroup forgiveness. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The distance effect in numerical memory-updating tasks

Two experiments examined the role of numerical distance in updating numerical information in working memory. In the first experiment, participants had to memorize a new number only when it was smaller than a previously memorized number. In the second experiment, updating was based on an external signal, which removed the need to perform any numerical comparison. In both experiments, distance between the memorized number and the new one was manipulated. The results showed that smaller distances between the new and the old information led to shorter updating times. This graded facilitation suggests that the process by which information is substituted in the focus of attention involves maintaining the shared features between the new and the old number activated and selecting other new features to be activated. Thus, the updating cost may be related to amount of new features to be activated in the focus of attention.     

Effects of a Parenting Intervention on Features of Psychopathy in Children

This study examined whether Project Support, a parenting intervention shown to reduce child conduct problems, also exerts positive effects on features of psychopathy in children. Participants were 66 families (mothers and children) recruited from domestic violence shelters who participated in a randomized controlled trial evaluating Project Support. Each family included at least one child between the ages of 4 and 9 who was exhibiting clinical levels of conduct problems. Families were randomly assigned to the Project Support intervention condition or to an existing services comparison condition, and they were assessed on 6 occasions over 20 months, following their departure from the shelter. Children in families in the Project Support condition, compared with those in the comparison condition, exhibited greater reductions in features of psychopathy. Moreover, the changes in features of psychopathy remained after accounting for changes in conduct problems. Project Support’s effects on features of psychopathy were mediated by improvements in mothers’ harsh and inconsistent parenting. These findings on the effects of an intervention on features of psychopathy are the first from a randomized controlled trial. They inform the debate about whether features of psychopathy in children are responsive to intervention, and hold important implications for clinical practice.     

Better (or worse) for some than others: Individual differences in the positivity offset and negativity bias

People tend to respond with more positive than negative affect to mildly emotional stimuli (i.e., positivity offset) and respond more strongly to very negative than to matched positive stimuli (i.e., negativity bias). In the current study, the authors examine individual differences in the positivity offset and negativity bias and demonstrate that both are stable over time and generalize across different kinds of stimuli (e.g., pictures, sounds, words, games of chance). Furthermore, the positivity offset and negativity bias are not redundant with traditional personality measures and exhibit differential predictive validity, such that both types of measures predict behavior in meaningful ways. Implications for a comprehensive understanding of affect and emotion and their relationship to physical and mental health are discussed.     

The association between cognitive ability across the lifespan and health literacy in old age: The Lothian Birth Cohort 1936

Three hundred and four participants in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 study took a validated IQ-type test at age 11 years and a battery of cognitive tests at age 70 years. Three tests of health literacy were completed at age 72 years; the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM), the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (S-TOFHLA), and the Newest Vital Sign (NVS). Participants who had a lower childhood IQ exhibited poorer performance on all three tests of health literacy taken in older adulthood. Relative cognitive change from age 11 to 70 and education were also important factors influencing performance on health literacy tasks, independent of childhood cognitive ability. It is important to understand the determinants of low health literacy in order to support individuals in managing their own health.     

Exploration of the links among fathers' unresolved states of mind with respect to attachment,atypical paternal behavior,and disorganized infant–father attachment

Atypical maternal behavior has consistently been identified as a precursor of disorganized infant–mother attachment, but to date, no research has examined the role of atypical paternal behavior in the development of disorganized infant–father attachment. This study aims to enhance our understanding and conceptualization of infant–father attachment by examining the role of fathers' unresolved states of mind and the display of atypical paternal behavior in the development of disorganized infant–father attachment. Thirty‐one middle‐class couples participated in this study. Maternal and paternal Adult Attachment Interviews (C. George, N. Kaplan, & M. Main, 1996 ) were completed prenatally and at infant age 6 months, respectively. Infant–mother and infant–father dyads participated in the Strange Situation paradigm (M. Ainsworth, M. Blehar, E. Waters, & S. Wall, 1978 ) when the infants were 12 and 18 months of age, respectively. The Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification (E. Bronfman, E. Parsons, & K. Lyons‐Ruth, 1999 ) was used to assess maternal and paternal behavior during the Strange Situation. Maternal states of mind regarding attachment predicted infant–mother attachment relationships, and paternal states of mind predicted infant–father attachment relationships. Atypical maternal behavior was associated with infant–mother disorganized attachment; however, atypical paternal behavior did not predict infant–father disorganized attachment. Thus, it is possible that other factors, yet to be uncovered, might contribute to the development of infant–father disorganized attachment.