Source monitoring in eyewitness memory: Implicit associations,suggestions, and episodic traces

Both the distinctiveness heuristic and discrepancy detection hypotheses were investigated by independently manipulating both schema consistency and incidental suggestion in an eyewitness memory paradigm. A sequence of slides was shown, followed by a postevent questionnaire that contained both schema-typical and schema-atypical information. Fifteen minutes later, a source-monitoring task was administered. In Experiment 1, the proportion of source misattribution errors was greater for schema-typical items than for schema-atypical items, and the proportion of errors on suggested items was greater than that on control items. Suggestion affected schema-typical and schema-atypical items equally, providing no support for the predictions of either hypothesis. In Experiment 2, the interval between the questionnaire and the source test was manipulated. The results of Experiment 1 were replicated under the short delay, whereas the proportion of errors increased under the long delay. An associative network model involving two types of episodic traces was used to account for the results.     

Global and local contributions to the optical specification of time to contact: observer sensitivity to composite tau

First-order time remaining until a moving observer will pass an environmental element is optically specified in two different ways. The specification provided by global tau (based on the pattern of change of angular bearing) requires that the element is stationary and that the direction of motion is accurately detected, whereas the specification provided by composite tau (based on the patterns of change of optical size and optical distance) does not require either of these. We obtained converging evidence for our hypothesis that observers are sensitive to composite tau in four experiments involving relative judgments of time to passage with forced-choice methodology. Discrimination performance was enhanced in the presence of a local expansion component, while being unaffected when the detection of the direction of heading was impaired. Observers relied on the information carried in composite tau rather than on the information carried in its constituent components. Finally, performance was similar under conditions of observer motion and conditions of object motion. Because composite tau specifies first-order time remaining for a large number of situations, the different ways in which it may be detected are discussed.     

An Unusual Case of Motor and Vocal Tics With Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms in a Young Adult With Behcet's Syndrome

Behcet's disease is a chronic relapsing-remitting, multi-system inflammatory disorder of unknown etiology, characterized by recurrent oral and genital ulcers, uveitis, and skin lesions. The most common central nervous system findings are demyelization and perivascular cell infiltration; meningoencephalitis, cerebral atrophy, and vascular thrombosis may also occur. Neuropsychiatric symptoms may include: paroxysmal dystonia, parkinsonism, delirium, hallucinations, and behavioral disturbances. We report an unusual case of explosive onset of motor and vocal tics with obsessive-compulsive symptoms in a 22-year-old male with Behcet's disease. The putative roles of infection and autoimmune mechanisms in the pathogenesis of tics and obsessive-compulsive symptoms are explored.     

Degeneracy and cognitive anatomy

Cognitive models indicate that there are multiple ways of completing the same task. This implicit degeneracy cannot be revealed by functional imaging studies of normal subjects if more than one of the sufficient neural systems is activated. Nor can it be detected by neuropsychological studies of patients because their performance might not be impaired when only one degenerate system is damaged. We propose that degenerate sets of sufficient neural systems can only be identified by an iterative approach that integrates the lesion-deficit model and functional imaging studies of normal and neurologically damaged subjects.     

Effects of Teaching Upper Elementary Grade Students to Use Word Learning Strategies

This study examined the effects of three trials of a one-semester program designed to teach word learning strategies. Together, the three trials included 320 fourth- and fifth-grade students from diverse backgrounds. Trial 1 showed that the program significantly increased students? scores on an experimenter-designed test. Trial 2 again showed that the program significantly increased students' scores on the experimenter-designed test and that English learners made larger gains than non-English learners. Trial 3 showed that students made statistically significant gains on the experimenter-designed test and on two transfer tests that were not designed by the experimenters.     

“Viewing” Pregnancy as an Existential Threat: The Effects of Creatureliness on Reactions to Media Depictions of the Pregnant Body

Although pregnancy clearly evokes many positive reactions, women's pregnant bodies sometimes inspire negative responses. However, little if any empirical attention has been devoted to understanding the psychological reasons for such ambivalence. In this article we tried to fill this gap by using a conceptual analysis grounded in terror management theory. According to this perspective, because people are motivated to deny their similarity to animals (and the mortal vulnerability that entails), when such concerns are salient, they will react negatively to that which has the potential to highlight the creaturely aspects of humanity (i.e., pregnancy). In two experiments, priming the similarity between humans and animals led participants to respond more negatively to a pregnant compared to non-pregnant Demi Moore magazine cover (Study 1) and to perceive Gwyneth Paltrow as less competent when she was portrayed as pregnant (Study 2). We consider implications for understanding objectification and derogation of women.     

Karl Pearson and Eugenics: Personal Opinions and Scientific Rigor

The influence of personal opinions and biases on scientific conclusions is a threat to the advancement of knowledge. Expertise and experience does not render one immune to this temptation. In this work, one of the founding fathers of statistics, Karl Pearson, is used as an illustration of how even the most talented among us can produce misleading results when inferences are made without caution or reference to potential bias and other analysis limitations. A study performed by Pearson on British Jewish schoolchildren is examined in light of ethical and professional statistical practice. The methodology used and inferences made by Pearson and his coauthor are sometimes questionable and offer insight into how Pearson’s support of eugenics and his own British nationalism could have potentially influenced his often careless and far-fetched inferences. A short background into Pearson’s work and beliefs is provided, along with an in-depth examination of the authors’ overall experimental design and statistical practices. In addition, portions of the study regarding intelligence and tuberculosis are discussed in more detail, along with historical reactions to their work.     

‘Poor girl’: a case of active psychosis': clinical commentary

This paper presents the Clarkson Intervention Priority Sequencing Model for clarification and decision making in counselling, psychotherapy, supervision, consultancy As well as in the training and supervision of practitioners in these fields. The model can assist professionals to differentiate whether the focus for most urgent intervention in any part of the supervisory system primarily concerns areas of Danger, Confusion, Conflict, Deficit or Development and gives examples referring to health psychology and cultural diversity as well as providing some guidelines for application.     

Modality Effects and the Development of the Word Length Effect in Children

Two experiments investigated the development of the word length effect in children aged 4 to 10 years, comparing auditory and visual stimuli. The question addressed was whether word length effects emerged earlier with auditory presentation or visual presentation, or whether they emerged at the same age regardless of presentation modality. Results provided evidence that word length effects emerge earlier with visual than auditory presentation. The implication of our results is that with visual presentation, 4-year-olds engage in some form of verbalisation strategy that involves obtaining phonological representations of picture names and mapping them on to articulatory output plans. This strategy is clearly verbal in nature, but is not necessarily characterised as cumulative verbal rehearsal.     

Attentional Skills in the Acute Phase Following Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury

Only a limited number of studies have investigated attention following pediatric head-injury. The present study examined sustained attention and processing speed in a group of children who had sustained a mild (n = 27), moderate (n = 33) or severe (n = 16) traumatic brain injury (TBI). No significant differences were evident between the TBI groups on reaction time measures. Results did show that the severe TBI group exhibited greater deficits in the area of sustained attention, in comparison to children with mild and moderate injuries, in the acute stage following traumatic brain injury. This difficulty may impact on the future development of skills dependent on intact attentional capacity.