Guidance of attention to objects and locations by long-term memory of natural scenes

Four flicker change-detection experiments demonstrate that scene-specific long-term memory guides attention to both behaviorally relevant locations and objects within a familiar scene. Participants performed an initial block of change-detection trials, detecting the addition of an object to a natural scene. After a 30-min delay, participants performed an unanticipated 2nd block of trials. When the same scene occurred in the 2nd block, the change within the scene was (a) identical to the original change, (b) a new object appearing in the original change location, (c) the same object appearing in a new location, or (d) a new object appearing in a new location. Results suggest that attention is rapidly allocated to previously relevant locations and then to previously relevant objects. This pattern of locations dominating objects remained when object identity information was made more salient. Eye tracking verified that scene memory results in more direct scan paths to previously relevant locations and objects. This contextual guidance suggests that a high-capacity long-term memory for scenes is used to insure that limited attentional capacity is allocated efficiently rather than being squandered.     

Emotional and learning behaviour in mice overexpressing heat shock protein 70

The effects of inducible heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) on emotional and learning behaviour as well as hippocampal long-term potentiation was investigated in transgenic HSP70 overexpressing mice. In active two-way avoidance learning (shuttle box) as well as spatial 8-arm radial maze learning, the HSP70 overexpressing mice showed diminished learning performance. In several tests there was no indication of differences in anxiety behaviour between transgenic mice and wild-type mice. This suggests that impairment in learning behaviour is unrelated to the learning task and motivational aspects of behaviour. To investigate the neurophysiological correlate of learning, long-term potentiation experiments were performed. In transversal hippocampal slices, an enhanced amplitude of the population spike was found in HSP70 overexpressing mice. It was hypothesised that enhanced potentiation in conjunction with potentiation effects due to learning led to learning impairment.     

Moving From Efficacy to Effectiveness in Eating Disorders Prevention: The Sorority Body Image Program

Although eating disorders prevention research has begun to produce programs with demonstrated efficacy, many such programs simply target individuals as opposed to engaging broader social systems (e.g., schools, sororities, athletic teams) as participant collaborators in eating disorders prevention. Yet, social systems ultimately will be responsible for the real-world delivery of eating disorder prevention programs, suggesting that an important issue has yet to be addressed. Namely, it is unclear to what degree efficacious individual-focused eating disorder prevention programs remain effective when incorporated into critical social systems under real-world conditions. Over the past 5 years, we have collaborated with the campus sororities in the development of a sustainable eating disorders prevention program that is based on the prevention efficacy literature. This paper describes both challenges and helpful strategies that we encountered in tailoring an evidence-based eating disorders prevention program to the needs of a relevant social system.     

Law enforcement preferences for PTSD treatment and crisis management alternatives

Evidence-based treatments (EBT) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remain underutilized. Analog research, however, indicates that patients may be more amenable to receiving EBT for PTSD than utilization rates suggest. This study sought to extend previous studies by investigating PTSD treatment preferences among law enforcement individuals (i.e., active duty officers, cadets, criminal justice students). We asked 379 participants, with varying trauma histories, to read a police traumatic event and imagine they had developed PTSD. Participants rated the credibility of six treatment options which they might encounter in a treatment setting, and chose their most and least preferred treatments. Next, they evaluated a widely used debriefing intervention aimed at preventing PTSD. Almost 90% of participants chose exposure or Cognitive Processing Therapy as their first or second most preferred treatment, and they rated these interventions as significantly more credible than the other four treatment options. The sample showed ambivalence regarding the perceived efficacy of debriefing but found the rationale credible. This study supports previous analog research indicating that patients may be more interested in EBT than indicated by utilization rates, and suggests that law enforcement departments should consider offering EBT to officers who develop PTSD.     

Tell me more: Can a memory test reduce analogue traumatic intrusions?

Information processing theories of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) state that intrusive images emerge due to a lack of integration of perceptual trauma representations in autobiographical memory. To test this hypothesis experimentally, participants were shown an aversive film to elicit intrusive images. After viewing, they received a recognition test for just one part of the film. The test contained neutrally formulated items to rehearse information from the film. Participants reported intrusive images for the film in an intrusion diary during one week after viewing. In line with expectations, the number of intrusive images decreased only for the part of the film for which the recognition test was given. Furthermore, deliberate cued-recall memory after one week was selectively enhanced for the film part that was in the recognition test a week before. The findings provide new evidence supporting information processing models of PTSD and have potential implications for early interventions after trauma.     

A pox on the mind: Disjunction of attention and memory in the processing of physical disfigurement

The unfavorable treatment of people with physical disfigurements is well-documented, yet little is known about basic perceptual and cognitive responses to disfigurement. Here, we identify a specialized pattern of cognitive processing consistent with the hypothesis that disfigurements act as heuristic cues to contagious disease. Disfigurements are often invariant across time and difficult to conceal, and thus observers can detect the presence of such cues without necessarily remembering the particular individuals bearing these cues. Indeed, despite the fact that disfigured faces were especially likely to hold disease-sensitive perceivers’ attention (Study 1), disfigured individuals were often confused with one another and thus not well remembered later (Study 2), revealing a disjunction of the typical relationship between elevated attention and elevated memory. We discuss the implications of our results for stigmatization of people with and without physical abnormalities and suggest the possibility that cognitive mechanisms for processing social information may be functionally tuned to the variant nature of important cues.     

Doing gender differently—The interplay of strength of gender identification and content of gender identity in predicting women's endorsement of sexist beliefs

To explain differences in women's endorsement of sexist beliefs, we introduce the gender identity model (GIM). Based on social identity theory (SIT) and social role theory (SRT), we combine strength of gender identification and identity content and propose that different types of gender identity can be distinguished, which are predicted to relate to different levels of women's endorsement of sexist beliefs and engagement in collective action. Results of a correlational study and two experiments support the assumptions of the model: women reject Benevolent (BS), Hostile (HS), and Modern Sexisms (MS) and participate in collective action in particular when they are highly identified with the category women and have, at the same time, internalized progressive identity contents. In contrast, gender role preference has weaker or no effects on sexist beliefs and collective action when women are low identified with their gender in‐group. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of TV commercials using less thin models on young women's mood, body image and actual food intake

This study experimentally tested the effects of exposure to television commercials using less thin models on mood, body focused anxiety and food intake, as compared to the effects of commercials using thin models. In a naturalistic setting, 110 young women were exposed to a neutral movie, interrupted by two commercial breaks. The commercial breaks contained real commercials using either less thin (n = 32) or thin models (n = 39), or neutral commercials (n = 39). During watching television, participants could freely eat snack food. Further, their mood and body focused anxiety was assessed. ANOVAs revealed no effects on body focused anxiety, but women reported a more negative mood and ate less after exposure to commercials using less thin models than after exposure to commercials using thin models. These results imply that using less thin models in commercials explicitly referring to the thin ideal does not make women feel better.     

Art, self-censorship, and public discourse: contemporary Moroccan artists at the crossroads

Since the reign of King Mohammed VI in 1999, there has been a recent democratic trend in Morocco that has led to political liberalization and symbolic concessions. This essay explores how a new generation of artists is beginning to test the notions of the Islam, the monarch, and the rights of ethnic groups and women within Morocco. I argue that while they are beginning to test the limits of recent religious, social, and political reforms, these artists show self-restrain and selfcensorship, creating art that falls within the public discourse allowed by the new Moroccan king.