Asymmetrical state dependency from temporary septal area dysfunction in rats.

Rats with cannulas implanted in the septal area were conditioned, tested, or both conditioned and tested shortly after intracerebral injection of local anesthetic via the cannulas. A 2 X 2 factorial design was used to determine whether the presumed state of temporary septal area dysfunction, previously shown to produce amnesia, has state-dependent properties. A state-dependent learning effect was observed in the rats both conditioned and tested in the dysfunctional stat remembered the aversive conditioning better than those conditioned in the dysfunctional state but tested in the normal state. Since rats conditioned in the normal state but tested during septal dysfunction did appear to exhibit conditioned fear when tested, the state-dependent effect was asymmetrical. Performance effects of the procaine injection were observed and accounted for in determining the state-dependent nature of temporary septal area dysfunction.     

Altering student responses through changes in teacher verbal behavior

Two experiments were conducted in a junior-high special-education class of eight pupils in an inner-city school. In the first experiment, the teacher doubled the number of words used by the pupils in answering questions by altering the type of questions asked. In the second experiment, the number of words used by students and the percentage of answers given in complete sentences, increased from less than 5% to approximately 90% when the teacher instructed the pupils to answer in complete sentences and asked another pupil to answer using a sentence if the first one did not do so. In both experiments, a brief return to baseline conditions brought a return to low levels of verbal responding. An analysis of which pupils were called on by the teacher, teacher praise, and in the second experiment the types of questions asked, indicated that these variables were not responsible for the increases in verbal responding.     

Behavioral correlates of the Hyperactivity Factor of the Conners Teacher Questionnaire

The present study assesses whether ratings on the Conners Teacher Questionnaire, Hyperactivity Factor, corresponded to observed behavioral and attitudinal differences in hyperactive and nonhyperactive males. Boys in the present study were rated on the questionnaire and then observed in a free-play situation. The boys' scores on the Teacher Questionnaire were later compared with their activity level, judgments about their behavior, and interview questions about their experience in the study. Several of these measures were found to correlate significantly with the Teacher Questionnaire scores, suggesting that it successfully taps observable dimensions of hyperactivity in novel situations.This project was part of the dissertation of the first author, Department of Psychology, The American University.     

A novel study: investigating the structure of narrative and autobiographical memories

In two experiments we assessed the degree to which memory for events are similar or differ depending on whether they were narrative or autobiographical events. Consistent with previous research on autobiographical memory, memories for events captured the sequential order of events. However, in contrast to autobiographical memory research, ratings of importance did not appear to be related to retrieval speed. An analysis of causal connectivity of the recalled events was significantly related to retrieval speed. Issues of narrative comprehension and memory, autobiographical memory, and their overlap are discussed.     

Counselling supervision in organisational contexts: New challenges and perspectives

The need for a shared understanding of supervision is explored in relation to the supervisory role and organisational culture. It is argued that supervisors can be change agents within an organisational context but that the working contract needs to be negotiated carefully to safeguard the ethical interests of all parties.     

The influence of story context on a working memory span task

The purpose of the present study was to examine factors that could influence whether recall performance in the reading span task (Daneman & Carpenter, 1980 ) would benefit from the contextual information from the sentences in the processing component of the task. More specifically, we investigated whether people would benefit from sentence sets that formed short stories or when the entire span task was one continuous story. Overall, there was a clear benefit for contextually related sentence sets (i.e., the story span tasks) compared to the traditional reading span task. However, the benefit was eliminated when the entire set formed one continuous story. These results support the recall reconstruction hypothesis for working memory (Towse, Cowan, Hitch, & Horton, 2008 ), which suggests that people may strategically use the content of the sentences from the processing component of the reading span task as memorial cues to reconstruct the target words of the storage component. However, this benefit is constrained to scenarios when the contextual cues are unique to a specific set.     

Aging and Situation Model Updating

The aim of this study was to investigate age differences in narrative comprehension and memory, with a focus on the updating of situation models during comprehension. While there are large effects of aging on memory for propositional textbase information, there is very little evidence that older adults have difficulty at the situation model level. Because described events are often dynamic, a comprehender must consistently update their situation model to make it consistent with the new information. The current experiments investigated whether there are any age differences associated with the ability to update a situation model along the spatial and temporal dimensions. Although updating effects were observed, they were largely not influenced by age. The relation of these findings to an understanding of older adults’ language comprehension and memory performance is discussed.     

A novel study: Forgetting curves and the reminiscence bump

This study examined the forgetting curves for information read in a novel. People read a 10-chapter novel where each chapter covered an approximately 10-year period in the life of the protagonist. After reading the entire novel, participants completed various memory tests in which they summarised the novel, provided associated information from cues, and answered specific questions. Performance was plotted as the amount of information or the accuracy of question answering for each chapter. All of the memory tests revealed similar patterns: (a) better performance for early information (a primacy effect), (b) a bump in performance when the protagonist was approximately 20 years old, and (c) a smaller bump in performance when the protagonist began a career later in life. These results are considered in the context of theories of forgetting, autobiographical memory, and situation models.     

The Effects of Atropine and Adrenergic Antagonists on Behavioral Arousal in Rats

Two experiments investigated the mechanism for changes in measures of behavioral arousal inhibition in rats following administration of atropine. In Experiment 1, 40-day-old rats were given administrations of atropine sulfate, the α-, β-adrenergic blocker labetalol, or both. The drugs, either alone or in combination, increased transport response intensity, whereas both together increased dorsal immobility durations. In Experiment 2, rats were given atropine, the β-adrenergic antagonist propranolol, the α-adrenergic antagonist phentolamine, or a combination of two of the drugs. Propranolol blocked atropine-induced increases in transport response, and phentolamine was without effect. Phentolamine, when combined with atropine, increased dorsal immobility durations. Results are discussed with respect to aspects common to both transport response and dorsal immobility.     

Substance use patterns of young offenders and violent crime

The use of alcohol is a significant predictor of the involvement of young offenders in violent crime. This study found that in a sample of 300 incarcerated juveniles in New South Wales, more than 70% admitted to violent crime. Detainees from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander culture were less likely than other detainees to be involved in violent crime. The substances most associated with violent crime were alcohol, followed by cocaine. However, when the likelihood that the young person has initiated violence as a response to alcohol or other substances is introduced into the equation, the direct effects for alcohol and cocaine predicting engagement in violent crime disappear. The Goldstein hypothesis that the effects of a substance directly facilitate violence, thereby accounting for the relationship between substances of use and violent crime, was supported. Aggr. Behav. 29:414–422, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.