The Cognitive Interview enhances long-term free recall of older adults

The Cognitive Interview, a retrieval-based mnemonic technique, has received only limited attention in its application with older adults, and based on previous findings, its benefit to older adults is unclear. The authors found that the Cognitive Interview effectively increased older adults' recall relative to standard recall instructions at a 3-week delay. These findings demonstrate the benefit of a standardized (rather than the prototypically interactive) Cognitive Interview as applied to perceptually impoverished, text-based stimuli. Both theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Phantom ROC: Recollection rejection in a hybrid conjoint recognition signal detection model

The present experiments test predictions of dual process models with regards to recollection rejection using a model called phantom ROC. Participants studied pictures and then took a recognition test in which they were presented with targets (i.e., the exact picture presented), related lures (i.e., the same object but from a different angle), and unrelated lures (i.e., objects that had not been shown). For each item, participants answered both standard recognition and meaning recognition questions. In Experiment 1 participants studied pictures under either full attention or divided attention. In Experiment 2 some participants were told that no object was shown twice (i.e., mutual exclusivity instructions), while others were told that both camera angles might have been shown for some objects (no mutual exclusivity instructions). The present experiments provide three converging measures, all of which are consistent with dual process models that propose a recollection rejection mechanism.     

A poor metabolizer for cytochromes P450 2D6 and 2C19: a case report on antidepressant treatment

Scientific literature has never described a poor metabolizer for both the cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2D6 and the CYP 2C19. They are expected to be rare (<1% in different ethnic groups) and prone to adverse drug reactions with many antidepressants. In an ongoing pharmacogenetic study, after genotyping 1,576 subjects in three Kentucky state hospitals we have found one poor metabolizer for both CYP 2D6 and CYP 2C19, which corresponds to a prevalence of 0.06% (95% CI 0.01 to 0.36). The naturalistic antidepressant treatment of this poor metabolizer for both enzymes is described in this article. As genotyping reaches clinical practice, it will be interesting to prospectively establish whether mirtazapine is a reasonable choice as an antidepressant for these patients, as the data and this case suggest.     

Self-objectification and compliment type: Effects on negative mood

The effects of trait self-objectification and compliment type (Neutral/Character/Appearance) on women's negative mood was examined. One hundred and eighty-five undergraduate women participated in mock appearance evaluations and interviews before completing questionnaires. As in previous research, women high on trait self-objectification displayed substantially greater body shame and appearance anxiety than women low on trait self-objectification. Women high on trait self-objectification who received character or appearance compliments expressed less negative mood than those receiving neutral compliments. A supplementary study (N = 53) suggested that the effect of positive compliments may be due, in part, to the fact that the self-esteem of high trait self-objectified participants was largely contingent on others’ approval. Offering highly trait self-objectified women positive statements concerning either their characters or their appearance temporarily assuages negative mood.     

Reach and posture hand preferences during arboreal feeding in Sifakas (Propithecus sp.): a test of the postural origins theory of behavioral lateralization

Sixteen sifakas (11 Propithecus verreauxi coquereli, 2 Propithecus verreauxi verreauxi form majori, and 3 Propithecus tattersalli) were videotaped as they fed on leaves in an arboreal context. The hand used to feed and the hand used to maintain postural stability was coded. For each subject, the lateral bias of the hand used to feed was opposite the hand used in postural support. Seven sifakas displayed no bias for feeding or posture-related hand use, 7 sifakas displayed significant feeding-related reach preferences for pulling branches to the mouth (5 left- and 2 right-hand preferences), and 9 sifakas exhibited significant hand preferences for postural support (2 left-, 7 right-hand preferent). Although these data do not strongly support the postural origins theory of behavioral lateralization, the modal preference pattern for sifakas that displayed significant hand preferences for posture and feeding involve a left bias for feeding and a right bias for postural support. s reserved).     

Resolving ambiguity: the effect of experience on interpretation of ambiguous events in generalized social phobia

The authors examined the effect of learning on multiple encounters with sources of social ambiguity in individuals with generalized social phobia (GSP). The authors modified G. B. Simpson and H. Kang's (1994) paradigm and presented prime-target word pairs to individuals with GSP and nonanxious controls (NACs) to prime threat and nonthreat meanings of homographs and examine the effect of this priming on later encounters with that homograph. Consistent with previous research, NACs showed faster response latencies naming a target primed by a homograph with the same meaning activated in two successive trials than naming the same target primed by an unrelated word. Furthermore, NACs showed slower response latencies naming a target when a different meaning of the homograph prime was activated in successive trials than naming a target primed by an unrelated word. GSP participants did not show this pattern in learning a nonthreat meaning of a homograph. These results support the hypothesis that a faulty learning mechanism may be involved in social anxiety.     

The effects of aging on selectivity and control in short-term recall

The ability to control encoding and retrieval processing strategically is critical for the efficient use of memory. We examined the ability of younger and older adults to selectively remember words on the basis of their arbitrary point values by using a technique developed by Watkins and Bloom (1999). In the first three experiments, younger subjects recalled more words than did older subjects, but an independent index of recall selectivity showed that older subjects were apparently more successful in selecting higher valued words. However, a fourth experiment showed that this superior selectivity on the part of older adults was attributable to their greater proportional reliance on primary memory recall. Overall, the data suggest that although older adults recall fewer words than do younger adults, they exert as much control over some aspects of encoding.     

Aging effects on memory encoding in the frontal lobes

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to compare frontal-lobe activation in younger and older adults during encoding of words into memory. Participants made semantic or nonsemantic judgments about words. Younger adults exhibited greater activation for semantic relative to nonsemantic judgments in several regions, with the largest activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus. Older adults exhibited greater activation for semantic judgments in the same regions. but the extent of activation was reduced in left prefrontal regions. In older adults, there was a significant association between behavioral tests of declarative and working memory and extent of frontal activation. These results suggest that age-associated decreases in memory ability may be due to decreased frontal-lobe contributions to the initial encoding of experience.     

Journal reprints as dissemination of psychological research: courtesy, obligation, or obsolescence?

The proliferation of journals and the escalation of journal prices have made it difficult for psychologists, especially those in rural areas without access to comprehensive libraries, to obtain journal articles. A traditional source of otherwise unavailable papers is to request a reprint directly from the author. Although previous researchers found this method to be 60%-80% successful, there have been major changes in journal operations and alternative media since this research was conducted. In the present study, reprints were requested from 473 corresponding authors from 10 American Psychological Association journals. The compliance rate was 84% and reprints took, on average, 32 days to arrive. There was no difference in the rate or in the speed of response due to the requestor's status as an academic or applied psychologist. Although functional, the traditional reprint request method was slow, uncertain, and costly. It is suggested that a demand still exists for reprints, but that electronic reprints should replace the traditional paper format. Key words: reprints, scientific communication