Hypermnesia in free recall and cued recall

In three experiments, categorized lists and both free recall and cued recall tests were used to examine hypermnesia. In Experiment 1, materials were drawn from obvious and nonobvious categories in an attempt to vary the amount of relational processing at encoding. The study materials in Experiment 2 consisted of a long word list that comprised several exemplars from each of a number of common categories. In Experiment 3, a single exemplar was drawn from each of 45 categories. In each experiment, similar magnitudes of hypermnesia were obtained on free and cued recall tests. Examination of the specific items recalled across tests indicated that similar processes underlie the hypermnesic effect for both test conditions. Implications of the results for extant accounts of the hypermnesic effect are discussed. It is concluded that the dynamics of retrieval processes change in a systematic fashion across repeated tests and the retention interval following study and that an adequate account of the nature of these changes in retrieval dynamics is essential to our understanding of hypermnesia and related phenomena.     

Sensitivity of persons with hearing impairment to visual emotional expression — compensation or deficit?

The research examined whether subjects with hearing impairment would differ from normal hearing subjects in their ability to decode emotions from video stimuli (48 video takes in which two actors portrayed six different emotions). Studies in tactile and visual perception lead one to expect deficits, while there is also some evidence for compensation. Twenty-six subjects with hearing impairment and 26 matched normal hearing subjects participated (average age = 25.5 years; nine female, 17 male subjects in each group). Results indicate that in general subjects with hearing impairment were slightly less successful in decoding emotions from the visual stimuli than the normal hearing subjects. A comparison between highly (loss > 60–90 dBA) and moderately (loss about 30–60 dBA) impaired subjects on the other hand indicated poorer emotion decoding only for the moderately impaired group. Post-hoc analyses indicated that these effects were specific to males. Results are discussed with respect to compensation versus deficit, and with respect to issues of training.     

Spatial and Selective Attention in the Cerebral Hemispheres in Depression, Mania, and Schizophrenia

Two tachistoscopic tests examining distinct aspects of attention were administered to normal subjects and patients with depression, mania, and schizophrenia. The first examined spatial attentional bias using happy-sad chimeric faces, known to elicit a perceptual bias to the left side of space in normal right-handers provided the right cerebral hemisphere is intact. The second used a lateralized version of the Stroop task, a traditional test of selective attention. Normals showed the expected leftward perceptual bias but showed equivalent susceptibility to the Stroop effect in both visual fields. As previously demonstrated with chimeric faces viewed in free vision, depression and mania were associated with weak and strong biases respectively with schizophrenics showing no bias to either side of space. The relationship between perceptual bias, as assessed by reaction time and absolute performance and the Stroop effect, showed differences according to diagnosis. This may be interpreted as evidence for the dissociability of attentional processes as well as lateralized differences in the pattern of cerebral activation in affective disorders and schizophrenia. The independence of performance variables on these tests in the schizophrenic group points to severe neuropsychological dysfunction.     

Components of Random Generation by Normal Subjects and Patients with Dysexecutive Syndrome

The study presents a hypothesis on how randomness could be simulated by human subjects. Three sources of deviation from randomness are predicted: (1) the preferred application of overlearned production schemata for producing sequences of digits, (2) a wrong concept of randomness, and (3) the impossibility to monitor for redundancies of higher- than those of first-order. Deviations of random generation of digits produced by healthy subjects, patients with chronic frontal lobe damage, and patients with Parkinson′s disease from random sequences produced by a computer program can be explained by the differential influence of these factors. Whereas incorrect concepts of randomness and limits on monitoring capacity distinguished all sequences produced by humans from actual random sequences, persistence on a single production strategy distinguished brain-damaged patients from controls. Random generation of digits appears to be a theoretically transparent and clinically useful test of executive function.     

The impact of short-term counselling on general health questionnaire scores

An evaluation was conducted of short-term counselling in a higher education setting. The main objective was to measure client scores on a shortened version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) pre- and post- counselling. Forty-five matched pairs of GHQ-12 scores were compared. There was a highly significant reduction in scores post-counselling. The evidence suggests that the 'great pretender' evaluation can be challenged using standard quantitative measures such as the GHQ-12. It is concluded that counselling in higher education may be addressing long-standing distress in members of the student population.     

Motor functions of the basal ganglia

Summary A study of movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease can provide an indication of the motor functions of the basal ganglia. Basal-ganglia diseases affect voluntary movement and can cause involuntary movement. Deficits are often manifested during the coordination of fine multi-joint movements (e. g., handwriting). The disturbances of motor control (e.g. akinesia, bradykinesia) caused by basal-ganglia disorders are illustrated. Data suggest that the basal ganglia play an important role in the automatic execution of serially ordered complex movements.     

Gender differences in self-evaluations of information about current affairs

This study examines how gender is related to self-evaluations of information to discuss current social and political issues. The sample is one of predominantly white (96%) college graduates. Using alumni samples, we look at how members of four classes that span 20 years evaluate their knowledge to hold conversations on a variety of public affairs issues ranging from the Strategic Defense Initiative to government funding of abortion. We find gender differences, with men perceiving themselves more knowledgeable in conversations and women less so. We raise the possibility that they are “doing gender.” The implications of these findings are explored.     

Interference with visual short-term memory

Working memory (Baddeley and Hitch 1974) incorporates the notion of a visuo-spatial sketch pad; a mechanism thought to be specialized for short-term storage of visuo-spatial material. However, the nature and characteristics of this hypothesized mechanism are as yet unclear. Two experiments are reported which examined selective interference in short-term visual memory. Experiment 1 contrasted recognition memory span for visual matrix patterns with that for visually presented letter sequences. These two span tasks were combined with concurrent arithmetic or a concurrent task which involved manipulation of visuo-spatial material. Results suggested that although there was a small, significant disruption by concurrent arithmetic of span for the matrix patterns, there was a substantially larger disruption of the letter span task. The converse was true for the secondary visuo-spatial task. Experiment 2 combined the span tasks with two established tasks developed by Brooks (1967). Span for matrix patterns was disrupted by a visuo-spatial task but not by a secondary verbal task. The converse was true for letter span. These results suggest that the impairment in short-term visual memory resulting from secondary arithmetic reflects a small general processing load, but that the selective interference due to mode of processing is by far the stronger effect. Results are interpreted as being entirely consistent with the notion of a specialized visuo-spatial mechanism in working memory.