Concurrent task effects on memory retrieval

Previous studies combining continuous free recall with a concurrent task have generally shown that concurrent tasks impose fairly negligible effects on memory retrieval. By contrast, dual-task studies employing either cued recall or semantic retrieval reveal gross memory impairment and suggest that retrieval is delayed by the centrally demanding phase of the concurrent tasks (i.e., response selection). To explore this conflict, subjects performed continuous free recall while carrying out a serial-choice#x2014; response time (RT) task, as in the previous free recall studies. Unlike these previous studies, however, the choice#x2014;RT task utilized arbitrary stimulus#x2014;response mappings in order to increase the proportion of time devoted to the centrally demanding response selection phase. Recall total was reduced significantly, and recall latency was slowed substantially.     

Estimating the Organizational Costs of Sexual Harassment: The Case of the U.S. Army

A general model for estimating the organizational costs of sexual harassment in the workplace is proposed along with model-specific costing formulas. A partial implementation of the model is applied to sexual harassment incidence data for the Army gathered as part of a large-scale survey of the U.S. military services. Results indicate that the total annual cost of sexual harassment in the U.S. Army in 1988 was over $250,000,000. Organizational implications are discussed.     

Long-term positive and negative identity priming: Evidence for episodic retrieval

An episodic retrieval account of negative priming (Neill, 1997; Neill & Valdes, 1992) was evaluated in three experiments. Duringpractice, regular word pairs were presented to subjects differing numbers of times. The subjects named specific target words while they ignored specific distractor words. Following a 5-min retention interval, memory for practice was revealed:Test responses for target words exhibited positive priming that increased with increases in the number of times that the words had been attended. Test responses for distractor words exhibited either positive priming (Experiment 1) or negative priming (Experiments 2–3) that also increased with increases in the number of times that the words had been ignored. The type of priming that abstractors exhibited was determined by several contextual similarities between the practice environment, in which distractors were ignored initially, and the test environments, in which they were processed subsequently. Negative priming that spanned a 5-min interval, increased with increases in the number of times that a distractor was ignored, and was sensitive to contextual changes indicated that the direction of the effect was temporally backward because the test probe cued memory for earlier processing of the priming stimulus when the distractor had been ignored.     

When two memories can and cannot be retrieved concurrently

We examined whether two memories can be retrieved concurrently from long-term memory. In Experiment 1, the subjects recalled words, either from two categories—alternating between the two—or from just one category. In Experiment 2, the subjects recalled two words belonging to either the same category or different categories, and the category prompts for these two responses appeared either simultaneously or successively. The results of both studies are consistent with the view that two items from different categories must be retrieved serially, whereas two items from the same category can be retrieved in parallel.     

Narcissism, Pride, and Humility

It is theorized by the author that Post-Biblical Jewish Religious Text should contain many practical psychological insights, given the fact that the authors of such literature were expected to be involved in the life of their communities, to be married with children, and be engaged in an occupation in order to function as religious authorities who were to be taken seriously. Many were physicians. As an exploration of this idea, some of the writings regarding the subjects of pride and humility are explored. A picture of a Jewish religious approach to pathological narcissism appears to emerge from this examination.     

Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis

The authors performed a meta-analysis of the distributed practice effect to illuminate the effects of temporal variables that have been neglected in previous reviews. This review found 839 assessments of distributed practice in 317 experiments located in 184 articles. Effects of spacing (consecutive massed presentations vs. spaced learning episodes) and lag (less spaced vs. more spaced learning episodes) were examined, as were expanding interstudy interval (ISI) effects. Analyses suggest that ISI and retention interval operate jointly to affect final-test retention; specifically, the ISI producing maximal retention increased as retention interval increased. Areas needing future research and theoretical implications are discussed.     

The breadth of memory search

The recall of previously studied items is widely believed to incorporate a search of a markedly constrained set of possibilities, and the present study examines whether this set of items typically includes unstudied semantic associates of the study items. In an episodic task, participants recalled a previously studied list of eight exemplars drawn from a small or large category, and, in a semantic task, participants generated exemplars from these categories. Category size affected the time course of recall in the semantic task but not in the episodic task. This empirical dissociation between episodic and semantic memory is consistent with the view that episodic memory search efficiently excludes unstudied semantic associates of the study items and is instead constrained to those items sharing the temporal and spatial attributes of the episode.     

Heart Rate Variability During Sympatho-excitatory Challenges: Comparison Between Spontaneous And Metronomic Breathing

Respiration influences heart rate variability, leading to the suggestion that respiration should be controlled to assess autonomic function by using heart rate variability. Clearly, control of respiration is advantageous or even essential in several experimental circumstances. However, control of respiration, by itself, produces a small, but significant, increase in mean heart rate and a decrease in respiratory synchronous variation in heart rate. We tested whether, in some experimental situations, it may be possible to arrive at similar interpretation about autonomic function with and without using control of respiratory rate. Heart rate spectral powers from nine subjects were compared between spontaneous and metronomic breathing during two sympatho-excitatory stresses, lower body negative pressure (LBNP) and head up tilt (HUT). The normalized spectral powers in supine and HUT during spontaneous breathing were: 0.43 and 0.75 in very low (VLF) and 0.28 and 0.09 in high frequency (HF) regions. The powers during metronomic breathing were: 0.36 and 0.82 (VLF) and 0.36 and 0.09 (HF). The powers in supine and LBNP during spontaneous breathing were: 0.43 and 0.81 (VLF) and 0.28 and 0.06 (HF). The powers during metronomic breathing were: 0.36 and 0.80 (VLF) and 0.36 and 0.07 (HF). All p values were <0.05. Therefore, changes in heart rate spectral powers during HUT and LBNP were similar during metronomic breathing and spontaneous breathing. These results suggest that in experimental designs such as in our study, using metronomic breathing may not provide any additional insight into autonomic function than that can be obtained during spontaneous breathing.     

Emotions and Creativity, East and West

This article is concerned with emotion, creativity, and the intersection of the two – creativity in the domain of emotion. We first present a framework for the analysis of emotion, a framework that recognizes the importance of biological influences but that also takes into account cultural and individual variations. We then describe the criteria – effectiveness, novelty, and authenticity – for judging a response as creative; the relative emphasis placed on these criteria, especially novelty and authenticity, helps account for East–West differences in aesthetic preferences (e.g., in the production and evaluation of works of art). Next, we explore the ability of individuals to be emotionally creative, that is, to acquire emotions that meet the criteria for creativity. Finally, we examine the "Four-Seven Debate," a classic in Korean Neo-Confucian thought, in light of our discussion of emotions and creativity.     

Learning from Spiritual Models and Meditation: A Randomized Evaluation of a College Course

Effects of two meditation and mindfulness-based spiritual interventions were examined in college undergraduates (N=44). Compared to a control group, both interventions decreased negative religious coping (d=−0.80, p<.01) and images of God as mainly controlling (d=−.73, p<.01). One intervention provided more training in tools for learning from community and tradition-based spiritual exemplars. It produced gains in famous or traditional spiritual exemplars’ perceived influence (d=+.81, p<.05) and availability (d=+.66, p<.10), in self-efficacy for learning from spiritual exemplars (d=+.92, p<.05), and in nonmaterialistic aspirations (d=+0.65, p<.05).