Frontal tests and models for cognitive ageing

Results of investigations of how specific behavioural changes in old age may be related to local changes in the brain have been discrepant because of neglect of methodological issues. Among these are neglect of the reliability and validity of frontal and executive tests; the operational definition and construct validity of hypothetical functional processes such as “inhibition”; the nature and origins of mutual relationships between tests; the relationships of test performance to higher order constructs of general mental ability such as “gf” and, most importantly, problems of cohort selection arising from imprecise definitions of the models of the ageing process. These problems are illustrated by a discussion of the results of several experiments in which younger and older groups of people are compared on frontal and executive tests.     

Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement and the promotion of deviance

ABSTRACT

As a social movement demanding universal suffrage, Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement mobilized thousands of young protesters and fomented radical views stridently subversive of mainland China’s political interference. The social movement continues to promote further forms of deviance in the form of calling for independence. As the city and former British colony lacks the sovereignty of statehood and democracy, the movement’s non-conformity to law needs to be contextualized as a form of deviance. In contributing to the deviancy of social movements, we utilize data obtained from interviews with participants of the movement alongside those who opposed the protest to understand the East Asian cultural setting of the Umbrella Movement’s promotion of deviance.     

Predicting mothers' reports of children's mental health three years after Hurricane Katrina

This study explored pathways through which hurricane-related stressors affected the psychological functioning of elementary school aged children who survived Hurricane Katrina. Participants included 184 mothers from the New Orleans area who completed assessments one year pre-disaster (Time 1), and one and three years post-disaster (Time 2 and Time 3, respectively). Mothers rated their children's behavior problems at Time 3 only (n = 251 children; 53.0% male; mean age: 10.19 years, SD = 1.68 years). A path analytic model indicated that hurricane-related stressors were associated with increased maternal psychological distress and school mobility in the first post-disaster year, which were associated with higher child internalizing and externalizing symptoms three years post-disaster. Mediation analysis indicated that hurricane-related stressors were associated with child symptoms indirectly, through their impact on maternal psychological distress. Findings underscore the importance of interventions that boost maternal and child mental health and support children through post-disaster school transitions.     

Gay/Lesbian Ordination and the Ontology of the Human Subject

Abstract : Should gay and lesbian persons be ordained? Many anthropological issues are involved in this question: human sexuality, the image of God, and the doctrine of sin. I contend that one of the central—yet unexplored—issues in this debate is the view of the human subject. This article summarizes the non‐ontological anthropologies developed by Wolfhart Pannenberg, Rosemary Ruether, and Mary McClintock Fulkerson. All suggest that subjects are constitutionally related to the world and avoid predicating attributes, such as gender or rationality to supposedly autonomous subjects. These non‐ontological models offer new ways to view the subject, gender, and the debate concerning ordination.     

The effect of overlearning on long‐term retention

Once material has been learned to a criterion of one perfect trial, further study within the same session constitutes overlearning. Although overlearning is a popular learning strategy, its effect on long‐term retention is unclear. In two experiments presented here, 218 college students learned geography facts (Experiment 1) or word definitions (Experiment 2). The degree of learning was manipulated and measured via multiple test‐with‐feedback trials, and participants returned for a final cued recall test between 1 and 9 weeks later. The overlearners recalled far more than the low learners at the 1‐week test, but this difference decreased dramatically thereafter. These data suggest that overlearning (and its concomitant demand for additional study time) is an inefficient strategy for learning material for meaningfully long periods of time. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Neural circuitry underlying perception of duration depends on language experience

Thai, a language which exhibits a phonemic opposition in vowel length, allows us to compare temporal patterns in linguistic and nonlinguistic contexts. Functional MRI data were collected from Thai and English subjects in a speeded-response, selective attention paradigm as they performed same/different judgments of vowel duration and consonants (Thai speech) and hum duration (nonspeech). Activation occurred predominantly in left inferior prefrontal cortex in both speech tasks for the Thai group, but only in the consonant task for the English group. The Thai group exhibited activation in the left mid superior temporal gyrus in both speech tasks; the English group in the posterior superior temporal gyrus bilaterally. In the hum duration task, peak activation was observed bilaterally in prefrontal cortex for both groups. These crosslinguistic data demonstrate that encoding of complex auditory signals is influenced by their functional role in a particular language.     

Continuity and discontinuity models of bulimia nervosa: a taxometric investigation

Past research evaluating the continuity and discontinuity models of bulimia has produced inconclusive results. In the current study, we performed a taxometric analysis of bulimia nervosa using means above minus below a sliding cut and maximum covariance analysis with a sample of women diagnosed with bulimia nervosa (n = 201) or women college students (n = 412). Indicators were derived from the Bulimia Test--Revised and the Eating Attitudes Test--26, and both a mixed sample and the nonclinical sample were analyzed. With both taxometric methods and both mixed and nonclinical samples, results were consistently suggestive of a latent taxon for bulimia. These results challenge a dimensional model of bulimia nervosa.     

Task unrelated thought whilst encoding information

Task unrelated thought (TUT) refers to thought directed away from the current situation, for example a daydream. Three experiments were conducted on healthy participants, with two broad aims. First, to contrast distributed and encapsulated views of cognition by comparing the encoding of categorical and random lists of words (Experiments One and Two). Second, to examine the consequences of experiencing TUT during study on the subsequent retrieval of information (Experiments One, Two, and Three). Experiments One and Two demonstrated lower levels of TUT and higher levels of word-fragment completion whilst encoding categorical relative to random stimuli, supporting the role of a distributed resource in the maintenance of TUT. In addition the results of all three experiments suggested that experiencing TUT during study had a measurable effect on subsequent retrieval. TUT was associated with increased frequency of false alarms at retrieval (Experiment One). In the subsequent experiments TUT was associated with no advantage to retrieval based on recollection, by manipulating instructions at encoding (Experiment Two), and/or at retrieval (Experiment Three). The implications of the results of all three experiments are discussed in terms of recent accounts of memory retrieval and conscious awareness.