The update of semantic memories in amnestic mild cognitive impairment

It is still controversial to what extent neocortical consolidated memories are susceptible of change by processes of reconsolidation and transformation throughout experience, and whether the medial temporal lobes are necessary for this update of semantic consolidated memories, as they are for episodic remembering. We hypothesize that patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) who have deficits in episodic memory may also have difficulties in updating information on added new features of objects. Sixteen participants with aMCI and 20 healthy control participants performed a semantic word-to-picture task, in which they were asked to identify as belonging to a given semantic category NEW objects, that have incorporated novel features, as well as OLD items, semantically and visually SIMILAR items and UNRELATED items. Patients with aMCI made a greater percentage of errors than healthy controls. Participants globally made greater percentages of errors in difficult types of items, namely NEW and SIMILAR, as compared to easier ones, OLD and UNRELATED. Importantly, an item by diagnostic group interaction effect was observed, and post hoc analysis showed that patients with aMCI made a higher percentage of errors than controls in NEW items only. In conclusion, patients with aMCI had a particular difficulty in identifying the NEW items of the word-to-picture task as compared to the control participants, supporting the concept of a flexible and dynamic conceptual knowledge system, involving the update of semantic memories and the integration of new attributes in a constant transformation process, which is impaired in these patients.     

Psychological Tests in Arabic: A Review of Methodological Practices and Recommendations for Future Use

Neuropsychology Review - Mental health research among Arabic speakers is increasing, and with it the need to assess psychopathology of Arabic-speaking populations, including natives, refugees, and...     

Source monitoring in Alzheimer's Disease

Source monitoring is the process of making judgments about the origin of memories. There are three categories of source monitoring: reality monitoring (discrimination between self- versus other-generated sources), external monitoring (discrimination between several external sources), and internal monitoring (discrimination between two types of self-generated sources). We investigated whether Alzheimer's Disease (AD) patients, when compared with young and older adults, are impaired at the same level on the three source monitoring categories. We designed three tasks, one for each source monitoring category. In the first task, aimed at reality monitoring, participants had to remember whether objects were previously placed in a bag by themselves or by the experimenter. In the second task, assessing external monitoring, participants had to remember whether the experimenter had previously placed objects in the bag with a black or white gloved hand. In the third task, measuring internal monitoring, participants had to remember whether they had previously placed or imagined themselves placing objects in the bag. Participants showed worse performances in the external and internal monitoring tasks, when compared with reality monitoring. The external monitoring deficit was even more pronounced in AD patients. Regression analyses showed that variation in the external monitoring performances was reliably predicted by inhibition. Our results emphasize the role of inhibitory processes in AD patients' source monitoring decline. The close relation between source and inhibitory decline in AD is interpreted in terms of a common neural base for both concepts.     

Turkish Adolescents’ Interpretations of Psychological and Behavioral Control: Relation with Adjustment Problems and Moderating Factors

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Few studies have focused on adolescents’ interpretations of parental control in a non-Western context. This study examines the intervening role of...     

Bystander responses to bias-based bullying and retaliation: Is retaliation perceived as more acceptable than bias-based bullying?

The current study examined intergroup-related and social-cognitive correlates of bystanders' acceptability judgements and their responses to bias-based bullying of immigrant peers and to possible retaliation for the bullying. Participants included 179 immigrant-origin and non-immigrant-origin youth (M_age = 13.23; SD = 1.55; 79 immigrant-origin youth). Participants' bystander judgements and responses to bullying and retaliation were examined via a hypothetical scenario. Further, participants' intergroup attitudes towards immigrants and their social-cognitive skills were evaluated. ANOVA results showed that immigrant-origin youth judged bullying as less acceptable and retaliation as more acceptable compared to non-immigrant-origin youth, documenting that group membership is related to adolescents' judgements. A similar pattern was observed in active bystander responses. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that immigration background, intergroup process in the context of immigration, and social-cognitive skills predict bystander responses to bullying and retaliation. This study provides important implications for anti-bullying intervention programmes to overcome the negative consequences of retaliation in the escalation of aggressive behaviours.