Topographically distinct cortical activation in episodic long-term memory: The retrieval of spatial versus verbal information

Two experiments are reported to study slow potentials in the EEG during reactivation of spatial and verbal information. Subjects had to learn associations between drawings and one, two, or three mediators (locations in Experiment 1, nouns in Experiment 2). During recall, subjects had to decide whether or not two drawings were linked to each other by a common mediator. EEG was recorded during learning and recall. Both experiments were completely equivalent. Irrespective of the quality of the mediators, response time proved to be a linear function of the numbers of mediators to be recalled. Negative slow potentials that accompanied the reactivation of information during anticipation learning and cued recall had a material-specific topography: The maximum was found over the parietal cortex for spatial information and over the left frontal cortex for verbal information. Moreover, the amplitude at these scalp locations varied with the amount of the to-be-retrieved information. The results support the claim of topographically distinct cell assemblies specialized for storage and retrieval of distinct kinds of information.     

The extraction of information from visual persistence.

Seven-letter targets were flashed for 50 msec and followed by either a blank adapting field (persisting representation of the stimulus fully available) or a series of continuous cycles of target and mask until the cumulative duration of the target matched the estimated duration of visual persistence (stimulus physically present for same interval as representation). The reportability of information from the targets in the latter case was only 50% that in the former. The interpretation is that visual persistence is an active, continuously operating process rather than a passive neural copy of the stimulus.     

Further evidence for two components in visual persistence.

The phenomenal durations of tachistoscopically presented letter arrays at five levels of redundancy were measured using a subtractive reaction-time technique. Phenomenal duration was inversely related to redundancy only when report of the letters was required. The duration of functional availability of stimulus information for stimuli at the five levels of redundancy was determined in a backward masking paradigm. The measurements of the duration of functional availability and phenomenal presence were convergent, indicating that one process is responsible for both the phenomenal and functional duration of a persisting representation of a visual stimulus. The results are interpreted as providing further evidence for two components in visual persistence: a physical component whose duration is unrelated to stimulus parameters and an informational component whose duration is inversely related to the efficiency of encoding stimulus information.     

The predictive validity of Holland's construct of consistency

Holland's construct of consistency was studied for its predictive validity of certain measures of vocational stability. A new measure of consistency used was the difference between two plotted vocational choices on the American College Testing Program's Map of College Majors which 1248 subjects expressed while in high school. This consistency index was found to have no relationship with the similarity of the same subjects' beginning and ending college majors, also measured as a distance on the Map of College Majors. Additionally, no relationship was found to exist between the consistency index and number of college major changes, the number of course withdrawals, academic performance, and scholastic aptitude.     

Intrahemispheric differentiation of vowels: Principal component analysis of auditory evoked responses to computer-synthesized vowel sounds

Auditory evoked brain responses (AER) were recorded in response to a series of synthesized vowel sounds which varied in formant bandwidth. Multivariate analyses indicated that changes in AER component structure recorded from different scalp regions over both hemispheres varied as a function of different vowel sounds and formant bandwidth. No interhemispheric differences in scalp AER distributions were noted.     

Love attitudes and romantic involvement: a replication and extension

Confirming Hendrick and Hendrick's (1988) findings with American college students, British students reporting they were currently "in love" scored significantly higher on the Love Attitude Scale dimensions of Eros and Agape but significantly lower on Ludus when compared to subjects not currently in love.     

Effectiveness of social skills training with children: A meta-analytic study

This meta-analytic study examined the relative effectiveness of three methods of social skills training with socially isolated children: coaching, interpersonal cognitive problem solving, and modelling. An exhaustive search of the published literature in the area produced a total of 43 studies that met stringent criteria for inclusion in the subsequent analysis. Social skills training produced significant improvements in children's levels of social interaction, sociometric status and cognitive problem solving abilities. No training technique produced a significantly greater improvement than either of the others. Isolated children showed larger increases in their levels of social interaction and sociometric status than non-isolate children. Multi-modal training programmes were recommended to capitalize on the independent therapeutic effects which derive from a number of different social skills training techniques.     

The effects of a short-term social problem solving programme with children

This study examined the effectiveness of a short-term training programme for improving children's interpersonal cognitive problem solving ability and social status. Subjects were twenty primary school children aged seven-to eight-years old. Children in the training condition participated in a four week programme aimed at improving their ability to think of alternative strategies to problematic social situations and recognize the consequences of interpersonal actions. Children in the intervention condition showed significant improvements in their levels of alternative solutions thinking (p <0.005) and consequential thinking (p < 0.05) but not sociometric status (p > 0.05).