Part-set cuing in option generation

Memory research on the part-set cuing effect has shown that providing some of the to-be-remembered items as cues is not always beneficial and, in some cases, may even hurt retrieval. However, part-set cuing has been sparsely investigated in option generation tasks. Thus, limited empirical evidence for the existence of the effect in option generation is available, and no convincing explanation has been provided yet. In order to fill these gaps, we carried out four experiments. In Experiment 1A, we observed a significant decrease in option generation performance when potential options were presented as cues. Experiment 1B showed that the effect can also be obtained in older adults. Experiments 2A and 2B provided evidence compatible with an inhibition-based explanation of the observed effects.     

Resampling approach to statistical inference: Bootstrapping from event-related potentials data

We propose the use of the bootstrap resampling technique as a tool to assess the within-subject reliability of experimental modulation effects on event-related potentials (ERPs). The assessment of the within-subject reliability is relevant in all those cases when the subject score is obtained by some estimation procedure, such as averaging. In these cases, possible deviations from the assumptions on which the estimation procedure relies may lead to severely biased results and, consequently, to incorrect functional inferences. In this study, we applied bootstrap analysis to data from an experiment aimed at investigating the relationship between ERPs and memory processes. ERPs were recorded from two groups of subjects engaged in a recognition memory task. During the study phase, subjects in Group A were required to make an orthographic judgment on 160 visually presented words, whereas subjects in Group B were only required to pay attention to the words. During the test phase all subjects were presented with the 160 previously studied words along with 160 new words and were required to decide whether the current word was “old” or “new.” To assess the effect of word imagery value, half of the words had a high imagery value and half a low imagery value. Analyses of variance performed on ERPs showed that an imagery-induced modulation of the old/new effect was evident only for subjects who were not engaged in the orthographic task during the study phase. This result supports the hypothesis that this modulation is due to some aspect of the recognition memory process and not to the stimulus encoding operations that occur during the recognition memory task. However, bootstrap analysis on the same data showed that the old/new effect on ERPs was not reliable for all the subjects. This result suggests that only a cautious inference can be made from these data.     

The Demand for Pornography

The market for pornography acquired great economic relevance in the 1970s with diffusion of the videocassette recorder, and went onto gain increasing relevance as from the 1990s, with the ICT revolution. Nonetheless, it has been totally ignored in economic investigation. The present paper focuses on the demand side of this market, with the main aim of proposing a preliminary theoretical assessment of the behaviour of pornography purchasers and its recent evolution in response to the Internet revolution. In this respect, certain contributions on hedonic adaptation have proved particularly useful, whereas addiction models have proved less useful than might have been expected.     

Depressive symptoms and one year mortality among elderly patients discharged from a rehabilitation ward after orthopaedic surgery of the lower limbs

The objective of the present prospective observational study is to evaluate the effect of depressive symptoms on 1-year mortality in a population of elderly patients discharged from a rehabilitation unit after orthopaedic surgery of the lower limbs. A total of 222 elderly inpatients were included, and stratified according to 12-months survival. 14 (6.3%) of the patients who were eligible for this study died during the 12-months period after discharge. As expected, patients who died were significantly older, lower cognitive performance, more depressive symptoms, poorer nutritional status and higher comorbidity in comparison to those who survived. Furthermore, they were generally more functionally dependent on admission to the Department, had worse functional recovery and were more disable at discharge, although a longer length of stay comparing to survived patients. In the adjusted logistic regression model, after adjustment for possible confounders and covariates, the presence of severe depressive symptoms significantly predicted a four-fold risk of death at 12 months. The only other factor associated poor 12-months survival was comorbidity, that predicted a 6-fold risk of death. In conclusions this study suggests that severe depressive symptoms on admission predicts 1-year mortality in elderly patients discharged from a post-acute care unit after orthopaedic rehabilitation.     

Complexities of Genetic Counseling for ALS: A Case of Two Siblings with Discordant Genetic Test Results

Rapid advances in the genetics of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) have dramatically changed the approach of clinicians and researchers to the motor neuron diseases. We report two siblings in whom the genetic study provided conflicting results, hence raising a number of issues which deserve to be considered by clinicians involved in genetic testing for ALS. The first patient died within 2 years of ALS onset, while her brother still manages to walk unaided, 7 years into onset. Genetic analyses, performed on the first patient as part of a research protocol, and as clinical genetic testing on the brother, provided different results. Results for Patient 1 were negative for all investigated genes, thus suggesting that her disease may be a phenocopy, while her brother carried an autosomal dominant TARDBP mutation (p.A382T). A multidisciplinary approach may help patients and clinicians face the emerging dilemmas in such a complex field. Sharing and updating of advances, not to mention uncertainties inherent to current knowledge, with patients and families may prove to be an effective way to support them and to make them aware of the present limits of our knowledge and of the blurred border between research and clinical practice.     

Shades of Sexualization: When Sexualization Becomes Sexual Objectification

Sexualization in mass media is a widespread phenomenon. Although sexualization and sexual objectification are often used as synonymous, they are two different concepts. Across two studies, we investigated how sexualization affects perceptions of women (Study 1) and men (Study 2) as sexual objects. Participants were asked to judge sexual objectification, competence, and sexiness of female and male models portrayed with different degrees of sexualization, namely, as Non-Revealing (dressed), merely Revealing (undressed), and Sexualized Revealing (undressed and provocative). The results of both studies showed that as the level of sexualization increased so did participants’ perceptions of the targets as sexual objects. However, the level of sexualization affected perceived competence and sexiness differently depending on the target’s gender. Male models’ competence decreased as the level of sexualization increased, whereas female models portrayed as merely Revealing and as Sexualized Revealing were judged as equally incompetent. Male targets’ sexiness was not affected by the level of portrayals’ sexualization, whereas Sexualized Revealing portrayals enhanced the perceived sexiness of female targets. Finally, in Study 2, the results showed that male targets in Sexualized Revealing portrayals were judged as less masculine. Our findings suggest that sexualization contributes similarly to the perception of both women and men as sexual objects but affects other variables depending on the target’s gender. Our work extends previous literature and informs us about the consequences that sexualization of men and women have on others’ judgments.     

Altered bodily self‐consciousness in multiple sclerosis

In this study, we assessed the impact of multiple sclerosis (MS) on bodily self‐consciousness (BSC) using the Rubber Hand Illusion. Patients with MS showed a dissociation between body ownership and self‐location: they did report an explicit ownership of the rubber hand, but they did not point towards it, showing a defective ability of localizing body parts in space. This evidence indicates that MS may affect selective components of BSC, whose impairment may contribute to, and even worsen, the functional disability of MS.     

Spatial offloading in multiple task monitoring

Coordinating multiple tasks requires a high degree of cognitive control, and individuals with limited executive functions often show difficulties in everyday multitasking. We tested the hypothesis that demands on executive control can be alleviated by internally representing the temporal pattern of goals and deadlines as spatial relations. In two experiments, participants completed a multitasking session by monitoring deadlines of four clocks running at different rates, along with separate tasks of executive functioning and spatial ability. In Experiment 1, individual and gender-related differences in spatial ability (mental rotation) predicted multitasking performance, beyond the contributions of both the updating and inhibition components of executive functioning, and even when spatial cues were eliminated from the layout of the monitoring task. Experiment 2 extended these findings by showing that concurrent spatial load impaired task monitoring accuracy, and that these detrimental effects were accentuated when spatial abilities were compromized due to fluctuation in female sex hormones. These findings suggest that multiple task monitoring involves working memory-related functions, but that these cognitive control demands can be offloaded by relying on spatial relation processes.     

THE TRAINING ANALYSIS AT A TIME WHEN THEORY IS IN SHORT SUPPLY1

The author discusses the risks confronting the training analysis when original theoretical production is lacking. In his view, little progress has been made since Freud's time in establishing a general science of the psyche based on Freud's interpretive method. What has been transmitted is stated to be not Freud's method of discovery but the knowledge thereby produced, which has been handed down in the form of doctrines, defined as theory presented as psychic fact. Hence analyses tend to apply theories rather than to discover unconsciouses. Some of today's most common interpretational aberrations are described, and the author shows the powerful suggestive effect on patients of using doctrines as metaphors of psychic life. Where such a training analysis is reinforced by a like form of theoretical teaching and supervision, candidates may uncritically assimilate the relevant theory. The author uses his concept of the reality‐providing circuit to show how belief in a doctrine imparted by the training analysis makes that doctrine appear as the ideological basis of psychoanalytic knowledge. He finally notes that, theories being essentially heuristic instruments and not bodies of acquired information, the consequence of the current dearth of theories, which have degenerated into doctrines, is that the training analysis itself has come to constitute the theory of training in many institutes.