Memory for targets in a multilevel simulated environment: Evidence for vertical asymmetry in spatial memory

In two experiments, adult participants explored a symmetrical three-tiered computer-simulated building that contained six distinctive objects, two on each floor. Following exploration, the objects were removed, and the participants were asked to make direction judgments from each floor, indicating the former positions of the objects on that floor and on higher and lower floors. Relative tilt error scores indicated a bias, in that targets that were higher than the test location were judged as consistently lower than their actual positions and targets that were lower than the test location were judged as consistently higher than their actual positions. Absolute tilt errors revealed an asymmetry, with more accurate and less variable tilt errors for judgments directed to lower floors than for judgments directed to higher floors. Experiment 3 ruled out an account of the findings that does not relate them to spatial memory. The results suggest that the superiority of downward over upward spatial judgments, previously reported in two-dimensional visual-spatial tasks, extends to navigational spatial memory.     

Relationships of Functional Flexibility with Individual and Work Factors

To investigate how functional flexibility is related to demographics, personality traits, and work perceptions, 250 employees of a large Dutch passenger transport firm filled out a written questionnaire. Two dimensions of functional flexibility were discerned: willingness and ability to be flexible. Analysis of variance showed the support staff and managers were higher on willingness and ability to be flexible than workers. Hierarchic regression analysis showed that willingness to be flexible was positively related to initiative and trust in management, and was negatively related to age and task formalization. Ability to be flexible was positively related to general self-efficacy and initiative, and was negatively related to task formalization. It was concluded that willingness to be flexible depends on fair treatment and freedom provided by their organization and that ability to be flexible is part of the development of general self-efficacy.     

Forward and backward blocking of causal judgment is enhanced by additivity of effect magnitude

When two causes for a given effect are simultaneously presented, it is natural to expect an effect of greater magnitude. However many laboratory tasks preclude such an additivity rule by imposing a ceiling on effect magnitude-for example, by using a binary outcome. Under these conditions, a compound of two causal cues cannot be distinguished from a compound of one causal cue and one noncausal cue. Two experiments tested the effect of additivity on cue competition. Significant but weak forward blocking and no backward blocking were observed in a conventional "allergy" causal judgment task. Explicit pretraining of magnitude additivity produced strong and significant forward and backward blocking. Additivity pretraining was found to be unnecessary for another cue competition effect, release from overshadowing, which does not logically depend on additivity. The results confirm that blocking is constrained when effect magnitude is constrained and provide support for an inferential account of cue competition.     

The role of spatial working memory in inhibition of return: evidence from divided attention tasks

Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to a bias against returning attention to a location that has been recently attended. In the present experiments, we examined the role of working memory in IOR by introducing secondary tasks (in the temporal interval between the cue and the target) that involved a working memory component. When the secondary task was nonspatial in nature (monitoring odd digits or adding digits), IOR was present, although overall reaction times were greater in the presence of the secondary task. When the task involved a spatial working memory load (remembering the directionality of arrows or the orientation of objects), IOR was eliminated. However, when the participants had incentive to process the directionality of an arrow but did not have to use any memory system, IOR persisted at peripheral locations. Overall, the results suggest that IOR is partially mediated by a spatial working memory system.     

In Search of the Self: A Positron Emission Tomography Study

Abstract—Previous work using positron emission tomography (PET) has shown that memory encoding processes are associated with preferential activation of left frontal regions of the brain, whereas retrieval processes are associated predominantly with right frontal activations. One possible reason for the asymmetry is that episodic retrieval necessarily involves reference to the self, and the self-concept may be represented (at least partially) in right frontal regions. Accordingly, the present study investigated the possibility that encoding of self-related material might also activate right frontal areas. Eight right-handed volunteers judged trait adjectives under four separate PET scan conditions: (a) relevance to self, (b) relevance to a well-known public figure, (c) social desirability, and (d) number of syllables. The results showed that self-related encoding yielded left frontal activations similar to those associated with other types of semantic encoding, but also specific activations in the right frontal lobe. It is concluded that the concept of self involves both general schematic structures and further specific components involved in episodic memory retrieval.     

Referring Sex Offenders for Psychosexual Evaluation: A Review

The authors of this article provide guidance to counselors who are referred identified and alleged sex offenders for psychosexual evaluations. The article reviews the critical legal, ethical, and clinical issues that counselors should consider when responding to these referral requests. Counselors can also use this article to educate referral sources about the indications and limitations of evaluations of this population.     

Orientation relative to the retina determines perceptual organization

Two experiments are reported which show that perceptual unit formation, as measured by Gillam’s method of using common reversals of ambiguous lines as an index of their coherence, depends strongly on the orientation of the configuration. Measurements under conditions of 90° head and body tilt show that the critical orientation is retinal, not physical. The results are discussed in relation to other findings and to possible explanations.     

Women's language: Uncertainty or interpersonal sensitivity and emotionality?

Six differences in linguistic behavior in same-sex and mixed-sex problem-solving groups were explored. Small groups of all women, all men, and mixed sex were run and videotaped. Linguistic behavior was assessed through a content analysis of four syntactic categories: intensifiers, modal constructions, tag questions, and imperative constructions in question form. Support was found for the hypothesis of Key (1975) and Lakoff (1975) that women, as compared with men, use more linguistic categories that connote uncertainty. Support was also found for these authors' hypotheses that (1) women use more linguistic forms that connote uncertainty when men are present than when men are absent, and (2) men are more likely to interrupt women than women are likely to interrupt men. The results are discussed from the perspectives of women's role (supportive behavior and minority status) and women's culture (interpersonal sensitivity and emotionality).This report is a revision of a paper presented at the Pioneers for Century III Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio, April 1976.     

Determinants of maternal self-esteem in the neonatal period

The purpose of this study was to determine whether maternal perceptions of infant health and behavior made a unique contribution in understanding maternal self-esteem beyond what could be achieved from objective measures. The Perception of Infant Health (POIH) questionnaire and the Bates ICQ captured the perception of infant health and temperament. Standard medical variables including the Hobel Medical Risk Summary measured the objective aspect of infant health. The Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment (NBAS) measured objective infant behavior. The Maternal Self-Report Inventory measured self-esteem. Eighty mother-infant dyads, which included healthy, middle socioeconomic class mothers of both full-term, neurologically normal and preterm infants with a range of medical problems were studied. Negative maternal perceptions of infant health and behavior as well as poorer objective health status were associated with decreased maternal self-esteem. Perceptual variables of temperament and health made a unique contribution to maternal self-esteem scores. Regression analysis indicated fussy/difficult, POIH, and NBAS autonomic scores explained a significant amount of variance in maternal self-esteem.