Attentional and anatomical considerations for the representation of simple stimuli in visual short-term memory: evidence from human electrophysiology

Observers encoded the spatial arrangement of two or three horizontal line segments relative to a square frame presented for 150 ms either in left or right visual field and either above or below the horizontal midline. The target pattern was selected on the basis of colour (red vs. green) from an equivalent distractor pattern in the opposite left–right visual hemifield. After a retention interval of 450 or 650 ms a test pattern was presented at fixation. The task was to decide whether the test was the same as the encoded pattern or different. Selection of the to-be-memorised pattern produced an N2pc response that was not influenced by the number of line segments nor by the length of the retention interval, but that was smaller in amplitude for patterns presented in the upper visual field compared with patterns presented in the lower visual field. A sustained posterior contralateral negativity (SPCN) followed the N2pc. The SPCN was larger for patterns with three line segments than for two, was larger for patterns encoded from lower visual field than from upper visual field, and returned to baseline sooner for the shorter retention interval than for the longer interval. These results, and others, provide an interesting and complex pattern of similarities and differences between the N2pc and SPCN, consistent with the view that N2pc reflects mechanisms of attentional selection whereas the SPCN reflects maintenance in visual short-term memory.     

Does parental concern about their child performance matter? Transactional links with the student's motivation and development of self-directed learning behaviors

Social Psychology of Education - The nature of the links between students’ motivation and their perception of parental concern about school performance is still controversial, and whether...     

A measurement of the process of adolescence: standardization and interpretation

The Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (Adams, Shea, & Fitch, 1979) was administered to 350 adolescents (12 to 18 years old) to test the Eriksonian theory of a developmental continuum from role diffusion to identity achievement. The results offer construct validity for the dynamic process proposed by Blos and Erikson, but do not support the categorization procedure as set forth by Adams, Shea, and Fitch. The OMEIS questionnaire lends itself to a qualitative and dynamic interpretation rather than to a quantitative and normative approach. It is suggested that the dynamic interpretation is more sensitive to the psychological reality of the developmental process.     

A therapy concept based on aphasia diagnostic criteria

Four concepts of therapy, their theoretical basis, their aims, and their methods are presented and the effectiveness of each measured psychometrically. All call for early betterment under optimum organisation. Therapeutic methods for use in special forms of aphasia are being tested but display little in the way of uniform results. Special importance is laid on a complex of treatment which would cover movement therapy, communication therapy, and occupational therapy.     

Neurofunctional (re)organization underlying narrative discourse processing in aging: evidence from fNIRS

Relatively few studies have analyzed the mechanisms underlying the cognitive changes that affect language in the elderly, and fewer have done so for narrative discourse. The goal of this study was to explore the neurofunctional changes associated with aging for different components of narrative discourse. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and behavioral data on 10 younger adults and 10 healthy elderly participants were collected. Ten younger adults in a non-proficient second language condition were included to explore the possibility that the age-related neurofunctional reorganization partly expresses demanding resource allocation. Results show within- and across-hemispheric differences in the neurofunctional pattern of activation in the older participants with reference to the younger ones, partially shared with the low-proficiency young adults, providing support for the recognized mechanisms underlying neural reserve and compensation. fNIRS was shown to be appropriate for studying the age-related neurofunctional reorganization of complex cognitive abilities.     

Precautionary principle and normativity: brief remarks on the complex relationship between law and the risks

The precautionary principle is objet of an intense discussion in different legal orders. It is easy to understand the reason why: the regulation of risks challenges the legal thought. The positivist approach has shown its limits. It is now important to ask ourselves about the way in which we can deal with uncertainty effectively. The task is difficult, but we can point out two different aspects. Firstly, it is important to understand the complexity of the technological risks in a transdisciplinary way. This is an unavoidable step in evaluating the ability of the law to prevent them. Secondly, the precautionary principle presupposes a pluralistic conception of nature in which the economic sphere can be seen as a tool to express the relationship between man and nature.     

A motor similarity effect in object memory

In line with theories of embodied cognition (e.g., Versace et al. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 21, 522–560, 2009), several studies have suggested that the motor system used to interact with objects in our environment is involved in object recognition (e.g., Helbig, Graf, & Kiefer Experimental Brain Research, 174, 221-228, 2006). However, the role of the motor system in immediate memory for objects is more controversial. The objective of the present study was to investigate the role of the motor system in object memory by manipulating the similarity between the actions associated to series of objects to be retained in memory. In Experiment 1, we showed that lists of objects associated to dissimilar actions were better recalled than lists associated to similar actions. We then showed that this effect was abolished when participants were required to perform a concurrent motor suppression task (Experiment 2) and when the objects to be memorized were unmanipulable (Experiment 3). The motor similarity effect provides evidence for the role of motor affordances in object memory.     

Le travail collectif à l’épreuve des restructurations organisationnelles

The ergonomic analysis of work (Daniellou, 1996; Wisner, 1996) and especially the psychological analysis of real working activity (Leplat, 2000) allow investigating the main factors of work situations. The objective is to show the influence on the nursing representations of psychiatric services that are restructured, of the initial working situations, the projects, the restructuring models. The analyses assess the nursing representations of psychiatric services that are restructured, the projects, the restructuring models, the real working activity. The data show impacts of collective work and restructuring models, especially the damaging consequences of fusions. The results enable the authors to discuss from the points of views of theory, methodology and interventions.     

Imagery and memory illusions

This article provides a summary of current knowledge about memory illusions. The memory illusions described here focus on the recall of imagined events that have never actually occurred. The purpose is to review theoretical ideas and empirical evidence about the reality-monitoring processes involved in memory illusions. Reality monitoring means deciding whether the memory has been perceptually derived or been self-generated (thought or imagined). A few key findings from the literature have been reported in this paper and these focus on internal source-monitoring judgments which distinguish perceptual events from imagined events. Finally, the experimental paradigms used to shed light on processes occurring in the failure of reality monitoring in healthy subjects may be extended to an examination of the causes and the prevention of hallucinations in patients.