Effects of syntactic features on sentence-picture matching in Broca's aphasics: a reply to Drai and Grodzinksy (2005)

We reanalyzed the data in , considering individual patients' responses to different sentence types to be non-independent events. The analyses revealed effects of two of the three factors identified by Drai and Grodzinsky--constituent movement and passive mood. The result is inconsistent with the trace deletion hypothesis; we conclude that features of syntactic structure other than constituent movement are relevant to understanding performance variation in patients with Broca's aphasia.     

Automatic retrieval in directed forgetting

In two experiments, we investigated the role of automatic retrieval in directed forgetting, using a stem completion test. In each experiment, we compared the performance of an implicit group, a process dissociation procedure (PDP) group, and a group given a speeded response task. The response times of the speeded response group on the stem completion task replicated earlier data in suggesting that this group adopted a purely automatic retrieval strategy. Experiment 1 revealed a directed-forgetting effect on automatic retrieval with the item method, but Experiment 2 revealed no directed-forgetting effect on automatic retrieval with the list method, consistent with the lack of implicit effects with the list method throughout the literature. Both experiments showed lower automatic estimates for the PDP group than for the implicit and speeded response groups, which did not differ. The data are consistent with either a selective rehearsal or an inhibition account of directed forgetting with the list method. The comparison of methods for assessing automatic retrieval is consistent with earlier evidence suggesting that subjects may adopt a generate/recognize strategy when given direct retrieval instructions.     

Personal reflections: barriers and strategies in increasing diversity in psychology

In this article, six faculty and students of color who participated in a panel discussion at a symposium during the National Multicultural Conference and Summit of 2003 talk about the barriers they encountered and continue to encounter in their graduate training and places of employment. They also discuss strategies they found to be effective, enhancing, and positive and suggest other possibilities. The contributors describe their relationships with dominant-group and minority peers and talk about how issues of social class, disability, and sexual orientation as well as color have been part of their experience.     

When the heat is on: romantic partner responses influence distress in socially anxious women

This study provided a preliminary test of whether socially anxious women and their partners would show more negative social support behavior, especially among those with low relationship satisfaction, and whether this would increase the distress of the socially anxious women. Women with (n=22) and without (n=23) heightened social anxiety were observed interacting with their partners under a social-evaluative threat and support behaviors were coded. Unexpectedly, no differences were found between socially and non-socially anxious women and their partners. Although relationship satisfaction influenced this process, it was the more satisfied women who showed more negative behavior. Additionally, the more positive behaviors the partner exhibited, the greater was the distress reported by socially anxious women, particularly among women whose partners reported high relationship satisfaction. Implications for how these findings might expand theories on interpersonal processes in social anxiety are discussed.     

The impact of memory demands on audience design during language production

Speakers often tailor their utterances to the needs of particular addressees--a process called audience design. We argue that important aspects of audience design can be understood as emergent features of ordinary memory processes. This perspective contrasts with earlier views that presume special processes or representations. To support our account, we present a study in which Directors engaged in a referential communication task with two independent Matchers. Over several rounds, the Directors instructed the Matchers how to arrange a set of picture cards. For half the triads, the Directors' card categories were initially distributed orthogonally by Matcher (e.g. Directors described birds and dogs with one Matcher and fish and frogs with the other). For the other triads, the Directors' card categories initially overlapped across Matchers (e.g. Directors described two members of each category with each Matcher). We predicted that the orthogonal configuration would more readily allow Directors to encode associations between particular cards and particular Matchers--and thus allow those Directors to provide more evidence for audience design. Content analyses of Directors' utterances from two final rounds supported our prediction. We suggest that audience design depends on the memory representations to which speakers have ready access given the time constraints of routine conversation.     

Problem behavior maintained by a precurrent relation

Differential reinforcement of alternative behavior is a well-established treatment for problem behavior in which the functional reinforcer is delivered after the occurrence of a replacement behavior and withheld after the occurrence of problem behavior. However, sometimes problem behavior continues to occur under these conditions, raising a question as to why problem behavior might maintain when its reinforcer is withheld. This study examined the possibility that problem behavior could be maintained indirectly in a precurrent relation. A functional analysis was conducted to identify a response-response relation between self-injurious behavior (SIB) and an alternative response. The results suggest that SIB was maintained by its relation with the alternative response.     

Scientific Meetings of the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis-Horney Applied: Alienation from the Self and the Quality of the Analyst's Responsiveness in Trauma Treatment

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

The use of indirect memory tests to assess malingered amnesia: a study of metamemory.

Many techniques have been suggested for identifying criminal suspects who are simulating amnesia for the events surrounding a crime. The present research focuses on indirect memory tests as a potential means of discriminating between those who genuinely suffer from amnesia and those who are simulating. Subjects studied a list of words and subsequently performed either a word completion or a fragment completion task. Under normal indirect test instructions, typical priming effects were observed. When subjects were motivated to simulate amnesia for the list, target completion rates were consistently, and sometimes reliably, below baseline completion rates. This finding is contrary to the performance of genuine amnesics, whose performance on indirect tests typically mirrors that of normal subjects. Indirect tests may prove useful in discriminating genuine and simulating amnesics.     

Storytelling and Coping With Stressful Events1

Three studies explored the coping benefits and limitations of stories people hear about others undergoing similar stressful events. In Study One, cancer patients reported that positive stories about other patients were preferable to and more helpful than negative stories, yet negative stories were more commonly told. Study Two manipulated the valence and source of stories told to college students facing midterm exams. Stories with positive endings and those relayed by expert sources were regarded more positively than negative stories and those told by nonexperts. Study Three manipulated the valence and informativeness of stories in a similar college sample. Positive and informative stories were rated more favorably, although these effects were independent of each other. Implications for social comparison and social support are discussed.