The use of virtual reality for episodic memory assessment: effects of active navigation

Episodic memory was assessed using Virtual Reality (VR). Forty-four (44) subjects visualized a target virtual apartment containing specific objects in each room. Then they visualized a second virtual apartment comprised of specific objects and objects shared by the two apartments. Subjects navigated in the virtual apartments in one of the following two conditions: active and passive. Four main episodic memory components were scored from the VR exposures: (1) learning effect; (2) active forgetting effect; (3) strategies at encoding and at retrieval; and (4) false recognitions (FRs). The effect of navigation mode (active vs. passive) on each memory component was examined. Active subjects had better learning and retrieval (recognition hits) performances compared to passive subjects. A beneficial effect of active navigation was also observed on the source-based FR rates. Active subjects made fewer source-based FRs compared to passive subjects. These overall results for the effect of active navigation are discussed in terms of the distinction between item-specific and relational processing.     

Use of indirect addition in adults' mental subtraction in the number domain up to 1,000

This study examined adults' use of indirect addition and direct subtraction strategies on multi-digit subtractions in the number domain up to 1,000. Seventy students who differed in their level of arithmetic ability solved multi-digit subtractions in one choice and two no-choice conditions. Against the background of recent findings in elementary subtraction, we manipulated the size of the subtrahend compared to the difference and only selected items with large distances between these two integers. Results revealed that adults frequently and efficiently apply indirect addition on multi-digit subtractions, yet adults with higher arithmetic ability performed more efficiently than those with lower arithmetic ability. In both groups, indirect addition was more efficient than direct subtraction both on subtractions with a subtrahend much larger than the difference (e.g., 713 - 695) and on subtractions with a subtrahend much smaller than the difference (e.g., 613 - 67). Unexpectedly, only adults with lower arithmetic ability fitted their strategy choices to their individual strategy performance skills. Results are interpreted in terms of mathematical and cognitive perspectives on strategy efficiency and adaptiveness.     

Why Do Students Strike? Direct and Indirect Determinants of Collective Action Participation

The current project investigated affective and strategic determinants of participation in collective actions by taking a multidimensional approach to collective identity (see Cameron, 2004 ) and investigating rational decision‐making processes. A field study was conducted during an important student strike within the Canadian province of Quebec. One hundred and eighty four students attending the province's postsecondary francophone institutions participated in the study. Path modeling was used to investigate two channels to collective action participation. A direct path involved the affective dimensions of identification. An indirect strategic path revealed that pro‐action arguments allowed individuals to derive instrumental value, which in turn led them to participate in collective actions. This indirect influence only occurred at higher self‐control. The results and their implications for understanding participation in collective actions during social movements are discussed.     

Predictive Validity of the Suicide Probability Scale in a Male Inmate Population

This paper describes the predictive power of the Suicide Probability Scale (SPS) within a male inmate population. The SPS scores of 1,047 inmates from 1995 to 1996 were compared against their suicidal behaviors in the following 10 years. The SPS probability score and the scores on its four subscales were found to be significantly higher in the group that engaged in at least one of three types of suicidal behavior: suicide, non-lethal self-harm and serious suicidal intentions. However, the SPS did not discriminate the inmates who went on to commit suicide. The SPS’s capacity to predict suicidal behavior proved limited in terms of sensitivity. In this regard, the SPS’s low and high risk levels correctly identified 36% of inmates who later engaged in suicidal behavior. The specificity was 0.85. These results confirm the SPS’s predictive power with male prisoners. These findings are the first to demonstrate the predictive validity of the SPS.     

Étude qualitative de l’évolution des stratégies de faire face chez les parents d’adolescents atteints de troubles autistiques

Since their child has been diagnosed as having an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), parents are confronted with important and chronic stress in their everyday life. To face it, they use coping strategies. Using qualitative analyse, this article exposes preliminary results on changes in coping strategies of ASD families and presents how parents manage to adjust their coping.     

Who takes driving licence point recovery courses in France? Comparison between course-takers and ordinary drivers

A self-administered questionnaire was answered by 2014 drivers, 853 of whom were taking a course. The data were analyzed aiming to identify the factors that are linked to taking the course, i.e. to recurrent reoffending.The course-takers, of whom 89% were male, admitted committing more violations than the control group. They had more accidents. More male course-takers than controls reported not being happy, and they more frequently had high extroversion scores.The multivariate analysis showed that, among men, taking the course was associated with the mileage, the feeling of being almost certain to be charged for an offence and having a high risk of losing one’s licence, in addition to being young, having a large number of brothers and sisters, higher socio-occupational category and smoking. Among women, in spite of the small number of them on the course, the mileage, the feeling of having a high risk of losing one’s licence, driving alone, the mental representation of their own vehicle as an extension of their office, and defining themselves as liking to take risks during leisure activities were significantly linked to taking a points recovery course.Those taking the course were not therefore doing so by chance; they differed from the general population of drivers, which was also precisely described with regard to driving habits and representations.Recommendations are then made in order to redirect the content of courses more towards introspection than technical matters.     

Don’t Ever Do That! Long-term Duties in <Emphasis Type="Italic">PD</Emphasis><Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">e</Emphasis></Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">L</Emphasis>

This paper studies long-term norms concerning actions. In Meyer’s Propositional Deontic Logic (PD _e L), only immediate duties can be expressed, however, often one has duties of longer durations such as: “Never do that”, or “Do this someday”. In this paper, we will investigate how to amend PD _e L so that such long-term duties can be expressed. This leads to the interesting and suprising consequence that the long-term prohibition and obligation are not interdefinable in our semantics, while there is a duality between these two notions. As a consequence, we have provided a new analysis of the long-term obligation by introducing a new atomic proposition I (indebtedness) to represent the condition that an agent has some unfulfilled obligation. Presented by Jacek Malinowski     

Modelling relations between sensory processing, speech perception, orthographic and phonological ability, and literacy achievement

The general magnocellular theory postulates that dyslexia is the consequence of a multimodal deficit in the processing of transient and dynamic stimuli. In the auditory modality, this deficit has been hypothesized to interfere with accurate speech perception, and subsequently disrupt the development of phonological and later reading and spelling skills. In the visual modality, an analogous problem might interfere with literacy development by affecting orthographic skills. In this prospective longitudinal study, we tested dynamic auditory and visual processing, speech-in-noise perception, phonological ability and orthographic ability in 62 five-year-old preschool children. Predictive relations towards first grade reading and spelling measures were explored and the validity of the global magnocellular model was evaluated using causal path analysis. In particular, we demonstrated that dynamic auditory processing was related to speech perception, which itself was related to phonological awareness. Similarly, dynamic visual processing was related to orthographic ability. Subsequently, phonological awareness, orthographic ability and verbal short-term memory were unique predictors of reading and spelling development.     

The Influence of a Manager's Own Performance Appraisal on the Evaluation of Others

This study examined the possibility that the performance appraisal process is affected by a pervasive and inherent effect that has heretofore been unidentified. This effect derives from the results of the performance appraisal most recently performed on the manager who subsequently conducts appraisals of others. The nature of this effect was examined in four studies. In a case study, the ratings received by two area coordinators in a university academic department affected their subsequent ratings of faculty. In a simulation, 30 managers received hypothetical feedback regarding their own job performance. The managers subsequently evaluated an employee on videotape. Managers who received positive feedback about their performance subsequently rated the employee significantly higher than managers who received negative feedback regarding their own performance. This occurred despite the fact that the managers knew the evaluation of them was bogus. The results of two follow‐up field studies involving 74 manager–employee dyads in a manufacturing company in Canada and 39 manager–subordinate dyads in a retail organization in Turkey are consistent with the view that one's own performance appraisal is related to the subsequent appraisal of one's subordinates. Both anchoring with insufficient adjustment and a mood induction may explain this effect, but the results are more consistent with the former explanation than the latter.     

Public events and flashbulb memories in Parkinson's disease

Public events and Flashbulb memories were investigated in 12 non-demented patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and 12 controls. Knowledge of public events and flashbulbs memories were assessed using a Famous Events Test (EVE 30). Contributions of semantic, episodic, as well as executive functioning and anterograde memory were examined. Results primarily showed that the performances of patients with PD were lower than these of controls in 4 tasks: free recall, specific questions, dating events and date recognition. They also had difficulties in finding the temporal order of 8 events. In contrast, the PD group benefited from events recognition themselves to the same extent as the controls. Secondly, the recall of flashbulb memories (FBM) was lower in the PD group than in the controls. Finally, correlations appeared in PD between the detailed recall of the events with the "recall" abilities of the MATTIS scale, possibly reflect an impairment in rebuilding memories. A positive correlation is also observed with the initiation score of the MATTIS (executive component), suggesting that the difficulties of rebuilding can be related to a dysfunction in accessing information because of a certain degree of frontal amnesia.