Heterogeneity of auditory verbal working memory in schizophrenia

The heterogeneity of schizophrenia remains an obstacle for understanding its pathophysiology. Studies using a tone discrimination screening test to classify patients have found evidence for 2 subgroups having either a specific deficit in verbal working memory (WM) or deficits in both verbal and nonverbal memory. This study aimed to (a) replicate in larger samples differences between these subgroups in auditory verbal WM; (b) evaluate their performance on tests of explicit memory and sustained attention; (c) determine the relation of verbal WM deficits to auditory hallucinations and other symptoms; and (d) examine medication effects. The verbal WM and tone discrimination performance did not differ between medicated (n = 45) and unmedicated (n = 38) patients. Patients with schizophrenia who passed the tone screening test (discriminators; n = 60) were compared with those who did not (nondiscriminators; n = 23) and healthy controls (n = 47). The discriminator subgroup showed poorer verbal WM than did controls and a deficit in verbal but not visual memory on the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (Wechsler, 1987), whereas the nondiscriminator subgroup showed overall poorer performance on both verbal and nonverbal tests and a marked deficit in sustained attention. Verbal WM deficits in discriminators were correlated with auditory hallucinations but not with negative symptoms. The results are consistent with a verbal memory deficit in a subgroup of schizophrenia having intact auditory perception, which may stem from dysfunction of language-related cortical regions, and a more generalized cognitive deficit in a subgroup having auditory perceptual and attentional dysfunction.     

Affective and Behavioral Changes Following Exposure to Traumatic Events: the Moderating Effect of Religiosity on Avoidance Behavior Among Students Studying Under a High Level of Terror Event Exposure

The goals of this study were to examine the development of affective and behavioral changes following exposure to traumatic events among Israeli students studying under a high level of terror event exposure and to assess the effects of religiosity on those changes development. A questionnaire was administered to 770 students in the Ariel University Center in Judea and Samaria. Higher levels of terror exposure were associated with higher levels of avoidance behavior, subjective feelings of insecurity, and emotional distress. Higher religiosity moderated avoidance behavior, even when controlling for the level of objective exposure to terror events exposure, but had no influence on subjective sense of insecurity, or the level of emotional distress. These findings suggest that religiosity moderates behavioral changes development after traumatic event exposure mainly by reducing avoidance behavior.     

Psychologie sociale et perception du temps : l'estimation temporelle des stimuli sociaux et émotionnels

Two experiments using a temporal bisection task investigated the influence of the social meaning of stimuli on the estimation of their duration. The results showed that: a) the duration of faces expressing diverse emotional states was overestimated relative to the duration of neutral faces; b) the duration of faces representing elderly people was underestimated relative to the duration of faces representing young people. In both cases, this influence was found to appear at the earliest stage of the estimation process, modulating the rhythm of the estimator's internal clock. In the discussion, we suggest three different perspectives to account for the observed link between social and temporal perception.     

Permanency planning and social service systems: A comparison of two families with prenatally substance exposed infants

An innovative program developed to work with families in which substance use during pregnancy leads to Child Protective Services involvement is introduced in this article. The Vulnerable Infants Program of Rhode Island (VIP‐RI) was established to facilitate permanency planning for substance‐exposed infants by focusing on the interface of social service systems with one another and with the families affected by perinatal substance use. Permanent placement within the time frame mandated by federal legislation places increased pressures on parents and the social service systems designed to provide them with assistance. The Vulnerable Infants Program of Rhode Island promotes collaboration, coordination, and communication among social service systems engaged with families of substance‐exposed infants. The Vulnerable Infants Program of Rhode Island works to increase the efficacy of social service systems in order to optimize the resources that are available to a family in their attempts at reunification with their infant. Case examples illustrate the complexities of the families of substance‐exposed infants, the breadth of social service systems that become involved with these families, and the vastly different placement outcomes that substance‐exposed infants may experience.     

Inferential language processes across adolescence: A test with novel idioms

Idiom comprehension relies on the ability to draw inferences from different cues in a communication situation. Adopting a developmental perspective, we investigated how this ability changes across adolescence. To this end, we designed a computerized system that allowed us to simulate a communication situation through short videos placing participants at the center of the interaction. Four groups of participants (11, 13, 15, and adult students) performed an idiomatic expression comprehension task, in which idiom familiarity was controlled. We manipulated the idioms’ transparency (vs. opacity) and presentation (supportive narrative context inducing an idiomatic interpretation of the expression vs. nonsupportive narrative context). Analyses revealed an improvement in idiom comprehension in terms of contextual inferences but they failed to reveal any significant difference in terms of semantic inferences. This study yields fresh arguments in support of the notion that inferential ability based on context continues to develop beyond childhood.     

Training with computer-supported motor imagery in post-stroke rehabilitation.

Converging lines of evidence suggest that motor imagery (the mental simulation of a motor act within working memory) is associated with subliminal activation of the motor system. This observation has led to the hypothesis that cortical activation during motor imagery may affect the acquisition of specific motor skills and help the recovery of motor function. In this paper, we describe a clinical protocol in which we use interactive tools to stimulate motor imagery in hemiplegic stroke patients, thereby helping them to recover lost motor function. The protocol consists of an inpatient and an outpatient phase, combining physical and mental practice. In the inpatient phase, patients are trained in a laboratory setting, using a custom-made interactive workbench (VR Mirror). After discharge, patients use a portable device to guide mental and physical practice in a home setting. The proposed strategy is based on the hypotheses that: (a) combined physical and mental practice can make a cost-effective contribution to the rehabilitation of stroke patients, (b) effective mental practice is not possible without some form of support, from a therapist (as in our inpatient phase) or from technology (as in the outpatient phase), (c) the inclusion of an outpatient phase will allow the patient to practice more often than would otherwise be possible, therefore increasing the speed and/or effectiveness of learning, and (d) the use of interactive technology will reduce the patient's need for skilled support, therefore improving the cost-effectiveness of training.     

Actin polymerization in lateral amygdala is essential for fear memory formation

Actin polymerization is involved in key neuronal functions such as intracellular trafficking and morphogenesis. In this study, we examined the role of actin polymerization in lateral amygdala (LA) in fear conditioning memory formation. Microinfusion of cytochalasin D, an actin polymerization inhibitor, into rat LA immediately before fear conditioning training impaired the formation of long-term fear memory (LTM) but not short-term fear memory (STM). Microinfusion of cytochalasin D into rat LA immediately after fear conditioning impaired LTM. Cytochalasin D had no effect on fear conditioning memory retrieval when injected immediately before LTM test. These results show that actin cytoskeleton rearrangement is essential for fear memory consolidation.     

Personal epistemology across cultures: exploring Norwegian and Spanish university students’ epistemic beliefs about climate change

The primary aim was to explore and compare the dimensionality of personal epistemology with respect to climate change across the contexts of Norwegian and Spanish students. A second aim was to examine relationships between topic-specific epistemic beliefs and the variables of gender, topic knowledge, and topic interest in the two contexts. Participants were 225 Norwegian and 217 Spanish undergraduates enrolled in psychology or education courses, and the dimensionality of topic-specific personal epistemology was explored through factor analyses of the scores on a 49-item questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to predict scores on the epistemic belief dimensions emerging from the factor analyses with gender, topic knowledge, and topic interest, respectively. Even though considerable cross-cultural generalizability in dimensionality was demonstrated, this research also draws attention to the cultural embeddedness of topic-specific epistemic beliefs. Moreover, differences in the predictability of topic knowledge and topic interest in Norway and Spain, suggest that factors constraining or enhancing adaptive epistemic beliefs concerning particular topics may vary across cultures.     

Generalizing the Apple-Psych system

Each upgrade of computer hardware usually requires the development of new programming systems for psychological experimentation. Developing new software means learning a new system and unlearning an old one. To minimize this problem, a set of subroutine calls, derived from the Apple Psych system, can be implemented with different dialects of Pascal on different microcomputers.     

Empirical Correlates of Cosmopolitan Orientation: Etiology and Functions in a Worldwide Representative Sample

Psychology has begun contributing to social theory by providing empirical measures of actually existing cosmopolitanism that complements more purely theoretical conceptions of the construct common in philosophy and sociology. Drawing from two waves of research on representative adult samples from 19 countries (N = 8740), metric invariance was found for the three factors of cosmopolitan orientation (COS): cultural openness (CO), global prosociality (GP), and respect for cultural diversity (RCD). In terms of etiology, among Wave 1 measures, the personality factor of agreeableness was the best predictor of the cosmopolitan factors of GP and RCD at Wave 2, whereas openness of personality best predicted CO. Wave 1 measures of education, political liberalism, and self-reported social status independently also explained a small amount of variance in COS. Functionally, COS was shown to predict less prejudice against immigrants, and more support for global civil society, even after controlling for social dominance orientation. All three COS factors independently predicted better attitudes towards immigrants. GP was the best predictor of trust in the United Nations, whereas RCD was the best predictor of support for environmental protection. The three-factor model of COS appears well-calibrated for assessing actually existing cosmopolitanism across cultures.