Memory for proper names: A review

Abstract

Proper names have a frustrating propensity to be forgotten. A considerable amount of laboratory and naturalistic data has demonstrated this vulnerability of proper names to memory errors both in learning new names and in retrieving familiar names. Moreover, retrieval of familiar proper names is especially affected in old age and in some cases of aphasia. This pattern of vulnerability offers an important opportunity for gaining insight into basic memory processes and architecture by identifying the characteristics of proper names that disrupt memory.     

Psychotropic placebos reduce the misinformation effect by increasing monitoring at test

A psychotropic placebo can help people resist the misinformation effect, an effect thought to be caused by a shift to more stringent source monitoring. When this shift occurs has been unclear. To address this issue we gave some people—but not others—a phoney cognitive-enhancing drug we called R273. Shortly afterwards, everyone took part in a misinformation effect experiment. To gather evidence about source monitoring we surreptitiously recorded time to read the misleading postevent narrative, and response time at test. Our findings suggest that people shifted to more stringent source monitoring at test. Moreover, people with higher working memory capacity (WMC) performed better than people with lower WMC—but only when they were told they had received R273, a finding that fits with research showing that WMC can confer advantages in situations demanding effortful control, but not when automatic heuristics suffice.     

Some future directions for global justice

The fields of global ethics and global justice have expanded considerably over the last two decades and they now cover a wide variety of topics. Given this huge range there are many areas that are ripe for important developments. In this commentary I identify some useful directions for promising exploration in the field of global justice. I argue that expanded dialogue networks would considerably enhance work in philosophy and be beneficial to other disciplines as well. I indicate also how we could develop work on allocating responsibilities for reducing global injustices in useful ways, by considering a wider range of considerations that give rise to responsibilities and expanding the scope of, and audience for, these discussions. I catalog some under-theorized topics that should get more philosophical attention (including the notions of complicity, exploitation, and corruption). In addition, I draw attention to the ways in which a journal such as this one could facilitate a number of important dialogue networks.     

Consumer responses to parodic ads

We analyze parodic ads, which are humorous commercial messages that parody extant advertising. The effects of three dimensions are examined: mockery, perceived truth and playful humor. Consequences are considered for attitudes toward the parodic ad, its sponsor brand, the parodied advertising (which the parodic ad mimics) and the parodied advertising's sponsor brand. Results of three studies indicate that parodic ads can produce positive as well as negative outcomes across these attitudinal variables. These results suggest caution in the use of parody as a messaging device.     

A dynamic,self-regulatory model of affect and performance: Interactions between states,traits and task demands

State–trait consistency and valence principles were integrated within a dynamic self-regulatory framework to predict interactive effects of state affect, trait affect and task demands on performance. State affect and performance were measured repeatedly as individuals completed a complex and dynamic decision-making task. Task demands were manipulated at the within-person level. The beneficial effect of state positive affect was strongest for individuals with high trait positive affect; however this effect was only evident under high task demands. The detrimental effect of state negative affect was weakest for individuals with high trait negative affect, with this effect being constant across task demand levels. This study demonstrated that state–trait inconsistency can be bad for individuals with high trait positive affect and consistency can be good for individuals with high trait negative affect.     

Believe in yourself: Manipulating beliefs about memory causes checking

One of the most common compulsions in obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is repeated checking. Although individuals often report that they check to become more certain, checking has been shown to have the opposite effect – increased checking causes increased uncertainty. However, checking may also be thought of as beginning because of memory uncertainty. Beliefs about responsibility, over-estimation of threat, intolerance of uncertainty, perfectionism, and importance of and control of thoughts are already known to affect different aspects of OCD symptomatology. Beliefs about memory, however, are not currently considered to influence compulsive behaviour. In the current study, beliefs about memory were manipulated to test whether or not they affected urges to check. Ninety-one undergraduate participants received (positive or negative) false feedback about their performance on aspects of a standardized memory test, and then completed two additional memory tasks. Their urges to check following these tasks were assessed. Consistent with our hypotheses, individuals in the low memory confidence condition had greater urges to check following the memory tasks than those in the high memory confidence condition, demonstrating that manipulations of beliefs about memory can influence checking. Results and implications are discussed in terms of cognitive-behavioural models of and treatments for OCD.     

Distinguishing norm-based from exemplar-based coding of identity in children: evidence from face identity aftereffects

Children's performance on face identification tests improves dramatically between age 4 and adolescence, yet the source of this improvement is controversial. We used face identity aftereffects to examine whether changes in the organization of face-space during childhood could be a source of this improvement. Specifically we tested whether 7- to 9-year-old children, like adults, show patterns of aftereffects predicted by coding facial identity relative to a norm or the patterns predicted by exemplar-based coding. Consistent with use of norm-based coding children's aftereffects were larger (a) for opposite than non-opposite adapt-test pairs equated for perceptual similarity, and (b) for adaptors far from the average than for adaptors closer to the average. In addition, face identity aftereffects were present by age 5, suggesting adult-like face-space properties by 5, though we did not conduct specific tests to distinguish norm-based from exemplar-based coding in this age group. We conclude that children's poor face identification skills cannot be attributed to a failure to use norm-based coding.     

Short-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for personality disorders: a critical review of randomized controlled trials

The research evidence for Short-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (STPP) in the treatment of personality disorders (PD) was examined through consideration of studies utilizing randomized controlled designs. An extensive literature search revealed eight published Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT) of moderate study quality. A critical review of this literature is offered to provide an evidence-based guidance for clinicians and implications for treatments are discussed. Preliminary conclusions suggest STPP may be considered an efficacious empirically-supported treatment option for a range of PDs, producing significant and medium to long-term improvements for a large percentage of patients. Further research is recommended to allow comparisons with alternative evidence-based approaches.     

False-positive tangible outcomes of functional analyses

Functional analysis (FA) methodology is the most precise method for identifying variables that maintain problem behavior. Occasionally, however, results of an FA may be influenced by idiosyncratic sensitivity to aspects of the assessment conditions. For example, data from several studies suggest that inclusion of a tangible condition during an FA may be prone to a false-positive outcome, although the extent to which tangible reinforcement routinely produces such outcomes is unknown. We examined susceptibility to tangible reinforcement by determining whether a new response was acquired more readily when exposed to a tangible contingency relative to others commonly used in an FA (Study 1), and whether problem behavior known not to have a social function nevertheless emerged when exposed to tangible reinforcement (Study 2). Results indicated that inclusion of items in the tangible condition should be done with care and that selection should be based on those items typically found in the individual's environment.