Multiple mechanisms for recency with vowels and consonants

Three experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that the difference in recency effect between vowel-contrasting and stop-contrasting lists of syllables in immediate ordered recall can be explained by item discriminability and regular short-term memory mechanisms, without any recourse to echoic memory or precategorical acoustic storage (PAS). In Experiment 1, the short-term memory mechanisms were manipulated by reducing amount of output interference and length of retention interval. The partial-report technique was used. The most important finding was the usual final-position recency effect (difference in recall between the fifth and sixth serial positions) for the vowel lists but not for the stop lists, regardless of the type of report. Thus the PAS theory could not be rejected. In Experiments 2 and 3, the last item was differentiated from the other items of the list, either by lengthening the interstimulus interval between the last and the next-to-last (Experiment 2) or by increasing the intensity of the last item (Experiment 3). In both cases, an increase of the final-position recency effect was found even for stop lists. Since a drop in recall errors was also obtained for the fourth item when its intensity was increased (von Restorff effect), this final-position recency effect for stop lists is likely to be due to item discriminability, and not to echoic memory for the last item. Item discriminability appeared to be the critical factor.     

Can confidentiality of data pay off?

Ss were administered a self-report personality measure and a social desirability scale under conditions of Confidentiality, Anonymity or Nonanonymity alone. The tester's written assurance that the Ss' disclosures would be kept strictly confidential had a substantial moderating effect (when compared with Nonanonymity alone) on correlations between some subscales of the personality measure and the social desirability scale. In contrast to an earlier finding, there were no appreciable effects of Anonymity when compared with Nonanonymity alone. It appears that confidentiality of data can pay off in terms of increased predictive validity of some self-report personality measures by moderating the potential biasing effect of test response distortion due to socially desirable responding.     

Completeness theorem for dummett's LC quantified and some of its extensions

Dummett's logic LC quantified, Q-LC, is shown to be characterized by the extended frame Q⁺, ,D, where Q⁺ is the set of non-negative rational numbers, is the numerical relation less or equal then and D is the domain function such that for all v, w Q⁺, D_v and if v w, then D _v . D _v D _w . Moreover, simple completeness proofs of extensions of Q-LC are given.     

Bull's Theorem by the Method of Diagrams

We show how to use diagrams in order to obtain straightforward completeness theorems for extensions of K4.3 and a very simple and constructive proof of Bull's theorem: every normal extension of S4.3 has the finite model property.     

Correlations of selected psychomotor and visuomotor tests with initial Dynavision performance

The current study investigated the relationship between Dynavision scores for 36 men and 52 women (M age = 20.5 yr.) and performance on six conventional psychomotor tests which presumably tap similar psychomotor abilities and visuomotor skills. Analysis indicated that initial Dynavision performance was significantly correlated with performance on these common psychomotor tests. These data extend findings that propose the effectiveness of the Dynavision apparatus to assess performance on basic visual-motor and visual-cognitive functions. Taken together with these new results, findings suggest that this apparatus might contribute to psychomotor assessment and may be potentially useful for effective selection and identification of individual differences in human behavioral performance.     

Bizarreness of size and shape in dream images

Bizarreness in dreams is defined as an unusual combination of features in the phenomenal unified consciousness, that is, an incoherent simulation of the waking world. The present study investigated the specific mechanisms underlying dream image production and the phenomenal unity of consciousness by focusing on size and shape bizarreness. Data were derived from a Dream Data Bank of experimental dream studies. Analyses revealed that feature distortion was quite infrequent. Results are discussed in terms of cognitive processes proposed in a dream production model. Theoretical cognitive constructs, such as Kosslyn's imagery model, memory systems functioning, and binding, were used to speculate about these two specific types of bizarreness.     

Readers' experiences of characters' goals and actions

In this article, the authors examined readers' sensitivity to the match between characters' goals and characters' actions. In Experiment 1, readers integrated actions consistent with characters' goals more easily when there was a match between the extremeness of the actions and the urgency of the goals. In Experiments 2 and 3, characters' actions were consistent with either explicit or implicit goals. Participants showed different sensitivity to the mismatch between actions and urgent goals when they simply read the actions (Experiment 2) versus when they judged the likelihood of the actions (Experiment 3). Taken together, these results offer an account of how readers experience actions and goals when engaged in both local and global processing.     

The neural effect of stimulus-response modality compatibility on dual-task performance: an fMRI study

Recent fMRI studies suggest that the inferior frontal sulcus (IFS) is involved in the coordination of interfering processes in dual-task situations. The present study aims to further specify this assumption by investigating whether the compatibility between stimulus and response modalities modulates dual-task-related activity along the IFS. It has been shown behaviorally that the degree of interference, as measured by dual-task costs, increases in modality-incompatible conditions (e.g. visual–vocal tasks combined with auditory–manual tasks) as compared to modality-compatible conditions (e.g. visual–manual tasks combined with auditory–vocal tasks). Using fMRI, we measured IFS activity when participants performed modality-compatible and modality-incompatible single and dual tasks. Behaviorally, we replicated the finding of higher dual-task costs for modality-incompatible tasks compared to modality-compatible tasks. The fMRI data revealed higher activity along the IFS in modality-incompatible dual tasks compared with modality-compatible dual tasks when inter-individual variability in functional brain organization is taken into account. We argue that in addition to temporal order coordination (Szameitat et al., 2002), the IFS is involved in the coordination of cognitive processes associated with the concurrent mapping of sensory information onto corresponding motor responses in dual-task situations.     

Relation between referential and reflexive processes: an explorative study

Referential process (RP) has been investigated in the psychotherapy domain to understand the mechanisms underlying clients’ problems and identify the process of change. RP shares some theoretical assumptions with another relevant construct in the psychotherapy domain, i.e. the reflexive process. However, the relation between RP and reflexive process has never been explored through an operational approach. This study aims at analyzing the relation between referential activity (RA), conceived as the linguistic index of RP, and two reflexive processes of different complexity, reflection and reflexivity, in a group counseling program. Audio recordings from seven group counseling sessions were analyzed through two procedures: (1) the latest Italian version of the computerized text analysis software developed for analyzing RA, and (2) the analysis of the narrative functions of reflection and reflexivity. Accordingly, reflection processes were mainly identified in the narrative excerpts by adopting the conventional procedure for RA software-based analysis and combining it with the analysis of the narrative functions. More complex processes of reflexivity were detected when the analysis of the narrative functions was combined with an innovative procedure for RA software-based analysis. Overall, these data indicated that a high level of RA is essential for activating reflexive processes of higher complexity.