Very long-term memory for odors: retention of odor-name associations.

The ability to remember odor-name associations for recent odors (those associated with everyday products experienced within the past 2 years) and distant odors (those associated with children's toys not encountered for 3 years or more) was examined in two experiments. In recognition tasks, subjects attempted to match odor names to odors, or odors to odor names. In a recall task, subjects tried to identify odors by name. The results showed that although odor retention was better for recent than distant odors, significant retention remains for odors not experienced since childhood. These results are consistent with other studies that found very slow and gradual loss of odor information in memory. They extend that research by showing that odor information is still available over a much longer period of time.     

The National Commission on AIDS

A decade after the first cases were recognized in the United States, AIDS continues to vex policymakers and fascinate the public. It has been said that AIDS acts as a prism, refracting a spectrum of controversial topics. For bioethicists, these topics include: equity in the allocation of resources for treatment and research; forgoing life-sustaining care and proxy decision making; informed consent in the context of HIV testing and screening; the ethical duties of health care workers to provide care for persons with HIV disease; and competing obligations of health care professionals to patients and to third parties who may be put at risk.     

Applications for tracking reading behavior on the Macintosh

Two applications for the Macintosh that permit students to read the sentences in a text in any order also provide a record of reading behavior from which processing time and reading strategies can be determined. The applications differ: READIT! presents the sentences one at a time, whereas SELECT THE TEXT presents the entire passage with a mask, which resembles the moving window technique. Unique to these applications is that students may return to sentences to reread them any number of times and in any order. Because these applications allow students to reexamine parts of the text, the reading that they enable is more similar to normal reading than has been the case with previous methodologies for tracking student reading behavior. The applications are described, and a summary of the major results of the work in which we have used the applications is provided.     

Risk for Substance Abuse: Memory as a Common Etiological Pathway

Memory processes may be part of the causal chain by which known antecedents of alcohol and drug abuse influence drinking. Recent findings on alcohol expectancies are consistent with a memory model and help articulate how consumption may be influenced by memory representations of biological and environmental characteristics. This line of research suggests novel prevention and intervention strategies.     

The Effect of Intracouple Coping Concordance on Psychological and Marital Distress in Infertility Patients

The effect of intracouple coping concordance on psychological and marital distress was examined in a sample of 46 couples undergoing different stages of infertility treatment. Results indicate that the effect of coping similarity within couples is dependent on both the type of coping examined and the stage of the stressor. Specifically, for women the use of high levels of task-oriented coping by their partners and themselves is associated with the highest level of marital satisfaction. The findings also indicate that the use of high emotion-oriented coping by both partners is associated with the most psychological distress for men. Finally, the results show that marital satisfaction among women undergoing late stage treatment is highest in couples where the males are using low levels of emotion-oriented coping. Interestingly, the least satisfaction for women is evident when the woman is using less emotion-oriented coping while her partner is using more, rather than when both partners are using more emotion-oriented coping strategies. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Self-actualization and impression formation1

Self-actualization (SA), assessed by scores on the Personal Orientation Inventory, was related to interpersonal behavior in two person perception experiments. SA moderated both personality impression ratings of stimulus persons presented singly and person preference choices in a paired comparisons paradigm. In general, self-actualized individuals were found to be more extreme in their responses to social stimuli than were non-self-actualized individuals. Results were discussed in terms of previous attempts to assess the relationship between SA and cognitive processing.     

The effects of the Positive Environment Program (PEP) on the behaviors of adults with profound cognitive and physical disabilities

This study evaluated the effects of the Positive Environment Program (PEP) on the behaviors of residents and staff in a state‐operated residential facility during a 2½ year period. The participants included 19 adult residents with profound cognitive and physical disabilities and 11 staff members who worked with them. Data were collected on alertness, leisure material availability, engagement, staff interactions, and resident affect during two samples of data collection six months prior to implementation of PEP. Training was then provided to staff on positive interaction skills. Following the training, researchers implemented a monitoring program and a staff incentive program. The results of this project showed improvements in staff interactions, resident interaction with leisure materials, improved levels of alertness, and increases in a ‘happiness index’. The benefits and limitations of this project as well as future research are discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Is Moral Motivation Rationally Required?

The answer to the title question is “No.” The first section argues, using the example of Huckleberry Finn, that rational agents need not be motivated by their explicit judgments of rightness and wrongness. Section II rejects a plausible argument to the conclusion that rational agents must have some moral concerns. The third section clarifies the relevant concept of irrationality and argues that moral incoherence does not equate with this common relevant concept. Section IV questions a rational requirement for prudential concern and whether a requirement for moral concern would follow from it. Section V examines the rationality of amoralists and partial amoralists, and Sect. VI closes with speculation on why there might seem to be a rational requirement to be morally motivated.