A multinomial model of event-based prospective memory

Prospective memory is remembering to perform an action in the future. The authors introduce the 1st formal model of event-based prospective memory, namely, a multinomial model that includes 2 separate parameters related to prospective memory processes. The 1st measures preparatory attentional processes, and the 2nd measures retrospective memory processes. The model was validated in 4 experiments. Manipulations of instructions to place importance on either the prospective memory task or the background task (Experiments 1 and 2) and manipulations of distinctiveness of prospective memory targets (Experiment 2) had expected effects on model parameters, as did a manipulation of the difficulty of prospective memory target encoding (Experiments 3 and 4). An alternative model was also evaluated.     

A hemispheric asymmetry for the unconscious perception of emotion

Previous research has demonstrated that hemispheric asymmetries for conscious visual perception do not lead to asymmetries for unconscious visual perception. These studies utilized emotionally neutral items as stimuli. The current research utilized both emotionally negative and neutral stimuli to assess hemispheric differences for conscious and unconscious visual perception. Conscious perception was measured using a subjective measure of awareness reported by participants on each trial. Unconscious perception was measured by an "exclusion task," a form of word-stem-completion task. Consistent with predictions, negative stimuli were consciously perceived most often when presented to the right hemisphere. Negative stimuli presented to the right hemisphere showed no evidence of unconscious perception, suggesting that the hemispheric asymmetry for the conscious perception of negative information occurs at the expense of unconscious perception.     

Redintegration and lexicality effects in children: Do they depend upon the demands of the memory task?

The effect of long-term knowledge upon performance in short-term memory tasks was examined for children from 5 to 10 years of age. The emergence of a lexicality effect, in which familiar words were recalled more accurately than unfamiliar words, was found to depend upon the nature of the memory task. Lexicality effects were interpreted as reflecting the use of redintegration, or reconstruction processes, in short-term memory. Redintegration increased with age for tasks requiring spoken item recall and decreased with age when position information but not naming was required. In a second experiment, redintegration was found in a recognition task when some of the foils rhymed with the target. Older children were able to profit from a rhyming foil, whereas younger children were confused by it, suggesting that the older children make use of sublexical phonological information in reconstructing the target. It was proposed that redintegrative processes in their mature form support the reconstruction of detailed phonological knowledge of words.     

Serial migration and its implications for the parent-child relationship: a retrospective analysis of the experiences of the children of Caribbean immigrants

This study addressed the potential impact of serial migration for parent-children relationships and for children's psychological well-being. The experience of being separated from their parents during childhood and reunited with them at a later time was retrospectively examined for 48 individuals. A series of measures (e.g., self-esteem, parental identification) associated with appraisals at critical time periods during serial migration (separation, reunion, current) revealed that serial migration can potentially disrupt parent-child bonding and unfavorably affect children's self-esteem and behavior. Time did not appear to be wholly effective in repairing rifts in the parent-child relationship. Risk factors for less successful reunions included lengthy separations and the addition of new members to the family unit in the child's absence.     

The relationship between depression and smoking in adolescents

The literature suggests that smokers are more likely to be depressed, while people who are depressed are more likely to smoke. The purpose of the present study was to determine the strength of the relationship between smoking, depression, intention to smoke, and several psychosocial and environmental factors. The participants (98 high school and college students aged 16 to 19 years) completed a paper-and-pencil questionnaire consisting of the Multiscore Depression Inventory (MDI) and items regarding smoking behavior as well as psychosocial and environmental factors. Correlation, stepwise regression, and discriminant analyses were then conducted. It was found that participants were more likely to smoke if their parents smoked, if their scores on the MDI indicated instrumental helplessness and social isolation/withdrawal, or if they were older. Participants were more likely to state intention to smoke in the future if they had MDI scores indicating instrumental helplessness, if they were older, if their parents smoked, if their MDI scores indicated social intro-version, or if they resided with a guardian. Participants were also more likely to have smoked for more years if their parents smoked or if their scores on the MDI indicated instrumental helplessness. Further, participants were more likely to have scores on the MDI indicative of higher depression levels if they had low grades or if their parents smoked.     

Jamaican child-rearing practices: the role of corporal punishment

The family is the most prominent social group that exists. It prepares its members for the various roles they will perform in society. Yet, the literature has unequivocally singled out the family as the most violent social group, with parental violence against children being the most prevalent type of family violence. While societies like the United States, Japan, and Sweden have taken a hard line on physical punishment and shifted to a gentler approach to discipline, harsh disciplining of children persists elsewhere. In the Caribbean, and Jamaica in particular, child-rearing and disciplinary practices that would warrant child abuse charges in other Western societies are rampant. This article examines the child-rearing techniques of Jamaican adults and their assumed effects on child outcomes. It also examines the plausibility of the assumption that the harsh physical punishment meted out to children is partially responsible for the current social problems of that island nation. We recommend approaches to tackle the broad goals of addressing familial and societal practices that compromise children's development and well-being.     

Stressor exposure produces long-term reductions in antigen-specific T and B cell responses

Exposure to an acute laboratory stressor at the time of keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) immunization results in a long-term suppression in circulating anti-KLH antibody. The mechanism for the stress-induced reduction in anti-KLH immunoglobulin (Ig) remains unknown. Given that the generation of anti-KLH antibody requires T cell help, we hypothesize that stress reduces the proliferation of anti-KLH T cells, thus leading to a reduction in anti-KLH antibody. The present studies examined the effect of tail shock stress (100, 1.6 mA, 5-s, 60 s ITI) on the KLH specific T cell response. Fischer F344 rats were immunized either intraperitoneally (i.p.) or subcutaneously (s.c.) at the base of the tail with 200 microg KLH, and exposed to inescapable tail shock (IS) or remained in their home cages (HCC). T cell proliferation after KLH restimulation, but not ConA, was markedly suppressed in IS animals in both the spleen after i.p. immunization and the draining lymph nodes after s.c. immunization. Other secondary lymphoid cells did not differ in their proliferative capacity. Anti-KLH IgG, IgG1 and IgG2a, but not anti-KLH IgM serum levels were significantly suppressed. These data support the conclusion that stress suppresses the generation of antigen specific T cells. In addition, the methods employed in the current study allow the isolation of the site of the acquired T cell immune response, making it possible to further elucidate the cellular mechanisms that contribute to stress-induced modulation of the antigen-specific acquired immune response.     

Motion and edge sensitivity in perception of object unity

Although much evidence indicates that young infants perceive unitary objects by analyzing patterns of motion, infants' abilities to perceive object unity by analyzing Gestalt properties and by integrating distinct views of an object over time are in dispute. To address these controversies, four experiments investigated adults' and infants' perception of the unity of a center-occluded, moving rod with misaligned visible edges. Both alignment information and depth information affected adults' and infants' perception of object unity in similar ways, and infants perceived object unity by integrating information about object features over time. However, infants perceived a moving, misaligned, three-dimensional object as indeterminate in its connectedness, whereas adults perceived it as connected behind the occluder. These findings indicate that the effectiveness of common motion in specifying unified surfaces across an occluder is reduced by misalignment of edges. Alignment information enhances perception of object unity either by serving directly as information for unity or by optimizing the detectability of motion-carried information for unity. In addition, young infants are able to retain information about edge orientation over short intervals in determining connectedness via a process of spatiotemporal integration.     

Numerity of a socially housed hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas) and a socially housed squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus)

To extend a study conducted by E. M. Brannon and H. S. Terrace (1998, 2000), the authors trained 1 hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas) and 1 squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus) to respond to stimuli representing the numerosities 1-4 in ascending order. When tested with novel stimuli of the same numerosities, both subjects' performance appeared to be based on the numerical attributes of stimuli. Subjects were then tested on their ability to order pairs of numerosities derived from the values 1-9. Both subjects successfully ordered pairs that included the untrained numerosities 5-9 regardless of the total surface area of numerosities. Accuracy and latency of responding also showed numerical distance and magnitude effects. Numerosity was a salient cue to both subjects, suggesting that these 2 families of primates perceive ordinal relations. The outcome shows that cognitive studies of this type can be effectively conducted with socially housed animals.