Does expanded retrieval produce benefits over equal-interval spacing? Explorations of spacing effects in healthy aging and early stage Alzheimer's disease

Three experiments explored different schedules of retrieval practice in young adults, older adults, and individuals with dementia of the Alzheimer type. In each experiment, an initial acquisition phase was presented in which participants studied or attempted to retrieve response words to cues, followed by a later cued-recall test. Experiment 1 produced a benefit of expanded retrieval over equal-interval retrieval during acquisition, but this benefit was lost in final cued recall. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants received corrective feedback during acquisition and modified spacing schedules. There was again no evidence of a difference between expanded and equal-interval conditions in final cued recall. Discussion focuses on the potential benefits and costs of expanded retrieval on a theoretical and applied level.     

Examining the principles in principled conservatism: the role of responsibility stereotypes as cues for deservingness in racial policy decisions

Why do educated conservatives oppose affirmative action? Those in the "principled conservatism" camp say opposition is based on principled judgments of fairness about the policies. Others, however, argue that opposition is based on racism. The present article offers an alternative perspective that may reconcile these contradictory points of view. In 2 studies, the authors show 2 major findings: (a) that conservatives oppose affirmative action more for Blacks than for other groups, in this case women, and (b) that the relationship between conservatism and affirmative action attitudes is mediated best by group-based stereotypes that offer deservingness information and not by other potential mediators like old-fashioned racism or the perceived threat that affirmative action poses to oneself. The authors conclude that educated conservatives are indeed principled in their opposition to affirmative action, but those principles are group based not policy based.     

Use of binaural cues for sound localization in two species of Phyllostomidae: the Greater spear-nosed bat (Phyllostomus hastatus) and the Short-tailed fruit bat (Carollia perspicillata)

Unlike humans, not all mammals use both of the binaural cues for sound localization. Whether an animal uses these cues can be determined by testing its ability to localize pure tones; specifically, low frequencies are localized using time-difference cues, and high frequencies are localized using intensity-difference cues. We determined the ability to use binaural cues in 2 New World bats, Phyllostomus hastatus, large omnivores, and Carollia perspicillata, small frugivores, by testing their tone-localization ability using a conditioned avoidance procedure. Both species easily localized high-frequency tones, indicating that they could use the interaural intensity-difference cue. However, neither species was able to use the phase-difference cue to localize either low-frequency pure tones or amplitude-modulated tones (which provided an envelope for additional time analysis). We now know of 3 bat species that cannot use binaural time cues and 2 that can. Further exploration of localization in bats may provide insight into the neural analysis of time cues in species that do not hear low frequencies.     

Is expanding retrieval a superior method for learning text materials?

Expanding retrieval practice refers to the idea that gradually increasing the spacing interval between repeated tests ought to promote optimal long-term retention. Belief in the superiority of this technique is widespread, but empirical support is scarce. In addition, virtually all research on expanding retrieval has examined the learning of word pairs in paired-associate tasks. We report two experiments in which we examined the learning of text materials with expanding and equally spaced retrieval practice schedules. Subjects studied brief texts and recalled them in an initial learning phase. We manipulated the spacing of the repeated recall tests and examined final recall 1 week later. Overall we found that (1) repeated testing enhanced retention more than did taking a single test, (2) testing with feedback (restudying the passages) produced better retention than testing without feedback, but most importantly (3) there were no differences between expanding and equally spaced schedules of retrieval practice. Repeated retrieval enhanced long-term retention, but how the repeated tests were spaced did not matter.     

Retrospective bias in test performance: Providing easy items at the beginning of a test makes students believe they did better on it

We examined the effect of three variables (test list structure, report option, and framing) on retrospective bias in global evaluations of test performance (postdictions). Participants answered general knowledge questions and estimated correctness of their performance after each block. The ordering of the questions within a block affected bias: Participants believed they had answered more questions correctly when questions were sorted from the easiest to the hardest than when the same questions were randomized or sorted from the hardest to the easiest. This bias was obtained on global postdictions but was not apparent on item-by-item ratings, pointing to a memory-based phenomenon. In addition, forcing participants to produce a response to every question increased performance without affecting evaluations. Finally, framing the evaluation question in terms of the number of questions answered incorrectly (rather than the number correctly answered) did not affect how positively participants evaluated their performance, but did render postdictions less accurate. Our results provide evidence that students’ evaluations of performance after a test are prone to retrospective memory biases.     

Memorial consequences of multiple-choice testing on immediate and delayed tests

Multiple-choice testing has both positive and negative consequences for performance on later tests. Prior testing increases the number of questions answered correctly on a later test but also increases the likelihood that questions will be answered with lures from the previous multiple-choice test (Roediger & Marsh, 2005). Prior research has shown that the positive effects of testing persist over a delay, but no one has examined the durability of the negative effects of testing. To address this, subjects took multiple-choice and cued recall tests (on subsets of questions) both immediately and a week after studying. Although delay reduced both the positive and negative testing effects, both still occurred after 1 week, especially if the multiple-choice test had also been delayed. These results are consistent with the argument that recollection underlies both the positive and negative testing effects.     

Processing approaches to cognition: The impetus from the levels-of-processing framework

Processing approaches to cognition have a long history, from act psychology to the present, but perhaps their greatest boost was given by the success and dominance of the levels-of-processing framework. We review the history of processing approaches, and explore the influence of the levels-of-processing approach, the procedural approach advocated by Paul Kolers, and the transfer-appropriate processing framework. Processing approaches emphasise the procedures of mind and the idea that memory storage can be usefully conceptualised as residing in the same neural units that originally processed information at the time of encoding. Processing approaches emphasise the unity and interrelatedness of cognitive processes and maintain that they can be dissected into separate faculties only by neglecting the richness of mental life. We end by pointing to future directions for processing approaches.     

On Husserl's Essentialism

Abstract

The present paper argues that Merleau-Ponty’s notion of Flesh/reversibility intellectually is significantly flawed, and leads phenomenology into something of a dead end. This is shown through the following strategy. First Merleau-Ponty’s account of originary perception and his critique of the reflective attitude are expounded. They are shown to culminate in rejection of the subject-object relation as an ontological fundamental in favour of a ‘hyper-reflective method’. A critique of Merleau-Ponty’s position is then offered. It argues that originary perception is not logically prior to reflective thought, and that Merleau-Ponty fails to do justice to the scope of the subject-object relation. Specifically, he overlooks the way in which the relation is the basis of our practical perceptual orientation. It is then shown how this relation actually pervades Merleau-Ponty’s own all-important ‘hyper-reflective’ alternative – the notion of ‘Flesh’. Possible counter-arguments are considered and refuted. The need for a post-analytic phenomenology is posited.     

Research Notes

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to conduct a preliminary criterion validity assessment of the Athletic Motivation Inventory (AMI). Subjects were 649 ice hockey players who were eligible for the National Hockey League (NHL) entry draft. Each player was rated for the dependent measure, psychological strength, by at least one of three NHL scouts from one team. This criterion measure was based on the observation of on-ice play. The data were analyzed using three independent multiple regression analyses, one for each scout, with the eleven AMI subscales as predictor variables. The results show that less than four percent of the variance in scout ratings was accounted for by AMI scores. The data are interpreted as showing that on-ice behaviors inferred by NHL scouts to represent psychological strength have little relationship to what the AMI measures. Finally, the data are discussed for their relevance to current NHL entry draft screening procedures and to future validity research.