Age differences in verbal and visuo-spatial working memory updating: evidence from analysis of serial position curves

Memory updating is the ability to select and update relevant information and suppress no-longer-relevant data. The few studies in this area, targeting mainly the verbal domain, have investigated and confirmed an age-related decline in working memory updating ability (De Beni & Palladino, 2004; Van der Linden, Bredart, & Beerten, 1994). The present research examines the ability of younger and older adults to update information in verbal and visuo-spatial running memory tasks. Results showed that the participants' performance was higher in the verbal than in the visuo-spatial task. Nonetheless, independently of the task domain, an age-related decline in updating performance was found. Moreover, analysis of serial positions suggested that, in the updating procedure, the participants were not attempting to actively maintain items, preferring to adopt a low-effort, "recency-based" strategy. The use of this type of strategy is more evident in older participants, as shown in both the accuracy performance and the proportion of intrusion errors.     

Access to environmental stimulation via eyelid responses for persons with acquired brain injury and multiple disabilities: a new microswitch arrangement

This study assessed a new microswitch arrangement for eyelid responses using an optic sensor placed above the cheekbone and a small sticker on the person's eyelid. This new arrangement, which was designed to avoid interference of the microswitch with the person's visual functioning, was tested on three adults with acquired brain injury and multiple (consciousness, communication, and motor) disabilities. The study was carried out according to a non-concurrent multiple baseline design across participants. Data showed the new microswitch arrangement was suitable for all three participants, who increased their responding during the intervention phase of the study when their responses allowed them to access preferred stimulation. Practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Grey parrot number acquisition: The inference of cardinal value from ordinal position on the numeral list

A Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) had previously been taught to use English count words ("one" through "sih" [six]) to label sets of one to six individual items (Pepperberg, 1994). He had also been taught to use the same count words to label the Arabic numerals 1 through 6. Without training, he inferred the relationship between the Arabic numerals and the sets of objects (Pepperberg, 2006b). In the present study, he was then trained to label vocally the Arabic numerals 7 and 8 ("sih-none", "eight", respectively) and to order these Arabic numerals with respect to the numeral 6. He subsequently inferred the ordinality of 7 and 8 with respect to the smaller numerals and he inferred use of the appropriate label for the cardinal values of seven and eight items. These data suggest that he constructed the cardinal meanings of "seven" ("sih-none") and "eight" from his knowledge of the cardinal meanings of one through six, together with the place of "seven" ("sih-none") and "eight" in the ordered count list.     

Keeping a Sound Marriage: How Couples with Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders Maintain Their Marriages

This study focused on strengths and variables that contribute to marital successes for couples with children with autism spectrum disorders (in this article, referred to as “autism”). Particularly, the purpose of this study was to examine what husbands and wives with children with autism in contrast to couples with children who are typically developing identify as helpful to maintaining their marriages. Concept mapping methodology was used for this research study. Couples with children with autism and couples with children who are typically developing participated in telephone interviews and then grouped and rated the statements generated from their interviews. Groupings were translated into pictorial maps showing relationships and patterns. Couples with children with autism shared common perceptions about factors that help to keep their marriages strong: communication and shared foundational ideas about marriage. Communication was a cluster for all groups of husbands and wives. Only mothers of children with autism identified time for self-care as a distinct cluster.     

Author Correction: Assessing Adolescents’ Information Management with Mothers and Fathers: A Brief Report

Journal of Child and Family Studies -     

Low Prospects and High Risk: Structural Determinants of Health Associated with Sexual Risk Among Young African American Women Residing in Resource-Poor Communities in the South

African American women at increased risk of HIV/sexually transmitted infection (STI) may engage in risky sex as a coping mechanism for depressed economic conditions. This study examines the association between high-risk sexual behavior and structural determinants of sexual health among a sample of young African American women. 237 young African American women (16–19 years old) from economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in North Carolina were enrolled into a randomized trial testing the efficacy of an adapted HIV/STI prevention intervention. Logistic regression analyses predicted the likelihood that young women reporting lack of food at home, homelessness and low future prospects would also report sexual risk behaviors. Young women reporting a lack of food at home (22 %), homelessness (27 %), and low perceived education/employment prospects (19 %) had between 2.2 and 4.7 times the odds as those not reporting these risk factors of reporting multiple sex partners, risky sex partners including older men and partners involved in gangs, substance use prior to sex, and exchange sex. Self-reported structural determinants of sexual health were associated with myriad sexual risk behaviors. Diminished economic conditions among these young women may lead to sexual risk due to hopelessness, the need for survival or other factors.     

Working memory retrieval differences between medial temporal lobe epilepsy patients and controls: A three memory layer approach

Multi-store models of working memory (WM) have given way to more dynamic approaches that conceive WM as an activated subset of long-term memory (LTM). The resulting framework considers that memory representations are governed by a hierarchy of accessibility. The activated part of LTM holds representations in a heightened state of activation, some of which can reach a state of immediate accessibility according to task demands. Recent neuroimaging studies have studied the neural basis of retrieval information with different states of accessibility. It was found that the medial temporal lobe (MTL) was involved in retrieving information within immediate access store and outside this privileged zone. In the current study we further explored the contribution of MTL to WM retrieval by analyzing the consequences of MTL damage to this process considering the state of accessibility of memory representations. The performance of a group of epilepsy patients with left hippocampal sclerosis in a 12-item recognition task was compared with that of a healthy control group. We adopted an embedded model of WM that distinguishes three components: the activated LTM, the region of direct access, and a single-item focus of attention. Groups did not differ when retrieving information from single-item focus, but patients were less accurate retrieving information outside focal attention, either items from LTM or items expected to be in the WM range. Analyses focused on items held in the direct access buffer showed that consequences of MTL damage were modulated by the level of accessibility of memory representations, producing a reduced capacity.     

The Interplay Between Trust Among Peers and Interpersonal Characteristics in Homophobic Bullying Among Italian Adolescents

This study is based on exploring the trust between peers and the individual characteristics related to homophobic bullying in adolescence. Participants were 334 adolescents (141 boys and 193 girls) aged from 15 to 20 years. Participants completed the homophobic bullying scale, to investigate bullying actions towards sexual minorities, the personal attributes questionnaire, for personal characteristics, and the inventory of parent and peer attachment, to the trust between peers. The results demonstrated how female participants manifested a higher level of interpersonal traits and trust among peers than boys. Results showed how a lack of trust between peers predicts homophobic bullying. Nevertheless, we found that the lack of interpersonal characteristics represents a variable that likely mediates the relationship between lack of trust in peers and homophobic bullying. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

The effects of expected reward on creative problem solving

Creative problem solving involves search processes, and it is known to be hard to motivate. Reward cues have been found to enhance performance across a range of tasks, even when cues are presented subliminally, without being consciously detected. It is uncertain whether motivational processes, such as reward, can influence problem solving. We tested the effect of supraliminal and subliminal reward on participant performance on problem solving that can be solved by deliberate analysis or by insight. Forty-one participants attempted to solve 100 compound remote associate problems. At the beginning of each problem, a potential reward cue (1 or 25 cents) was displayed, either subliminally (17 ms) or supraliminally (100 ms). Participants earned the displayed reward if they solved the problem correctly. Results showed that the higher subliminal reward increased the percentage of problems solved correctly overall. Second, we explored if subliminal rewards preferentially influenced solutions that were achieved via a sudden insight (mostly processed below awareness) or via a deliberate analysis. Participants solved more problems via insight following high subliminal reward when compared with low subliminal reward, and compared with high supraliminal reward, with no corresponding effect on analytic solving. Striatal dopamine (DA) is thought to influence motivation, reinforce behavior, and facilitate cognition. We speculate that subliminal rewards activate the striatal DA system, enhancing the kinds of automatic integrative processes that lead to more creative strategies for problem solving, without increasing the selectivity of attention, which could impede insight.