Word Frequency Effects on the Processing of Subject–Verb Number Agreement

This paper examines the role of word frequency in the computation of subject–verb number agreement. Previous research in both production and comprehension has demonstrated that processing difficulties can arise in sentence structures containing a singular subject noun followed by a plural distractor noun, as in The key to the cabinets.¨ A whole sentence reading task was employed to determine whether the relative frequency with which the distractor noun appears in its singular or plural form would affect the degree of processing difficulty experienced by readers. Results suggest that the agreement process is, indeed, sensitive to this factor and this finding is compatible with activation-based accounts of the implementation of number agreement.     

Interference from irrelevant features on visual discrimination by macaques (Macaca fuscata): a behavioral analogue of the human Stroop effect

To study the operation of selective attention in a conflict situation with automatic processes, we trained 4 Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) extensively on a manual go/no-go task. The monkey had to discriminate either the color, shape, motion direction, or location of a visual stimulus. In each trial, the behavioral meaning of the relevant feature (go or no-go) could either be congruent or incongruent with irrelevant features of the same stimulus. Reaction times were slowed, and error rates increased when irrelevant stimulus features were incongruent with the required response. The effects were obtained when the monkey attended to the color, shape, or motion direction, but not when it attended to the location of the stimulus. The effects were cumulative so that the interference from 1 incongruent feature was smaller than that from 2 incongruent features. We propose that the present paradigm provides a behavioral analogue of the human Stroop effect.     

Beyond Speech Lateralization: A Review of the Variability, Reliability, and Validity of the Intracarotid Amobarbital Procedure and Its Nonlanguage Uses in Epilepsy Surgery Candidates

While the intracarotid amobarbital procedure (IAP) was originally utilized to lateralize speech functions as an aid in the surgical treatment of epilepsy, additional uses for the IAP have emerged including: (1) the use of the IAP to predict post-surgical memory changes, including both global amnesia and smaller, yet significant, material-specific memory deficits; (2) the use of the IAP to provide confirmatory evidence of lateralization of seizure focus; and (3) the use of the IAP to predict post-surgical relief from seizures. While the literature on the IAP is extensive and growing, its utility is marred by the wide variability associated with the procedure itself from epilepsy center to center. This variability renders comparisons among IAP studies problematic and conclusions about IAP efficacy difficult. The variability associated with the amobarbital procedures, as well as the reliability and the validity of the IAP in its nonlanguage uses is reviewed here. A special emphasis is devoted to research conducted in the last decade. Also discussed is the future of the IAP including anticipated research directions.     

Perception of genetic risk among genetic counselors

A mailed survey of female prenatal genetic counselors, obstetric nurses, and high school biology teachers was conducted to determine if these groups hold different attitudes toward genetic risk and to investigate the extent to which any differences result from the effect of different professional experiences. In this study, the participants were 166 genetic counselors, 116 obstetric nurses, and 78 biology teachers (n = 360). Survey participants completed a written questionnaire designed to assess their numeric estimate of the empiric risk for birth defects/genetic problems, their subjective perception of this risk, and their personal use of prenatal diagnosis. Genetic counselors were found to be less likely than the other groups to consider the frequency of birth defects/genetic problems as rare and were 10 times more likely than nurses and 8 times more likely than teachers to have had prenatal diagnosis. Furthermore, more than half of the prenatal diagnosis procedures had by genetic counselors were not medically indicated. These results suggest that genetic counselors have an increased perception of genetic risks relative to nurses or teachers. Possible explanations for this finding are discussed, and the potential role of discordant risk perception in creating biases in the genetic counseling process is explored.     

Repeated assessment of the Tower of Hanoi test: reliability and age effects

The purpose of this research was to analyze the effects of repeating an executive function test. Three versions of the Tower of Hanoi (TOH) test were repeated three times each, with test-retest intervals of 2 months. Two groups of children participated in the research (7.7 and 11.6 years, n = 22 and n = 28). Repeating the assessment improved the performance and decreased the total performance time in both of the groups. The older participants improved their performance faster than the younger ones. The reliability of all the scores, besides the error scores, seemed to be satisfactory after the first few assessments. The stability of the scores was maintained through all the assessments. The planning time did not explain the variations of the achieved score. The reasons for the initially low reliabilities are discussed, and modifications for the test administration and scoring are suggested.     

Immediate serial recall of words and nonwords: Tests of the retrieval-based hypothesis

In two experiments, the immediate serial recall of lists of words or nonwords was investigated under quiet and articulatory suppression conditions. The results showed better item recall for words but better order recall for nonwords, as measured with proportion of order errors per item recalled. Articulatory suppression hindered the recall of item information for both types of lists and of order information for words. These results are interpreted in light of a retrieval account in which degraded phonological traces must undergo a reconstruction process calling on long-term knowledge of the tobe-remembered items. The minimal long-term representations for nonwords are thought to be responsible for their lower item recall and their better order recall. Under suppression, phonological representations are thought to be minimal, producing trace interpretation problems responsible for the greater number of item and order errors, relative to quiet conditions. The very low performance for nonwords under suppression is attributed to the combination of degraded phonological information and minimal long-term knowledge.     

Accounts of the confidence-accuracy relation in recognition memory

Confidence and accuracy, while often considered to tap the same memory representation, are often found to be only weakly correlated (e.g., Bothwell, Deffenbacher, & Brigham, 1987; Deffenbacher, 1980). There are at least two possible (nonexclusive) reasons for this weak relation. First, it may be simply due to noise of one sort or another; that is, it may come about because of both within- and between-subjects statistical variations that are partially uncorrelated for confidence measures on the one hand and accuracy measures on the other. Second, confidence and accuracy may be uncorrelated because they are based, at least in part, on different memory representations that are affected in different ways by different independent variables. We propose a general theory that is designed to encompass both of these possibilities and, within the context of this theory, we evaluate effects of four variables—degree of rehearsal, study duration, study luminance, and test luminance—in three face recognition experiments. In conjunction with our theory, the results allow us to begin to identify the circumstances under which confidence and accuracy are based on the same versus different sources of information in memory. The results demonstrate the conditions under which subjects are quite poor at monitoring their memory performance, and are used to extend cue utilization theories to the domain of face recognition.     

Consequences of right cerebrovascular accident on emotional functioning: diagnostic and treatment implications

The relationship between lesion location and neuropsychiatric sequelae in stroke patients has been extensively studied. Emotional disorders associated with right hemisphere stroke include depression, anxiety, anger, and/or mania. Pharmacotherapy, electroconvulsive therapy, and/or psychotherapy are common treatments for these disorders. This article reviews the clinical presentations of seven right hemisphere stroke patients. The treatment rationale and course of treatment are described for two of these patients. The aims of this paper are to explore the appropriateness of various assessment tools and treatment modalities for stroke patients as well as to demonstrate the techniques of psychotherapy as applied to the two cases featured in this article. Specific factors that may significantly influence treatment outcome, such as lesion location and degree of cognitive impairment, are considered.