Prefrontal cortex and hippocampus subserve different components of working memory in rats

Both the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and hippocampus are implicated in working memory tasks in rodents. Specifically, it has been hypothesized that the mPFC is primarily engaged in the temporary storage and processing of information lasting from a subsecond to several seconds, while the hippocampal function becomes more critical as the working memory demand extends into longer temporal scales. Although these structures may be engaged in a temporally separable manner, the extent of their contributions in the "informational content" of working memory remains unclear. To investigate this issue, the mPFC and dorsal hippocampus (dHPC) were temporarily inactivated via targeted infusions of the GABA(A) receptor agonist muscimol in rats prior to their performance on a delayed alternation task (DAT), employing an automated figure-eight maze that required the animals to make alternating arm choice responses after 3-, 30-, and 60-sec delays for water reward. We report that inactivation of either the mPFC or dHPC significantly reduced DAT at all delay intervals tested. However, there were key qualitative differences in the behavioral effects. Specifically, mPFC inactivation selectively impaired working memory (i.e., arm choice accuracy) without altering reference memory (i.e., the maze task rule) and arm choice response latencies. In contrast, dHPC inactivation increased both reference memory errors and arm choice response latencies. Moreover, dHPC, but not mPFC, inactivation increased the incidence of successive working memory errors. These results suggest that while both the mPFC and hippocampus are necessarily involved in DAT, they seem to process different informational components associated with the memory task.     

Automatic evaluation of syntactic learners in typologically-different languages

Human syntax acquisition involves a system that can learn constraints on possible word sequences in typologically-different human languages. Evaluation of computational syntax acquisition systems typically involves theory-specific or language-specific assumptions that make it difficult to compare results in multiple languages. To address this problem, a bag-of-words incremental generation (BIG) task with an automatic sentence prediction accuracy (SPA) evaluation measure was developed. The BIG–SPA task was used to test several learners that incorporated n-gram statistics which are commonly found in statistical approaches to syntax acquisition. In addition, a novel Adjacency–Prominence learner, that was based on psycholinguistic work in sentence production and syntax acquisition, was also tested and it was found that this learner yielded the best results in this task on these languages. In general, the BIG–SPA task is argued to be a useful platform for comparing explicit theories of syntax acquisition in multiple languages.     

工作记忆对类比推理的影响

该实验采用2(类比推理类型)×6(组别)双因素实验设计来探讨工作记忆与类比推理之间的关系,尤其关注工作记忆的各个子成分对类比推理的影响。控制组的被试只需完成类比推理测验,而实验组的被试是在双任务的条件下进行实验。结果表明,工作记忆是影响类比推理的一个重要因素。在图形类比推理中,主要有视空间模板中的空间成分,语音回路中的发音成分以及中央执行器的参与;在言语类比推理中,则是视空间模板中的空间成分起主要作用。     

Perceived Multicultural Competency of Certified Substance Abuse Counselors

In this study, the authors explored the self‐perceived multicultural counseling competencies of substance abuse counselors. Overall, the results indicate that substance abuse counselors perceived themselves to be competent; however, differences existed on the basis of race and educational level. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.     

The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Activities on Companies With Bad Reputations

Based on theories of attribution and suspicion, three experiments highlight the mediating role of perceived sincerity of motives in determining the effectiveness of CSR activities. CSR activities improve a company's image when consumers attribute sincere motives, are ineffective when sincerity of motives is ambiguous, and hurt the company's image when motives are perceived as insincere. Variables affecting perceived sincerity include the benefit salience of the cause, the source through which consumers learn about CSR, and the ratio of CSR contributions and CSR‐related advertising. High benefit salience of the cause hurts the company, in particular when consumers learn about it from a company source. This backfire effect can be overcome by spending more on CSR activities than on advertising that features CSR.     

Pilot study for assessing the behaviors of patients with schizophrenia towards a virtual avatar.

This study examined whether a virtual avatar could be perceived as a real human by patients with mental disease, especially schizophrenia, as well as whether a virtual avatar could be applied to acquiring patients' behavior characteristics in a short conversation situation. The virtual avatar has been used for various applications which need to communicate with other person or to train or educate by showing humanlike behavior. Recently, many researches have shown that the virtual avatar technology has been enhanced and the avatar could be perceived like real human. A virtual avatar, standing in a virtual room, was designed for this study. Tasks to approach, initiate a talk, and answer to avatar's questions was assigned to the 11 patients with schizophrenia. As behavioral parameters in the virtual environment, the interpersonal distance and the verbal response time were acquired. In addition, the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) for patients was administered in order to investigate the relationship between patients' symptomatic characteristics and behavior parameters. The interpersonal distance was negatively correlated with the negative syndrome scale, a subscale of PANSS, which is consistent with previous research reporting the relationship between interpersonal distance and a real person's image. The verbal response time, however, was not correlated with any other subscale of PANSS. After analyzing subitems of the negative syndrome of PANSS, two positive correlations were found: one was with blunted affect and the other was with poor rapport. We concluded that the virtual avatar could be perceived as a real human by schizophrenic patients and the avatar could draw the schizophrenic patients' behavior characteristics.     

心算加工的认知神经科学研究

近几年(1999-2005)有关心算加工的脑活动机制研究发现,类似九九乘法表这样的算术知识提取(如3×5)主要与左脑顶内沟有关,但当心算变得更复杂时(如26×38),左脑额叶下部出现明显激活,这表明心算与语言和工作记忆关系密切。另一方面,也存在不依赖于语言的即表现为视觉表象活动的心算,右脑的一些脑区在其中起了作用。简言之,所有与心算有关的脑区涉及到大脑前额皮层和颞顶枕联合皮层的综合作用,并总体表现为左脑优势,但具有特殊心算能力的人其心算还与右脑前额叶和颞叶内侧脑区的活动有关。     

句子理解的心理机制研究进展及其存在的问题

在回顾传统的反应时范式下的句子理解的研究发现及其问题的基础上,探讨了各种研究范式的优劣,进一步阐述了ERP研究范式下的新发现与新的理论分歧,检讨了ERP研究范式存在的问题及其解决方法。     

Addressing Privilege and Oppression in Counselor Training and Practice: A Qualitative Analysis

This qualitative study explored how 16 counselors conceptualize and address issues of privilege and oppression in the counseling session as well as how they perceive their training with respect to these constructs. In an effort to bridge multicultural training and counselor practice, implications for counselor training are provided based on the clinical and academic experiences counselors reported. Additionally, future research directions are included.     

Ageing and the self-reference effect in memory

The present study investigates potential age differences in the self-reference effect. Young and older adults incidentally encoded adjectives by deciding whether the adjective described them, described another person (Experiments 1 & 2), was a trait they found desirable (Experiment 3), or was presented in upper case. Like young adults, older adults exhibited superior recognition for self-referenced items relative to the items encoded with the alternate orienting tasks, but self-referencing did not restore their memory to the level of young adults. Furthermore, the self-reference effect was more limited for older adults. Amount of cognitive resource influenced how much older adults benefit from self-referencing, and older adults appeared to extend the strategy less flexibly than young adults. Self-referencing improves older adults' memory, but its benefits are circumscribed despite the social and personally relevant nature of the task.