The roles of sequencing and verbal working memory in sentence comprehension deficits in Parkinson's disease

Studies of sentence comprehension deficits in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients suggest that language processing involves circuits connecting subcortical and cortical regions. Anatomically segregated neural circuits appear to support different cognitive and motor functions. To investigate which functions are implicated in PD comprehension deficits, we tested comprehension, verbal working memory span, and cognitive set-switching in a non-linguistic task in 41 PD patients; we also obtained speech measurements reflecting motor sequencing processes that may be involved in articulatory rehearsal within working memory. Comprehension of sentences with center-embedded or final relative clauses was impaired when they could not be understood from lexical semantic content alone. Overall comprehension error rates correlated strongly with impaired set-switching and significantly with reduced working memory span and speech motor sequencing deficits. Correlations with comprehension of different sentence structures indicate that these impairments do not represent a single deficit; rather, PD comprehension deficits appear to arise from several independent mechanisms. Deficits in cognitive set-switching or underlying inhibitory processes may compromise the ability to process relative clauses. Deficits in verbal working memory appear to impair comprehension of long-distance dependencies. Speech sequencing correlated with neither set-switching nor verbal working memory span, consistent with their being supported by independent, segregated cortico-subcortical circuits.     

Differential effects of glucose on modulation of emotional and nonemotional spatial memory tasks

Research examining the memory-enhancing effects of glucose in humans has been limited to mnemonic tasks lacking affective components, even though glucose may be a mechanism for emotioninduced memory enhancement. This limitation does not permit analysis of interactions between the enhancing properties of emotional stimuli and glucose. Participants were administered either glucose or saccharin 15 min prior to completing a neutral or emotional spatial memory task. Performance under three glycemic conditions (100 mg/kg or 50 g glucose, or placebo) for the two sets of emotional stimuli revealed a significant interaction. Both 100-mg/kg and 50-g doses of glucose resulted in impaired performance for emotional stimuli. For neutral stimuli, a 100-mg/kg dose enhanced memory, whereas a 50-g dose showed no effect. Results indicate that the enhancing effects of emotional stimuli may be attenuated by the consumption of glucose and suggest that recent food consumption should be considered in paradigms examining memory.     

A Semantics for Means-end Relations

There has been considerable work on practical reasoning in artificial intelligence and also in philosophy. Typically, such reasoning includes premises regarding means–end relations. A clear semantics for such relations is needed in order to evaluate proposed syllogisms. In this paper, we provide a formal semantics for means–end relations, in particular for necessary and sufficient means–end relations. Our semantics includes a non-monotonic conditional operator, so that related practical reasoning is naturally defeasible. This work is primarily an exercise in conceptual analysis, aimed at clarifying and eventually evaluating existing theories of practical reasoning (pending a similar analysis regarding desires, intentions and other relevant concepts). “They were in conversation without speaking. They didn’t need to speak. They just changed reality so that they had spoken.” Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man     

Principles of Religious Prosociality: A Review and Reformulation

Historically, religion and religious belief have often been credited as the source of human morality. But what have been the real effects of religion on prosocial behavior? A review of the psychological literature reveals a complex relation between religious belief and moral action: leading to greater prosocial behavior in some contexts but not in others, and in some cases actually increasing antisocial behavior. In addition, different forms of religious belief are associated with different styles of co-operation. This body of evidence paints a somewhat messy picture of religious prosociality; however, recent examinations of the cognitive mechanisms of belief help to resolve apparent inconsistencies. In this article, we review evidence of two separate sources of religious prosociality: a religious principle associated with the protection of the religious group, and a supernatural principle associated with the belief in God, or other supernatural agents. These two principles emphasize different prosocial goals, and so have different effects on prosocial behavior depending on the target and context. A re-examination of the literature illustrates the independent influences of religious and supernatural principles on moral action.     

Effects of consumer embarrassment on shopping basket size and value: A study of the millennial consumer

This paper examines how the emotion of embarrassment affects shopping behavior in a retail setting. In a series of three studies, we explore the phenomenon of “masking,” which is defined as a coping strategy used by shoppers when experiencing embarrassment related to a purchase task. Study 1 provides consumer insights into masking behaviors among Millennials. Study 2 empirically examines degrees of anticipated embarrassment associated with purchasing a variety of personal care products and uses a controlled experiment to test the impact of embarrassment on the size of the shopping basket (number of items purchased) and the value of the shopping basket. Study 3 examines basket size and value with respect to complementary and counterbalancing products, and compares Millennial with non‐Millennial consumers. Collectively, this research indicates that both Millennial and non‐Millennials use masking as a coping strategy for a variety of products due to anticipated embarrassment, translating into enhanced basket sizes and values. This effect appears to be moderated by one's innate susceptibility to embarrassment. This study contributes to our understanding of how the emotion of embarrassment influences shopping basket composition in terms of its value and size. It also provides insightful findings relevant to retail practitioners. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Grain Size and Parameter Recovery with TIMSS and the General Diagnostic Model

The purpose of this study was to explore the degree of grain size of the attributes and the sample sizes that can support accurate parameter recovery with the General Diagnostic Model (GDM) for a large-scale international assessment. In this resampling study, bootstrap samples were obtained from the 2003 Grade 8 TIMSS in Mathematics at varying sample sizes from 500 to 4000 and grain sizes of the attributes from a unidimensional model to one with ten attributes. The results showed that the eight-attribute model was the one most consistently identified as best fitting. Parameter estimation for more than ten attributes and samples less than 500 failed. Furthermore, the precision of item parameter recovery decreased as the number of attributes measured by an item increased and sample size decreased. On the other hand, the distributions of latent classes were relatively stable across all models and sample sizes.     

‘Animals run about the world in all sorts of paths’: varieties of indeterminism

Synthese - In her seminal essay ‘Causality and Determination’, Elizabeth Anscombe very decidedly announced that “physical indeterminism” is “indispensable if we are to...     

Modification of Hostile Interpretation Bias in Depression: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Interpretation Bias Modification (IBM) is gaining attention in the literature as an intervention that alters cognitive biases and reduces associated symptoms. Forty, primarily college-aged, non-treatment-seeking adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) were randomly assigned to receive either IBM targeting hostile interpretation bias (IBM-H) or a healthy video control (HVC) condition. Compared to those in HVC, participants in IBM-H reported more benign interpretations and fewer hostile interpretations at posttreatment. No difference in depressive interpretation bias was found between groups at posttreatment. IBM-H led to improved anger control at posttreatment and follow-up compared to HVC, though no effects of condition were found on trait anger or depressive symptoms. The IBM-H group perceived their treatment as less credible than the HVC group. For individuals with high expectancy of treatment success, IBM-H led to lower posttreatment depressive symptoms compared to HVC, while findings trended in the opposite direction for those with low expectancy of success. Overall, these preliminary findings point to boundary conditions for the efficacy of IBM protocols for anger and depression and potential improvements to be made to future IBM protocols.