Directed forgetting in young children: Evidence for a production deficiency

When people are cued to forget a previously studied list of items and to learn a new list instead, such cuing typically leads to forgetting of the first list and to memory enhancement of the second. In two experiments, we examined such listwise directed forgetting in children (and adults), using a forget cue that placed either high emphasis or low emphasis on the need to forget. In the low-emphasis condition, (adult-like) List 1 forgetting was present in fourth graders, but not in first graders (and kindergartners); in contrast, in the high-emphasis condition, (adult-like) List 1 forgetting was present from first grade on. Only fourth graders showed (adult-like) List 2 enhancement, regardless of task instruction. The finding that first graders showed List 1 forgetting only in the high-emphasis condition points to a production deficiency in first graders’ directed forgetting, suggesting that the children are capable of intentional forgetting but fail to do so spontaneously. The finding that first graders showed List 1 forgetting without List 2 enhancement suggests that the two directed-forgetting effects are mediated by different processes with different developmental trajectories.     

Effects of male postpartum depression on father–infant interaction: The mediating role of face processing

It is estimated that postpartum depression affects up to 25% of men. Despite such high prevalence, the majority of studies on postpartum depression are focused on mothers, and the role of paternal depression and its effects on infant development have been overlooked by researchers and clinicians. The present study aimed to fill this gap by investigating the effect of paternal postpartum depression on father–infant interactions. In addition, we examined whether differences in face recognition mediated the effects of paternal postpartum depression on father–infant interactions. A total of 61 father–infant dyads (17 postpartum depression, 44 controls) took part in the study. Results revealed that compared to controls, fathers with postpartum depression had a worse pattern of interaction with their infants on measures of responsiveness, mood, and sensitivity; they also had greater difficulty in recognizing happy adult faces, but greater facility in recognizing sad adult faces. Depressed fathers attributed greater intensities to sad adult and infant faces. The tendency to attribute greater intensity to sad adult faces was confirmed as a partial mediator of the effect of paternal postpartum depression on measures of father responsiveness and as a full mediator of the effects of paternal depression on father sensitivity. Clinical implications and suggestions for further studies are discussed.     

The new sexual assault law: The victim's experience in court

The questions asked of victims of sexual and physical assault by the prosecutor and defense were recorded and coded by courtroom observers. The defense in comparison to the prosecution treated both types of victims in a negative way. Sexual assault victims were subjected to more negative questions and required to give a more personal form of testimony than physical assault victims due to the strategies used by both the prosecution and the defense. Sexual assault cases were convicted less often than physical assault cases. It was concluded that the new law in Canada which replaced the offense of rape with one of "sexual assault" has not had its intended effect of reducing the burden on a victim when she testifies in court.     

Wahrheitsähnlichkeit als Regulativ der Intentionalität?

Is there still any importance of Husserl's Phenomenology for contemporary forms of philosophy of science? A comparison between Phenomenology and a prominent form of such modern philosophy of science, the so-called Critical Rationalism of Karl Popper, may help to answer this question. Therefore, the different levels of argumentation have to be worked out to make the respective arguments applicable to one another. We are arguing for the following thesis: the strategy of corroboration in Critical Rationalism can be justified by means of the phenomenological conception of intentioality of consciousness. A typical example may illustrate how Popper's conception of taking the degree of corroboration as an indicator of the degree of verisimilitude can find its deeper foundation in Husserl's genetic interpretation of ordinary kinds of experience.     

When remembering causes forgetting: retrieval-induced forgetting as recovery failure

Retrieval practice on a subset of previously learned material can cause forgetting of the unpracticed material and make it inaccessible to consciousness. Such inaccessibility may arise because the material is no longer sampled from the set of to-be-recalled items, or, though sampled, its representation is not complete enough to be recovered into consciousness. In 2 experiments, it was examined whether retrieval-induced forgetting reflects a sampling or recovery failure by studying the time course of cued recall in this type of situation. Although retrieval practice reduced recall totals of the unpracticed items, in both experiments, the forgetting was not accompanied by an effect on the items' response latencies. This pattern of results is consistent with the view that inhibited items are successfully sampled but, because of a reduction in their activation level, do not exceed the recovery threshold.     

Somatisierung

Zusammenfassung Somatisierung meint die Erfahrung und den Bericht von k?rperlichen Beschwerden, für die kein hinreichender medizinischer Befund vorliegt, verbunden mit einem hohen Ausma? von organ-medizinischer Hilfesuche. Gegenüber früheren Definitionen, die st?rker auf psychosoziale Faktoren bei der Somatisierung abheben, wird gegenw?rtig eine ausschlie?lich beschreibende Begriffsfestlegung bevorzugt. Somatisierung liegt als Normenvariante bis zur schweren pathologischen Auspr?gung vor. Die ICD-10 fa?t sehr heterogene Krankheitsbilder von Somatisierung in der Klasse der somatoformen St?rungen zusammen. Fraglich ist, ob Somatisierung eher als Proze? denn als diskrete Krankheitseinheit zu konzeptualisieren ist. Somatisierung enth?lt drei Komponenten: Auf der Wahrnehmungsebene erh?hte Sensibilit?t gegenüber K?rpersensationen (“somatosensorische Amplifikation”), auf der Erlebensebene negative Affekte in Form von psychischem und somatischen Distre?erleben, auf der Verhaltensebene inad?quate Inanspruchnahme der Gesundheitsressourcen (“abnormes Krankheitsverhalten”). Trotz z. T. vielversprechender Behandlungsvorschl?te unter verhaltenstherapeutischer, psychodynamischer und psychoedukativer Orientierung erscheint die Prognose von Somatisierung bisher wenig günstig. Es gibt Hinweise, da? der Sicherung der therapeutischen Beziehung besondere Bedeutung für den Behandlungserfolg zukommt.      

Selective memory retrieval can impair and improve retrieval of other memories

Research from the past decades has shown that retrieval of a specific memory (e.g., retrieving part of a previous vacation) typically attenuates retrieval of other memories (e.g., memories for other details of the event), causing retrieval-induced forgetting. More recently, however, it has been shown that retrieval can both attenuate and aid recall of other memories (K.-H. T. B?uml & A. Samenieh, 2010). To identify the circumstances under which retrieval aids recall, the authors examined retrieval dynamics in listwise directed forgetting, context-dependent forgetting, proactive interference, and in the absence of any induced memory impairment. They found beneficial effects of selective retrieval in listwise directed forgetting and context-dependent forgetting but detrimental effects in all the other conditions. Because context-dependent forgetting and listwise directed forgetting arguably reflect impaired context access, the results suggest that memory retrieval aids recall of memories that are subject to impaired context access but attenuates recall in the absence of such circumstances. The findings are consistent with a 2-factor account of memory retrieval and suggest the existence of 2 faces of memory retrieval.     

Memory retrieval as a self-propagating process

Retrieval of a subset of studied items and the presentation of those items as retrieval cues typically impair retrieval of the other items. Previous research on this self-limiting property of memory retrieval has relied heavily on short retention intervals and similar context between encoding and test. Here, we examined retrieval dynamics also after a prolonged retention interval with different spatial and social context between encoding and test, conditions that mimic people’s remembering in many situations of daily life. For both unrelated word lists and more integrated prose material, we found retrieval and cuing to impair recall of other studied items after a short retention interval, but to improve recall in the prolonged retention interval condition. The results demonstrate that retrieval dynamics depend critically on situation, indicating that quite often in daily life, retrieval may be a self-propagating, rather than a self-limiting process.