Involvement of Glutamate Receptors, Protein Kinases, and Protein Synthesis in Memory for Visual Discrimination in the Young Chick

Two-day-old chicks were trained to discriminate between edible chick crumbs and arrays of colored beads glued to the floor of their cage. Normal chicks learned this task within a few minutes and retained it for at least 24 h. The role of several biochemical systems known to be required for other forms of early learning in the chick was explored in this task. Antagonists and inhibitors of these systems were used in the doses known to produce amnesia in a related passive avoidance learning model. Drugs were injected intracerebrally just before training, and retention was tested at various times subsequently. The protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin (240 nmol/chick) was without effect on retention at 30 min posttraining, but chicks were amnestic at 3 and 24 h. The protein kinases inhibitors melittin (1.2 nmol/chick) and 1-(5-isoquinolinylsulfonyl)-2-methylpiperazine hydrochloride (100 nmol/chick) were without effect on retention at 30 min posttraining but were amnestic by 3 h. While these effects are similar to those found for one-trial passive avoidance training, neither theN-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonists (+)-5-methyl-10,11-dihydro-5H-dibenzo[a, d]cyclohepten-5,10-imine maleate (up to 15 nmol/chick) orDL-2-amino-5-phosphonovalerate (1.3 nmol/chick), both of which are amnestic for passive avoidance, nor the non-NMDA-glutamate receptor antagonist 6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3,-dione (4 nmol/chick) were amnestic for the visual discrimination task. By contrast, the metabotropic glutamate receptor blocker (RS)-α-methyl-4-carboxyphenylglycine (300 nmol/chick) injected 5 min pretraining resulted in amnesia at 3 h posttraining. The implications of these findings for the putative “memory consolidation cascade” are discussed.     

Assessment Centers: Current Practices in the United States

Purpose  

The goals of this investigation were to review current AC practices in the United States by evaluating whether they follow the Guidelines and Ethical Considerations for Assessment Center Operations (International Task Force on Assessment Centers, 2000). We both expanded upon and compared our results to a prior benchmarking study (Spychalski et al. in Personnel Psychol, 50:71–90, 1997), and investigated practices regarding job analysis, AC development, dimensions (i.e., job requirements), exercises, assessor characteristics and training, behavior recording, data integration, organizational policy, assessee rights, AC evaluation and AC technology. Data were collected via an online survey completed by individuals from human resource departments of organizations (N = 54) across the U.S; organizations to whom the survey was sent were selected by sampling Fortune 500 organizations based on economic sector.     

Learning Facts About Migration: Politically Motivated Learning of Polarizing Information About Refugees

Information processing during heated debates on asylum and immigration may often be influenced by prejudice rather than a desire to learn facts. In this article, we investigate how people process empirical evidence on the consequences of refugee arrivals through a novel survey experiment that disentangles politically motivated learning from other forms of learning and expressive responding. Specifically, we ask respondents to interpret a 2×2 table about the relationship between asylum seekers and crime rates. Crucially, respondents are randomly allocated to evaluate a conclusion that triggers their identity-protective stakes or not. In addition, we test for motivated responding as an alternative explanation by randomly providing some respondents with a response format that motivates them to report their inference truthfully. We find that information processing changes substantially when new information challenges existing asylum attitudes. Politically motivated learning is strongest among voters with strong negative prior attitudes towards asylum seekers. Our results also indicate that expressive responding can only partially account for this gap in correctly reported inferences. Our research has important implications for research on the consequences of refugee migration, theories of motivated reasoning, and survey methodology.     

SAD as a mathematical assistant—how should we go from here to there?

The System for Automated Deduction (SAD) is developed in the framework of the Evidence Algorithm research project and is intended for automated processing of mathematical texts. The SAD system works on three levels of reasoning: (a) the level of text presentation where proofs are written in a formal natural-like language for subsequent verification; (b) the level of foreground reasoning where a particular theorem proving problem is simplified and decomposed; (c) the level of background deduction where exhaustive combinatorial inference search in classical first-order logic is applied to prove end subgoals.

We present an overview of SAD describing the ideas behind the project, the system's design, and the process of problem formalization in the fashion of SAD. We show that the choice of classical first-order logic as the background logic of SAD is not too restrictive. For example, we can handle binders like Σ or lim without resort to second order or to a full-powered set theory. We illustrate our approach with a series of examples, in particular, with the classical problem .     

The theory of functional systems: General postulates and principles of dynamic organization

Dedicated to the Centenary of the outstanding Russian physiologist P.K. Anokhin, this article postulates the main principles of the general theory of functional systems. The system-formation role of useful adaptive results forming the functional systems of different levels is underlined. The peculiarities of mechanisms of self-regulation of functional systems, their isomorphism, holographic characteristics and selective inclusion into the functional systems of different organs and tissues are revealed. It is shown that interaction between numerous functional systems that form the whole organism is built on the principles of hierarchy, multiparametric interaction, sequential interaction, systemogenesis, and system quantization of life processes. The interrelation of reflex and functional systems is also considered.     

Homo Virtualis: Body,Mind, and Soul in a Virtual World

The virtual reality that stands in the center of the digital revolution is changing the bases of our lives today. This new reality is both a product of the basic human ability of imagination and an essential element of analytical psychology. The close relationship between the activity of imagination and its influence on the body is shown in research results from the oldest known prehistoric figures, dating back between 40,000–30,000 b.c.e., and the experiences derived from the work with robots at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Additionally, how this virtual, body-transforming power is reflected in the current ideas of the transhumanists is examined. In this perspective, the extension of physical abilities via technical skills is a necessary step in human evolution: to transfer the human mind onto a machine as a means of circumventing inherent physical limitations.

The psychodynamics of deep psychological needs, frustrations, and fears are discussed as the motors of technical development. An interpretation of this development, based on the mythological biography of the ancient god Hephaistos, is discussed as showing astonishing parallels to the characteristics of the digital revolution and the transhumanist ideas. Thus, Hephaistos can be understood as an archetypal manifestation of those impulses from the collective unconscious that are significantly affecting our present time. The potentialities as well as the dark sides that are hidden behind such “hephaistic” solutions to deep inner psychological and spiritual conflicts are explored.     

Feasibility of a Web‐based Gatekeeper Training: Implications for Suicide Prevention

Web‐based training programs have advantages such as increased scheduling flexibility and decreased training costs. Yet the feasibility of applying them to injury prevention programs such as suicide prevention gatekeeper training has not been empirically verified. Two studies were conducted to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of a web‐based version of the Question, Persuade, and Refer (QPR) gatekeeper training program. Results of Study 1 revealed that participants in a web‐based training demonstrated significant gains in knowledge of suicide prevention, self‐efficacy for suicide prevention, and behavioral intentions to engage in suicide prevention, as compared to those in a control group. Results of Study 2 further showed that the web‐based training may be as effective as the face‐to‐face QPR training across pre‐ (T1) and post training (T2); however, knowledge, self‐efficacy, and behavioral intentions in both groups generally declined from T2 to 6‐months after the training. Overall, these results provide initial evidence to support the feasibility of adopting web‐based media to deliver gatekeeper training. Moreover, the present findings suggest the need to understand how to maintain gatekeepers’ knowledge, confidence, motivation, and skills after training.