Word naming times and psycholinguistic norms for Italian nouns

The present study describes normative measures for 626 Italian simple nouns. The database (LEXVAR. XLS) is freely available for down-loading on the Web site http://wwwistc.ip.rm.cnr.it/material/ database/. For each of the 626 nouns, values for the following variables are reported: age of acquisition, familiarity, imageability, concreteness, adult written frequency, child written frequency, adult spoken frequency, number of orthographic neighbors, mean bigram frequency, length in syllables, and length in letters. A classification of lexical stress and of the type of word-initial phoneme is also provided. The intercorrelations among the variables, a factor analysis, and the effects of variables and of the extracted factors on word naming are reported. Naming latencies were affected primarily by a factor including word length and neighborhood size and by a word frequency factor. Neither a semantic factor including imageability, concreteness, and age of acquisition nor a factor defined by mean bigram frequency had significant effects on pronunciation times. These results hold for a language with shallow orthography, like Italian, for which lexical nonsemantic properties have been shown to affect reading aloud. These norms are useful in a variety of research areas involving the manipulation and control of stimulus attributes.     

Shepherd Ivory Franz: His contributions to neuropsychology and rehabilitation

Shepherd I. Franz was an important figure in psychology of the last century, and historians of psychology have given recognition to much of his work. However, his experimental work with animals and his pioneer investigations in experimental and clinical neuropsychology have been largely ignored. This article reviews his conceptual, assessment, and treatment contributions, including (1) his pioneering work on the use of learned behavior as a baseline for the study of cerebral ablations, (2) his interest in brain plasticity, (3) his development of comprehensive psychological assessment methods, and (4) his work on the rehabilitation of neurological patients with techniques derived from his animal experiments. His work predated much of what is now part of the conceptual substance of the experimental and clinical neurosciences.     

Similar effects of medial supramammillary or systemic injection of chlordiazepoxide on both theta frequency and fixed-interval respondin

The frequency of theta activity may be important for hippocampal function. Anxiolytic drugs reduce theta frequency and have behavioral effects that are similar to those of hippocampal lesions. The effect of the anxiolytic benzodiazepine chlordiazepoxide (CDP) on theta frequency is partially mediated by the medial supramammillary nucleus (mSuM), part of an ascending theta-activating system. Rats were trained on the hippocampal-sensitive fixed-interval 60-sec schedule (FI60). CDP (5 mg/kg i.p.) released responding suppressed by nonreward, seen as increased leverpressing, and reduced theta frequency concurrently. Microinfusion of CDP (20 μg in 0.5 μl saline) into mSuM had as large effects on both frequency and behavior. Other nuclei mediate the benzodiazepine reduction of theta frequency in the open field and the water maze. But the mSuM appears to be the major, if not sole, nucleus controlling theta frequency and, so, hippocampal-mediated behavioral inhibition in the FI60 lever task.     

Effects of stress on nonassociative learning processes in male and female rats

In this study we assessed habituation and sensitization of the acoustic startle response (ASR) to discern whether intense, inescapable stress affects nonassociative learning differently in male and female rats. Rats were inescapably stressed 2 hours per day over 3 consecutive days. ASR magnitudes were measured at several times post-stress (1, 4, 8, and 15 days after cessation). Females generally showed greater ASR magnitudes (compared to males), but both sexes exhibited short and long-term habituation across the testing days. ASR magnitudes were only affected by stress in male subjects. The effect in males was an increase in short-term sensitization of the ASR on post-stress day-4. The results suggest that stressed males and females react differently to ASR testing, in that stress males appear to develop an exaggerated ASR response over repeated test sessions due to short-term sensitization. The source of the short-term sensitization is discussed with regards to possible stress-induced enhanced contextual learning during ASR testing on post-stress day-1.     

Notes on Contributors

Biography

Notes on Contributors     

Functionality and spatial relations in memory and language

We examined whether the functionality of spatial relations affects the construction and memory of information in situation models. A functional relationship involves the interaction of entities that is implied by either typical use or contextual demands. Previous research has shown that spatial relations are less likely to be encoded during comprehension unless there is extensive prior knowledge, explicit instructions to attend to spatial information, or a clear emphasis on spatial information. If the construction of a situation model is guided by a need to understand the functional structure of a situation, then functional spatial relations should be more likely to be encoded. The results of our study showed that sentences with functional spatial relations were read faster and remembered better in both recall and recognition tests than sentences with nonfunctional spatial relations.     

Immigrant Sex: the Transport of Affection and Sensuality across Cultures

This paper outlines the ways in which an individual’s notions of sexuality are challenged by immigration. It describes four basic facets of sexuality and the ways in which each are rooted in culture. These include (1) the relative importance of sexuality in daily life; (2) potential or overt homosexuality; (3) marriage—whether based on arrangement or love; and (4) cross-cultural romantic and marital relationships. Immigration can stir up conflicts in each of these realms and lead to defensive retreat into familiar customs or a counterphasic plunge into new cultural avenues. Ideally, it would lead to a working-through of these conflicts and subsequent growth in the immigrant’s understanding of his or her sexual self.