Taking patterns for chunks: is there any evidence of chunk learning in continuous serial reaction-time tasks?

When exposed to a regular sequence, people learn to exploit its predictable structure. There have been two major ways of thinking about learning under these conditions: either as the acquisition of general statistical information about the transition probabilities displayed by the sequence or as a process of memorizing and using separate chunks that can later become progressively composed with extended practice. Even though chunk learning has been adopted by some theories of skill acquisition as their main building block, the evidence for chunk formation is scarce in some areas, and is especially so in the continuous serial reaction-time (SRT) task, which has become a major research tool in the study of implicit learning. This article presents a reappraisal, replication and extension of an experiment that stands so far as one of the few alleged demonstrations of chunk learning in the SRT task (Koch and Hoffmann, Psychological Res., 63:22–35, 2000). It shows that the effects which were taken as evidence for chunk learning can indeed be obtained before any systematic training and thus surely reflect a preexistent tendency rather than a learned outcome. Further analyses of the effects after extended practice confirm that this tendency remains essentially unchanged over continuous training unlike what could be expected from a chunk-based account of sequence learning.     

Suicidal behavior inLatinas: explanatory cultural factors and implications for intervention

We posit that the high rates of suicidal behavior by teenage Hispanic females reported in large-scale surveys can be understood as a cultural phenomenon, a product of specific elements of the history, tradition, ideology, or social norms of a particular society, and that treatment interventions must take family and cultural factors into consideration. For over a decade, surveys have reported that among ethnic and racial minority youth in the United States, Latinas have the highest rates of suicidal behavior compared to African American and non-Hispanic White adolescent females. However, other research shows that the psychological profiles of suicidal Latina adolescent girls and the risk factors for Latina suicidal behavior may not be that different from non-Hispanic suicidal adolescent females. The unique situation of adolescent Latinas involves the convergence of cultural and familial factors (i.e., familism, acculturation, relatedness, autonomy, etc.) with the developmental, social, and individual factors frequently associated with suicidal behaviors. Based on this background, family-oriented interventions appear to be the most appropriate approach to the prevention and treatment of Hispanic suicidal girls. Factors implicated in Latina suicidal behavior and community-based interventions that include the adolescent and her family are suggested.     

Phenomenological Views on Intersubjectivity: Towards a Reinterpretation of Consciousness

Intersubjectivity and consciousness are reinterpreted according to the dynamic and relational coordinates of lived experience. Consciousness is not just another property of the subject, but rather the condition itself of his/her own being-in-the-world. The different aspects of consciousness are the moments and movements which constitute its intentional structure. These structures lead us to reinterpret material embodiment, temporality, and intersubjectivity as the “complex” steps taken by consciousness, which in its movements does not turn inward, on itself like a transcendental, reasoning, and self-centred consciousness, but, on the contrary, as an embodied consciousness immersed in others and in the world.

Adult age differences in attention to semantic context

In three experiments age differences in attention to semantic context were examined. The performance of younger adults (ages 18-29 years) and older adults (ages 60-79 years) on a semantic priming task indicated that both age groups could use information regarding the probability that a prime and target would be related to flexibly anticipate the target category given the prime word (Experiment 1). The timing by which target expectancies were reflected in reaction time performance was delayed for older adults as compared to younger adults, but only when the target was expected to be semantically unrelated to the prime word (Experiment 2). When the target and prime were expected to be semantically related, the time course of priming effects was similar for younger and older adults (Experiment 3). Together the findings indicate that older adults are able to use semantic context and the probability of stimulus relatedness to anticipate target information. Although aging may be associated with a delay in the timing by which controlled expectancies are expressed, these findings argue against an age-related decline in the ability to represent contextual information.     

Induced Cross-Modal Synaesthetic Experience Without Abnormal Neuronal Connections

ABSTRACT— Are the kinds of abnormal cross-modal interactions seen in synaesthesia or following brain damage due to hyperconnectivity between or within brain areas, or are they a result of lack of inhibition? This question is highly contested. Here we show that posthypnotic suggestion induces abnormal cross-modal experience similar to that observed in congenital grapheme-color synaesthesia. Given the short time frame of the experiment, it is unlikely that new cortical connections were established, so we conclude that synaesthesia can result from disinhibition between brain areas.     

Social representations and intergroup conflicts: Who's smoking here?

We studied the influence of explicitating a social conflict between smokers and nonsmokers on the social representations held about tobacco. Two representations were found: a psychological' representation which was defined by psychological explanations of the causes of beginning to smoke, a characterization of smokers as psychologically disturbed, and negative feelings towards smokers; a second defensive representation which attributes smoking to social factors, and hold both a positive stereotype of smokers and positive feelings towards smokers. The percentage of smokers who adhere to the defensive representation increased significantly when the conflict was made salient. Non-smokers were not influenced by the explicitation of the social conflict. The structure of each representation was analyzed. It was found that in the psychological' representation the structuring element was the negative stereotype of smokers. By contrast, the structuring element in the defensive representation was identification with smokers. The implicatlons of this data for theories of both intergroup relations and social representations are discussed.     

Photoelectric-helicoidal spirometer

This paper describes a photoelectric-helicoidal spirometer that has been designed in our laboratory. It includes a cylindrical helix (or turbine) partitioned in each of its blades by means of opaque plates transversally disposed. These plates obstruct the ray of light emitted by a diode, preventing it from reaching a photoreceptor located at the opposite side of the turbine. These basic elements are located in a module that can be adjusted to a mask that covers nostrils and mouth. Control software for this device is also described. The software facilitates a graphical representation of respiratory activity, as well as its storage in the computer. Software has been designed to be adaptable to any digital-to-analog converter. Both the device and the software have several advantages over traditional spirometers, as well as other nonspirometric techniques for studying respiratory activity.     

Sex-role orientation and stereotypes about male-female sexuality

An experiment was conducted to examine the stereotypes about human sexuality held by persons of different sex-role orientations. Sex-typed and androgynous subjects were given bogus information about the sexual experience of another person. This other person was either a male or a female and either high or low in sexual experience. The subjects were then shown some erotic slides and asked to predict how sexually aroused the target person would be by viewing these stimuli. Additionally, the subjects were asked to rate the target person on traits of a sexual and evaluative nature. The results showed, as predicted, that the sexual experience of a female target influences how much sexual arousal is attributed to her. Female targets of high experience were attributed more arousal than inexperienced female targets. For male targets, no such difference was found. Ratings of the targets on an evaluative dimension revealed a double standard: Sexually experienced females were rated lower than were inexperienced females; no difference was found for male targets. In addition, sex-typed subjects tended to express more traditional stereotypes of sexuality than androgynous subjects. The influence that these stereotypes may have in guiding malefemale interactions is discussed.This article is based on the author's doctoral dissertation, submitted to Kansas State University. The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of William Giffitt, and his helpful comments and suggestions.     

Diffuse Lewy Body Disease: Clinical,Pathological, and Neuropsychological Review

The pathophysiological etiologies and clinical presentations of neurodegenerative dementias have been found to be complex and heterogeneous. Recently, Lewy body inclusions have been identified as an etiological factor in 20–34% of autopsied dementia cases. The term diffuse Lewy body disease (DLBD) is generally accepted as the diagnostic term representative of this currently under-reported and under-recognized disease. This article reviews the literature on the clinical, pathological, and neuropsychological features of this disorder. Differential diagnostic issues are discussed as well as current pharmacological treatment. Nine confirmed cases of DLBD are presented to demonstrate the various features of this disorder. The diagnostic implications of neuropsychological examination results are discussed in relation to other common dementing neurologic diseases.