Separate but interacting recognition memory systems for different senses: the role of the rat perirhinal cortex

Two different models (convergent and parallel) potentially describe how recognition memory, the ability to detect the re-occurrence of a stimulus, is organized across different senses. To contrast these two models, rats with or without perirhinal cortex lesions were compared across various conditions that controlled available information from specific sensory modalities. Intact rats not only showed visual, tactile, and olfactory recognition, but also overcame changes in the types of sensory information available between object sampling and subsequent object recognition, e.g., between sampling in the light and recognition in the dark, or vice versa. Perirhinal lesions severely impaired object recognition whenever visual cues were available, but spared olfactory recognition and tactile-based object recognition when tested in the dark. The perirhinal lesions also blocked the ability to recognize an object sampled in the light and then tested for recognition in the dark, or vice versa. The findings reveal parallel recognition systems for different senses reliant on distinct brain areas, e.g., perirhinal cortex for vision, but also show that: (1) recognition memory for multisensory stimuli involves competition between sensory systems and (2) perirhinal cortex lesions produce a bias to rely on vision, despite the presence of intact recognition memory systems serving other senses.     

Ownership and object history

Appropriate behavior in relation to an object often requires judging whether it is owned and, if so, by whom. The authors propose accounts of how people make these judgments. Our central claim is that both judgments often involve making inferences about object history. In judging whether objects are owned, people may assume that artifacts (e.g., chairs) are owned and that natural objects (e.g., pinecones) are not. However, people may override these assumptions by inferring the history of intentional acts made in relation to objects. In judging who owns an object, people may often consider which person likely possessed the object in the past--such reasoning may be responsible for people's bias to assume that the first person known to possess an object is its owner.     

Reciprocal influences between maternal discipline techniques and aggression in children and adolescents

Most studies assessing the link between parental discipline and child aggression have focused primarily on discipline as a cause and aggression as an outcome. In addition to the pathway from discipline to aggression, however, aggressive behavior on the part of the child may lead to future use of discipline by the parent. In this study, structural equation modeling was used to assess reciprocal influences over time between a mothers' use of discipline and aggression in children. Data were drawn from the Springfield Child Development Project, a longitudinal study of middle childhood and adolescence, focusing on antecedents of aggression. The original sample consisted of 440 mother-child dyads living in the city of Springfield, MA. Children in the sample were between 7 and 14 years of age at the first data collection period and between 12 and 19 years of age at the final data collection period. Four hypotheses were tested: (1) a mother's use of aggressive discipline predicts an increase in later child aggression, (2) child aggression predicts an increase in later use of aggressive discipline, (3) the use of reasoning predicts a decrease in later child aggression, and (4) child aggression predicts an increase in later use of reasoning. All hypotheses except number 3 were supported to some degree. Results suggest that children's early aggressive behavior leads to an increase in their mothers' use of both reasoning and aggressive discipline; in turn, increased use of aggressive discipline leads to an increase in aggression during both childhood and adolescence.     

An effect of spatial-temporal association of response codes: understanding the cognitive representations of time

The present study addresses the question of how such an abstract concept as time is represented by our cognitive system. Specifically, the aim was to assess whether temporal information is cognitively represented through left-to-right spatial coordinates, as already shown for other ordered sequences (e.g., numbers). In Experiment 1, the task-relevant information was the temporal duration of a cross. RTs were shorter when short and long durations had to be responded to with left and right hands, respectively, than with the opposite stimulus-response mapping. The possible explanation that the foreperiod effect (i.e., shorter RTs for longer durations) is greater with right than with left hand responses is discarded by results of Experiment 2, in which right and left hand responses alternated block-wise in a variable foreperiod paradigm. Other explanations concerning manual or hemispheric asymmetries may be excluded based on the results of control experiments, which show that the compatibility effect between response side and cross duration occurs for accuracy when responses are given with crossed hands (Experiment 3), and for RTs when responses are given within one hand (Experiment 4). This pattern suggests that elapsing time, similarly to other ordered information, is represented in some circumstances through an internal spatial reference frame, in a way that may influence motor performance. Finally, in Experiment 5, the temporal duration was parametrically varied using different values for each response category (i.e., 3 short and 3 long durations). The compatibility effect between hand and duration was replicated, but followed a rectangular function of the duration. The shape of this function is discussed in relation to the specific task demands.     

Forgiveness in Context

Book reviewed:
Fraser Watts and Liz Gulliford (eds). Forgiveness in Context: Theology and Psychology in Creative Dialogue.     

Informed Consent in Emergency Research: A Contradiction in Terms

Improving the treatment of life threatening emergency illness or disease requires that new or novel therapies be assessed in clinical trials. As most subjects for these trials will be incapacitated there is some controversy about they might best protected whilst still allowing research to continue. Recent European and UK clinical trials legislation, which has effectively stopped research into emergency conditions, is discussed. Possible changes to these regulations are proposed.     

The Sin of Ian McEwan's Fictive Atonement:Reading his Later Novels

Ian McEwan is arguably the best living British novelist. His most successful novel, Atonement , was recently made into an internationally successful film. And indeed, through analysis of his novels, it is clear that Ian McEwan believes literature—precisely as fictive—might very well bear the task of atonement for postmodernity. His novels, though, are patently hopeless, (even as they are truly well-written). Because McEwan doesn't accept or see the causes of sin as such—formally understood as rebellion against the Creator—his diagnostic aesthetic of our postmodern malaise is incomplete and ineffectual. The literary or fictive atonement that he would achieve through his novels does not satisfy. This article aims to lay bare the philosophico-literary characteristics of Ian McEwan's later novels. The ultimate goal of this critical reading, though—tending toward an "evangelical lection"—is to transfigure McEwan's imaginative and creative virtuosity for otherwise disappointed Christian readers, precisely by envisioning his novels in the dark light of their redemptive deficit. Thus, the literary or fictive atonement that Ian McEwan's atheism cannot achieve might be saved apropos the Judeo-Christian revelation of divine atonement.     

Searching in the dark: Cognitive relevance drives attention in real-world scenes

We investigated whether the deployment of attention in scenes is better explained by visual salience or by cognitive relevance. In two experiments, participants searched for target objects in scene photographs. The objects appeared in semantically appropriate locations but were not visually salient within their scenes. Search was fast and efficient, with participants much more likely to look to the targets than to the salient regions. This difference was apparent from the first fixation and held regardless of whether participants were familiar with the visual form of the search targets. In the majority of trials, salient regions were not fixated. The critical effects were observed for all 24 participants across the two experiments. We outline a cognitive relevance framework to account for the control of attention and fixation in scenes.